If you have survived market fluctuations over the past several years, you know that getting the right material to feed your operations hasn’t been easy. And whenever you can remove bottlenecks, improve your flexibility and boost speed that is a winning strategy.
Three different pallet companies with various needs explain how the right crosscut unit saw, also known as package saw from Pacific Trail Manufacturing has allowed them to achieve this kind of success. For starters, a package saw provides you the ability to take whatever you can get on the market at the best price, including long lengths or odd-sized material. Depending on the unit, you can cut a significant amount of material in a short time. This allows for better inventory management, which improves your cash flow and reduces the likelihood that you get stuck in a spot with not enough material or too much of the wrong size.
Even if you are a smaller pallet operation, a small yard saw unit can provide you with increased flexibility. Each of these three companies have added one machine that has improved their entire cutting operation. Find out if you can do the same things and see what lessons they have learned to get the most out of their units even in harsh conditions.
High-production Sawing at Pasadena Skid
Eleven years ago, Pasadena Skid & Pallet in Pasadena, Texas bought its first Accu-Cut package saw from Pacific Trail. And the company just installed its second saw due to increasing customer demand.
Randy Dunkerson, vice president and co-owner of Pasadena Skid & Pallet, said, “We just bought our second unit, so obviously we like it.”
The first unit was bought to replace an old vertical cut saw that was too slow. The Pacific Trail saw allowed the company to expand its cutting capacity for panels and dimensional lumber.
Dunkerson explained, “Given the competitive lumber market, the Pacific Trail saw allows us to cut a large volume of lumber in a short period of time. We can take 16-18 foot bundles and cut the different sizes that we need out of it. And then take those cut boards over to the resaw and bust them down into deckboards.”
The Pacific Trail Accu-Cut 132-20C can cut 60,000-70,000 board feet per day fairly easily according to Dunkerson. His company uses the saw to cut plywood as well as lumber. The unit has worked well with both hardwood and softwood although Pasadena mainly processes softwood material.
The newer unit has a remote control system that allows the saw to be operated without a person being at the control console. Dunkerson explained, “This has allowed us to cut one operator from the process. The operator is down on the ground staging the next bundle getting it ready.”
The two saws are positioned so that one forklift operator can offload cut bundles of lumber from both systems. The second unit also has computerized controls that allows the unit to speed up or slow down based on the amp load. Dunkerson suggested that this feature may allow for less damage and longer life for the chains and saw bars.
Both saws have performed well for Pasadena Skid. Dunkerson commented, “As long as you treat the machine right, the maintenance on the system is very little.”
The key to successful production is setting everything up right in the first place and learning how to use the saw. When Pasadena Skid first started with the saw, there was a slight learning curve. But Pacific Trail helped to identify the issues. Dunkerson said, “Pacific Trail has been great to work with in terms of service. Almost any problem you have, they can troubleshoot it over the phone.”
Pasadena Skid added a hopper that feeds wood waste into a chopper to produce colored mulch.
The Accu-Cut offers some of the tightest cutting tolerances available. Dunkerson stated, “It is pretty much dead on in terms of accuracy. You can get +-1/16”, sometimes +-1/32" depending on the material and condition of the chain and bar.”
Bowmanville Wood Products Improves Process Flow with Exacta-Cut Saw
Blair McEwen, owner and president of Bowmanville Wood Products, speaks from experience when he talks about the impact that the Pacific Trail Exacta-Cut saw has had on his business. The reason is that McEwen runs the saw sometimes and knows what it can do first hand.
The company installed its Pacific Trail saw in 2001. Before then, its cutting operation relied mostly on pop up saws, sometimes called undercut saws. McEwen explained, “We do still cut some with pneumatic pop up saws. But the Pacific Trail crosscut saw has allowed us to decrease our lead time for servicing customers because we can cut such a large amount of lumber in such a short period of time.”
Also, the previous process was much harder on the employees because they had to physically hoist lumber up onto the saw line. But the package saw is fed by an operator on a forklift.
Faster throughput has improved other aspects of the operation including the notching station and bandsaw. The cutting operation in general requires fewer steps and is moving much faster. McEwen commented, “The Pacific Trail saw has also taken out a bit of a bottleneck. Before having this machine, using pop up saws was a three-stage process. You would have to run the lumber through the pop up saw to cut to dimension. Then feed the lumber to the band saw to turn it into the profile you desire. And then it went onto the notcher or chamfer station. The Pacific Trail saw has allowed us to have a lot of cut lumber in the yard.”
Bowmanville Wood Products operates the Exacta-Cut around 25-30 hours per week and has had no problems with it. The company uses the saw to primarily cut 2×4, 2×6, 2×8 and 1×4 dress as well as 1×3 and 1×4 mill run rough. All the material is softwood to be turned into pallet stock.
Another benefit of the saw is greater flexibility in what the company can process. And this means it can buy lower cost material that otherwise it couldn’t process. McEwen explained, “The Pacific Trail saw has allowed us to buy longer lengths. With the pop up saws, it is harder for workers to get the longer lengths up and through the saw. Buying longer lengths sometimes allows us to save some money on our raw material.”
McEwen added a conveyor underneath to remove wood waste that is ground up and turned into animal bedding. Previously, the company had a lot of manual activity involved in transporting baskets of wood trims and wood waste that was then made available for people to take away and use for heat.
The unit typically produces about 26,000-27,000 board feet in eight hours using one operator. A second worker boosts production capacity to 55,000 board feet or more. The amount of wood needed at any one time is the primary deciding factor in terms of whether or not the unit is run with one or two employees.
McEwen has learned some lessons by trial and error as well as guidance from Pacific Trail. He said, “When we first installed the saw, sometimes we would be spot on. Other times we would be off a bit when cutting. We had to learn why we were not cutting right. Sometimes, it was the operator trying to run too fast, the chain needed to be changed, or the bundle was not kept square.”
When operating in rough winter conditions, Bowmanville uses a light oil to improve operations. Also when cutting frozen lumber, you may need to slow down the speed 15% or so to efficiently cut the material. Overall, the Pacific Trail unit has worked great and he would certainly buy one again if he was in the same position, stated McEwen.
Yard Saws Are Small But Do the Job
Even the Pacific Trail yard saws have been successfully used in pallet operations. Sierra Pallet in Reno, Nevada uses two Mobile-Cut 014-EMMSS yard saws.
Sierra Pallet had been buying a lot of precut lumber. And about eight years ago, Dave Schnabel, president and owner, thought about adding a yard saw to allow for greater flexibility in processing and procuring lumber. Schnabel said, “The yard saw has saved me a lot of money compared to buying precut lumber.”
Schnabel looked around at a number of options and settled on Pacific Trail because it was the cheapest saw for the production and had good customer reviews, he said.
Sierra Pallet uses one yard saw every day on a constant basis. He laughed, “They are not recommended for that. But the unit has gone above and beyond what is usually expected.”
Schnabel bought a second one less than a year ago to boost production capacity. The models used by Sierra Pallet run on electricity not gas.
While Sierra Pallet considered a bigger model, the yard saw is a good fit because it doesn’t need the production capacity of a larger unit, and the company has space constraints. The smaller size, lower volume requirements and cheaper cost made the Mobile-Cut 014-EMMSS yard saws the right choice.
Due to its heavy use, Sierra Pallet swaps out the chain every 2-3 days and will refurbish a bar every 4-6 months. Mostly, the saws are used to cut green softwood 2x4s and other sizes.
When is a package saw right for an operation? Schnabel explained, “If you are a small pallet company and are buying a lot of precut material, using one of these yard saws is a great idea to provide flexibility in terms of what you buy and how you manage your inventory.”
Schnabel added, “A package saw is better than an end trim saw when you are dealing with longer lengths and heavier lumber as well as larger production runs.”
No matter the size of your operation, a crosscut unit or package saw can improve your operational control and the ability to respond to changing lumber markets and customer demands. For more information on the Pacific Trail line of saws, visit http://www.ptmi.net or call 888-910-SAWS.
