/ .4S221 
 
 ,. *$m?ML 
 
 SMALL 
 
 J 
 
 FOREST PRODUCTS LABORATORY 1 FOREST SERVICE 
 U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
 
 SAWMILL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 PRACTICAL POINTERS TO FIELD AGENCIES J// -Q^ - /^/i^/. £ - "? 
 
 ■OSITORY ME'A TO MOVE PORTABLE M ILLS 
 
 The number of teams required to complete the chance can serve as a 
 rough control for figuring out when to move portable mills in- logging chances 
 offering more than one set-up. This applies to "not log" operations dependent 
 on daily renewal rather than a reserve of logs at the mill. Fewer teams are 
 needed when logging near the mill hut zones are reached where either more 
 teams or new set-ups are essential. It is a case of balancing the cost of 
 moving against the extra team cost and making allowances for the influence of 
 the moves on lumber hauling costs. 
 
 The cost of moving within the chance may be as low as $12 for light 
 tractor mills to $800 for the more stationary mills. The operator estimates 
 the cost for his conditions. If the proposed move increases the lumber haul 
 costs he adds the estimated increase; if it cheapens them he subtracts from 
 the mill moving cost and divides the result by the cost per day per team. 
 
 .Is gives the number of days he can afford to use an extra team to clean up 
 Ihe chance from tne first set-up. or, if several set-ups are possible, gives 
 the extra team-days justified in extending the logging zone before moving. 
 This method is reasonably practical in a flat, accessible area where mills 
 can be set up almost anywhere on the chance and lumber bo hauled out. 
 
 Some changes are needed for a rough region. Mill sites are defi- 
 nitely limited and logs will not be brought up hill. The initial set-up is 
 along the lower part of the chance. After hauling from tne short haul area 
 additional teams may be required to haul from back areas and up to the next 
 site. The next set-up gives another series of team requirements* To deter- 
 mine the advisability of moving, the operator figures the difference in the 
 estimated number of teaming days* required to haul tnose logs to the old set- 
 up which are tributary to the new set-up and teaming days to haul tne same to 
 the new, multiplies by the cost per team per day, and subtracts the cost of 
 moving. The influence of the prospective move on tne lumber hauling coots is 
 handled as in calculating moves in a flat region; the estimated increase added 
 or decrease subtracted from tne cost of moving the mill. A minus answer indi- 
 cates no move is advisable, and a plus answer gives the estimated gain result- 
 ing from the move. 
 
 For instance, hauling is at a point where logs are tributary to 
 either the present site or a new one. The operator estimates that four teams 
 will take twenty days or eighty teaming days to haul to the present site all 
 logs tributary to the new, and two teams twenty days or forty teaming days 
 hauling them to the new, or a difference of forty teaming days. A team costs 
 $7 per day. He can move the mill for $50 and the increase in cost of hauling 
 out lumber will bo $100. He stands to gain 40 x $7 or $230 and to lose $160 
 or a net gain of $120 through moving. 
 
 ♦Equivalent to the number of days required for one team to log the chance. 
 
 Contributed by C. J. Telford, 
 Forest Products Laboratory , 
 t R899-3 Jan. 15, 1931. 
 
 t Maintained at Madison, Wisconsin in cooperation with the University of Wisconsin 
 
 •See outline in Small Sawmill Improvement Working Plan, March 1930, for explanation of indexing system proposed. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 
 
 3 1262 09216 3178 
 
 / 
 
 f 
 
 I