The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-09-09
THE TIE MILL
IS ?UNA'S PRIDE
Something More About the Big
Business Now Starting
There.
(Staff Correspondence

The only one or It's KIND IN the WOrlu,
the people of Pahoa in particular and
those OF the whole island of Hawaii
in general are proud of the Pahoa tie
mill, which stands at the terminus or
the Puma railroad, complete and ready
TO begin work next week. This mill
is unique, inasmuch as it is not only
a big and complete sawmill but the
only such mill in the world fitted up
exclusively for turning out railroad
ties.
In the fiat country of Puma the new
mill isa landmark serving great stretch
of country. To its towering smokestack
it is the avowed intention of the sur
veyors to "tie'' their work in future
and this intention is an evidence of the
faith for success that the ones who
know the country best and most init
mately have for the future of the Ha
waiian Mahogany Company. Hereto
fore the surveyors have been "tying"
their work to a prominent hill in the
district, the hill being something that
would last. The new company, which
is doing things ON such a large scale
is thought to be, evidently, quite as
lasting. At any rate, the tie mill is
built as solidly as good construction
work could do with the best materials
and if IL does not last it will not be
the faults of the ones who planned the
mill or the experts who set it up.
Everything about the building itself
and the machinery with which it is
equipped is solid. The great saws
which first square up the ohia legs,
driven towards them by an immense
endless chain, are set to handle ma
terial up TO four feet in diameter and
Hthe framework that holds them and
the carriers are of wrought steel, mas
sive and capable of withstanding a
tremendous strain. There are four of
these saws, set at the top of a convex
lumber pathway, up which the logs will
travel to first enter the mill. Two sets
of carriers, each operated by its own
engine, seize the logs as they come and
hold them firmly while the saws, in
pairs, one pair on each side of the
mill, slice off the slabs, trim off board
or two, if necessary to reduce the log
to convenient size fer tie work, then
slice the remainder of the log into six
inch tfitches.
/ These pass on to eonveyor and are
carried along to the center of the mill,
where another set of saws is waiting.
This takes the six-inch slices of log
and finishes the tie saving. There are
six circular saws in this machine, set
in sets of three, each set working by
itself. Thus four ties at once can be
run out and ON the steadily travelling
conveyors, which never permit the log
and its segments to remain still for one
moment after its journey into the mill +
is commenced The conveyors carry
the ties, complete all but the saving
into eight foot lengths, to three more I
saws, set at the rear of the mill, just ;
above the last set of moving carriers,
which 90 TO the railroad ears. {
Then there are saws for converting
the slabs into frewood lengths and con-
veyors to carry these lengths off for
shipment; other conveyors for placing
the ohia boards in the drying yards :
and still others to carry off the saw
dust and the waste to the burning pile.
Everything is complete, everything is !
labor saving, everything Is solid and
pct up in a way that impresses the I
casual observer with the idea that the :
Mahogany company is in earnest and
Is getting ready in the right way to
ill the biggest tie contract that has
ever crossed the Pacific.
The motive power for the machinery :
is generated in the boilers of $780,
horse power engine, built, as is every 8
thing else about the mill, to stand the =
strain that will certainly come when
two thousand five hundred ties day =
have TO be turned out, when nearly =
thousand ohia logs each twenty-four a
hours have to be handled, logs of 4
wood so heavy that it sinks in water e.
like ironwood. A thirteen-ton tiywheel
Is the impressive part of the engine to II
the layman, but to an engineer the a
ease with which the great engine can OF
be reversed and the solidity with which fl
it is put together would be the inter II
esting features. h
The boilers for the engine have also m
some features that must interest engi- ii
neers, inasmueh as these are the first