Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1911-02-24
TALE OF The TRIMMER
NEW STYLE SOUND PRODUCER
INSTALLED IN DALLAS.
Willamette Valley Lumber Company
Has Adopted Latest Improvement
In Machinery.

When the poet or lawgiver wrote
Thou shalt not monkey with the buzz
saw" he rested from his labors with
the conviction that he had provided
for all future emergencies. According
to his way of thinking, that terse SEN
tence covered all contingencies, ana
there was nothing to do but to OBEY
the mandate 1t was framed up TO
stand for all time. There was to be
no loophole, no reversion of decision.
But skillful mechanics, brushing aside
the lawyers for the moment discover
ed and took advantage of a technl-
cality, so that, while it is bad form TO
monkey with a buzz-saw, there IS no
objection to monkeying with Il buzz-
saws simultaneously. That is JUST
what man is doing now, every day,
at the big sawmill owned by the Will
lamette Valley Lumber Company, in
this city. He not only has full author
ity to put in ten hours monkeying
with them, but he gets pay for it. And
if he didn't monkey with them he
Wouluh SCI pay ~ -
Dip of Destruction.
But he is an expert mOnkeyer. He
can do more with 21 buzz-saws than
FL ordinary men can with one He IS
a specialist. He is an artistic. He is
an instrumentalist; performer OF
ability. Sitting up aloft, all alone in
little cage, he plays on, undisturbed
Beneath his finger tips is keyboard,
and as his hands run the scale the an
swering sound swells and falls in cres-
cendo and diminuendo, and Fl buzz
saws dip and zip in pianissimo and
screechimo They dip in pairs, and
double pairs, and singly and altogeth-
er, and any old way that this per-
former chooses to have them dip And
every time they dip they sever a piece
of virgin wood and every time they do
that they let out the most nerve
frazzlng, ear-rupturing complaint
that ever-smote the tympanum. Whirl-
ing ever whirling, working or idle,
they are still whirling, and screeching,
shrieking and whizzing in diabolical
diapason.
Professional Fault Finder.
The result is not music, but the OPP
orator certainly has an ample supply
of the raw sound material at his COM
mand. But tones and over-tones do
not worry him. He does not care any
thing for timbre, but what he doesn't
know about timber is not worth while.
l,
is plenty of it around. The great in
strument upon which he plays is
known as a Sumner overhead trim
mre. All the lumber not over by 8
inches, and the slabs and edgings
that come from the saws are side
tracked and sent up an incline by
constantly moving endless, or Give
chains. The speed at which it moves
may be varied from 40 to rs feet per
minute AS it passes beneath the cage,
and starts up the sloping table to the
saws, it is closely scrutinized by the
operator. Long experience in hand
ling timber teaches him what to look
for and where to find it. Any defect of
pitch, slivers, knots, or bark is
quickly noted by him.
Handling the Levers.
At the top of the table are the 81
saws, each two feet in diameter, and
spaced two feet apart. In front OF
the operator is a keyboard composed
of 81 little levers, and two large ones
From each of the levers a piano wire
extends to pneumatic cylinder above
every saw. Compressed air is fed into
the cylinders from main supply pipe
and it's pressure holds the saw above
and clear of the table. A quick pres
sure on a lever releases the air, and
gravity causes the saw to drop into
position for cutting. Each one works
Independently, or in conjunction with
the others
BY the time the timber reaches the
saws, the operator has made a few
quick touches of the levers, and the
saws drop where required and cut out
the defects, A piece of timber 40 feet
in length can be handled on the table
and by the single movement of one of
the large levers it may be cut into
either two or four foot sticks. After
being trimmed, the stick passes the
saws and falls into an alley at the
back, where it is automatically sorted
as to length, and each kind taken by
carriers to its destination.