Patent ID: 7708041

Claim:
A method of milling wooden construction components out of stock boards that are elongated between spaced ends and have planar broad sides spaced by planar edges, comprising the steps of: launching a board forward in a planar longitudinal lane of transit, with one end of the board leading, the other end of the board trailing, and one broad side of the board traveling in the lane of transit in order to present one edge of the board for milling; pinching the board's broad sides between a pair of pinch rollers that extend laterally across the lane of transit, wherein said pinch rollers are driven counter-rotationally to each other and are reversible so as to alternately cycle the board in advancing and retracting strokes or else hold the board stopped; keeping the board straight in the lane of transit; providing a traversing end-mill bit that spins on a spin axis wherein said spin axis is generally perpendicular to the board's broad sides and is reversibly traversable across the lane of transit forward of the pinch rollers; and milling a new edge into the board by advancing, retracting or stopping the board simultaneously with traversing the end-mill bit across the lane of transit wherein, if the board is advancing or retracting simultaneously with the end-mill bit traversing the board, then a resulting milled edge in the board extends along not a straight lateral or straight longitudinal line but either a diagonal or curved line; wherein the step of keeping the board straight further comprises releasably clamping the board proximate the rear end thereof by a longitudinally-traveling clamp and then releasing the board at some stage, followed by the clamp traveling rearward to clamp on a succeeding board and repeating the step of launching with the succeeding board.