Patent ID: 7347232

Claim:
An apparatus for finishing cut lumber, said apparatus including; a feed device operable for feeding cut lumber pieces having a generally rectangular cross section; a first conveyor system positioned to receive lumber pieces from the feed device and provide a plurality of streams of lumber pieces said first conveyor system having a first discharge portion with a first run and a second discharge portion with a second run; an orienting device associated with the first conveyor system having opposite first and second sides, said first side being aligned with the first discharge portion of the first conveyor system to receive a first said stream of said lumber pieces, said second side being aligned with the second discharge portion of the first conveyor system to receive a second said stream of lumber pieces, the orienting device including a second conveyor system operable to receive lumber pieces from the first and second runs, the second conveyor system including at least two indexers each adapted to move lumber pieces in a direction generally along their length from a respective first or second run to an indexed machine location and form a plurality of indexed streams of lumber pieces in the orienting device, said second conveyor system having a portion operable to transport lumber pieces in a direction generally normal to the longitudinal axis of each of the lumber pieces; a trimming apparatus downstream of the orienting device and operable to cut oriented lumber pieces from the orienting device to a predetermined length; and a sorter downstream of the trimming apparatus operable to receive trimmed lumber pieces and operable to sort the received trimmed lumber pieces by at least length.