Hearne Hardwoods open house. Amazing.

[Delawhere Jack]

Yesterday I attended the annual open house at Hearne Hardwoods in Oxford PA. Hearne specializes in rare and exotic woods from around the world. They also have a large inventory of domestic species, commonly up to 12/4 thick.

The main attraction for me was  their vertical band mill. It has a 67" width of cut, and uses a carriage to move the log much like a circular mill, but much larger. During the demonstration they milled a massive walnut, producing slabs up to 4' wide.

The best part was the I was able to speak with the sawyer, Stephen Beiler, who was also the man who engineered the mill. The heart of the mill is a WWII vintage bandsaw from the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. It was purchased by the Navy to mill timber for aircraft carrier  decks, but it was never used as they switched over to steel plate for decking. Mr Beiler fabricated the mounting of the mill and the carriage.

The mill uses bands that must be 30' long (forgot to ask). The band wheels have no crown, and there are no thrust bearings to support the back edge of the band. Instead, the bands are made 1 1/2" longer on the back edge than the front, so they form a sort of "cone" over the wheels. The bands are guided only by two phenolic blocks which push them out, much the same as the guider rollers on portable mills.

Then came the really interesting stuff! The teeth have a rake angle of 37deg! It is a "skip tooth" design, sort of. Carbide teeth are welded on every other tooth, and the pitch changes from tooth to tooth. The first in each set are 2 1/4" then 2" then 1 3/4", then the pattern repeats. I asked if this was done in order to avoid oscillation in the bands, and he nodded. On top of that, the teeth are set to different heights.

WOW!

The bands are about 9" wide, and the back edge has what looks like the remnants of teeth that have been ground down so that only a portion of the gullet remains, and what would have been the tooth is now negatively raked. No problem backing up in a kerf, this band will clear away any dust while backing out.

Really wish I had gotten more time to speak with Mr Beiler, but another guest who is also a bandmiller was there also, and went on in excruciating detail about his thoughts on the subject...  :

The owners son Micheal lead a tour of the facilities including the offices. A timber framed structure built within the remains of an old stone barn. The furniture was mostly made by the Hearnes, and feature some of the most amazing woods and burl slabs you will ever see.

If you live anywhere nearby, and you love wood, this is a must see event.

PS The lighting in the mill shed was poor, hence no pictures, but you can see the mill here:

http://www.hearnehardwoods.com/wood_facilities/sawmill/sawmill.html

[terrifictimbersllc]

Thanks for posting this. Now I feel very small.  :

[Delawhere Jack]

Thanks for posting this. Now I feel very small.  :

Tell me about it..... And when he's not running the mill at work, he's often out running his own LT70.

[Nomad]

     I don't have time right now to look at all those pics...  But you can be DanG sure I will!!! :D

[bandmiller2]

That odd tooth spacing must make it difficult to sharpen the band. Even with carbide cutting stumps your bound to get into stones and other tramp. Mayby they buy used two way bands and only use the front teeth. Thanks for showing us. Frank C.

[Anderson]

The mill uses bands that must be 30' long (forgot to ask).

I just got lost looking at all the pictures on the website but did see a caption of one saying the band mill use's 46' long bands!

Thanks for posting and reporting 8) I highly enjoyed it!

[Ron Wenrich]

A lot like Talarico Hdw in Mohnton, PA.  http://talaricohardwoods.com/index.html

One of these days I ought to go to see Sam.  I met him when he came up to the mill to buy sycamore.  Very selective, but paid a high price.  You need deep pockets to play in these markets.

[backwoods sawyer]

if you follow that link to the log yard and on down to the quarter sawing of french brown Oak you will see my mill with its first owner Albert Bartle, that is a Miner edger made in alabama.

Anyone ever seen the Dolmar in action?