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On the night of July 18, 2002, Cowls sawmill was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. Rebuilding was not an easy decision for the Cowls family, since profitability of the centuries old lumber operation had been eclipsed for some time by that of the Cowls building supply division next door. In the end, however, the opportunity to serve the region with a niche product that the area “big box” outlets could not supply won out. While costs for the new building and equipment were triple the insurance reimbursement, they have paid off with a safer, more efficient and larger capacity facility. The new sawmill is one of the few in the country that can accommodate logs (and produce timbers) up to 32 feet long.
The new building contains a major innovation: an observation deck where clients, customers and visitors can watch how logs turn into lumber and learn how company operations benefit the region and the environment. Located in an area with five colleges within a few miles of the mill, Cowls decided to address the local concern for education and the environment.
Visitors begin by reading a series of panels which explain the basics of sustainable forestry, tree farm certification and the kind of products Cowls manufactures. There are panels illustrating Cowls' manufacturing process on the observation deck, allowing visitors to understand the production flow even if an employee isn't present to explain. Cowls has color-coded the machinery to make it that much easier to follow the sequence of work through the mill.
The newly rebuilt mill features a production line of new and rebuilt equipment. Logs are first fed into an HMC rosserhead debarker, a set of spinning knives which runs over the log and removes the bark. This step not only produces saleable bark mulch, but it helps keep the main saw blade sharp much longer by removing stones and dirt trapped in the bark. Debarking also gives the sawyer a better view of the log, allowing him to make better cutting decisions.
After debarking, the logs are sent to the HMC carriage feeding a 54 in. Simonds circular saw with a 9/32 kerf, a system that also includes a 36 in. top saw. Headrig output is sent to a Cornell edger and then to an Irvington drop saw trimmer. Lumber handling is performed by Mellott transfer chains and Reckart roll cases.
Precision supplied a 56 in. chipper. Sawdust is in high demand by local farmers, and is sold to people on a waiting list basis. Bark and wood chips are sold to a local contractor who grinds and re-colors the end product for mulch. Wood chips are also sold to area paper companies. The planer mill features a Newman M68 planer and a Stetson-Ross timber sizer capable of planing four sides of a timber at one pass, up to 16x24 inches. Log handling in our four acre log yard is done with an International 510 loader and a Case 586D. A John Deere 544G forklift is available as backup.
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