Craig Howard writes...
Accu-Trac AC-36
Taking Business To The Next Level
With An Accu-Trac Fully Hydraulic Sawmill
In 1998 I was looking for a way to supplement my income. I was working at a local chemical plant as a chemical operator. There were and still are a lot of portable saw mills around my area. I first thought there was too much competition for me to profit here. After more consideration I decided that there was and opportunity for me to set up a stationary mill to custom saw for people that only have a few logs to be sawn. The guys with portable mills won’t come out for just a few logs but the people with just a few logs will bring them to my sawmill. I also figured that it would be better for me to stay in one place to saw my own logs and sell the lumber.
I looked at several saw mills and settled on the Accu-Trac fully hydraulic mill. I wanted a mill equipped with an electric motor, but I had no three phase current. The guys at Cook’s solved that problem with an AE-60 phase converter. This let me run the three phase motor off of single phase 220 volt current.
Shortly after purchasing the Accu-Trac I realized that I had a problem that was costing me a lot of time. I worked alone most of the time and the problem was the amount of time that it took to trim the side boards. This problem was solved with a Miner Edger that I also bought from Cook’s. They had taken it on a trade and added laser lines to it so that I can make straight cuts and know exactly how to line the board up to enter the saws.
The edger increased my production and my yield. Shortly after the mill got into production it began to pay for itself. I only ran the mill 3 days a week at the most. Within 3 years the mill had paid for itself as well as save me money on several projects and put money in my pocket to boot.
I built a 40 x 100 lumber drying shed. The Accu-Trac cut all the lumber for this building. The building contained 6x10x20 top plates, 6x6x18 poles to support building. There was 2,600 linear feet of 2x6 for lathing and 40 foot clear span metal trusses. I have cut lumber for several people in my area to build their entire houses. I cut everything from sills to the rafters, floor joist and siding.
After experiencing success I decided to take my business to the next level. I had read about value adding to products. This is to take an existing product and doing something to it to make it worth more money. I knew this is what I needed to do.
In 2002, I used lumber that I had cut to build a duel cell kiln building. The kiln was fired with slabs from my mill. I use a Hardy wood burning furnace to heat the kiln and it also heats my house. To process the lumber after I dried it I purchased a Logosol planer moulded. Now I could take the board I was already sawing and add value to it by making all types of moulding and flooring. This makes the same piece of wood pay me more that double what it normally would pay.
Business grew and consumed more and more of my time. I quickly started getting more than I could handle. My reputation for sawing more accurate lumber and greater yield keeps my custom sawing service growing and I have great repeat business. I now custom saw , dry and plane. I manufacture long leaf pine timber into heart pine flooring. I also manufacture v-joint, bead and various other patterns of moulding and paneling.
In August of 2002, I resigned from my chemical job to run the business full time. I really enjoy running my sawmill and making products for my customers and myself.
Craig Howard
