Band Mills that would satisfy the lumber manufacturers of Indiana and the valley of the Ohio where they were to be found, could never meet the requirements of the men of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and the Mississippi Valley as far south as St. Louis.
Now what was the trouble? It was simply because a band saw if forced to do a satisfactory day’s work, invariably would cut snakey or crooked lumber; and even when sawing a small amount of lumber each end of a board would have a crook, showing that the saw for some reason would deflect from a true line when entering a log and also when leaving it, while the cut through the center might be quite straight; but in all cases the effort to push things so as to get a satisfactory day’s work as demanded by the northern mill men, would result in bad snakey lumber every time, and dealers did not want such lumber.
Previous to 1887 there was not a Band Mill in existence for sawing logs that fully met the wishes of lumbermen engaged in large operations, although quite a number of such machines were then at work with varying success in mills owned by men who felt encouraged to try them.
The builders of saw mill machinery were then studiously endeavoring to produce a Band Mill that would perform the full duty of making straight lumber and plenty of it, and a number of them had already devoted several years of hard work upon them. They appeared to know what the trouble was, but were greatly at a loss to know precisely how to correct it.
The story of the trouble briefly told is as follows: A band saw runs on its wheels just the same as a belt runs on pulleys. The saw, just the same as a belt, has a tight side and also a slack side. The tight side is on the log side and the slack side is opposite on the back side; and if for any reason the saw should slip on the lower or driving wheel, then in that case the momentum of the upper wheel would carry the slack over to the front or log side, and a snake or crook in the lumber would be the result. This was generally understood to be the trouble and various expedients, some of which were very amusing, were adopted (as hereinafter shown) by machinery builders, only to be discarded later as band mill construction developed.
THE HOFFMAN BAND SAW MILL
Built by J. R. Hoffman & Co., Fort Wayne, Ind., and advertised
in the NORTHWESTERN LUMBERMAN May 9, 1885
The first Band Mill to attract the attention of mill men was in operation at Fort Wayne, Ind., in a saw mill operated by the Hoffman Bros. They had used one for several years, and the writer visited their mill in 1885. They were then buying large first clear logs up in Michigan and sawing them into stuff for pigeon holes and other cabinet stock.
The wheels were of wood five feet in diameter, with rubber faces and iron spoke centers. Both wheels were alike. They used a saw five inches wide, which they procured in France, claiming that no saw makers in this country knew how to make a band saw, and they probably did not; but their operations attracted so much attention that they commenced to build and market Band Mills of the same character as the one in use by themselves, and they did sell quite a number of them.