Trip- Day 2 Monday July 16, 2012

Day 2- Monday July 16, 2012

1-Hamer Pellet FuelWe traveled to Hamer Pellet Fuel in Elkins, WV, which has been in business for 20 years.. Our tour guides name was Jim Dearing, operations manager of Hamer Pellet Fuel. Mill companies bring in sawdust to the company for them to make pellets. Hamer will pay $60.00 per ton of sawdust. The dryer will dry out the sawdust. It is then mixed with vegetable oil and water, heated (1800 degrees Fahrenheit) and then compressed to make a pellet. The pellets come out of the compressor at 800 degrees Fahrenheit. It is bagged and stacked on pallets by a robot. This is a very neat process that is time efficient. The robot will spit out 20 ton of pellets an hour; whereas a human is only 10-15 ton an hour. Companies then come in and take the stacks to sell for burning. Companies come from the states of Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, West Virginia, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Kentucky.

Wood has 2 cell walls: cellulose and lignin. Lignin has a melting point and that’s what gives the pellets the waxy finish. However, the pellet companies will mix different types of wood all depending on the burning factors. Each bag will sell around $3.00 per bag from home improvement stores like: Lowes, Home Depot, Southern States…etc.

Why Learn/Study This:

·         GREAT example of recycling

·         Assembly line process

·         Simple machines

·         To have a problem and find a solution (problem solving)

·         Cause and Effect

2-Frank E. Wilson Lumber Co. Inc., and Wilson Quality Millworks, Inc. Frank E. Wilson Lumber Co. Inc. and Wilson Quality Millworks

We traveled next door from Hamer to a company called Frank E. Wilson Lumber Co. Inc. This is a place where they get boards and prep them to be shipped off to a company or used for personal use. We met our guide, Mr. Perky, and he showed us around the entire mill. We saw where the wood first arrives at the mill. They check it and smooth it out (sand down). They then send it to the next shop where they measure it and make sure it fits what is has been ordered. If it does not fit then it has to be cut or thrown aside to be sanded down or used for another order. After this process it is then taken to where the wood is dried, called a kilns. Depending on what type of wood is being stored, will depend on how long it would have to stay in the kiln. Some types of wood can stay in there up to 4 months as to some just a few weeks. The kiln is very steamy and hot; very high in humidity. One of the neatest facts that I learned from this mill is that they use sawdust to run their machines. This is very resourceful and great for the environment.

Next door to Frank E. Wilson Lumber Co. Inc. is a place called Wilson Quality Millworks, Inc. (sister company to Frank E. Wilson Lumber Co.).  Our guides names were Jerry and Jeff (general manager). Here they make customized doors, handrails, counter tops, molding, stairs…etc.  The smell of this place has such a sweet smell of wood. It reminds of a fresh cut Christmas tree sitting in your living room (even though it is not pine…still has that fresh cut wood smell). They mostly use maple, poplar, oak and that is just to name a few. They also finish, stain, or paint lots of their parts as well. I will go in more detail as you scroll through my pictures.

3-Presentation by forester and historian Robert C. Whetshell Robert Whetshell

Robert Whetshell use to be a forester in Randolph County, WV. He is considered here in Elkins a historian.  He spoke about the history of Tygart Valley, settled in 1772.  It is estimated that Randolph County contained nearly 400,000 acres of virgin timber prior to the 1800s. Some of the early cutting techonology that was used: axes, (they would leave one side of the saw sharper to cut trees and the other side of it dull to cut branches/twigs), cross-cut saw, adze and broad axe, pit or whip saw, horse team, horse powered tram, splash dams and log slides, floating log drives, and finally water powered sash sawmill. The next best technology used to access higher elevation timber is the use of railroads/steam powered.

Instead of water powered, they used steam-powered innovations that introduced the circular saw (used between 1880 and 1920). Next was the band saw. It consumed 17 acres of timber per day. That equals out to 100,000 to 140,000 board feet per day (was used from 1895 to 1921). Logging equipment consisted of: log loaders, and steam skidders (aerial cable). The economic base for Elkins was: railroad, manufacturing, and commercial. However, because of all the clear cutting, the towns were having more fires (due to the steam engines), flooding (more run-off), and erosion.

Here are some pictures of the trip today:

1st Hamer Pellet Fuels-

Hamer Pellet Fuels, Elkins, WV

A dozer scooping sawdust and dumping for drying.

The robot stacking the 40 lbs. bags of pellets on a pallet ready for retail.

The bags being filled and sealed.

Fresh hot pellets that came right out of the compressor.












2nd Frank E. Wilson Lumber Co. Inc.-

Loading the boards as they come in to be smoothed out.

This is a worker that has to check the boards for splits, knots, not the right length...etc. (called a grader). He has exactly 3 seconds to flip the board and check it before sending it on to the correct location.

Kiln...used to dry the wood

Boards that have already been dried

3rd Wilson Quality Millworks

Some of the pieces that they can do (cabinets, fames, etc.)

This is some of the moldings that have already been cut and ready to ship