A day at Zena Forest

[GaryR]

I belong to an online group of folks interested in finding, restoring and using old woodworking machines. A subgroup of us in the Pacific Northwest of the USA try to meet in person once per year. This year we met at Zena Forest Products which is about an hour from me here in Oregon. ZFP is a small, family run business that owns and stewards a private forest and sawmill. Mother oversees the forest, one son sustainably harvests the hardwoods: Oregon white oak, big leaf maple, and Oregon ash that they turn into flooring and stair treads and a few other custom items. Another son has a separate mill that makes softwood lumber for his renovation business.

Zena Forest Products | Salem, OR

Durable Oak and Maple flooring & lumber from Oregon's Willamette Valley.

www.zenaforest.com

The gathering today had a tour of the facility, a few demonstrations, a raffle of old machines, machine parts, and odds and ends. And a potluck lunch.

Here are few pix and a video.

The main milling building. Here is where the rough lumber (cut from logs and dried in in other buildings and kilns) is ripped to width, planed to thickness, cut cut to length, and tongue and grooved. The trees in the background are Douglas fir and Oregon white oak.



A view inside the mill. The family is originally from Germany/Bavaria and the framing has some hints of that, they tell me.




They built a small annex to make custom made wooden heat vents/registers/not sure what you would call these where you are. To cover floor outlets of forced air heating systems.

Wood Vents — Zena Forest Products | Salem, OR

www.zenaforest.com

They accommodated an oak when they built the roof for the annex.


And at the raffle, a very cute little 12" band saw. (Sorry, I mean "heavy duty" band saw). Someone took this home for the price of a four dollar ticket.





The hardwood logs are sawn with a band saw mill, which wasn't running. But we had a demo of the circular saw mill that is used for softwoods, almost entirely Douglas fir.

This mill was made here in Oregon I think in the 1980's and is powered by a Volkswagen engine. It was designed to be disassembled and hauled into remote areas in the mountains to turn logs into construction lumber in places where the logs were too large or too difficult to get out. It can cut up a log of just about any diameter into beams of up to at least 6x6". Maybe larger. There is one vertical blade and two horizontal blades. It makes a huge amount of noise and sawdust and makes a great demonstration.

 

[Cabinetman]

That sounds like a fascinating day out Gary, I’m sure most of us on here would have thoroughly enjoyed it.
The thing I can’t quite get my head around is your subgroup from the Pacific NorthWest, that must be a huge area? And yes I know Americans travel long distances at the drop of a hat but that shows dedication for enough people to turn up to make it worthwhile. I think I’m asking how does it work and how many travel from how far?
Ian

 

[9fingers]

Interesting that the bandsaw dates from a period when having ball bearings in a design was worthy of casting into the body of the machine

Ball bearings these days are "tuppence a ton" and included as standard in the most modest of machines.

 

[9fingers]

Gary, did you see their http://www.zenaforest.com/edge-grain flooring being made? They say it is made from offcuts from the other flooring but that no glue is used? How do they join the laths together?
TIA
Bob

 

[GaryR]

I didn't see the edge grain tiles being made, but I did see some tiles and some assembled flooring samples. The little sticks are held together by two barbed aluminium wires embedded in grooves in the bottom. Rather like beads on a string. Very simple. The tiles are then glued to a subfloor. Those tiles are big deal for ZFP. They got the contract to make enough for a new floor at the Portland, Oregon airport. The machines that make them are high tech and made in Germany. They are actually connected by wifi so the company in Germany can operate and trouble shoot them remotely if necessary.

As for how far folks traveled for the get together: most from within 1-2 hour's drive so easily done. The few that came from northern California or the Seattle area drove maybe 6-7 hours and made it an overnight trip.

 

[AndyT]

That does look like a grand day out. I would have bought a raffle ticket as well, maybe several!

 

[Trevanion]

Ball bearings these days are "tuppence a ton" and included as standard in the most modest of machines.

I think these days plain bearings would be considered the more expensive option over regular ball bearings, especially something like a poured white metal (Babbitt) bearing which would cost significantly more in labour alone.

It's not particularly often you see machines with plain bearings here in Britain, I'm not sure if it's a case of the vast majority have been scrapped or exported or whether we adopted ball bearings much sooner and more widespread than was the case in the United States where these machines are still very abundant and are in active use in industrial workshops. You do see ball bearings referenced often in British texts and adverts up to about 1920 or so and then it sharply drops off which I presume is because they became more common and thus not a massive selling point as they were.

 

[duke]

Always have liked board and battens cladding.

 

[Cabinetman]

Always have liked board and battens cladding.

Yes I agree, and my liking has grown from seeing a lot of it in the States, simple and effective both from a movement and weather proofing point of view.

 

[GaryR]

Two other tidbits: the little band saw was made by the Herberts Machinery Co in Los Angeles, California, probably in the mid 1930's.

I have two machines with Babbitt bearings. My larger band saw, made in 1926 has them. I re-poured the lower wheel bearings (actually someone else did it while I tried to be helpful) about a dozen years ago. That was fun. Flames, melted lead, danger!

 

[duke]

Gary, the closets I have been to your neck of the woods was on a student exchange to Salt Spring Island of the cost of BC.
It was a wonderful experience landing on the island via a float plane.
Old growth forest bloody amazing. Must be similar to where you live.

 

[GaryR]

I'm not a native, having been here only 9 years, but I love this part of the world. In a way, moving here felt like coming home.

There are a few patches of old growth forest a few miles from my home. Here is one and a popular photo site. Those are Douglas fir.

 

[duke]

Amazing, our Douglas Firs along our driveway are only 30 feet and that's 15 years of growth.
Lovely dogs.