Rushmore Forest Products Inc
23848 Highway 385, Hill City, SD 57745
(605) 574-2512
On Monday, Feb 20, 2017, Danny Green and I traveled to Hill City to get some 1" pine wood scraps for making critters and other wooden toys for our RCWA TOY PROGRAM. We left Danny's about 10:30 am. It was our mission today to gather (and rescue) trim cuts on their way to a large machine called the HOG, where scrap lumber is literally pounded with huge hammers into small pieces, then sent to the furnace to be burned!
The mill was trimming 1 x 6 material today. The technique involves waiting for the trim cuts to come down a shaking table where they fall onto a conveyor belt to be taken to the HOG. We were allowed to intercept the trim cuts/cut offs after they landed on the conveyor belt, and pick them up one by one and put them in Danny's truck.
Carmen from the front office contacted Scott in the cutting area, who directed/escorted us to the conveyor belt area and away we went. After we had filled all the boxes we brought, we started stacking the wood on the floor of Danny's stake truck bed.
We were able to fill the truck in about two hours. The feed rate varies depending on what the final length of 1 x 6 is being cut, so at times it was furious picking, and other times it was hurry up and wait. After lunch in Hill City, we brought the load back to Danny's. There it took Danny, Mary, and I about 45 minutes to unload and stack it in the RV Barn. We finished about 4:45 pm. Not a bad day's work!
It has been about 6 years since we received trim cuts. That time, a gentlemen from the Spearfish sawmill, Dave Degen, had collected them at his home for us, where Grant Coffin and I loaded them up and brought them to the church basement at 910 Wood Avenue. My truck was filled up past the box about 12". That load has lasted over six years, and we made and distributed over 4,800 critters for the critter bags during that time.
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| Hill City Sawmill - Rushmore Forest Products Inc. |
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| This is the trim cut loading zone. |
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| This is the trim cut shaker table to the upper left. |
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| This is another view of the shaker table. |
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| This is the trim cut drop zone. |
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| This is the long conveyor belt trip to the HOG! |
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| The long pipe near the top of the photo is the ride to the furnace. |
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| Truck almost fully loaded - a very addictive operation, when do you stop if the lumber just keeps coming! |
Many thanks to Carmen, Scott, and the Hill City Sawmill!
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You look as confused as a pine tree in a parking lot. (wood working humor)
Click on the link below to learn more about the Rapid City Woodworkers Association activities on the main page of the website:
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