Charlie Smith bundling mining timber at Ordbrae
Photograph is courtesy of Robert Bruce, Drummuir and shows a production line of bundling square cross section ‘Pillar Wood’ for the mining industry in north England. The products were either 3’ x 3’’x 3’’ or 3’ x 2’’x 2’’ and had to be bundled and tied for delivery. Here the wood is being bundled into units of 18 (3 rows of 6) and were wrapped with wire which had a tightening tool to try and ensure the items were held securely. Note the temporary bench set up on Pillar Wood stacks, the 3 x3 inch batons in front and the large pile of batons at the back.
Gordon Smith recalls that these bundles were a nightmare to load and in spite of best efforts to tighten the wire some of the centre batons would slip out when the bundle was lifted vertically during hand loading. Later on a metal band strapping machine was used but the edges of the metal strip were often razor sharp and lacerated the fingers. All this was the beginning of mechanisation and palletising of small regular sized products.
The site is Charlie Smith’s sawmill at Ordbrae near Huntly and the second man with back to camera is Gordon Bruce.
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Groups: Forestry in Action, Northeast Scotland , Sawmills, pulp mills, chipboard mills
The Wire binding was not so good as the Steel banding that could be done up a lot tighter. Comment left on 30 May 2015 at 21:19 by Jimmy Thain