National Hardwood Magazine - April 2022

TRADE TALK
Continued
SPARTANSBURG, PA —In an early morning fire recently,
Clear Lake Lumber, Inc., located here, suffered
damage to some of their dry kilns, according to the Lumber
Newswire by Blue Book Services. According to Clear
Lake Lumber President Eric Bonnett, “six of our fourteen
kilns are a loss.” This amounts to roughly “half a million
feet of lost drying capacity.”
Due to the efforts of the 20 plus volunteer fire companies
that came to the scene and the Clear Lake staff,
their “mill is intact, boiler is intact and grading lines are
intact.”
Bonnett anticipates that Clear Lake will be back to
business “very quickly” and in the meantime they will
“continue to be a self-contained unit” and will continue to
“mill, grade, and dry onsite” through the rebuilding process.
He also thanked the local community for the “outpouring
of support we’ve received from our vendors, our insurer,
local restaurants, local stores who all within hours
were offering support to us.”
LEXINGTON, NC — SII Dry
Kilns, located here, recently installed
two aluminum prefabricated
steam-heated dry kilns
with the SII PLC based Computer
Control System at MacDonald
& Owen Lumber Company in
Brookville, PA. SII also installed
a boiler building and control room
Bob Pope as part of the project.
The two new SII kilns – and
two more scheduled to be installed this summer – replace
four existing masonry kilns at MacDonald & Owen.
In addition, SII will also retrofit two existing kilns with the
SII Computer Control System. “It’s an important improvement
over what they had,” said Bob Pope, salesman for
SII in Pennsylvania and New England. “This will result
in a much more efficient kiln operation with lower energy
costs and better drying quality. This, in turn, will yield
higher production and reduced operating cost.”
MacDonald & Owen has four manufacturing facilities
including the one in Pennsylvania. They manufacture all
major species of domestic Hardwoods and offer lumber
as well as wood components.
SII Dry Kilns manufactures conventional package-loaded
kilns, Dual Path Continuous kilns and double
track-loaded batch kilns, in addition to fan sheds and
multi-zoned pre-dryers for the Hardwood and softwood
industries. It offers complete kiln rehab and rebuild services
including roofs and wall panels, doors, heating systems,
fan deck, and structural replacements. The family-owned
company has been in operation since 1969.
In addition to having over 60 employees, SII Dry Kilns
has equipment operating at over 2,000 drying facilities
worldwide.
More information can be found at www.siidrykilns.
com.
NEWALD, WI — Craig Deer
has joined the Cleereman Industries
team, headquartered here,
to lead the design and production
of the new Cleereman Industries
edger division.
Deer’s background provides
many key essentials to assist in
the growth of Cleereman’s edger
division, according to a spokesman
for the company. He started
Craig Deer
his education at Northeastern Wisconsin Technical College
in Green Bay, WI where he obtained diplomas in
welding and machine tool. He spent the first nine years
of his career working in the racing industry, building a
solid foundation of design, fabrication and team-leading
skills. A job offer as a welding instructor at a local college
pulled Deer away from racing and refocused his efforts
on education.
For the next eight years, Deer taught welding, earned
a Certified Welding Inspector Certificate from the American
Welding Society and launched the first fabrication
program at his college, Nicolet Technical College in
Rhinelander, WI.
During his time at the college, Deer continued to educate
himself in the engineering field and Solidworks, a
CAD program, which allowed him to expand his teaching
into engineering classes.
Please turn the page
Have you considered
UPGRADING
your machine control?
Give us a call for options.
Proportional Valve
Tester PVT-2
Linear Carriage System
Scanning Carriage Systems
Resaw Systems
Paw Taw John has user
friendly systems and their
customer service has been
excellent.
Greg Wells, Owner –
Greentree Forest Products, Inc.
(208) 687-1478 | www.pawtaw.com
18125 N. Ramsey Rd., Rathdrum, ID 83858
76 APRIL 2022 n NATIONAL HARDWOOD MAGAZINE APRIL 2022 n NATIONAL HARDWOOD MAGAZINE 77