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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 1955)
o Friday. October 21. 1955 MEDFORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBTTHB &HX3R Research Important in Development Work Leading to New Plywood Industry Products You catch the odor of wet fir "Don't expect to see grey-haired Ph.D.'a in white smocks squint ing into test tubes," says Harold Evans, Plywood Research Foun dation's executive director. Touring the Foundation lab, which . is located in Tacoma, Wash., you learn that a devel opmental researcher is only part scientist. He's primarily a skilled, highly imaginative production engineer. He's a dirty-overalled mechanic who has time to stop and think. One of the lab's work areas looks suspiciously like a machine shop, with benches, lathes, a rack piled with steel bar stock. Farther along you find working models of plywood mill equip . -ment glue spreaders, hot presses and trim saws. You see panels of plywood by the hun dred, more kinds than you knew existed.. The green-fir smell comes from the boil tank used for testing the wet-strength of laminates. A non-profit corporation es tablished in 1945, Plywood Re- m search Foundation, carries on continuing research in applied fir plywood technology. Its goal eJs threefold: (1) to improve man ufacturing methods and ma chinery; (2) to up-grade the me chanical properties, appearance and value of present plywood products; and (3) to develop new products that can. be produced as secondary manufactures to utilize waste wood Patents Licensed Royalties on Foundation pat ents licensed to mills and mill equipment manufacturers cover some 12 of the lab's current expenses. . The balance is sub scribed by some 95. western fir plywood producers. How ' does this research team go about its business? Projects start, Evans explains, with ger minal ideas. . The staff contribute more than their share of these ideas, for they're thoroughly familiar with fir plywood production prob lems. But the Foundation claims no monopoly on originality. Instead, it serves as the fir plywood industry's cleari n g house for ideas and technical in formation from all sources. Evans and his researchers keep close tabs on developments in other industries that may find application in plywood produc tion. The Foundation gladly ex changes information with trade assooiations, federal agencies and independent research labs. Evans' team also evaluates ideas suggested by mill em ployees. Under the "PRF Plan," in effect since 1945, the Founda tion will assume the expense of developing, patenting and licens ' ing millworkers' inventions that promise benefit to the industry. Royalties received are split 50-50 with the original inventor. Bare ideas come first, but they seldom serve the industry until they're given practical applica tion on mill production lines. Some projects are relatively simple from an engineering standpoint. For example, the job of developing marking equip ment to rule guide-lines for nail ing at 16" intervals across struc tural sheathing panels presented n, great difficulty. One Job Three Years ; Some developmental jobs are not so easy. It took the Founda tion three years to complete a moisture detector unit that would automatically check mov ing veneer for moisture level. This device, which is now ac cepted as one of the notable ad vances in production control equipment in the history of the industry, measures the wood's electrical conductance .and ca o pacitance, a true indication of moisture content. Foundation researchers built a pilot model detector in cooper ation with Laucks Laboratories, Incv Seattle, who now produce the units under license from the Foundation and market them under their trade name. Laucks "Sentries" are now in operation on dryer lines in plywood, furn iture, paper, lumber and hard board mills. In some instances this equipment ups dryer line output as much as 20, afford ing savings that quickly amortize the cost of the detector. Mills have reported savings of $3,500 per month per dryer line. . With the quality of peeler logs offered to plywood mills grad ually declining, research aimed at up-grading mill output- be comes increasingly important. Evans points to Texture One Eleven exterior paneling as an example of a firsj-grade product manufactured from lower-grade veneer. Made from unsanded panels of Vs" C-grade plywood, Texture One-Eleven siding is grooved lengthwise to show at o tractive vertical shadow lines when installed. Edges are ship lped. When the Foundation of fered the product to mills, a doz en plants adopted it. Some now devote nearly l10th of their production time to Texture One Eleven. Q The Foundation's semi -dry process of hardboard manufac ture, first licensed in 1953, de veloped from research to find profitable uses for veneer left overs as well as cores from ve- m X e 3,-. ft LABORATORY HOT PRESS for testing new methods of manufacturing fir plywood re ceives a "sandwich" of veneer and glue at the Plywod Research foundation where studies of plywod technology are conducted. PILOT MODEL of marking equipment which imprints guide-lines for nailing at 16-inch intervals across structural sheathing fir ply wood panels get a test run at the Plywood Research foundation's laboratory. neer lathes. It requires compar atively inexpensive plant equip ment. Inquiries about this pro cess were received from many parts of the world. Future developme n t s? Al though Evans hesitates to discuss work now in progress, he's will ing to hazard some speculation. As for new products, he pre dicts rapid growth in production of panels with low-density cores, either foamated plastic or coarse particle laminates. Resin overlays, he believes, have barely brushed the dust from a broad potential , market for factory - finished plywood products. There's cost-engineering, he adds.' Development of inexpensive exterior-type, cold-set adhesives, still just over the horizon, will lead to some economies in cur rent production costs. But Evans thinks that any significant saving must come from the expense of handling.. Towards this end the Foundation makes a running study of handling procedures and time-motion data. Automation Question And what about plant automa tion in the industry? Practicable, but only to a degree, says Evans. Logs have defects, and nobody as yet has devised an electric eye that will register whether a given sheet of veneer will sand smooth. , But he sees no reason why ma chines, in the future, shouldn't for example, pull and sort ve neers as they come from the clipper. It takes equipment worth some $25,000 to displace a workman, according to Foundation esti mate. Considering that many fir plywood mills are running double-shift, further mechanization seems warranted. However, he explains, some mills in the north west are recent enterprises, still struggling under the handicap of originally ' inadequate capital structure. Some mill equipment is leased, not owned outright, and some is now obsolescent. If you add the industry's growth and subtract its prob lems, he says, your answer's op timism. Since he joined the in dustry in 1931, Harold Evans has watched fir plywood develop from a specialty product into a leading structural material. That development followed consistent, cumulative advance in product and production technology. And he expects that advance to continue. Budget-Priced Home Designed Using Plan Made for Magazine New Boat Plans Undergoing Tests Eight -brand new plans . for small boats ranging in size from a 7'9" pram dinghy to a 20' in-board-outboard cruiser, are be ing construction-tested by the Douglas Fir Plywood Associa tion. All of the plans for easy building with fir plywood are from the boards of nationally famous marine architects. The eight plans were aimed at the amateur builder with con struction simplicity as the key note. In addition to the pram dinghy and the 20-footer, these others also are on the list: An 11'3" outboard runabout, a 13'4" outboard runabout, a l3'9" punt, a 15' outboard runabout, a. 16' outboard runabout, and an 18' outboard day cruiser. With the exception of the punt, which is designed for river and marsh use, all of the new craft hold to a beam-to-length ratio of greater than three-to-one. All are characterized by light displacement for length, ease in propelling. Plans for the new boats will be made available soon after completion of building on the prototypes. V.V.W.. - PLANKING on this craft built by Burchcraft Boats, biggest west coast boat building firm, is resin-overlaid firvplywood, a specialty product of the plywood industry. The overlay is glass hard, agate smooth, tough and resistant to wear. Specialty Products Offer 'Extras' for Home Workshop The amateur craftsman with an ambition to give "something extra"- to his projects, can often gain a running head start if he employs easy-to-use fir plywood specialty products. These products were designed for specific " qualities, to meet specific needs in the building trades. Since all of them main tain the big-panel simplicity .that makes plywood so ideal for "do-it-yourself" projects, the "some thing extra" is a real help to the amateur. H FISHING TACKLE box made of high density ' overlaid fir plywood will stand up under, hard usage while maintaining its fine appearance and easy usability. Architects hired by the ply wood association to design the eight craft are Frank E. Strick land and Edwin Monk on the West Coast, and David D. Beach, an eastern designer. High on the list are the panels designated as' overlays. Resin fiber surfaces are added to these panels by hotpress techniques. Two grades are manufactured, medium density and high den sity. The basic difference is in thickness of overlay. Medium density was designed as an optimum paint surface. The resin fiber overlay provides a "tooth" which literally grips the paint, giving you a smoother, tougher, longer-lasting finish. For a really professional-looking finish job, these panels can't be beaten. ' High density was designed to take hard wear. The surface is smooth as glass, agate tough. It may be used without finish to show off the fine wood charac teristic of the panels,. Several color tones of overlay give you a decorator choice. It is ideal for such areas as counter tops, shop bins wherever you need . a surface that will stand up under really rough usage. For surfaces in children's play areas where there's likelihood of scribbling or scrambling, these panels are just the ticket. Newest item on the list of ply wood specialty products is an exterior building panel called Texture One-Eleven. Vertical grooves give . these panels a dramatic shadowline. They are ideal as accent shots in. your "do-it-yourself" new home or re modeling project inside or out. A rough finish gives them just the country casual appear ance called for in modern arch itecture. ' If you want to play up the na tural grain' of beautiful wood. you can turn to brushed ply wood, which is marketed under that name and. several trade TEXTURE ONE ELEVEN PLANTER boxes for patio or terrace, are a lot easier to make than hey look. The difficult custom-built effect shown incorporated in the design does not involve fancy carpentry. 1 is achieved by use of grooved fir plywood called Texture One-Eleven. This is a W panel manufactured with 100 waterproof glue with deep grooves on the panel face. It ellmes vith 41 o' A m r TV-. a Vnvai navt Yto maila oimnlv Kit ntintf the panels to the size required and assembling them with the trim. names.' Steel brushes cut out the soft-wood on the surface, leav ing the natural grain in raised relief. These panels lend them selves to a simple, dramatic fin ishing technique in which one color or, tone is applied to the raised surfaces and another, col or or tone is wiped into the val leys. -- -- ! For that outside finish job on your house - new or remodel ing you may want wide-lapped siding. Plywood is the only material that can give you this effect economically. You may want to cut' the panels yourself. Wide-lapping siding is available in pre-cut packages, however, complete with furring strips and wedges, and with surface of med ium density overlay for the fin est possible paint finish. Barking of plywood "peelers" used to be done laboriously by hand, the barking crews using a conventional peeling tool called a spud, after the log had been steamed. Now debarking is done by machine and only a few ply wood mills use the old system of steaming a log before peeling. Some, however, maintain that steam peeling is the best method. Tests undertaken by expej-ts at the Forest Products labora tory at Madison, Wis., have oroved that plywood has. pound for-pound strength even greater durability and other qualities than that of steel. If you have a unique building project,' a query to the Douglas Fir Plywood association, Taco ma 2, Wash., may run up just the solution you need. If your question will fit on a postcard, gt it off today. ' V PICTURE TUBES REJUVENATED Is your picture tube dull and weak? Most picture tubes ceil be restored to original brightness , at only a fraction of the cost of replacement. For further information CALL1 Electronic Servica 18 N. GRAPE PH. 3-1971 1 Daily's U-Drive Medford Airport If you can spend $3,500 on a new home, here's a package of living space that would be dif ficult to, match for twice that money with another plan and another building system. This house came off the draw ing board of New York Design er Norman Cherner on an order from Pageant magazine. The magazine specified that the low budget price had to include these factors: Two bedrooms. All-weather comfort with com plete heating system. - Kitchen equipped with stove and sink and refrigerator. Shower and bathroom fixtures complete. - A fireplace. ' "View-focus" on southern ex posure. ' , . - - How successfully Pageant's bill of particulars was met may be seen in the accompanying artist's sketches. There's modern eye-appeal in every line of this house. The plan will show you that it's engineered to save steps and take advantage of the con venieces which today's science can provide. Part of the secret is that you build this one yourself, saving the usual 60 per cent in labor costs. And the rest of the secret is that this is a home actually de signed for the amateur carpenter. It takes advantage of the new est building methods with big modular panels of fir plywood. As Pageant pointed out, put ting the modular sections togeth er "is like assembling a doll house. You just can't make a mistake or a misfit." Notice the sweep of windows, tilted to reduce reflection and sun's warmth. They tie the liv ing room to the garden-view out side. The kitchen is but a step from the dining area in one di rection, the bedrooms in the oth er. The children's room opens naturally onto the hall and screened porch to extend their play area without interfering in the remainder, of the house. Room sizes are not lavish, but are more than adequate. This is a "livable" home; no wasted space. Yet it doesn't look like a budget, home, either inside or out. Wide areas of glass make it pleasantly sunny. The attrac tive roof overhang shades you from the high-angled summer' sunshine, but lets in the lower angled winter rays. The master bedroom has its own 4-foot sliding glass , door to the porch and garden, ideal for ventilation on warm summer nights, but sheltered by the porch roof. ' And on top of all this, the house was designed for a bed room addition that would not look "tacked-on". Placed at right angles to the line of the house, it would face onto the garden or terrace, maintain the indoor-outdoor living character istics. Fir plywood is specified for both exterior finish and sub flooring to gain maximum strength and appearance value with top economy and speediest construction. It also is used for built-ins and accent shots, al ways with an eye to easing the task for the amateur carpenter. Complete blueprint specifica tions are available from Pageant magazine for only $1. Address your request to The Pageant House, Dept. A, 535 Fifth Ave., New York 17 .N.Y. 50-Year-Old Plywood Industry Marks Date (Continued From P-l) their ruggedness for hundreds of jobs. .Versatile and with the toughness of steel, plywood found usage in projects ranging from skyscrapers to storage bins. The era stimulated another great period of expansion in which the number f plants in the industry about tripled while total fir plywood output more than tripled. - In its Golden Jubilee year, the plywood manufacturers can show a total annual industry payroll of 115 million dollars with the nearly 100 mills worth an esti mated 220 million dollars. These mills will produce this year about 4 billion feet. The future? Excellent! The fir plywood industry sees greater progress in the coming half cen -tury than it achieved'during the colorful first 50 years. Stanford Research Institute, in a survey of future demand for wood and fi nanced ty Weyerhaeuser Timber Co., predicts a demand for ply wood of 7-billion feet by 1975. That's enough plywood to form a pathway of 4x8-foot panels laid end to end from here to the moon. New uses, new mar kets, new horizons . for "Ameri ca's Busiest Building Material." l aJtt. ... uk Mm 1 .sis : .mik . ill "v IMfil ; J i mum . - - ; FREE SHOW ; ' ftpHaT A Fir Plywood Jubilee free show Wi hi, is coming to town! Ifs a circus- jf t type exposition and will have s ii- something of interest for every B Mjtl. member of your family. See i i llrc sound-color movies. See' the JOTlf- clever "menagerie" of circus an- iafln.f imals made entirely of plywood. jtyt See "Golden Ideas" for outdoor i llffi indoor living. See dramatic dis- l I plays depicting fir plywood's I'lll. I importance to this community, vflfil ' Sa,urt,av ""d Sunday, Medford ' - g I py A TODiUTH TO THE On Their Golden Jubileej We Should All Be Proud of the progressive plywood industries in South ern Oregon, and grateful for their contributions to the economic, civic and social life of our communities; Companies like Southern Oregon' Plywood, Oregon Veneer, Medford Veneer and Plywood, Fir Ply, Empire Plywood, Grants Pass Plywood, Veneer Products help -make this area a better place to live and also help advertise the scenic, sport and employment advantages of the Rogue River Valley. o We are proud that Mc CULLOCH Products have helped the industry by pro ducing the world's finest tools for falling and back ing . I vv VIA IV3cCU1L CKlAnW SAWS ;. . . . i Distributed in So. Oregon and Northern California by Southern Oregon Equipment Company 3540 NORTH PACIFIC HIGHWAY MEDFORD, OREGON
