Serving the orchard ist

Excuse us if we're repetitious, but we've just got to say it again: "Nelson has every thing." (We'll forget about the railway for a while). As an instance, take the fruit in dustry - the biggest in the country. But fruit has to be packed and boxes have to be used. So we leave the orchard in the front and we go to the back yard and there we've got the second biggest pine plantations in the country. And right in the middle, is the factory for processing the raw material into the finished article. And that is what's done at the New Zealand Box Co at Appleby. The logs come in from the forest, they're milled at one end of the factory, and leave at the other end all ready for the nails and the fruit. This company, formed 14 years ago, mills and pro-cesses for boxes 1,700,000 super ft of timber a year, as well as 1,200,000 super feet for the building industry. It's such a fascinating transformation - logs sawn down to quarter-inch slats - that we thought you would be interested. Hence the story in pix form.

From the log stockpile a huge grab lift takes the logs to the skids

Harold Nesbett works the logs off the skid on to an endless chain to the mill.

At the other end of the line, Eric Inwood loads his truck with the finished article

On their trip to the mill the logs are cleaned by water jets

First stop for the log is the 30-inch log frame saw where 10 blades cut the log to the thicknesses required (operated here by header-in, Kelvin Monopoli).

A view of the frame saw with its rollers removed

Executives on the job, Sid ("Justin") Case, manager of the factory and his clerk, Rex Stevens.

Tailer-out, Bob Thorn, keeps an eye on the sawn timber as it leaves the saws

After planing and cutting into the correct lengths, the timber now reaches crimper and hand-holding machine (operated here by foreman John Aindow), where two pieces of end wood are crimped together automatically and then provided with hand holds.

From the frame saw mill the sawn timber is slid down to another saw (below) where Cyril Burnett and Don Sixtus re-cut it into required thicknesses.

Side slabs are taken by cnain to these mammoth saws where they are cut into lengths and chuted to the burner

The box ends, with the hand holds out, emerge at the other end of the machine where Roy Cussen stacks them.

This monstrous band saw is the most fascinating piece of equipment in the mill. Operated by Jim Barrett and Ivan Boon, pieces of 2½in thick timber are passed through the machine several times until they emerge with a thickness of a quarter inch.

The other side of the band saw.

The most important man in the mill, Bill Smyth, the saw doctor. Today nothing is left to chance and Bill has the aid of precision machinery to help him with his work.

The final job, ends are tied in this high-speed tier.

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The Nelson Photo News

No 73 : November 12, 1966

Serving the orchard ist