My old mill visit

frigator · 04-28-2006, 11:40 AM

Today I got to visit an old funiture plant built in 1870 that they are tearing down. It must have been steam powered at one time as it had the long belts that powered the machinery.

Its like 65,000sq ft and two stories with a basement and it was amazing to see. Its brick walls but everything else is wood. They are going to let me salvage some of the maple flooring out of it, but its face nailed so there will be some holes, looks to be 3-4inches wide up to 8ft long, looks like 3/4 or maybe 7/8. I figure it will be good for my shop floor and maybe some workbench tops.

The entire factory has maple floors over heart pine subfloor, supported by heart pine beams, held up by heart pine logs, spaced looks like every 6-8ft. So many support poles, I dont know how they worked.

But what really interests me there is the beams, huge 18 by 14in heart pine beams, thats what the owner is going to salvage, there are hundreds of them, the ones over the basement are even bigger with growth rings so tight you cant count them. When they resaw it its going to be beautiful...... I hope to maybe get him to let me have some of the smaller, shorter beams, the door headers and stuff and maybe some of the heart pine subfloor which is mainly 12 by 3in which hopefully he wont want since it will be full of nail holes. He told me hes really there for the beams and is going to salvage the handmade bricks too.

When the factory was built they had no electricity, so it had lots of windows, but they have been blocked in. Right now they are pulling all the copper out of it and its a bunch. The bad news is they guys wont let me get the maple till he gets the roof off as he doesnt want to weaken the floor as he will have heavy machinery lifting the beams out, so the flooring may get wet, not a good thing I imagine, but the price is right, free.

nelsone · 04-28-2006, 12:10 PM

Sounds like a fantastic opportunity. Has all of the material been claimed? Any chance for anyone else to get in on the deal?

JohnsonMBrandon · 04-28-2006, 12:24 PM

Good deal, but it may also be time to invest in a metal detector. You don't want to ruin your tooling.

skeeter · 04-28-2006, 12:34 PM

Great deal! It would definitely pay to get a medal detector. Good luck in getting the beams.

dancam · 04-28-2006, 12:52 PM

Boy sounds like a great deal. What's the salvage guy going to do with the beams? Any chance he'll be selling some of the beams as resawn boards.

DanCam

Monty · 04-28-2006, 01:09 PM

Wow - sounds beautiful.

sapwood · 04-28-2006, 03:00 PM

Robin, I hope you get a share of the bounty. Regretfully we will be seeing more and more of those dismantled. I grew up in a western NC cotton mill village. Most of them were water powered originally (early 1900s). They were similarly constructed of thick beams and solid, heavily oiled wood floors. The furniture industry faces the same fate textiles have endured

Good luck with you venture to reclaim some awesome wood and a part of NC history

Wistfully,
Sapwood

Steve D · 04-28-2006, 04:03 PM

Robin,
You mentioned that the equipment had been belt driven off of line shafts. Are all of the line shafts gone, along with the equipment? Good luck on your wood salvage.

Kyle · 04-28-2006, 04:49 PM

I have been resawing a lot of these heart pine beams for flooring for several guys. The growth rings are so tight that you cant put a sharpened pencil lead tip between them. If you can get the beams they are well worth the effort in the wood that is recovered. Absolutely stunning and the price on the floors range from 8-12 a square foot finished..

frigator · 04-28-2006, 05:06 PM

Steve, there is still one long line shaft on the ceiling with a bunch of places for the belts. The owner said they found a bunch of the belts, which were leather, stored somewhere. Sadly, all the old equipment is gone.

I am not sure what the guy is going to do with the beams, he owns a log home business and they may end up as flooring in the log homes he builds. Today was the first day I met him and will find out more later on. I dont know if he will let anybody else on the property, he's got it fenced and locked up as someone already stole 20 thousands dollars worth of copper wire, all the big one inch wire. They came in and just took the really thick stuff. Hes now working with a small crew taking down all the metal conduit and pulling out the wire. The only reason I got let in as I am a friend of the guy who is going to be hauling away all the newer brick for fill, and he wants some maple too.

I once got some 4x8 first growth salvaged douglas fir beams and the wood was awesone, built a couple things with it, and this heart pine looks similar, with super tight growth rings. I do have a metal detector but even that aint foolproof, as I have hit nails before.

Even with a big bandsaw I dont know how you would lift those huge beams and resaw them. Maybe if you cut them down to 4ft or so, but even then your talking serious weight. Would you have to get a lumber sawyer to cut them up?

Mike Wilkins · 04-28-2006, 05:40 PM

I grew up in Western NC where there was once a thriving textile industry. I lived in Rutherford County (Forest City) and they are currently dismantling 2 mills there now, one in Caroleen and one in Cliffside. Passed by both recently and the bounty was awsome. Large 12 X 12 and larger floor supports, some 16 to 20 feet long. And some huge quantities of 2 X 6 tongue and groove flooring. Probably pine. I have used some of this stuff salvaged from old buildings, and it is some of the hardest, most beautiful wood around. Heart pine flooring is big these days, but pricey.
Get some if you can. Mike.

Grgramps · 04-28-2006, 07:14 PM

If you're interested in what becomes of these old timbers you describe, take a look at this site:
http://www.wholeloglumber.com/
They're located out here in the woods of Western NC and use some monster front loaders to move the timbers. When I was there they had a crew of three working steadily with metal detectors and 55 gal. drums of salvaged metal of every imaginable shape. Nuts, bolts and things I couldn't posibly identify.

Their gallery is stunning with photos of completed work using their wood. Unfortunately, the prices can be stunning. Suppose that's because there's little competition for what they sell.
Roy

sapwood · 04-29-2006, 06:03 PM

Mike,

I grew up in Caroleen and my parents worked at that plant until retirement. Obviously the area holds a lot of nostalgia for me . . . the company store, kindergarten, library, barber shop, post office, and diner were all housed in the mill.

A couple in Cliffside has begun redevelopment of that village, attempting to retain the character of the original. Only a few of the original buildings still remain, but they are building new homes with similiar architecture. There is a great website detailing the history, society, and people of Cliffside called Remember Cliffside. Thought you might find it interesting.

Former "linthead"
Sapwood

Steve D · 04-30-2006, 11:36 PM

The old line shaft probably isn't worth much in the way of $$ but there are a few guys over at the www.owwm.com site that have or are building line shaft shops. There are also a couple of woodworking museums set up with them that may take it as a donation (tax write off). If he is willing to part with that, I can post information to that group and see what kind of interet it generates.

Originally Posted by frigator

Steve, there is still one long line shaft on the ceiling with a bunch of places for the belts. The owner said they found a bunch of the belts, which were leather, stored somewhere. Sadly, all the old equipment is gone.

I am not sure what the guy is going to do with the beams, he owns a log home business and they may end up as flooring in the log homes he builds. Today was the first day I met him and will find out more later on. I dont know if he will let anybody else on the property, he's got it fenced and locked up as someone already stole 20 thousands dollars worth of copper wire, all the big one inch wire. They came in and just took the really thick stuff. Hes now working with a small crew taking down all the metal conduit and pulling out the wire. The only reason I got let in as I am a friend of the guy who is going to be hauling away all the newer brick for fill, and he wants some maple too.

I once got some 4x8 first growth salvaged douglas fir beams and the wood was awesone, built a couple things with it, and this heart pine looks similar, with super tight growth rings. I do have a metal detector but even that aint foolproof, as I have hit nails before.

Even with a big bandsaw I dont know how you would lift those huge beams and resaw them. Maybe if you cut them down to 4ft or so, but even then your talking serious weight. Would you have to get a lumber sawyer to cut them up?

Mike Wilkins · 05-01-2006, 10:08 AM

Hey Sapwood. Thanks for the website info. Found an auntie of mine listed there and much more info. Had to save this as one of my favorites.
I also worked in the Caroleen mill one summer when out of college, which was enough to make me go back to college. My dad also worked in that mill sometime back in the 60's.

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