2. Read one more text on the problem and do the tasks. Sawing Machinery

A. Logs are literally sliced into lumber in the mill with a heavy circular saw having great chisel-like teeth, or a thinner band saw which runs like a belt on two enormous pulleys and may have teeth on one or both edges. Or logs

may be cut with gang saws, which consist of many single saws secured in a

frame that works up and down through slabbed logs called cants and saws many boards or timber simultaneously. The carriage that advances the log against the band or circular saw is fitted with devices to put and hold the log in the desired position and set it for the desired thickness of lumber.

B. There are two basic methods for sawing lumber from logs. When boards are sawed off with cuts made at right angles to the rays and tangent to the rings, they are plain-sawed. When the cuts are made from the bark to the centre of the log, the lumber is quarter-sawed. Plain-sawed lumber is cheaper to cut and has less waste. It dries more rapidly and in some woods produces the most beautiful grain pattern. Quarter-sawed lumber holds its shape better, wears more evenly (as in flooring), and in some woods produces the greatest beauty.

C. As boards or timbers are sawed, they fall onto live rollers, move a short distance, and are kicked off to a conveyor and thence to the edger, if they need to be edged and are kicked from the edger to another conveyor where they rejoin the boards that need no ending. Trimming for length is accomplished by definitely spaced circular saws which rise or fall through a sort of table operating the controls. Bad defects are also cut in trimming. From the trimmer, the lumber is slowly conveyed over a sorting table where a grader indicates grade by a cryptic mark on each piece. The lumber then is picked up by trucks and carted to a yard or kiln for drying.

D. Cants which are really thick interior slices from logs are being kicked off the live rolls to gang saws. Thick slabs are moving to resaws which slice out their lumber or to the other saws which cut them to fuel length. Some of the slabs, edgings, trimmings and cull lumber, along with the sawdust, are used for firing the mill’s boilers for heat, steam or electric power.

Skillful manufacture of lumber involves not only fine and well-aligned machinery but the coordination of many workmen. The amount of waste material is also determined by this factor.

Task 1.

Define which of the statements are:

A- true B- false C- not mentioned in the text

1. After sawing the boards are directed to the edger if they need to be edged.

2. The thickness of the cut is defined by a sawyer.

3. Logs are sliced into lumber with circular saws or band saws.

4. Thick slabs from the logs are not resawed.

Task 2.

Which paragraphs (A,B,C,D) express the following ideas.

1. Logs are sawn in the mill by different saws.

2. Waste from manufacturing lumber are used for firing the mill’s boilers for heat, steam and electric power.

Task 3.

Answer the question. Make the right choice.

What are the gang saws used for in the mill?

A. They are used to saw the logs.

B. They are used to grade the logs.

C. They are used to dry the logs.

D. They are used to remove moisture from the logs.

Task 4.

Finish the sentence in accordance with the text.

From the trimmer, the lumber is slowly directed to a sorting table _____.

A. to be graded by a grader

B. to be dried

C. to be smoothed

D. to be planed

Task 5.

Answer the question:

What is the edger necessary for?

It is necessary for _____.

A. sawing lumber

B. edging lumber

C. sorting lumber

D. smoothing lumber

Task 6.

What is the main idea of the text?

1. Different properties of lumber make it indispensable material for furniture production.

2. Different drying processes are used to produce lumber for end use.

3. Only circular saws are used at sawmills to process logs into usable products.

4. Sawing machinery in the mill carries out different operations to produce lumber for end use.