A Laks frame saw in the Northeast Kingdom

Mark Goodridge has nothing but good things to say about the LAKS frame saw he has been using for the past 6 years in Northern Vermont.

A family owned business!

Goodridge Lumber Company, located in Albany, Vermont, in the heart of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, cuts approximately 1.2 million board feet of white cedar annually, specializing in white cedar log homes, log siding, decking and rough and finished lumber.
Goodridge says the LAKS frame saw has become an essential part of their production.
The Goodridge Lumber Company is a family owned business and is known in its region for quality White Cedar Products. The LAKS is being utilized for the dimensional side of the business.  When asked recently about what he thinks about the LAKS, he immediately said, “We love it! We run it 9 hours per day, 5 days a week.”
Mark went on to explain that the LAKS is used to break down cants that don’t make the grade for their log home logs. “We mostly send 6X6 cants through it, 2 at a time.
We made some modifications to the feeding system to work with the way we process these cants, “ he added.
The LAKS takes 2 6”X6” cedar cants through at a time, producing 10 one inch boards in 2.5 minutes. The quality of the material coming off the LAKS is “very accurate, very good,” according to Mark. Goodridge mostly works with 6, 8, 10, and 12 foot long logs.
6 years ago Goodridge researched a lot of options for processing these low grade logs and settled on the LAKS.
He was able to add this machine to his operation and not have to add a man along with it. He also didn’t have to add much in the way of total horsepower to his operation.
The LAKS he is using only has a 10 HP electric motor powering it. Mark stated, “we added a fence in the center to allow us to process two 6 inch by 6 inch cants at a time. Sometimes these cants are smaller, but this is the maximum size cant we put through it.
We also elevated the LAKS to help keep the sawdust out of the machine.” Mark says that the men tailing for his primary sawmill can keep the frame saw loaded with cants and the resulting lumber stacked.
Maintenance for the frame saw happens on Saturday mornings, and consists of mainly keeping the sawdust cleaned out of the machine and sharpening the blades.
The LAKS uses Stellite teeth on its blades, and these teeth are proving to give Goodridge Lumber Company a lot of use.
“We sharpen once a week and use around 30 blades per year. We get about 6 months out of a set of blades,” Mark stated.
Goodridge Lumber Company continues to produce quality White Cedar products yearly, with a good portion of that production going through the LAKS sawmill. Mark says they are “very pleased” with the service the LAKS has given and the production they are achieving with this frame saw. “When we have visitors to the sawmill, everyone is astounded by the LAKS,” Mark adds.