WJ Group Team Visit James Jones Sawmill With Wood Experts

Some of our WJ Group team continued their wood science course with a visit to the James Jones & Sons Sawmill in Lockerbie, Scotland. The tour was organised as part of the level 2 wood science course the team have been embarking on throughout the year. 

After the previous course had ended, the team had learned about various aspects of grading timber and structural timbers. The sawmill came as a follow on from this topic, allowing the group to see the processing of timber from start to finish. The day started at 9am where the team, led by instructor Neil Ryan, met at the James Jones & Sons Lockerbie offices. The group had a recap of the previous course, helping to remind and discuss the machine and visual grading used in modern timber processing. 

Having recapped, the WJ team were taken through a presentation of James Jones Ltd history and brief overview of the businesses that make up the Group. Having been issued with PPE, the team set out on the tour following the exact processing steps taken to produce the timber packs that scattered the yard. 



First up was the processing of raw logs, using home-grown logs from forests predominantly within 100 miles of the site, the sorting began using their material handlers to move the logs into the processing plant where they were to be de-barked and trimmed to be roughly the same diameter throughout the log. This process is undertaken due to the sitka spruce trees growing larger and thicker toward the base of the tree. 

Once de-barked and trimmed, they are sent for sorting in their respective piles in the yard, waiting to be called upon for further processing. The second stage moved the WJ Group team into the first sawmill, where the logs were scanned and cut to make them square or rectangular, making them read for further cuts. The automated machines scan the material to see the most optimal cuts for that specific piece of wood. Once identified, the machine makes the cuts, sending the cut material into certain piles based on their size for further processing. 



The further processing includes aspects like grading using both a grading machine that x-rays the timbers to see its structural potential, then manual grading where any defected timber or timbers with visual defects like dead knots were removed from entering final packs. Each of the graded timber is cut to length at this point, chipping the off-cuts which are used for fuel at various sites. The next part of the tour included a view of the sawdust and chip piles as well as looking at the large kilning capacity of the site. 



After the tour, the team came back to the offices where they continued to learn about joinery timber and their applications in construction elements like, doors & frames, windows, stairs and roof trusses. We would like to say a huge thank you to Wood Experts and Neil Ryan for organising the trip and James Jones Sawmill, Lockerbie for their hospitality.