Sawmill

This exhibit is available for viewing Wednesday-Sunday from 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m., but does not run except during Special Events.

The Sawmill is uphill from the Blacksmith Shop and on a slope. About 5 years ago Robert Richardson discovered the sawmill that the Pederson Brothers owned.  It was located outside of the town of Big Bear at Fawnskin.   Robert set down in a small bulldozer one Saturday  and spent the day carving a large flat and level place for the future sawmill.  He then laid out a paper plan for the initial concrete work.  This was done by Visser Construction.  One of the features of this foundation was a pit under the saw for sawdust to fall into. 

Robert then designed most of the structural steel parts that were to hold up the track that the log cart runs on.  This was financed by the original grant from the Pederson Brothers.

The first major decision was to change the track from angle iron to light railroad type rail.  This rail was clamped down on all of the mounts that Chet welded together and designed by Robert Richardson.  The rails had to be the same distance apart, the same height and also level.  The log cart was to run on these rails and carry the log that was going through the saw.  A highly undesirable situation and also dangerous.  Jim Kirkes made the new wheels for the log cart.  They worked fine and when everything was set up and the cart on it's rails it could be pushed by hand quite easily although it must weigh the best part of a ton.

The crew then put a cable arrangement together to pull the cart, with a log, through the saw and then back again.  This is done with a small hydraulic pump and a hydraulic motor running the cable drum.  This method was decided on so that the sawyer would have good control over the saw cut.  

While all of this was going on it was found that the D-3000 Cat diesel engine that was to power the saw had some problems with one cylinder.  Scotty Graham of the Caterpillar Club said he would fix the engine but he wanted it in his own shop in Ramona.  The engine came back quite a bit later with all the problems fixed.  It turned out that after a very through inspection that all of the cylinder liners needed replacing. These are expensive and Scotty got them by convincing an acquaintance of his at Hawthorne Machinery in San Diego to give him the liners.  We are fortunate to have members like Scotty who knew how to dothe work as well as get the parts free.