New Log-Master ‘CatZilla’ Sawmills Create Specialty Furniture

www.forestindustry.com ForestWire Media Release

For Immediate Release
Feb. 22, 2011

New Log-Master ‘CatZilla’ Sawmills Create Specialty Furniture

Imagine taking a giant log, five-feet in diameter, and turning it into luxury furniture without first sawing it into pieces. The process can be made much simpler with a portable sawmill built to handle such a log. 

Brandon Berdoll, owner of Sawmill & Furniture Co. in Cedar Creek, Texas is doing just these types of jobs with his custom-built Log-Master sawmill. Nicknamed the ‘Catzilla’ model by its creators, this mill has been specially designed to saw a slab or board up to 5 1/2 feet wide and 22 feet long, says Berdoll.

Herman Gibson, Co-Owner and Sales Manager at Log-Master, says the Catzilla is a specialized machine designed to do one thing really well, and that is to handle massive logs that are intended to stay in one piece—the best example being the case of special-order, artistic boardroom tables.

Berdoll has spent the last four years milling very large hardwood logs into live edge slabs, carefully kiln drying the slabs, and then flattening the slabs with a 8' wide jointer/planer. He came to own his Catzilla sawmill in 2010 after being referred to Log-Master by another satisfied sawmill owner. Berdoll’s mill is 11 feet tall and 12 feet wide and weighs several thousand pounds. A semi-truck was required to pick up the mill, which is now sitting on 4x8 beams.

“There aren’t too many of them out there,” Gibson says of the uniqueness of these massive sawmills.

Berdoll says his new sawmill is working nicely, and customer service from Log-Master has been good as well.

The addition of the Catzilla sawmill ensures that there is a Log-Master portable mill model available for milling any sized tree in North America, including trees that are 30 inches, or 72 inches, and everything in between, says Gibson. “These are simply the biggest and heaviest portable mills in North America.”

Along with Catzillas, Log-Master builds six other models of hydraulic sawmills and two models of edgers. The most popular Log-Master model remains the LM 4 sawmill. It weighs 7,500 lbs and comes fully loaded and ready to work, powered by a 51 HP Caterpillar diesel engine and the photo-quick setworks, with 30" diameter bandwheels. These powerhouse machines are 37 and 1/2 feet long, 8 and 1/2 feet wide, and 11 feet tall.

Each of Log-Master’s sawmill models use solid steel (not cast steel) 30" diameter bandwheels, except the LM 1, which uses a 19” solid steel bandwheel.

For more information on Log-Master Sawmills, visit www.logmaster.com.

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