C6 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, May 7, 1997

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NATION

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Small miller discovers
a healthy niche market

THE FOREST INDUSTRY
may be dominated by giants
like Skeena Cellulose. and
Skeena Sawmills, but there’s
‘Still room for the little guy.

: That’s what Percy Gavransky
found out when he bought a
small portable sawmill earlier
this spring.

‘ Gavronsky is one of many
‘Jogging truck drivers in the Ter-
yace arca hurt when Repap
{Skeena Cellulose’s predeces-
sor) reduced ils contract logging
‘operations.

2 “T’ve hardly put any miles on
‘my truck in the last six
ymonths,” he says. And pay-
‘ments on the trick are over
$3,000 a month.

- With that much money going
‘out and not much coming in,
Gavronsky began searching for
‘other work. What he found was
‘a sawmill dealer on the Internet.

About $40,000 later he started
anew business,

Gavronsky is not the only one
in Terrace who got the idea to
rin a smail mill. He knows of
another in town, one in
Rosswood and one more mill in
Kleanza. Some people use them
for personal use — milling
boards on their property —
while others like him are trying
to find a market for fresh sawn

wood,
**There’s more than enough

work to go around,’’ he says of
the market. And to prove it he’s
had only one day off in the last
month and a balf.

“Otherwise I would have just
been sitting around, watching
TV and drinking beer.”

Gavronsky has been selling
the wood for fence posts, decks,

‘siding and more.

It can’t be used to build a
home in town, due to building
codes, but Gavronsky says if
Someone were buy a lot out of
town with nice wood, mill the
it for six
months, then a house could be
built relatively cheaply.

It’s taken Gavronsky a little

LIKE SLICING BUTTER — Well, not quite, but Percy Gav-
ronsky finds his new portable sawmill makes cutting wood
almost as simple as cutting butter. The sophisticated piece
of machinery can litt, position and tilt large logs.

while to learn to run his ma-
chine.

He has to roll the log onto a
small hydraulic lift which lifts
and rolls the log onto the main
body of the machine. Other
mini-lifis position the log, tilt-
ing and moving it.

Then Gavronsky sweeps the
log free. of small rocks and dirt
— to protect the blade — and
sets and guides the blade for the
cut

He’s getting faster at it,
Recently be was able to cut
2,500 board feet of one inch
wood in seven hours, With a
helper he figures he could do
about 3,500 board feet a day.

Right now Gavronsky is set
up at a fenced area in front of
Terrace Radiator, on the commer
of Brooks and Hwy. 16 west.

It’s a great location for him
and has made him very visible
for people looking to buy wood,
But what Gavronsky really
hopes to do is take his mill out
to property owners, and cut the
wood for them there.

The mill takes just ten
minutes to set up and hooks

onto the back of his truck.

There's a fair amount of
physical labour involved. Gav-
ronsky has to peel the bark off
each log he cuts, though he’s
had some help from his father.

There’s 4 good side effect to
the work. So far he’s lost 18
pounds, without even trying.

But there’s a lot of upkeep
too. Gavronsky figures he
spends about two and a half
hours every night sharpening
saw blades for the mill. If he’s
cutting cedar he has to change
the blades every hour.

Of course there’s some waste
wood off an operation like this,
and he hasn’t had any trouble
getting rid of it. So far he’s
given away scrap wood to a
man who makes furniture,
somcone who wants to side a
cabin and Terrace Anti-Poverty
is interested in wood to frame
its garden plots.

Gavronsky hopes to find
enough work to keep him busy
through the summer and fall.
And if his logging truck doesn’t
start making more money soon,
he figures he'll’ probably have
to sell it.

Sharing
a dream.

Bulkley Valley Snow Valley

847-3255

639-9391

Houston
845-7117

Husqva a. Chain Saws
aye:been developed

chind every great movement
there is a “bright idea.” |
Someone has a great idea, they tell
others about it and the movement

grows.
The bright idea behind the credit
union movement is the “credit union

advantage” namely a profit sharing,
member owned institution. _
Each member owns a share of the
dream.
Join the movement, become a mem-
ber today.

Vanderhoof
567-4737

Terrace & District
635-7282,

Burns Lake

692-7761

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