Sawlex

[Title borrowed from Bibbyman]. I was taking pictures during the shootout. While I had a close look at each team working, I really paid more attention on Saturday. Here are my thoughts as I took pictures:

The Baker saw. I didn't catch the model. The sawing team was very skilled and well practiced. They sawed, edged and stacked without pause, and loaded the next log in amazingly short time. I was impressed with how big this saw looked compared with the others - it seems to be at the edge of what could be considered a portable mill. Baker finished first in the Saturday round.

The Woodmizer LT40 band saw plus an edger. This is a highly automated saw, lifting logs, setting them up and turning them all by the flick of a switch at the control panel. As with the Baker, the sawyer and offbearer were highly skilled and well practiced. This saw got a lot of attention. Woodmizer finished about 30 seconds after Baker. As soon as they finished sawing, the crew showed how to stow the saw for travel. A few pushes of buttons and sliding things around and the saw was ready to be hitched to a truck. The stowing process took a couple of minutes. This saw is smaller than the Baker and obviously easier to prep for travel. This was the most impressive saw I saw, but also one of the most expensive.

The Peterson saw. Captain and Chris Browne were amazing. Unlike the automated Baker and Woodmizer, this saw required a team of athletes. They set up two logs at a time and whipped through two big logs and two small in 33 minutes. Unlike the Baker and Woodmizer teams, Captain and Chris switched off sawing and offbearing. They made no mistakes and aside from a short time-out for a drink and cooldown (it was over 80 degrees and humid), the Peterson team aggressively sawed through the log. I was especially impressed with the speed with which the Peterson was adjusted for height and width. Captain and Chris were constantly communicating with each other with gestures, wasting no time trying to talk in all the noise. Quite a performance!

The Ecosaw. The Ecosaw team struggled valiantly but had technical problems. There is always a risk at shows like this of a malfunction, which makes the saw look bad. However, we should not judge the Ecosaw on a single bad performance. The team did not look particularly efficient or experienced. To my eye, the Ecosaw looks amateurish in construction compared to the highly polished engineering of the Peterson and Lucas. I have never been impressed with the appearance of the Ecosaw. Still, I hesist to judge the quality of a saw based on a single performance.

It is clear that differences in team skills were as important as differences in the saw. You could hold the Shootout on the same saw with 5 different teams and get different results with each. That makes it hard to compare saws. The order of finish for Saturday was Baker (22 1/2 minutes), Woodmizer (23 minutes), Peterson (33 minutes), Ecosaw (did not finish) for about 400 bf. The Baker and Woodmizer had professional crews. They are also by far the most expensive. The Peterson and Ecosaw required a lot more physical labor. I would come down on the side of the Peterson for the best performance/price combination, but I am biased toward swingers.