RAYMOND, WASHINGTON – Weyerhaeuser Company is more than 100 years old. There has been a lumber mill on the site of its sawmill in Raymond, Washington, for even longer than that.

The Raymond mill made an important upgrade just two years ago, and it is embarking on perhaps an even more important one this year: a new KDS Windsor continuous dry kiln.

Raymond is located in southwest Washington on the Willapa River, not far from the coast. There has been a mill on the site making lumber since 1870. Weyerhaeuser bought the mill that was in place in 1930 and retooled it in 1956, 1980, and 1997.

The most recent upgrade was the installation of a USNR-HSS (Horizontal Shape Saw) – and infeed and outfeed – in early 2023 that helped to increase production and throughput, noted mill manager Spencer Headley. He has managed the mill for two years and previously oversaw another Weyerhaeuser mill in Oregon.

The USNR-HSS, with blades to cut up to 12 inches, replaced an older gang that was limited to cutting 10 inches. It cuts about 50,000 board feet per hour, a 4 percent improvement. It also increased lumber recovery 16 percent.

The Raymond mill is situated on 60 acres, which includes the log yard. The facilities include the sawmill, planer mill, a shop and store room, two drying sheds, eight batch dry kilns, and a ‘power house’ for a boiler that provides steam for drying. The sawmill and planer mill operate two shifts, 80 hours per week. The operations employ 200 people. The mill currently produces about 200 million board feet per year of coastal Douglas fir lumber.

Processing logs starts with a Nicholson dual ring debarker. L-M Equipment Co. log merchandiser with six shifting saws (above) handles about 3,000 logs per shift.

Log heads into Optimil Machinery primary breakdown system. Chipper heads open two faces to start the process. The Optimill system is supported by Porter scanning and optimization.

The mill makes framing lumber, mainly studs – 2×4 8 feet long, which account for about 40 percent of production. Boards 2×6 account for another 30 percent. The mill cuts other lumber up to 2×12 20 feet long. All production is kiln-dried and sold S4S to wholesalers and small chains of lumber yards or home improvement stores. The Raymond plant is the only Weyerhaeuser mill on the West Coast that dries its production.

Frederick Weyerhaeuser, after years of successful lumber and mill operations based along the Mississippi River with Frederick Denkmann and others, founded Weyerhaeuser Timber Company in 1900 with 15 partners and purchased 900,000 acres of timberland in Washington. The business began with three employees and a small office in Tacoma, Washington.

The company purchased a small sawmill – its first mill – in Everett, Washington, in 1902. It built what was then the world’s largest sawmill in Longview, Washington, in 1929.

Today Weyerhaeuser Company owns or manages nearly 10.5 million acres of timberlands in the U.S. and manages 14 million acres of timberlands under long-term licenses in Canada. It operates 34 wood products manufacturing facilities across North America. It also operates distribution centers, nurseries, offices, and shops. The company manufactures lumber, engineered wood products, and panels made of plywood, oriented strand board, and medium density fiberboard, and its operations employ more than 9,000 people.

The Raymond mill processes 100 percent Douglas fir. The mill processes logs according to three groups of log specs for the top: 8-11 inches (56 percent) 5-7 inches (36 percent) and 12 inches and up (8 percent). Logs must be a minimum of 16 feet long with the average being 32-½ feet. Eighty-five percent of logs are sourced from Weyerhaeuser tree farms in the region, and the rest are purchased from other timber companies. The company’s timberlands division and loggers harvest trees on Weyerhaeuser land. The mill can store 4-6 million board feet of logs on the yard.

The Raymond mill is located “incredibly strategically” with respect to Weyerhaeuser’s timberlands, noted Headley. “We have about 450,000 acres of tree farms within 50 miles.” That proximity enables the company to achieve operational excellence in both timberland and mill operations. “We can leverage the log. We can get it here cheaper than competitors.”

Processing begins with a Nicholson dual ring debarker that can debark logs up to 24 inches in diameter. An L-M Equipment Co. log merchandiser with six shifting saws processes about 3,000 logs per shift.

Two-sided cant goes in-line to a twin band mill to remove material from both sides. Depending on the log dimensions and the optimized solution, the log may bypass the twin band mill and go directly to the gang saw.

Primary breakdown is accomplished with Optimil Machinery technology. An infeed system positions the log, and a sharp chain infeed holds it in place as chipper heads open two faces. The two-sided cant goes in-line to a twin band mill that can remove material from each side. Depending on the log dimensions and the optimized solution, the log may bypass the twin band mill and go directly to the gang saw.

The USNR-HSS gang is equipped with chipper heads to open the top and bottom faces of the log to produce a four-sided cant before sawing. The chipper has the capability to profile a 2×6 on a rounded edge. Material that needs edging goes to a USNR-Newnes edger. “Our strategy is to run as much through the gang as possible,” said Headley.

The log is scanned and optimized at each stage of processing, beginning with the merchandiser, which is equipped with Porter scanning and optimization. The Optimill primary breakdown system also is supported by Porter scanning and optimization while the gang saw is supported by USNR scanning and optimization.

From the gang, boards go to a USNR-Newnes trimmer with a 20-foot saw box. Optimized with USNR technology, the boards are scanned, optimized and trimmed according to value, grade, and recovery, then sorted and stacked by other USNR-Newnes machines. The mill has capacity to store 6 million board feet of lumber in sheds, ready to be kiln-dried.

In the planer mill a USNR-Newnes tilt hoist disassembles packs of kiln-dried lumber so it can be fed to the planer. The lumber is surfaced on four sides by a “fairly old” USNR-Coastal planer, noted Headley. It can surface 57,000 board feet per hour. The finished lumber goes through a USNR-THG grading system before it goes to a USNR-Newnes 50-bin sorter and a USNR-Newnes stacker. A Samuel Packaging banding station secures the lumber in packs, and the packs are covered with a wrap that is stapled on by workers and tagged.

Most recent upgrade was USNR-HHS gang saw with blades to cut up to 12 inches. It cuts about 50,000 board feet per hour, a 4 percent improvement. It also increased lumber recovery 16 percent.

The biggest immediate challenge facing the mill is with regard to the drying operations – a challenge that will be overcome with the new KDS Windsor kiln. “The bottleneck right now is the kilns and drying capacity,” said Headley.

The mill’s existing eight batch kilns were installed in 1989. The aging units have a combined capacity of 220 million board feet, which limits the mill’s output. The company expects to increase throughput and gain efficiency and performance benefits from replacing the aging infrastructure.

The new KDS Windsor continuous dry kiln will have an annual capacity of 300 million board feet. “We’re working on it right now,” said Headley, who hopes the new kiln will begin operating in the fourth quarter of 2025. At the time he talked to TimberWest in late fall, some residuals were being moved and paving was under way. Construction on the new kiln was expected to begin within a few months.

With the added kiln capacity, the mill is expected to increase production from 200 to 220-225 million board feet in 2025.

Most of the bark from debarking is processed by a USNR hog and used to fuel the boiler that produces steam for the dry kilns. USNR chippers in the sawmill and planer mill reduce scrap material. Chips, sawdust and fines are supplied to paper mills. Shavings also are used for boiler fuel, and some are supplied to farmers.

Framing lumber, mainly 8-foot 2×4 studs, accounts for about 40 percent of production; 2×6 boards make up another 30 percent.

Some other ideas are under consideration to further modernize the mill in the future. “Right now the gang can outrun the front of the mill and the back end,” added Headley.

The mill likely will be making additional improvements in the next several years. “We’ve got some stacker improvements that will be happening at the same time as the kiln construction,” said Headley. The company may upgrade the debarker and log merchandiser in 2028. Beyond that, it may be looking to improve throughput at the back end of the planer. “Our intention is to get to 285 million board feet by 2029-30.”

Raymond is a small town with a population of about 6,000. “We are one of the primary employers in the area,” noted Headley. “We are really involved in the community as far as volunteerism and financial support. It’s important to our team and to Weyerhaeuser that we give back to these communities where we operate.”

Weyerhaeuser announced earlier this year it would invest $1 million in Raymond through the company’s THRIVE program, which provides targeted assistance to five of its rural operating communities. Weyerhaeuser will make the investment over the next several years with significant input from elected officials, employees, nonprofits, local business leaders and other community partners. Potential areas of investment include workforce development, job training and youth education.