Log handling method and apparatus

摘要

Logs are advanced substantially in the direction of their longitudinal axes through a saw while engaged between a driven pusher dog and a retarded holdback dog. The pusher dog is on an endless carrier chain located above an initial log support, and the holdback dog is on an endless carrier chain located below the log path and forwardly of the support. Logs on the support are movable angularly and laterally from the machine axis to displaced positions which are unobstructed by the carrier chains, to permit offset sawing and taper sawing. Chipper heads produce planar surfaces on logs approaching the saw. A retractible preliminary holdback dog engages the forward end of a log and moves past a bottom-flattening chipper head to a tranfer area where the chain-carried holdback dog engages the log and the preliminary holdback dog is retracted.