McDonough Blog

McDonough Manufacturing is pleased to announce the appointment ofTom Schwahn as Customer Service Manager, effective immediately.

Before we get into the exciting work we’ve been doing with Gates Milling, we want to take a step back and talk about the people behind the name—and why we’re so proud to be partnering with them.

It doesn’t take long when speaking with anyone at Elmsdale Lumber Company (ELCO) or browsing their website to learn that one of the foundational principles at ELCO is their commitment to the lifelong learning of their employees. McDonough is fortunate enough to have kickstarted various projects with ELCO recently, and through our conversations over the last number of months, we began to hear about something called ‘Mel’s Story’.

Ryan Hemauer is a machinist in our Eau Claire shop, who brought a wealth of experience, education and a strong work ethic along with him. Learn more about his work experience and advice to future machinists in our one-on-one interview.

The driving force behind McDonough is our team – the folks in the shop and offices every day who have made it possible to produce high-quality machinery for over 130 years. Right alongside us throughout our success are the industry partners who help with our equipment installations and service calls all over the continent and world. Chief among these valued colleagues is Ray Tharpe of RTM Industrial Maintenance (RTM), who we have worked with in one capacity or another for almost 20 years.

In a previous blog, we outlined the components of a linear edger system and their intended purpose. Now, we’ll take a look at the alignment and calibration of your linear edger.

To refresh, a linear edger operates under the basic principle that we can scan a piece of lumber while it is in one location and then ‘edge’ it when it reaches another, without handling it in between, by accurately predicting where it is going to be throughout the process.

McDonough's white paper on ‘Maximizing performance of Linear Edger Systems’, written by VP Operations Hugh Hawley over 10 years ago, has become an incredibly popular document for customers and competitors alike on how to achieve optimal linear edger performance. Today we will examine the components of a linear edger system and their overall contribution to the performance of your linear edger. In the next blog post, we will examine alignment and calibration.

McDonough has always been a family company, and there a several family members who work together at our facilities in Eau Claire and Mactaquac. We recently chatted with Jason and Greg Meyer, father and son, who both work out of our Eau Claire shop.

Marvin has been the Service Technician at McDonough Manufacturing for 22 years. We recently caught up with Marvin to chat about the sawmill industry, what he enjoys most about his job and what advice he has for those entering the profession.

McDonough has been around for 132 years because of quality machinery and loyal customers - and also because of our people. Meet Mike McAvoy - our traveling sawmill encyclopedia.