Veneer sorting apparatus

Veneer sorting apparatus for sorting a moving stream of arbitrarily ordered full width, random width, fishtail and trash veneer pieces in response to a signal representative of a characteristic such as width. Each piece is deflected into an appropriate output path: one path contains substantially only full width pieces, a second path contains substantially only trash pieces, and a third path contains substantially only fishtail and random width veneer pieces. A first vacuum source is coupled to a first series of vacuum ports positioned closely proximate to and spaced transversely across the moving stream. Vacuum applied through the ports initially draws all the pieces toward the full width output path. Dampers responsive to the characteristic signal temporarily decouple the vacuum ports from the vacuum source upon detection of a trash piece, allowing the trash to fall away from the full width output path. To further assist in trash removal, an air jet responsive to the characteristic signal is provided adjacent the first vacuum ports to blow trash pieces into the trash output path; and, a first pivotable finger downstream of the vacuum ports responds to the signal by deflecting trash into the trash output path. A second pivotable finger downstream of the first finger responds to the signal by deflecting fishtail and random width pieces into the fishtail and random width output path.