Timber Framers Guild Forums General General Forum Questions Sawmilling solution required!!!

Hello everyone,

I am looking to the group for a solution!! The best solution gets a prize!!! (prize yet to be determined).

Like many other timberframing operations, we have a sawmill at our site. We maximize every log for our timbers and side lumber. We are, however, left with slabs. They are currently bundled with banding and piled with a few hundred other bundles of slabs.

We use what we can for firewood. We have tried to arrange for a chipper (with limited success). We have told all our friends and relatives to come by and take as much as they can load (also, limited success).

This 'waste' has to be worth something to someone....

Rustic siding?
Corduroy Roads?

Thanks for your help,

Brock Smith

Hi Brock,

I was once told by old man Venables (suppliers of oak timber to York Minster) that "the only thing free on a tree is the rustle of the leaves".

What he meant by this was that everyhting has its use. In their case the logs were debarked prior to conversion and this was then sold as a soft kiddies playground cover and also used as a compost to produce brambling worms that are so eagerly sought by fishermen. The slabwood was then used to generate steam in a boiler which drove a steam engine that generated the power needed to run the saw.

Sadly this company is no more with their sawmill having been dismantled and shipped to Lithuania.

Regards

Ken Hume

Brock,
Sure wish your operation was closer to me! I burn between 4 & 5 cords of slabs to heat my house every year, and believe me they don't give them away.
The sugar houses around here burn a lot of them making Maple syrup in the spring.
Mulch is also very popular with home owners as decorative ground cover around trees and flowers.
Can it be turned into shavings or saw dust for animal bedding?

Good luck.
Karl Hines

A wood chip gasifier is what we are looking into. In combination with a sterling engine, heat from the boiler it used to run the sterling engine. Or in the case of the gasifier you can contain the gas to run a generator. I don't have all the sources but the technology is out there. You can obtain hot water, domestic, and heat, as well as electricity while keeping your slabs under control.

Years ago I was quoted $80,000 to run grid power to my home, a wood chip system would cost this much, or more, with all the related parts, chipper, hoppers, buildings the boiler its self, etc. I am no where near getting this dream set up but we are looking into it.

I have had large chippers come out and chip trailer truck loads of slabs which were hauled to the local bio mass electrical plant. It is getting time for the unruly slab pile to go.

Here is a link to a very small example of gasification.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyofhLYYVC8&NR=1

Tim

Hi Brock,
I've pretty much given up on softwood slabs now, and I take them to an area where they can compost over the long term. They just aren't worth it for heating, other than right in the shop, and we can't seem to use up the slabwood...
Too bad they can't be returned to the forest where they came from, the soil would love it...

Hi Mark & Brock,

I have found that softwood bark tends to be intumescant in nature i.e. it doesn't burn very well and expands in the stove eventually blocking the fire grate. I now debark Douglas Fir and Larch when I intend to burn this in our stove. We have no pine in our woodlot and I wonder if this does the same ? It might well be that a period of time spent in a pile is needed to allow the bark to loosen and fall prior to attempting to burn this in the stove.

Regards

Ken Hume

If I had to debark all the slab wood we burn I would completely go loony. I am not burning doug fir or larch, but if I were, in the boiler they would go bark and all. I go through a lot of pine and spruce. I burn slab year round, for domestic hot water in a indoor wood boiler. There are no grates in either the boiler of the wood cookstove, to clog. Ash clean out is 4-5 times a year. It is amazing how big a pile of slabs can be converted into a wheelbarrow full of ashes.

There is a dike build here in town back in the late 1800s, it is a mix of rubble and slabs from the old mill. They used them as Brock mentioned, corduroy. The docks along the shore of the river have exposed slab showing due to erosion.

Tim

Well what do I do with mine:

-summer bonfires in the evening
-spring used to heat sap for syrup
-winter burn for heat
-use to make charcoal for BBQ
-give to locals with wood fired outdoor boilers

B.