slabs, what do you do with them?

[tstex]

Hey Guys,

Been off the boards for awhile.  Really liked Jeff's pic's on the lumber he milled...also going on a bear-hunt to say he was really going to cut lumber, or is it the other way around?

Anyway, with the trailer full of end-pieces [slabs], do you guys have a use for these other that burning/mulching them?  Just curious.

Thanks,
tom

Pls send some rain to TX...

[Mr Mom]

Some people use it as siding on small sheds and parts of there house.
Other than that your choises are limited.
Firewood is what i use it for.

Thanks Alot Mr Mom

[jimparamedic]

If I can get at least a 1"x1"x4' out of a slab I make dryers or stakes if there is bark left I peel it off by the time I use them they are pretty dry I have 2 small out house size sheds that I fill up with dryers and I alternate back and forth so they have time to dry. I dont run out of dryers this way and I dont rip up good lumber to make dryers. Stakes are around 2"x2"and as short as 2'. Small logs get made into 3"x3"s and 4"x4"s to start lumber piles on. What I have left is mostly ready to go into the stove. I have even used my thickness planer to make shaving for animal pens.I have recovered some lumber this way. Hope this helps I hate to waste anything. I have also used slabs for cross bracing in my sheds.

[DRB]

You can use them as a top row on a pile of lumber being air dried. It keeps the rain out if you stack them tight on the top.  They make good firewood as well. Big operations chip them and sell them to the pulp mills. 

[Tom]

Or..........  you can make money with them.

Link1

Link2

Link3

There are a lot of threads and pictures on Slab Furniture on the forum, as well as some instructions on how to make some of them.

[Sawdust4sale]

We used to have giant multi-cow bbq's with a 14 million btu fire with them. Not eco-friendly but the cost is low. We have lots of WRC slabs which is nice for getting a fire going but beyond that it burns to quick. What type of slabs? When we cut hard-wood or hemlock/spruce/balsam we can't keep the slabs in the yard one day. What about a firewood market? Cheep, cost effective and you can tade slabs for beer like us! I like this slab furniture idea. Thanks.

[ohsoloco]

Sell the hardwood as firewood.  Had trouble giving it away years ago, but as soon as I put a price on it I never seem to have enough  ;)

[Bibbyman]

 



We're probably selling about half the slabs to people and they cut them into firewood.  We ask $10/PU load and they hand load.  We have a few customers that will bring and leave a trailer and we dump on what comes off the mill "as is". 

I put the edgings in another pile and when the weather conditons are right, I burn them along with excess slabs.

[Puffergas]

I'm slowly starting to make charcoal out of my waste wood. Charcoal has many uses from metallurgical to outdoor grills. I plan on using it to fuel my Jeep or maybe someday my mill.

[beenthere]

Any pics and info on how you are making the charcoal? Sounds interesting.

What are your storage plans for keeping the charcoal?

[ladylake]

$20 a bundle here, pays for my diesel and then some.   Steve

[Puffergas]

Beenthere,

I'm just starting slowly with a 55 gallon drum. See link below:
http://www.puffergas.com/historic/rules/rules.html

There's more ways to make charcoal than I can count up to.

You don't have to use it as a fuel that's just one of my goals after all why should I, a cottage industry person, help make a few rich people from a far away place get richer. Why not keep the money local?

Another use for charcoal is to enrich the soil. It's already being used in potting soil. People even eat the stuff....

It's just one more option.

[WH_Conley]

Tell us more about the potting soil. Not really sure about the recipes.  ???

[tstex]

Guys,

Thank you very much for the info, links and insight.

I had a bunch of pine milled and ripped some of the 1 1/4" x 12" x 12' into lattice boards: (3) 4" x 12' lattice boards to screw down some new metal roofing material.  Since I had this lumber milled, I had such a problem tossing the remaining 1' - 2' long pieces, so i ripped these in halfs and made picture frames:  8" x 10"'s. Then the ends of these I cut and made 4" size State of TX's...

If I would have bought the wood instead [as I did before getting on these boards and milling my own], I would have just tossed them...very addicted to saving the smallest pieces for anything.

Anyone have a tooth-pic maker ? :D

[backwoods sawyer]

¼"x ¼" chopsticks were a big seller at the country fair, as were the spoons and flower planters. It is just a mater of how much time you want to put into using all the small pieces that are left over.

[Puffergas]

Potting soil; I'm not sure of the mixture of the potting soil. Kind of a trade secret? But it would be part compost. The charcoal helps to store good microbes and water. Sometimes called biochar or Terra Preta.

Storage; Right now I do not have much to store but I store it in metal containers like steel trash cans or 55 gallon drums

[Puffergas]

I've used slab wood as a base for driveways. Just lay down the slabs about a foot in depth and spread gravel over top. Doesn't seem to rot and has good drainage. Can't beat it with a stick!

[Paul_H]

I'm slowly starting to make charcoal out of my waste wood. Charcoal has many uses from metallurgical to outdoor grills. I plan on using it to fuel my Jeep or maybe someday my mill.

Puffergas already built a woodgas powered IH pickup way back in the early 1980's and still keeps his hand in the game.
Here is the link to his woodgas truck,

WoodgasTruck

[ohsoloco]

I put the edgings in another pile and when the weather conditons are right, I burn them along with excess slabs.

I like to keep all of the hardwood edgings for myself.  Just cut it to length, and it's ready to go on top of the kindling to get my woodstove going.  No splitting required     Of course, I don't saw a whole lot of lumber, so I can use all I produce.

[Bibbyman]

We can make a year's supply of edgings for kindling in a day's production so I don't bother saving them back for that use.





We have about a dozen of these boxes we've built to fill with end trimming of lumber and such.  It's mid-July and they're all full and waiting for heating season.  I have to admit being a redneck and tell that come winter time,  I just fork up boxs of wood and bring them to the front porch (that's at the back of the house).  I can put up to four of these boxes at one time under the porch roof.

As for kindling,  we have collected up a half a dozen five gallon buckets.  When the girls are filling the inside woodbox, they look for small pieces of wood and large pieces of bark to fill the bucket.  When it comes time to kindle a fire,  I have a bucket of dry kindling ready.

We do have one slab customer that does pick through the edging pile and selects the heavier and longer items.  He has a rack built that he fills with edgings and then saws them up in mass.  He has some "yard ape" size kids he puts to work bringing in the wood so the smaller size works well for him.  But we still produce far more edgings than he can use.


P.S.  Once a box on the front porch is empty, it is often used to collect the household discarded items from cleanup day. (We can easily fill one from cleaning up before a holiday event and then again after the event.) When it's time to restock the firewood supply, the box goes back out to the sawmill and is emptied in the dumpster.

[bandmiller2]

My slabs keep me warm in the winter,mixed with larger stuff.Pine burns clean if you don't try to choke down the air too much.You don't use them when trying to hold a fire overnight but when you around to keep them fed.Frank C.