Stand Alone Debarkers

[Spent Carpenter]

Hi Everyone. I am new here but i have been watching for quite some time. I am in the process of planing a small mill operation and trying to estimate my equipment needs and i have a few stupid questions if you dont mind so here goes.

Why dont more people with the larger band mills have dedicated debarking stations as part of the log deck as i see them available used for not a ton of money

[Tom]

I can't speak for everyone, but I can suggest some reasons.

If you are mobile, more equipment means more trips to set up and bring home.

Not all of the band mill operations have employees available to run separate equipment.

Though a bigger mill, it still may be a small operation.

More equipment means more maintenance, more taxes.

[Minnesota_boy]

and more types of waste to dispose of.  Slabs with bark fit the wood furnace or burn pile just as nicely as debarked ones.  Bark is somewhat different to get rid of.

[Ron Wenrich]

Bark makes a premium mulch.  We're getting $750/trailerload off the debarker.  However, the ground pallet wood that is painted red is taking a good deal of the market and it is usually cheaper. 

We run a dedicated debarker at our mill.  We run about 2 1/2 MMbf each year.  The debarker man also unloads trucks, loads trucks and jockeys trailers.  He still has idle time. 

I think a debarker would work OK with a bandmill, but you have to have flexibility with your workers.  I saw one mill where the debarker operator was the sawyer.  That's not a good idea.

[Brad_S.]

Speaking for myself, I just can't justify the expense for daily operation of my little one man show. For spring, summer and fall sawing, the in line debarker on the mill does a good enough job. It's during these freezing days of winter that I sure could use one. The in line debarker still does a good job on the entry cut, but any mud on the exit side is now as hard as concrete and kills a blade FAST! I've got a couple custom sawing jobs that have to wait until a thaw to get sawn because the logs are covered with frozen mud.
I'd love to get one, but it's down the list, behind a new(er) truck, a new mill, a stronger log loader/trailer, chipper/grinder and a ton of other upgrades.

[mike_van]

If it's on the wish list, it's way down.  I don't have a place to put it, yet clean logs would be a joy.  Costs more than a pressure washer, yet i'd like to debark white pine ahead of the grub season.  The bark burns good on a dry slab [if it stays on]   I'd be more inclined to make one like Brads talking about than buy a big expensive setup. I don't have any payment books, and I like it that way - 

[Corley5]

I've got one on my wish list not only to go along with the sawmill but with the firewood processor.  I see three advantages.  One is having the bark to sell as mulch, second is clean, barkless firewood which would sell at premium and of course clean sawlogs for the mill.  There are used debarkers out there but I think they are being sold for a reason  ;)  They also require support equipment such as stacking elevators and such and most of the used ones are three phase. 

[Jeff]

Bark from a debarker certainly isn't a detriment. Its a commodity. Companies that haul it will fight over it given a chance. There are no waste products in sawmills around here any longer. Every bit goes somewhere.  A stand alone debarker is the most abused and beaten machine a mill can have and usually the first machine to break down and very often one of the most dangerous, but in a commercial mill setting you cant be without one.


https://forestryforum.com/media/debarker.mpg

[Ron Wenrich]

That trailerload of mulch I talked about comes off of about 20-30 Mbf of logs.  We run our debarker with a diesel engine, which is on the small side.  I'm thinking around 35 hp.  The mulch more than makes up for the labor and  fuel input.

Mulch also sells during the season when firewood is down, giving you better cash flow from your logs. 

[Spent Carpenter]

Thanks for the replys to my question and the video was exactly what i was talking about. The reason for my interest was on making the most out of the waste. I was thinking about chipping all of the other waste and mixing it with the band dust to make that product more usable as well. Next question, how do you guys collect dust from a mill when the saw travels up and down the rails. I envision some kind of overhead traveling collection system/ flexible pipe suspended on wires from the ceiling pain in the butt type of rig

[wwsjr]

The line debarker is all I need for my one man operation, however I wish I had a good sized chipper for slabs to mulch even if i burn. Less space required. I use a 3HP 220V dust blower mounted in my shed to the left and above my mill. (I am running WM Super Hyd with remote Command Control))  I have about 15 feet of 4" clear flex pipe from mill dust chute to blower. This works for me the full length of cut. I am using 4" PVC drain pipe to move the dust about 40 feet from mill. I did not place any 90* turns in pipe. Works very good.