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slab wood in to chips

Started by Peter Drouin, March 30, 2011, 09:54:23 PM

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Peter Drouin

I want to chip all my slabs and edging. But I had I guy tell me not to because of all the bark on the slabs and edging will get hot in a pile. something like spontantous combustion? like hay in a barn. slabs are a pain in the------. do any one do this, and tell me for sure I don,t want to burn :D :D :D
A&P saw Mill LLC.
45' of Wood Mizer, cutting since 1987.
License NH softwood grader.

laffs

it holds some heat but i never heard of it catching fire the tree companys chip it into the woods when they can, not major piles but

im going to start chiping mine, i can use the fill
timber harvester,tinberjack230,34hp kubota,job ace excavator carpenter tools up the yingyang,

tyb525

Well combustion is possible in a sawdust pile, but that wouldn't stop me from doing it (as long as the pile wasn't close to a building)
LT10G10, Stihl 038 Magnum, many woodworking tools. Currently a farm service applicator, trying to find time to saw!

paul case

i dont know if it can happen or not.
it will heat and it may fermint. but it will probably be too wet to catch fire. we used to pile wood shavings up outside and it had wet and dry in the pile and it may heat but it just wouldnt catch fire. pc
life is too short to be too serious. (some idiot)
2013 LT40SHE25 and Riehl edger,  WM 94 LT40 hd E15. Cut my sawing ''teeth'' on an EZ Boardwalk
sawing oak.hickory,ERC,walnut and almost anything else that shows up.
Don't get phylosophical with me. you will loose me for sure.
pc

red oaks lumber

why spend money chipping your slabs? sell them
the experts think i do things wrong
over 18 million b.f. processed and 7341 happy customers i disagree

Ron Wenrich

The only time I've seen bark piles catch on fire comes from stacking the bark high and compacting by driving dump trucks on it.  It usually only catches on fire in real cold weather.  

How big of pile are you talking about?  I've seen piles of chips at the Coos Bay boat area where they were putting them in holds of boats and shipping it across the ocean.  That was back in the early '70s.  You would think if anyone had a chance of a fire it would have been in a boat hold.  No air circulation, green chips and stacked super deep.  

No market for your chips?
Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

Hilltop366

Quote from: laffs on March 30, 2011, 10:28:36 PM
it holds some heat but i never heard of it catching fire the tree companys chip it into the woods when they can, not major piles but

im going to start chiping mine, i can use the fill

If you use a well for household water be careful not to put wood waste where it can rot and leach in to the ground and contaminate someone's well water.

bull

start chipping !! I have chipped slabs for years  100+ yards to a pile never any troble !!!

laffs

no you dont want to chip near a water source. the chips break down over time,and i wold think contaminate the water. this is what the paper mills do to make black liquor,but they use heat,pressure and chemicals, but the same principal.

a freind of mine was telling me theres a way to turn it into a heat source. i havent looked into it any further. has something to do with digging a pit placing coils of plastic pipe in the pit and wood chips. also could use horse manure.

red oaks i sell some of my slabs and use some too. most want it for nothing and some want it delivered too for nothing, if i did that next they would want me to feed the fire.
timber harvester,tinberjack230,34hp kubota,job ace excavator carpenter tools up the yingyang,

WDH

Particle size is important.  Very dense, packed sawdust has the highest risk of spontaneous combustion.  Keeping the pile size down, not compacting it, and keeping a mix of particle size to let heat escape is important. 
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

bandmiller2

The real old time bark mulch was stacked and allowed to ferment and go through at least one heat they clamed it killed the bugs and then wouldn't burn plants.Now any crap is ground and colored for mulch of dubious parentage.Wonder how it would work if it was chunked insted of chipped and shoveled into stoves/furnaces as fuel? Frank C.
A man armed with common sense is packing a big piece

Buck

Well, from a wildland firefighters view, I've seen it happen. However, the piles that we had to work with were very large after the hurricanes. 
Respect is earned. Honesty is appreciated. Trust is gained. Loyalty is returned.

Live....like someone left the gate open

KBforester

I've heard of it happening with old biomass piles that never got trucked. I've seen flail chip waste  piles that were really too hot to touch. I would say and green material (including greed bark?) would be more of a risk for fast decomp than dry material. Kind of like how a fresh manure pile gets really hot. Where as if you broke up a bunch of dry cow patties it probably wouldn't get so hot.  I would  take the risk either way, but if your slabs have been sitting around for a month or more, the decomp might be slower, and less of a risk.
Trees are good.

robnrob2

I used to burn my slabs, but wind direction was a problem sometimes.
I bought an Eager Beaver chipper, with a 76hp cummins, and hydrolic feed, so that it can process the slabs, I think feed rate is about 80' per minute.
But I have blasted the chips into a pile up to about 5' high, and it might get a lil warm, but never to hot to be concerned,, But we use the chips around the shop here, as ground cover, bedding etc.
As well as sometimes I have people that wanna shovel some up for there own driveways and stuff.
I dont think you'll have to worry about fire, sides that you'll prolly wanna use the chips fer stuff.

WDH

I used to buy sawdust in Northern North Carolina for a manufacturing plant that burned the sawdust to make steam for the plant.  There were some huge sawdust piles that were decades in the making, and some of these would catch on fire.  One pile was 65,000 tons.  It caught fire and was sprayed with one of the big irrigation gun nozzles for a solid week before they could put the fire out.  It was more of a smolder than a fire.  
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

paul case

thats my experience. if it did catch on fire it would just smoulder. couldnt get enough air to burn good. when we would spread shavings in our chicken houses the fine dust would get in the heaters and when lighting the heaters they would blow the dust out on fire. it would only look like sparks. it would catch the floor on ''fire''.only a lot of smoke. i learned to scoop it up with a shovel with some fresh around it and put it in a bucket. fill the bucket with water to put it out.
i have not personally  seen the spontaneous combustion actually happen. pc
life is too short to be too serious. (some idiot)
2013 LT40SHE25 and Riehl edger,  WM 94 LT40 hd E15. Cut my sawing ''teeth'' on an EZ Boardwalk
sawing oak.hickory,ERC,walnut and almost anything else that shows up.
Don't get phylosophical with me. you will loose me for sure.
pc

laffs

a guy showed up here today and wanted some slabs, i told him $20 for the whole lot. they were all astrew, so i was mor than happy to give him a deal, and he was more than happy to bite. he's going to use them for boiling his sap.
hope to take better care of them this year. 4ft them and sell as much as i can. more and more people show up every year looking for them, but i always have some excess.
Brent
timber harvester,tinberjack230,34hp kubota,job ace excavator carpenter tools up the yingyang,

Dave Shepard

I don't see where the slabs would be too much different from regular brush and wood chips from tree service work. We used to have a couple hundred yards at a time of that stuff around. Keep turning it with a dozer for a few years and use it as compost. Mix with fresh manure, and it really makes some nice stuff.
Wood-Mizer LT40HDD51-WR Wireless, Kubota L48, Honda Rincon 650, TJ208 G-S, and a 60"LogRite!

Peter Drouin

thanks for the info guys, I tryed to sell the slabs . sometime the customer would show up or not  >:(  or be out there with a chainsaw and I would go and look and see the mans wife holding one end the outher end on the talgate and him cutting in the middle  :o :o :o. so were chiping plus theres a power plant 10 miles up the road will by it. or I can  sell by the truck load no chainsaws, no liability  :D :D :D     8) 8) 8)
A&P saw Mill LLC.
45' of Wood Mizer, cutting since 1987.
License NH softwood grader.

paul case

i sell those slabs as firewood. only difference is i cut it up. a stack can be picked up with my log forks and moved to my ''cut up spot'' and held up for cutting. 5 forkloads makes a grain truck load. i load it with the bucket on the tractor. deliver and dump it out where the customer wants it for$120. it makes about 5 ricks. i get mostly oak and other hardwoods so it makes great firewood. i run a manual band mill and all my slabs get cut to length and sold this way. my pile got about 15 loads big last summer and it was all gone by nov 15 and every time i get a load through the winter its gone.
if i was just cutting slabs into firewood it would take about 1 hour per truckload. it takes less than 1 hour to load and deliver it so its making as much money by the hour as my sawing rate per hour. no extra equipment needed( i already had the truck).pc
life is too short to be too serious. (some idiot)
2013 LT40SHE25 and Riehl edger,  WM 94 LT40 hd E15. Cut my sawing ''teeth'' on an EZ Boardwalk
sawing oak.hickory,ERC,walnut and almost anything else that shows up.
Don't get phylosophical with me. you will loose me for sure.
pc

Peter Drouin

PC I would like to do that too , but my slabs are w pine and hemlock .soft wood not the best for firewood. I keep the hardwood for myself :) :) :)
A&P saw Mill LLC.
45' of Wood Mizer, cutting since 1987.
License NH softwood grader.

Puffergas

I tried using compost heat for 3 years.

http://www.puffergas.com/pile/pile.html

I agree that you would not want the black water into your well but if you had small piles spread out on a field this compost tea would act as a fertilizer. I have a lot of frogs on my land so I built a pond for them. A few years ago the compost water got into the frog pond and I thought that one day my frogs would be floating belly up but this never happened. It seemed like they flurished and later the water became very clear.

I've had good results using this pickled/fermented biomass as a furtilizer.

So far it's never started on fire.....
Jeff
Somewhere 20 miles south of Lake Erie.

GEHL 5624 skid steer, Trojan 114, Timberjack 225D, D&L SB1020 mill, Steiger Bearcat II

Brucer

Pine & Hemlock make perfectly good firewood. You just need to burn more of it in a season. Pound for pound, dry wood gives off the same amount of heat.

When the only hardwoods in your area are silver birch and Aspen, softwoods aren't a problem ;).
Bruce    LT40HDG28 bandsaw
"Complex problems have simple, easy to understand wrong answers."

thecfarm

I have a sawyer that I buy his chips from.Usually the pile is no higher than 6 feet. Yes,it might heat some,but cause a fire,I kinda doubt that. Not just sitting there. Now,as mentioned,you start to run over it or something else,than that will change alot of things. Or a pile 50 feet tall too.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

slohand

I agree with Brucer and the others. Sell your slabwood for firewood.  With the price of oil and every other heating method going up firewood... the original heat is getting to be a bigger deal all the time.

Five years ago we used to produce mountains of slabwood... couldn't give it away. We had to burn it discretely or pay up to 500 bucks a load to get it hauled away. Then gradually folks started showing up and we started charging them $30 for a bundle. Didn't really make any money doing that though, since we had to use two bands per bundle plus labour and loader time to store and then reload on customer vehicle.

A few months ago  I finished an automatic slab chopper saw (posted a youtube video here).  Now slabs come off the mill or edger straight to the slabsaw and into a steel bin. Huge saving in time and handling. We sell those by the bin for $90 for Doug Fir and $45 for Cedar. Works out to $120 per cord for something that used to be a problem. Plus we use our truck more for delivery and get paid for that too!

And the other big plus is that every new firewood customer may someday be a lumber customer. They won't buy mill lumber every year, but they all need firewood. Guess where they're going to look to get lumber the next time they gotta do some fencing.

Its the old story. The slabwood problem is an opportunity in disguise.

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