What to do with your slab wood........

[Robert Long]

While custom cutting at customers sites I have seen many ways of handling the slab wood off the mill, everything from just throwing it on the ground in a pile to throwing it on the bond fire just to burn it and rid themselves of the burden of cutting it into firewood.

When I cut in the yard I take it off the mill and throw it onto a yard trailer for future cutting and stacking into corded fire wood.

I have seen a rack made of steel and a bed of boards with markings to where to cut with a chain saw into firewood sizes.... this too is a good way to cut some time off the job.

What do you do with the slab wood as it comes off the mill??? ???

Robert

[logwalker]

I have a system that works well for me. I have a rack that is about 7' long and 5' tall. It is built tough enough to be tossed around a bit. I place it with a forklift so it sets about 5' off the end of the mill, a LT40HD, at a little angle to the mill. After cutting the slab I put one end on the top of the saw frame and slide the slab over the top and directly into the rack. It is very fast and efficient. When the rack is full I take it to the slab pile with the forklift and topple it over next to the pile. Then I use the forks to upend the rack and it empties. Then back to the saw and into position. I can also put a single ratchet strap around the slabs in the rack and tighten. The whole mess can then be removed from the rack and set aside for delivery later. A neighbor comes by with a ten foot flatbed and it goes to his house. The best part is sliding over the top of the frame. It helps place the slab accurately in the rack and it is very easy on me. Joe

[Robert Long]

Joe;

Do you cut the slab into fire wood size later? 
Or do you sell the slab in lengths?

Robert

[mike_van]

I'm pretty low tech Robert - I have two "brackets" made of three 2x6's ea.,  about 30"x30" opening [a C laying on its back]  When they're full, I tie the bundle in two places wih that yellow plastic 1/4" rope, lift & carry the bundle with the  grapple on the front of the tractor, and pile 'em up. In the spring, I get one bundle at a time, set it on 6x6's, and cut to 2' lengths  and stack it. I've got about 12 bundles waiting right now. It's all fire wood for me, or fuel for the evaporator.

[metalspinner]

I have sawyers out to my place several times a year.  I hammer four green fence posts in the ground forming a box 20" wide and the depth of my chainsaw.  While stacking slabs in it off the saw,  I am careful to keep the ends aligned and the pile level.







Just yesterday I cut and stacked this.  The slabs are centered in the posts.  This is an easy way to do this on sight.  Also, the customer doesn't have to handle slabs twice.

[Kelvin]

I've got two 6x6's lying perpendicular to the mill.  The slabs get tossed onto this as far away as i can and the pile builds up towards the mill.  When i can't move anymore i get the tractor with forks on the loader and fork the pile bite at a time and put in the firewood pile.  I simply work from the oldest end with a chainsaw and cut down through the stack one firewood size piece at a time until i hit the ground.  this is chucked into the tractor bucket.  Tree tops that are split into to firewood are piled onto pallets that i've nailed scrap wood sides onto.  I fill these up and they dry there.  When i want a bunch of wood up by the house.  I simply fork it up and move it.  I hate all the handeling.  Little as possible.  I also fork full length slabs into the dump truck and dump at friends houses for winter heat.  Think i heat about 3-4 houses every winter and still have to burn big piles of scarp.  What i have learned is its better to sort out the crap before you build a firewood pile.  Those little tiny edgings catch the saw chain.  and i don't want certain woods in the firewood pile. Mostly just hardwoods.  Keep two piles.  One unworthy bonfire wood, the other nice firewood grade.  Helps on down the line.
Kelvin

[Robert Long]

Thanks guys ;D
both of you have great ideas but I was looking for something that is perhaps on wheels or  moveable with a tractor and was dedicated to just the slab wood.

I got some ideas from what you have said....Thanks

Robert

[4woody]

Hey just make benchs with them

[Dave Shepard]

We have two cribs just outside the saw shed, one for hardwood, one for softwood. When they are full we put banding around them and set them down back. We now have an outdoor wood boiler, so I think it will go fast.


Dave

[Robert Long]

Dave;

How do you move your cribs around?  Are they like pallet skids and a fork lift is used?

I like the idea of using the slab for energy!!!

Thanks

Robert ;)

[Robert Long]

4Woody

My skills...............there would be a lot of benches short one leg :D :D

Robert

[tcsmpsi]

I cut some for firewood.  Some, folks want for craft and other projects.  I had a couple women come and take a whole rack for building horse stalls.  Generally, if they just want the slabs 'as is', they are welcome to them (always take some trade in consideration).  If I cut them to firewood, I charge, depending on who, what, how and again, trade consideration.

Most of it goes onto the old, upturned rack off my '65 GMC.  I can mark it and cut it to firewood lengths as deep as I wish.



When working by myself, I toss them off the feed side of the mill, toward the rack.  If someone else, is working w/me, they take them off the feed side and stack them as they go.

[Robert Long]

Tcsmpsi

Wow!  Thats one nice, neat pile of slab wood.   I would guess that's a pile of soft wood....Up here the logs of hard wood don't come that straight so we have short pieces of bark edge as well as wained slabs mixed in with the long ones.

Do you remove the boards the same way?
  ??? ??? ???

Robert

[tcsmpsi]

Most of it is SYP, but there is all kinds of stuff mixed in that stack.  Short, long, barked, debarked.  I just try to always fill in a void. 

The boards I take off on 'my' side.  I run (well, walk actually  ;D) the mill head down down the log/cant through the cut, if it's slab, I toss it (if it's not too big) off the feed side, if it's board I take if off my side and stack it, take the head back and go again.

You can kinda tell how it goes by the pics I posted in "....Now I have lights" a while ago.   The slab stack is 25-30' from the mill deck, toward the rear.

[Robert Long]

tcsmpsi ;D

Thanks for the details!!!!! :P

Robert

[Robert Long]

Hey, tcsmpsi ;)

We live in Tecumseh (pronounced...tecsmpsi) Ontario, Can. named after the great Native American chief Tecumseh who died in battle just east of here.

Is this just a name you gave yourself or is there a conection?

Robert :-\

[Polly]

 8) 8)you all might want to check this out , i have a neighbor that run a circle mill just retire ,he had been in business more then thirty years i was their about three years ago he lived back a lane close to a mile long their was hardwood slabs bundeled and stacked both sides of the lane all the way back to his mill , i went to see him about a month or to ago , the slabs were all gone and he was living in a new underground house , he said and i quote i sold the slabs to a company in western ky for thirty thousand dollars and used money to build my house , supposedly the slabs were to be used to make wood pellets for heating stoves  you all might want to chevk this out  :P :P ;) ;)

[Robert Long]

Polly

Wow! that's a lot of slab, I will never have that much to sell nor do I have a mile long drive to clutter. ;D

Robert

[Polly]

 8) 8)  mr meyers said they came in with flatbed semi trucks and hauled slabs away by the way his mill and eqpt is still for sale i know circle mills around here are just about a thing of the past :( :(

[beenthere]

Buzz_sawyer has a circle mill. Hopin he, his son, and daughter (off-bearer) are doin well. Buzz is also an off-the-grid member too, I believe.  I suspect he heats with his slabs.

[tcsmpsi]

Hey, tcsmpsi ;)

We live in Tecumseh (pronounced...tecsmpsi) Ontario, Can. named after the great Native American chief Tecumseh who died in battle just east of here.

Is this just a name you gave yourself or is there a conection?

Robert :-\

Well, it's always been said that there is a high probability of my dying in battle.   
But, fortunately, though rumor has, from time to time, given false witness, opportunities for that have been unsuccessful.   :D

As the WWW (internet) began and has continued as a business entity for my purpose, those are the initials of my 'main' business structures.

[Buzz-sawyer]

Buzz_sawyer has a circle mill. Hopin he, his son, and daughter (off-bearer) are doin well. Buzz is also an off-the-grid member too, I believe.  I suspect he heats with his slabs.

Hey beenthere.....still cirle sawin gallor here in Ill, and staying warm too....this year we built an outside forced air type wood stove.....usually running us outta the house at 0 degrees... 8) 8)

[Robert Long]

Hey Buzz-sawyer

Can you load that wood stove without cutting down the slabs into small pieces?

Robert

[Buzz-sawyer]

Robert you got the right idea for sure.
Next year the boiler is going at the end of the slab pile so I can grab a * foot slab and just chuck it in ....semms to make more sense that way doesnt it?? Right now they have to be 24 inches in the little rig I am using....ugggg. ;)

[farmerdoug]

I just have three 40x48 pallets in the row(the 48" in the row) with a couple inches in between them..  As I cut I pull the slabs and scraps and pile them on the pallets.  When the pile is as high as I want it I take the chainsaw and cut between the pallets.  The slabs are now 50 inches or less.  Then they are hauled over to the outdoor boiler to be burnt.  When I get the forks for my TLB buckets I am going to nail frames on the pallets and just move the whole pallet after it is cut off to the stove.

Farmerdoug

[Robert Long]

Buzz-sawyer & Farmerdoug;

On a similar note, we have a grapple and I load a yard trailer with slab and usually when it's too full I use the grapple to pick up a good amount of the slab and holding the pile in the air I cut fire wood size pieces from the outside to the middle for my brother to take home to burn.

It's not the work but the job....it's always when you have other things to do >:( : :-\

Robert

[Engineer]

I wasn't very neat and tidy when I sawed all the timbers and lumber for my new house.  All the slabs and sticks went into a big sloppy pile leaning up against a tree near the mill.  I've done various things with several stacks like that.  One stack is still full length and haphazardly piled up near my wood boiler, one stack got neatly sawed into 3' lengths and stacked, and another pile got sawed into 2' lengths and stacked.  I don't have a good system yet, and I haven't sawed a thing in a year because I've been too busy working and building.  All of the slabs and waste wood, however, goes into my outdoor boiler.  I have found that pieces over 3' are awkward and difficult to handle, and don't dry as well.  I'm a firm believer in thoroughly drying and stacking firewood for future use, and not trying to burn green wood right off the tree or the mill.  Plus, my dad lives next door, and he can't easily handle pieces over about 8" diameter and 20" long due to the size of his woodstove (and advancing age) so we try to "coordinate" firewood cutting now, so that every piece we cut can be used in either his woodstove (at maximum size) or in my wood boiler (where it's easy to handle).  The only thing I leave long (3-4') is small sticks and branch wood 2" diameter and smaller.  That's a good hot fire quickly, and only the really small tops and tips go in the chipper for mulch.  Around here, everything gets used, even the sawdust goes around the blueberry bushes or gets packed in old paper bags and tossed in the wood boiler.

[scsmith42]

Farmerdoug - GREAT IDEA!  Consider it "borrowed"  :D

Scott

[slowzuki]

The sawmill up the road has a harvestor bar on a conveyor and an electric motor with a few switches he rigged up.  The slabs edgings etc ride the conveyor and get chopped into 16" pieces automatically.  From there they fall into a metal bin that gets dumped roadside.  People clean up the slabs for him then.  A load rarely lasts over a few days.

I currently have a giant slab pile but also have pallets with sides that get tossed full of cut wood.  I burn soft wood slabs so it takes quite a bit of wood to keep the stove humming.

[Robert Long]

slowzuki ;D

Do you and your neighbour give away the slab at roadside?

Robert

[PineNut]

Before I got a FEL, I would pile my slabs on top of a chain beside the mill. When there was a pile of them, would wrap the chain around them, pick them up with the boom pole and drag them to a place where they could return to nature. But I don't have large quantities of them but do like to move them the easy way.

Now I stack them beside the mill (not too large of a pile) and move them with the FEL and later cut them up in firewood lengths, place on a pallet and move to the outdoor furnace.

[slowzuki]

I don't but he does.  He doesn't have any wood heat from what I can tell.  His kiln is all electric.
Ken

slowzuki ;D

Do you and your neighbour give away the slab at roadside?

Robert

[SwampDonkey]

Robert, maybe invest in an old manure spreader and take the bucked slabs off site to dump in a pile for customers? ;D

[farmerdoug]

scsmith42,

Just return it in the same condition as borrowed.  ;): :D :D :D :D

Glad the idea is helpful.  I tell you I love those outdoor boilers.  They sure have taken alot work out of cutting and spliting the firewood, haven't they. 8) 8)

Farmerdoug

[SwampDonkey]

It's great if ya have a sawmill for slabs to use in your outdoor boiler, but the poor buggers next door have a front yard full of enough long length wood to do me for 4 years. ;D :D :D They are heating the house and a shop, which might be hydroponics, with two. The farm that they had bought last summer was scalped hard by the previous owner (my neighbors since forever), so all the wood is trucked in. They may have a woodlot some place else, don't know. All I ever see them do is tend fires, with green wood.  ;D

[farmerdoug]

SD,

With my CB boiler I find that green wood burns good and I have less problems with creosote buildup in it.

Farmerdoug

[SwampDonkey]

Was wondering how many hours of heat from a load of that green wood in your boiler. I bet its a lot bigger than my load of wood. ;) I only use a couple arm loads (3 or 4 limbs, and 3 slabs-16-20") of dry seasoned wood and the auto fan runs continuous for up to 5 hours, then intermittent for 2-3hrs. If I want, I can go down and turn the manual fan on and I could get 10 hours or more out of it. I think the fan controls can be adjusted for temperature if I want to mess with them. I'm amazed at how much even 3 year old wood gives for heat. I had a couple of cord I put up front to use first. I filled up the furnace last night at 1 am and had fire until 8 am this morning. Was 90+ most of the night, too hot.  : I'd say I had intermittent fan from 6:30 am onward. Went down at 9:00 am and had a nice bed of coals to build the fire back up. If you have a big pile of stabs staring at you to be burned your not too concerned about supply and cost of your heating, but if you have to go cut it or buy it, the rose bed will not look so pretty. ;D

[Engineer]

With my CB boiler I find that green wood burns good and I have less problems with creosote buildup in it.

I've been finding just the opposite.  I got sick of the creosote buildup from burning wet, cold pine slabs and scraps from building, so I started in on some firewood that was cut and stacked three years ago when I started clearing for my house.  Bone-dry cherry, ash and sugar maple, almost has a ring to it when struck, and I can go a full 24 hours on a tractor-loader bucket full (I have a small tractor with a 54" bucket, so four or five good-size armloads).  That gets me a demand call for heat and a small but workable bed of coals 24 hours later.  I've been mixing the cold wet stuff in, one or two large pieces at a time.  I still don't have a lot of experience with the CB, but spending half an hour with it almost every day is teaching me what to do and what not to do, right quick.

Man I'll tell you, if you don't like being outdoors and working on firewood, an outdoor wood boiler is NOT for you....   ;D  But I think of the $2500 a year I'll be saving by not burning oil, and that goes a LONG way toward new saws and chains, tractor payments, and fun stuff around the house.

[farmerdoug]

SD,

All depends on what is being heated.  I currently heat the house and a 48x24 foot double poly covered greenhouse.  One load a day like engineer will do it.  The firebox is big enough to have to men sit on buckets in with no problem end empty in the summer.

Engineer, 
I have the same problem with dry pine pallets.  The creosote gums up the damper and blows the fuse.  Green hardwood burns out the creosote so it does not build up as fast.  I think it may because of the slower heatup of the water with green keeps the fire burning more.

Farmerdoug

[SwampDonkey]

 :D :D :D :D Well I'm just gonna keep my mouth shut with the green vs dry. All I know is there is some funky science going on. ;D

[LT40HDD51]

I've never had or heard of problems burning dry wood and getting bad creosote buildup in a conventional stove.  I'm quite sure that if green wood is allowed to sit and smoulder, creosote will build up extremely fast. If the stove/burner has forced air input, green wood is forced to burn hot = less emissions = less creosote. Fill it with dry wood that burns very easily and the fan isnt needed much and the wood will smoulder = more emissions = more creosote. That's probably why the "Wood Doctor" type stoves are getting rejected in some places because of the smoke and poor air quality.

Something else interesting for ya: wood all puts out the same btu's of heat per weight. Good wood = dense wood.

[SwampDonkey]

I agree.

I use dry wood and all there is a little wisp of smoke when the fire starts up and soon goes to nearly nothing. The neighbors burning green wood in their outdoor furnaces has a yard full of smoke. It was worst when they were burning green cedar slabs, never seen nothing like it. In a south wind if I open my kitchen window my house is full of 'green' smoke from their yard. ;D :D

[Robert Long]

That's all great stuff people

My question is how is the slab handled off the mill and into the wood stove?

I soon will start welding up a rack to put the slab as it comes off the mill, can someone offer suggestions for a better mouse trap ???

Robert

[SwampDonkey]

 :D :D Bare hands, blood, sweat, and shovel and ash pale. ;D

[farmerdoug]

 : :D :D :D :D

[PineNut]

I have been placing the slabs in a pile and cutting to firewood lengths. Then loading them onto a pallet where they stay until they go into the furnace. It is only half bad to handle one slab. But when you cut it into firewood lengths, then there are many pieces to pick up and load.

I am going to try something else and see if it will work better. Going to load the slabs lengthwise on a 3 x 8 ft pallet. For slabs longer that 8 ft, will place two pallets end to end and then cut the slabs to fit. Then will take the slabs to the furnace (still in 8 ft lengths.) Now plan to cut the slabs into firewood lengths just before I burn them. Probably not cut them all at one time as they would not stay on the pallet and you would have a big mess.


This is a 3 x 6 ft pallet (loaded with firewood, not slabs) I use at the present. Of course you need a FEL to use this procedure.

[mike_van]

Down here there's been new zoning regs past for outdoor furnaces, if your chimney is less than 500' from your property line, you get turned down. Too many people use these like trash dumps, burn everything they can find, and it's usually wet. Smoke pours out of some so bad it looks like a plane crash. 

[SwampDonkey]

Well an example, and not an outdoor furnace, but a burn barrel. The neighbor upwind was burning all their office refuge from there business, plus the diapers from their baby. That was going downwind to my brothers where he had to breath that mess until my brother got after the Environment. Imagine smelling old dirty wet diapers burning.  : Some people mock recycling services and toss recyclables in barrels or incinerators to burn and call it 'recycling'.

[RMay]

     
                                                                                                                                    I burn the most of my slabs there pine and most people want burn pine   :(                                 

[LT40HDD51]

Thats the way  ;D Especially with the edger flitches...

I like pine nut's pic, its like what we do. Get big pallets and build a little simple rack on it so you can fill it with slabs and move it with forks, cover with small cheap Crappy Tire tarps. Then hire the neighbour kid, teach him how to run a chainsaw, and let him fill em all day long 

[wiam]

My slab rack is made out of wood.  If the chainsaw drops too far when making a cut it only marks the wood. 

I have no experience with other outdoor boilers.  When I bought my central boiler the dealer told me it was like no wood stove I had run before.(He was right)  Green hardwood is my choice this time of year. 

Will

[Robert Long]

Some more great ideas 8)

Thanks to all of you who have offered suggestions so far!

This rack I am planning I hope will be mounted to wheels and a hitch so I can move it around with the tractor.

I will get pictures after it is built and when I figure out how to post the pics :-[ :-\ :'(

Robert

[jpgreen]

     
                                                                                                                                    I burn the most of my slabs there pine and most people want burn pine   :(                                 

I'll use pine slabs for firewood any day, as it burns hot, and has no ash hardly cause it's all sap wood.  I actually prefer it to many types of firewood these days, slabs that is.  Easy to stack, easy to carry, and the greener stuff mixed with dry makes for a long lasting hot fire..  8)

[SwampDonkey]

Maybe enough of it could be used to influence the outside air temperature. Well, maybe in the vicinity of the yard. ;D

[LT40HDD51]

When I worked in Halifax, the HRM was under quarantine for the brown longhorn spruce beetle. We bought our chipper for that job, chipped a lot of contaminated slabs to be composted.

[SwampDonkey]

[Dana]

FarmerDoug, Are you burning pallets? If so, how many does it take for say a 12 hour burn?

[farmerdoug]

Dana,  I burn pallets in the fall.  What I do is replace the pallets that I use in the greenhouses every year so I have a big pile of them in the fall.  At that time I am just heating the house and if it gets down to 25°F running the heat lines in the greenhouses to keep them from freezing.  I can heat with about 4-40x48 pallets cut in half for 12-18 hours.  At this time I am heating one greenhouse so pallets will not do it.  If I was heating just a house then I could burn pallets most of the winter unless it is as cold as it has been lately.  Burning pallets would work in our house down to about 12°F but our house is old and poorly insulated.  I know a few people that heat with pallets most of the winter around here.

Are you thinking of burning pallets?  They are easy to find around here in the spring, summer, and fall but when it drops below freezing everyone grabs them.

Farmerdoug

[slowzuki]

I spoke to a fellow who chips slabs and uses them in a stroker chip boiler for his house.  He hires the chipping to a neighbour who has a bigger version of the same boiler and uses it to heat his house, shop, and barns.

The first fellow bought his boiler in 1989 and it has been running ever since with very little maintenance.  It has a forced draft fan that blasts air at the chip cup like a pellet stove then when no heat is demanded it just pushes a few chips out every 10 minutes as a pilot.

[farmerdoug]

Slowzuki,  Do you remember what the make of the guys boiler was?

Farmerdoug

[clif]

There was a post last Feb titled " firewood jigs" That had some good ideas made from metal and one that I made from wood.  I do not know how to reference, but maybe some one else does. Clif

[SwampDonkey]

Code Select Expand

[url=https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=16462.0] Firewood Jig[/url]


Firewood Jig

[Dana]

Doug, I hadn't thought of heating with pallets until you mentioned it. There are a lot of throw-out pallets  at the stores in our area. free for the taking. Sounds like it could be an alternative when wanted. Just have to watch the nails in the ashes.

[Engineer]

I've got a local feed store that uses and gets rid of a lot of pallets.  Usually the owner just builds a big bonfire with 'em in one of his fields, but I can get 'em for nothing if I want them.  I usually pile up a couple dozen, use 'em for firewood, use 'em for stacking firewood on, and just general convenience, keeping stuff off the ground.  For firewood, I head out with a cordless sawzall and sharp blade, just cut 'til the battery dies.  I can get through five or six pallets, don't have to worry about killing a saw chain, gives me something to do while tending the fire.

[farmerdoug]

In Michigan a big pile of pallets burning will get you a visit from the fire dept and the DNR.  It is illegal to open burn processed products in Michigan.  Logs, stumps and brush are ok but no lumber, paper, trash, etc, And maybe slabs too.  You can burn pallets for a small bonfire for a party though.  The fines have been quite big for companies her in Mcihigan doing that.  When I first started as a carpenter a builder had a pile of scrap from several houses in one pile.  One Saturday while we were framing a house the builder set the pile on fire.  Within 20 minutes there was 6 fire depts there putting it out.  The fire depts charged him around 10,000 dollars for putting it out and the DNR nailed him for 20 grand in fines.  On top of this he had a half burnt pile to load in dumpster to get rid of too. :

Farmerdoug

[Robert Long]

THANKS SWAMPDONKY FOR SHOWING ME THE SITE ON SLAB WOOD FRAMES....

THATS WHAT I NEEDED TO SEE AND IT GAVE ME LOTS OF GREAT IDEAS FOR MINE.

ROBERT ;D

[Qweaver]

[quote
In Michigan a big pile of pallets burning will get you a visit from the fire dept and the DNR.  It is illegal to open burn processed products in Michigan. 

I could not live in a place that would not allow me to burn clean materials like pallets.   I know people that burn tires and all sorts of trash at night so that the smoke can not be seen and that sucks...but pallets?

[Engineer]

Yeah, that's a bit off base.  Almost "californian" if you ask me.   :D

I do know that you need a burn permit from the local fire dept. to burn a brush pile, which may include any kind of untreated or unpainted wood - regardless of where it is on the "processed" scale.  Stumps, pallets, brush, slabs, leaves, ornate chestnut crown moldings, whatever.   ;D   Plywood and other termite barf with lots of glue, is a bit of a gray area.   As far as pressure-treated lumber scraps, I hate to bring them to the transfer station and toss 'em in a dumpster, because I know that the dumpsters head for an incinerator/energy plant in NY, so I toss small scraps (1 or 2 board feet total) in the outdoor boiler about once a week.  At that rate it'll take me decades to go through a fair size pile, but it beats the alternatives.

I actually don't "open burn" or bury stumps either.  I have a big pile that has been sitting in the open for a couple of years, and every so often I'll drag a big one out of the pile and hack it up for firewood.  Burns forever in the wood boiler.

[stonebroke]

treated wood is poison. By putting any amount in your boiler you are contaminating all you ashes. You can kill livestock by putting the ashes anyplace they can get to. I would rather put it in the trash and let people Handle it the way it should be.

[farmerdoug]

I do not know what basis they have on controling what is burnt here but that is the law.  They will nail you anywhere in the state for it.  The wood around here anyways is ground and sent to electric generators plants.  It is ground for mulch too.  Dumping wood in the dump is banned also.  After all we have to save our dumps for Canada and other states to fill. :

I burn just about all my wood scraps in the boiler too.  Brush is piled up near the woods for the rabbits or left were it is cut in the woods.  Treated wood I do not burn in the boiler.  Burning piles of wood is really stupid in this state as many people heat with wood and will gladly take it for free.  I know quite a few people that burn pallets in boilers and regular stoves.

Look at Bibbyman,  He has everyone wanting slabs and he is alot farther south of me.

Farmerdoug

[Engineer]

treated wood is poison. By putting any amount in your boiler you are contaminating all you ashes. You can kill livestock by putting the ashes anyplace they can get to. I would rather put it in the trash and let people Handle it the way it should be.

I did a bunch of quick research online since you posted this.  I guess you're right, I shouldn't burn ANY of it.  However - it's going to sit in a landfill and become a contaminant there as well.  Either way, whether the chemicals leach out over time in the landfill, or become concentrated in ash and THEN put in the landfill, it's an issue.  I can tell you right now, my local transfer station will NOT accept the stuff in either the brush pile or anywhere except in the regular trash truck.  Where does it go?  An incinerator.  I hope the incinerator can take care of the chemicals, otherwise by not taking care of my own problem, I've created a problem somewhere else. 

The solution, of course, is not to use pressure-treated wood at all, ever.  But I have a pile of it that I've been slowly picking away at for five years, and I've probably gotten rid of less than 20 lb of the stuff over that period of time.  I really don't know what else to do.  At least the ash won't be mixed in with compost or anything.

[stonebroke]

It is still safer to have it in a lined landfill than out in the enviroment especially your environment.

Stonebroke

[Ianab]

The problem with the treated wood ash is that the chromium / arsenic / copper that was used to preserve it is left in the ash after the wood is burnt. Buried deep in a landfill it's pretty harmless (it was dug out of the ground to begin with after all), but dumped around your yard where your animals or kids could ingest it.. not so good.

I would imagine the ash from the rubbish incinerator is a pretty toxic mess anyway and would be buried in a proper landfill. A few more metal salts mixed in wont make it much worse  :

Cheers

Ian

[PineNut]

Maybe you can clean the ashes out of the outdoor boiler, burn a batch of treated wood. Then take those ashes and bag them for the trash. But I would watch out which way the smoke is going.

[farmerdoug]

Pinenut,

That would be the worst thing.  Most of the metals will be in the ashes.  When you remove the ash you will get it in or on yourself and that is bad.  The best bet is to send it in the trash little by little.  At the incinerator the workers will be dress properly to deal with any containments in the ash.  I fact you should wear gloves when working with treated wood too.  And the slivers from it burn like heck too.

Farmerdoug

[stonebroke]

I just cut the pieces of treated wood up into foot long pieces and put it in with the regular trash. You would be amazed at how much you can get rid of in a few months.

Stonebroke

[Furby]

Doug, you're gonna have to show the law you speak of.
There is a tractor/engine/whatever business not to far from the fire department/police station here.
Large city, heavy controls.
He piles up and burns all his pallets and some cardboard in a field about a 100 yards or so from the buildings.
Gonna say average height is 12' and 20' in dia. Burns the piles with a burn permit several times a year, no problems.
I know of many others as well.

It is illegal in MI to place yard waste in landfills, they must go to recycling centers.
That is grass clippings, garden weeds, leaves, branches, logs and such.

The proccesed wood is allowed in landfills.
That is boards or anything of that type, pallets included.

It's also legal to burn your own trash.

[farmerdoug]

Furby,

That is interesting.  I will look to find the law.  I know that you can burn trash but it has to be in an container ie. burning barrel, etc.

Farmerdoug

[farmerdoug]

Furby, I found this link on the DNR site but the DEQ must be having problems as anything they have will not load right now.  I will look again tonight.

deq-aqd-open-burning-brochure

Farmerdoug

[farmerdoug]

Here is a link that is working to the MDNR on open burning.  The mentions what is allowed under a burning permit.

issued only for burning leaves, brush and stumps

Farmerdoug

[farmerdoug]

Here is another MDNR link.

open burning ordinance

The MDEQ site is still down.  That is were the best info is.  Furby,  I guess maybe the local government lets you get away with open burning of trash but not in our area.  Maybe you guys are burning on borrowed time there.

Farmerdoug

[Dana]

The fire departments up here still practice burn houses and barns up here.

[farmerdoug]

Dana,  The burning of buildings for fire dept practice is allowed under the MDNR ordinance.  They do that here too.

Farmerdoug

[mike_van]

Here in Ct., towns with a pop. of under 5000 can still open burn, brush only, smaller than 3" it says on the permit.  So, if you happen to be in a remote corner of a bigger town, you're outta luck.   On that treated wood - The firechief told me years ago that burning CCA wood gave off hydrogen cyanide in the smoke - not a good thing - I got a face full at work on a pole fire one day, it will really put a hurtin on you - Not like campfire smoke, thats for sure -  smiley_hanged