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My slab pile is out of hand!

Started by hackberry jake, July 24, 2012, 05:56:51 PM

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hackberry jake

How many of you have a market for your slabs, or at least a use for your slabs. I have gas heat so I dont burn slabs that much. Just in the stove in the shop. I am thinking about getting a pull-behind chipper big enough to chip my slabs, but thats a big expense that I dont know if I would recoupe. We use mulch in our garden, but I make all I need for the garden in about two full days of running our 5hp briggs chipper.
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mikeb1079

jake i ran into this problem too, i had way more slab wood than i could ever use.  my solution was to cut it into firewood and i'll be installing a wood burning stove to heat our house this fall.  i'm looking forward to using these formerly annoying byproducts of my milling.... 8)
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123maxbars

I have a few things I do with my slabs to get rid of them. Some that are decent/clear of knots, SYP for example I will take some extra time and take a draw kinfe and peel the bark off. I then try to get them to about the same width if possible and sale them as siding for barns,checken coops etc to people who like the log cabin look. They usually don't care if they are green and will shirnk a little. Some request the bark to stay on. I also advertise them on craigslist and sale by the truck load for bonfires etc.  If you have the time and can be creative you can actually get some money out of them, hope this helps.
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Mark Wentzell

What about one of the briquette making machines available? You could grind the slabs press them into briquettes and then sell them. Not sure if there'd be much of a market for them. I guess it would depend on what species you have too. 


Just a thought.

redbeard

If you dont stay on it the pile build up can turn into a bigger job plus a  mess. Firewood is your best option. Sell it or offer it for free. The bark that falls off is my biggest headache it dulls my 3 pt chippers blades quickly ive been burnning what I can lately before the dry burn ban weather comes(been a weird summer over here.) I have sold some of the straight and thick ones for siding and fencing too. Rent a trailer chipper before you buy one there nice but spendy and pricey to maintain.
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Riggs

A guy up the road from me has offered to park a trailer at my little mill for what slabs I have for firewood. I don't saw alot, but may take him up on it. Campgrounds sometimes sell firewood and may be willing to take some from you.
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wormy

you could get a good chipper and bag the shavings. there is a guy up the road that does that. lots of people buy them for barn stals and dog lots. he said he makes more money on shavings than lumber during certian times of the year.

beenthere

wormy
There have been some shavers listed for sale. But they run pretty good money and need a fair amount of support equipment. But the shaving idea could be a good one....
Just won't get shavings out of a chipper. ;)
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wormy

my bad. thanks for correcting me there. and if you didnt want to bag sell by the truck load.

Indiana Robinson

This site might have some useful ideas for a few guys. A good neighbor and I almost went this route a few years ago. I had a mountain of wood chips and we were both using pellet stoves.
There is a wide price range on the site.
http://www.pelletpros.com/id68.html


.
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Have worn a lot of hats.
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Magicman

Mulching the garden with non-composted chips can lead to getting your soil out of whack.

Since we have mild Winters and a abundance of Oak firewood, most of our slabs are simply burned in bonfires, etc.


 
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xlogger

I got us an outdoor water heater earlier this year and got it going when the winter was over. So I'm starting to cut up the slabs now for next winter. There is so much waste wood around the mill we use it so far for just heating the water and hot tub at our house.
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slider

I agree with mm on this one be careful about  getting your garden loaded up with too much carbon .I mixed some saw dust that had not composted properly and hurt my tomatoes.
al glenn

Sixacresand

I cut the oak slabs into firewood and I give it to folks who are not able to do themselves.  I put a tarps over pine slab piles and when its raining I'll snatch the tarps and burn them.  Ideally, the chip mill down the street from me could take them.  They probably chip up more trees in a minute than i would saw up in two years. They probably have a good laugh if I pulled in with a 70's era pulp wood truck load of slaps.   LOL
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Ron Wenrich

You could use a hog instead of a chipper.  The product on the other end is a shredded mulch.  Much more salable then slabs and edging strips.  Also, less maintenance than a chipper.  They're not as particular on dirt.

We send our chips to a mill that reduces them to mulch through a big hog.  The softwoods are sold as animal bedding.  The hardwoods are sold as mulch, but it is also used for such things as playground bedding and for horse riding rinks.  The mulch has a pretty good market in most areas.  And the value is much higher than just for slabs.
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craigc

I have a friend that runs a woodmizer 8+ hrs a day.  He has the same problem with slabs he can sell a little firewood but does not get rid of the bulk.  He has looked into everything that has been talked about here none of it is finacially fesiable.  I have told him there is only one solution.  Burn It!
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paul case

2 local sawmills handle this problem different ways.
1 bought a huge hog and is making mulch and sells it for only $300 semi load.
1 has set up a huge boiler and makes all its own energy to steam dry walnut lumber. they also have to grind it before it works in their system.
Both are very expensive to set up and operate and I don't think either will work for a set up like mine.

My solution has been to cut as much as I can sell into firewood but in the last year I dont have the time, so it gets bundled and sold for $10 to $15 per bundle. A mild winter made me come to April with 20 bundles sitting on the lot. I gave them to my dad who burned out a bunch of old stumps with them. Now I have 25 or more bundles sitting there and I am making more every day. I can make as much as 2 bundles a day but usually just 1.
The best solution with the least equipment I have heard of is making those small bundles of firewood like Busy Beaver does. I just don't have the market or the time. PC
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mjl_2007

I put them into a rack while I am sawing (about 4' wide x 4' high) and when that is full I band them and sell the bundle as firewood. I get $30-35 per bundle for hardwoods and don't have much of a problem getting rid of them.  I can't hardly give away the pine slabs though  :-\

Meadows Miller

Gday

With hardwood it will go into firewood as usual but with Pine and Cypress I am going to let it pile up then get a tub or drum grinder in which ever works out cheapest to grind it into either bedding or boilerfuel  ;) :D ;D 8) I can get stuff ground here at about $6 a yard/cubic meter Im still thinking of maby getting a small pallet plant and putting it through and making wood pallets out of it also  .My thinking is that instead of running a chipper inline with the mill and having maint and running costs daily I can just get the grinder in every time I get up enough for a days grindin and get it gone in a day  ;)

Regards Chris
4TH Generation Timbergetter

Meadows Miller


I'll add Biomass is becoming a big business in its own rite with alot more growth to come in the future  :) :)
4TH Generation Timbergetter

xulgiy

This won't do you any good in your local, but up north it goes pretty qucik to maple syrup producers.  They band them in half cord bundles and sell them for around $25.

Any molasses producers around??

nlrwrangler

Quote from: hackberry jake on July 24, 2012, 05:56:51 PM
How many of you have a market for your slabs, or at least a use for your slabs. I have gas heat so I dont burn slabs that much. Just in the stove in the shop. I am thinking about getting a pull-behind chipper big enough to chip my slabs, but thats a big expense that I dont know if I would recoupe. We use mulch in our garden, but I make all I need for the garden in about two full days of running our 5hp briggs chipper.

jake

for all you hard wood slabs I have a guy that would come and pick them up from you if you have a way to load them. 

call me and I will give you his number. 

Ron Wenrich

Quote from: paul case on July 25, 2012, 07:06:53 AM
1 bought a huge hog and is making mulch and sells it for only $300 semi load.



We get more than that for our sawdust.  Our bark is going for $750/load and we don't age it or double grind it.  Sometimes you have to spend time in marketing.  Your waste shouldn't be dragging you down.
Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

craigc

Jake,  If you are making money sawing and can stay busy 8+ hours a day why would you stop sawing so you can sell firewood?  Saw as much as you can, sell slabs on a saturday morning.  This is what we do with mulch we don't like selling it during the week it takes us away from production. We have a chipper, debarker and a grinder to dump cutoffs and slab racks into but we still burn some material.  I understand you are wanting to maximize your product and don't want to waste the log. But if you are getting the most out of the log, lumber wise be proud of that and don't worry so much about waste.
Rottne SMV, Timbco with Logmax 9000, JD 540B Grapple.

hackberry jake

Thanks for all the input fellas. I probably saw about 8hrs a month. Mainly for myself and friends an family. I have about decided that I'm just going to rent a big chipper for a weekend and process as many slabs as I can into mulch for the garden next year. U guys are a wealth of information! 8)
https://www.facebook.com/TripleTreeWoodworks

EZ Boardwalk Jr. With 20hp Honda, 25' of track, and homemade setworks. 32x18 sawshed. 24x40 insulated shop. 30hp kubota with fel. 1978 Massey ferguson 230.

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