Chipping sawmill waste?

[customsawyer]

The big mill I cut for has a man come in and grind my slabs. He runs a Mobark 6600. One thing that most don't think about is the how much fuel one of these grinders use. This is a picture of 3 months of slabs that he ground up in two days and used a little over 850 gallons of diesel. The pile don't look to big in the picture but if you look close it is a little taller than the power lines beside it.



 

[ozarkgem]

The big mill I cut for has a man come in and grind my slabs. He runs a Mobark 6600. One thing that most don't think about is the how much fuel one of these grinders use. This is a picture of 3 months of slabs that he ground up in two days and used a little over 850 gallons of diesel. The pile don't look to big in the picture but if you look close it is a little taller than the power lines beside it.



 

So do they come and get the mulch or sell it in place? Don't think I will be buying one of those. Can't afford the mileage.

[Peter Drouin]

That is a pile. Do you know what the end use is.

[customsawyer]

Boiler fuel for a bioenergy plant.

[Magicman]

 

 
Here is one that I encountered in Colorado in 2013.  The timber crew boss told me that this machine cost $750,000, had a 1050 HP engine, used 600 gallons of Diesel each day, and made $1.00 per second when it was operating.   

[Ron Wenrich]

There was an logging operator around my parts that would clearcut in front of strip mines.  He had a whole tree chipper that could load a chip van in 20 minutes.  He put out about 20 loads a day. 

[Mooseherder]

The Mill I bought used this Chipper to get rid of the flitches.  He said there was 10 grand worth of chips trucked to the Bio generation plant after we moved the mill offsite.  It runs off belts and pulleys and is geared down on it's final drive from the Mill motor that also drives the Resaw and Edger.   



 

[ozarkgem]

Boiler fuel for a bioenergy plant.

I wonder if there is more energy in the chips than it took to make them.

[Dewey]

I have my Slabs Ground each year I have a outfit that comes in with their equipment....  this year they did 19 trailer loads got paid $400 per load.... works for me and gets the yard cleaned up...

[Peter Drouin]

I have my Slabs Ground each year I have a outfit that comes in with their equipment....  this year they did 19 trailer loads got paid $400 per load.... works for me and gets the yard cleaned up...

You must cut a lot of lumber to fill 19 TT loads of chips.

[paul case]

I have my Slabs Ground each year I have a outfit that comes in with their equipment....  this year they did 19 trailer loads got paid $400 per load.... works for me and gets the yard cleaned up...

How do you stack them up? In bundles?

I have a notion to try to get someone to commit to grinding mine that way lat next summer. I would pile them up here for something like that. I like to keep it cleaned up so it may be a challenge to maintain a tidy yard with 400 tons of slabs piled up.

PC

[paul case]

I have done some more checking into this. I found that there are 2 outfits that make mulch in my area. 1 is a bagger that also sells bulk. They sell to companies like Lowes and Walmart. The other is a company sells bulk and does a lot of TT load deliveries. Neither one is interested in grinding my slabs here. I would have to set up my own grinder and a way to load a 12' tall trailer to be able to sell my chips for $400 a TT load. I never could get a straight answer on how many tons a load was.

I guess for now I will continue selling my slabs for firewood at $10 a bundle(ton) and in the summer when it wont sell I will pile it on some brush or stumps that I want to burn out. :-\

PC

[okmulch]

Paul, if you weren't so far away we might have been able to work something out and I could bring my grinder up there and made those slabs disappear.

[Dewey]

I saw pretty much 6 days a week.... not countin breakdowns ect..!!    I pile them at the end of the Mill I can saw 2 days before moving them.. I use a Pulp truck to pick them up and transport them to the "spot" then unload and pile as high as I can...  I would post pictures but have not figured out how to yet... I do have a video on my Facebook page of the pile and the grinding.... Deweys Lumber...I usually get between 15 and 20 loads per year

[Dewey]

Ohhhh another thing.... its all Cedar and used for mulch

[ellmoe]

. I never could get a straight answer on how many tons a load was.



PC

  About 25 Tons/load

[Bandmill Bandit]

I have one customer that brings his own chipper and chips what ever I have at the time that hasn't gone to self serve firewood at $50 per pickup load. (3/4 ish cord I would estimate)

He pays the same price and generally takes away 2 or 3 tandem grain truck loads with the silage racks in place which is about $400 worth. I do nothing. He has been here 2 times this year and hes taken all my sawdust at $50 bucks a tote this year too. think hes picked up 25 of 30 totes of saw dust so far. His chipper makes the chips pretty fine and I assume he uses it for bedding or maybe heating. I don't really know.   

I just know it pretty much pays my insurance.   

[Dewey]

I went back and looked at slips My loads varied from 12.5-22.1 tons per tractor trailer load...
I would assume the lighter loads were from the tops of piles or older slabs .... these chips were from white Cedar