Wood supply

Despite living in an area where there is a lot of logging, I am having trouble locating any “scrap” wood. My bro in law is still supplying me with free wood ( that is good) But all of his wood is Poplar and although when it is sawed and dried, it is hard to drive a nail in, I feel it is not a good hard wood for gasifying. A 50 lb feed bag holds 18# of gasifier wood. I have been scouting around for a source of hard wood. The wood industry has changed and they have NO SCRAP wood. I went to 4 wood manufacturing companies this week. They all are selling the scraps to be chipped up. My Bro use to give the bundles of “slab” wood away, but charged $10 a bundle to deliver ( people like the free part) Now the guys with the chippers are paying $15 a bundle and they pick up. Down near Green Bay I pass a company that has huge piles of palates that they are chipping in a big tub grinder. I don’t know what they do with the nails. A neighbor has a large fleet of close simi trailers. He leaves them at the many saw mills in the area and they blow the saw dust into his trailer. He takes it to his plant and dries the sawdust and trucks it down to Chicago. What are they doing with all these chips and sawdust? Is that what OSB board is made of?TomC

1 Like

OSB board, particle board (look at how much “furniture” any given Mall-Wart has and most of that is particle), paper pulp, “pressto” logs, animal bedding… You name it.

Sorry about your fuel shortage. I wish my 1947 Ferguson was up to a trans atlantic delivery.

My chunks are a bit shattered (some gets split) in the end, but not as much as from a rim chunker. I think I can live with that.
I’m more worried about fuel size. I think 3/4 of the chunks are from 1" to 2" in both length and dia. Some are smaller and some slips thru a little longer. Dia is never over 2" because the chunker says NO. Are you saying this is to big? A admit they look a little big on the picture. Or are you refering to my earlier rebak video? That was kind of showing off max dia and the chunker did struggle.
I can always hold back the limb, not letting the beast bite off full length chunks. I already do that with thin limbs. They tend to get a little to long if I don’t.

1 Like

Some logging is going on next to my place .

Small gasifier sized wood on the ground as far as I can see . I think there is 400 plus acres being cut .

2 Likes

Good morning Wayne K, I can see why you Alabama riders need 4/4 trucks,just too keep from sinking in the mud,lots a rain this year.did you folks get extra rain this year as we did here in Michigan,or did you get some of the drought from Texas? Are trees never got any bugs this year due too all the rain i think.Watch out for rattlers looking for new homes being that close.

Morning Kevin .

As far as weather we had a typical year. :sunglasses:

That look like a really neat sawmill Wayne,and no less not store bought, right?

1 Like

Hello Glenn,

( and no less not store bought, right? )

Poor folks have poor ways :grin: About $25 of it was store bought .

Sawing white oak today

.

Handling 2x12x16 foot green white oak will make you sleep good at night :joy:

10 Likes

I see some good driving on the slabs from that baby!!! A friend came over yesterday and we cut and split 3 cords of downed red oak, Would liked to get some truck wood out of it, but the fireplace will eat good on cold winter nights.TomC

Hello Mr. Tom.

" I see some good driving on the slabs from that baby!!! "

I only made a couple hundred bucks on the sawing job but it has some benefits. There were enough slabs to heat the house two or three days and we chunked enough chunks to run a vehicle two or three thousand miles :joy:

You can see in the picture below the wife and I have gotten lazy in our old age . We are both sitting on the job.

3 Likes

wonder how long it will take for the white oak to go under 20% MC?

1 Like

I understand the sitting. After running a “splitter” all day through 3 cords of wood my back is killing me. Unlike you, I’m retired so I can rest up/TomC

2 Likes

I’m sure Wayne will comment more accurately, but I’ve heard him say green hardwoods, once chunked and spread on tins can be ready in 3 days of clear dry weather.

1 Like

And I’ll say smart on the sitting when you can with the wood-sweating.
Up to the sixth cord in now for winter firewood now. First three were oldman easy done by myself. 4-5 hours a day in my normal now “siesta-time” out on the machine stacked tops ‘n rots piles, cutting, then into the truck rounds loading from 3:00 PM to dark. Next early afternoon after dew-down burn off then off the truck, splitter breaking down and stacked into the wood shed.
Did this skip, every other day to keep the sore muscles and cramps minimized.
Wife took pity on me and gave the buget money to hire the neighbor 18 year old new high school graduate youngman to help.
Ha! Now these last 3 cords in have really been sweat-hurting teaching this young man good and safe work techniques and ethics.
Ha! So out of laid back retirement I’ve had to come.
Wood sweating ain’t so bad if a fellow does it enough daily to get, then keep constantly in shape,
This to much couch sitting reading, then back up to sweatin’ speed is the real pain-in-the-back. And the hips. And the knees.
Seems as we age and get closer to heaven, first we must be humbled back down low to the ground first. Humility giving back true Respect for Ma’ natures bounty.
Finally had a rainy day off to recover strengthen. Sun be back out in a few more hours and then back at it.
Leaves 50% drought early off this year already. Sun’s up and down later and earlier now too.
Wood down and sitting will just get wetter and wetter now until next June,
This is the mad hustle squirrel-it-away time of the year before Old Man Winter rules the roost.
Regards
Steve unruh

4 Likes

Hello Joseph .

According to my little mickey mouse moisture meter the wood we chunked Monday is down to about 20%.

The wood we chunked yesterday afternoon reads 35-40%.

1 Like

Steve out of all the things you have written about on here, I can relate to this the most. I confess I had some GREAT help. A relative came with all the goodies, splitter, wagon, gator. That all should have made it easy for me. But oh contrary. He went like a house afire and when my back was killing me and my knees were aching, and my head was throbbing, he saw more that we could do before dark.TomC

1 Like

Talking about saving backs.

4 Likes

Yeah some plastic shopping bags are now made with celulose mixed in with the plastic from sugarcane or corn so that they breakdown quickly after their first use.Havent been able to see any labeling telling me which bags do and dont tho.

1 Like

Good morning all.

I don’t need anymore wood for home heat or the gasifiers but I hate to just pile out my sawmill slabs to rot. The slabs were so close and handy to the chunker that I couldn’t resist .

I belive I chunked enough this week to drive coast to coast.

5 Likes

Wow Wayne you have a lot of fuel!!!

This is a video of my finger nail clipper (power hatchet) in action!

Thought you guys might get a kick out of it, you have to watch it at least a minute to get it!! Herb H

10 Likes