advice on milling dirty wood

[gensetsteve]

I have been milling poplar to make kindling and have been offered 75 tonnes that will be skidded through a river and muddy bank. Obviously it will blunt the mizer blades. Jonathan advised jet wash which would be a good idea. Considering its a low profit job is it worth the time and hassle or would you pass it by ?

[Big J]

I'd say it's not worth it. I'm just getting my teeth stuck into some nice poplar from Tom D, which has been forwarded rather than skidded. Consequently, it's very clean, but I'm still giving it a once over with the pressure washer as it only takes a bad strike on one pebble to ruin a band. Also, it would appear I can easily do an entire day on one band (180 odd cube of sleepers and posts, lots of firewood!).

 

The larger mills have debarkers - like a massive lathe which strips all the bark from the log. Still wouldn't be really worth it for kindling grade wood.

 

Are there any other forwarding options? The seller is going to struggle to sell it to anyone if it's plastered in mud and grit.

 

Jonathan

[gensetsteve]

I'd say it's not worth it. I'm just getting my teeth stuck into some nice poplar from Tom D, which has been forwarded rather than skidded. Consequently, it's very clean, but I'm still giving it a once over with the pressure washer as it only takes a bad strike on one pebble to ruin a band. Also, it would appear I can easily do an entire day on one band (180 odd cube of sleepers and posts, lots of firewood!).

 

The larger mills have debarkers - like a massive lathe which strips all the bark from the log. Still wouldn't be really worth it for kindling grade wood.

 

Are there any other forwarding options? The seller is going to struggle to sell it to anyone if it's plastered in mud and grit.

 

Jonathan

 

Debarkers what when why how much don't tell my wife she will have 3. Sounds ideal. Looking at the job yesterday I was thinking I don't want this even if its free due to the hassle of jet washing and paying for transport. The other thing I noticed is the trees are spaced out and not very straight. Ie knots and bends.

[gensetsteve]

I'd say it's not worth it. I'm just getting my teeth stuck into some nice poplar from Tom D, which has been forwarded rather than skidded. Consequently, it's very clean, but I'm still giving it a once over with the pressure washer as it only takes a bad strike on one pebble to ruin a band. Also, it would appear I can easily do an entire day on one band (180 odd cube of sleepers and posts, lots of firewood!).

 

The larger mills have debarkers - like a massive lathe which strips all the bark from the log. Still wouldn't be really worth it for kindling grade wood.

 

Are there any other forwarding options? The seller is going to struggle to sell it to anyone if it's plastered in mud and grit.

 

Jonathan

 

180 cube = 60 cubic metres = 6000 bags of kindling shame your not closer

[Big J]

I thought that the debarkers rotated the log but apparently not:

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5hjaxQ2xuU]Log debarking machine | Exports of round wood pine logs from Ukraine - YouTube[/ame]

 

Skip to about a minute to see it in action.

 

If you can get the timber for free, then consider it, but it's not worth it otherwise. It would take an age to pressure wash it.

[Big J]

180 cube = 60 cubic metres = 6000 bags of kindling shame your not closer

 

That's cubic feet Steve. 180 cubic foot is about 5 cubic metres, so 500 bags of kindling. Sleeper cutting is very time consuming though (as I've found out), as there is a vast amount of handling and very little repetitive cutting. You take a cut, off load the firewood slab, rotate. Take a cut, off load the firewood slab, rotate. Take a cut, off load the firewood slab, rotate. Take a cut, off load the firewood slab, take your cut at 200mm, rotate. Finally cut at 306mm, 203mm and then 100mm. That's assuming you are starting with a fairly large log that you can get a 400mm x 400mm block out of.

 

If I were just cutting through and through at 80mm (which is about what you are cutting?), I'd get through 4 logs an hour with a couple of guys off loading (2 cubic metres an hour). What really slowed me down was pressure washing and helping stack the sleepers.

 

Jonathan

[Daniël Bos]

As perfect boards are not an issue for you, but production speed is, could you mount a circular saw just ahead of the band, on the "in-going" side?

You could mount it on a spring loaded pivot so it follows the log and set it so it cuts just bark.

Could be done cheaply and circular saw blades are not too expensive and easy to change.

 

This is presuming all the while that most wear/damage is from where the band meets grit as it goes into the log?

[ben_inthewoods]

Industrial pressure washer with turbo lance can debark reasonably quickly, but perhaps not as cheap as a sharpen. I'd used one for knobbly spruce pillars and large Douglas fir for log houses.

[gensetsteve]

That's cubic feet Steve. 180 cubic foot is about 5 cubic metres, so 500 bags of kindling. Sleeper cutting is very time consuming though (as I've found out), as there is a vast amount of handling and very little repetitive cutting. You take a cut, off load the firewood slab, rotate. Take a cut, off load the firewood slab, rotate. Take a cut, off load the firewood slab, rotate. Take a cut, off load the firewood slab, take your cut at 200mm, rotate. Finally cut at 306mm, 203mm and then 100mm. That's assuming you are starting with a fairly large log that you can get a 400mm x 400mm block out of.

 

If I were just cutting through and through at 80mm (which is about what you are cutting?), I'd get through 4 logs an hour with a couple of guys off loading (2 cubic metres an hour). What really slowed me down was pressure washing and helping stack the sleepers.

 

Jonathan

 

Hours of fun today once we had the machine set up right I found some of our problems over the last few days were caused by tension in the wood as we cut down one side. We reacted to this by adjusting the mill rather than turning the stick 180 deg. We are now also more careful about making sure we have the centre of the grain level. I think we are doing about half a tonne an hour or 40 bags of kindling at times it could be double.

[Big J]

Hours of fun today once we had the machine set up right I found some of our problems over the last few days were caused by tension in the wood as we cut down one side. We reacted to this by adjusting the mill rather than turning the stick 180 deg. We are now also more careful about making sure we have the centre of the grain level. I think we are doing about half a tonne an hour or 40 bags of kindling at times it could be double.

 

There was a bit of tension in the logs that we were cutting yesterday, but the Logmaster just cuts flat. Don't need to pay any attention to feed speed through knots, or angle of grain. All I do is listen to the engine to judge my speed and go from there.

 

For cutting kindling, you don't want to be doing any turning unless it's completely necessary. It just becomes uneconomical. Tension will only cause inconsistent board thickness - it shouldn't cause the band to wander. Time to step over the to the dark side and get a Logmaster?!