Selling paper wood vs selling firewood.

[Jstpssng]

Almost everything cut by tree services around here is chipped and either sold to a wood chip power plant or it's sold to make wood pellets. Normally they show up with a truck with a chipper in tow and as branches are cut off they go right into the chipper. I've heard (but can't confirm) some of them can chip a 24" diameter tree. I don't know how popular pellet stoves are down there but a number of companies have popped up that focus just on pellets. If it's a bad winter they will have trucks lined up. As the bagged pellets are put on a pallet they go right onto to a waiting customer's truck.

Off topic but If someone came up with a viable way to dry wood chips and design a wood stove that could feed them from a hopper like a pellet I would switch over in a heartbeat.

I think that you would want to dry the wood before you chip it. There are boilers out there, but most of what I have seen is for large buildings. Although it wouldn't meet your criteria for self feeding, I have often wondered how a coal burning stove would be for chips.

 

[4570Man]

I think that you would want to dry the wood before you chip it. There are boilers out there, but most of what I have seen is for large buildings. Although it wouldn't meet your criteria for self feeding, I have often wondered how a coal burning stove would be for chips.

It’s harder to dry bigger pieces of wood and it’s harder to cut dry wood. I’d planned on just spreading the chips on a parking lot in the sun for a couple days. It should work fine and would be minimal work handling with equipment.

 

[Jstpssng]

I would probably fell them in the spring and leave the tops on, then blow them into a building of some type. My preference would be to chip the smaller trees, as I do sell the bigger ones to the various mills.

 

[Redlands Okie]

I'm surprised that no one else picked up on the Jerry Clower references, he was quite the character I really enjoyed his stories.

A comedian with good clean funny jokes and often times about timber. Still enjoy hearing his stuff

 

[Rustyiron]

It’s harder to dry bigger pieces of wood and it’s harder to cut dry wood. I’d planned on just spreading the chips on a parking lot in the sun for a couple days. It should work fine and would be minimal work handling with equipment.

It's also harder to chip dry wood.

 

[4570Man]

It's also harder to chip dry wood.

That’s what I meant when I said cut.

 

[Rustyiron]

I think that you would want to dry the wood before you chip it. There are boilers out there, but most of what I have seen is for large buildings. Although it wouldn't meet your criteria for self feeding, I have often wondered how a coal burning stove would be for chips.

There's been a guy selling Portage & Mane residential wood boilers that uses green chips being fed with an auger out of a bin for the past 4-5 years at the Fryburg fair each year.

 

[4570Man]

That’s pretty much what I had in mind but I had access to a concrete pad to dry the chips on and a building to store them in. I’d probably take advantage of free waste oil while I was at it.

 

[Jstpssng]

It's also harder to chip dry wood.

I thought probably, but the logistics of drying them after chipping could prove daunting.

There's been a guy selling Portage & Mane residential wood boilers that uses green chips being fed with an auger out of a bin for the past 4-5 years at the Fryburg fair each year.

The only one that I've seen in person was at the Logger's Trade Show in Bangor a couple of years ago. It was geared toward a commercial operation though. He did have one greenhouse operator interested.

I have never been able to find out just how fussy they are about chip size; it's one thing to make them smaller, but a lot more difficult if the boiler needs a relatively uniform size. The latter depends on an adequate power source and consistently sharp knives, among other things.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

That’s pretty much what I had in mind but I had access to a concrete pad to dry the chips on and a building to store them in. I’d probably take advantage of free waste oil while I was at it.

Sounds like a good off-season use for a greenhouse.