“Technology is propulsion.” Chinese characters written on the wall of factory workshop.
How is bamboo lumber made? (2016)
21–30 of 226 posts
Re: How is bamboo lumber made? (2016)
#22A general question: how does forestry avoid degrading the soil? If you keep removing the plants that grow, rather than allowing them to rot and return the nutrients they sucked up during their lifetime back the soil, do the trees steadily grow worse until it is no longer profitable and you have to go grow trees somewhere else?
Tree bulk comes from the air, not the soil.
I don't know why, but it took me years to internalize this... lol...
Re: How is bamboo lumber made? (2016)
#23A general question: how does forestry avoid degrading the soil? If you keep removing the plants that grow, rather than allowing them to rot and return the nutrients they sucked up during their lifetime back the soil, do the trees steadily grow worse until it is no longer profitable and you have to go grow trees somewhere else?
Wood is mostly cellulose (which is all carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen). There's some calcium and potassium, but not that much. You are correct that it's not entirely renewable.
Re: How is bamboo lumber made? (2016)
#24I would love to know if there are any "hobby" communities for "doing things" with bamboo. I'd love to pot some of the fast growing stuff at home and harvest it to muck around with.
You'd probably spend half your time mucking around with how to manufacture lumber. That might be fun on its own, just expect projects to take twice as long.
Re: How is bamboo lumber made? (2016)
#25I wonder how much energy this consumes compared to traditional wood equivalents?
Land use at least is much more efficient when harvests are every 4-5 years instead of every 40-80 years with spruce or fir. Birch can be felled at around 55 years.
Normal wood is kiln dried similarly to bamboo, and glued panels are done in a similar fashion.
Plywood is in a way more processed than bamboo.
Re: How is bamboo lumber made? (2016)
#26I wonder what kind of glue it uses, it's used in all of the processes
Formaldehyde. It’s actually pretty unenvironmental. Because it uses formaldehyde and other chemicals, you can’t sand or refinish bamboo, and the dust is extremely hazardous.
I just looked this up since I have bamboo floors I'm considering refinishing, and this resource[0] seems reputable and indicates that it's very doable but you should wear PPE to protect yourself.
[0] https://www.flooringstores.com/blog/refinish-bamboo-flooring...
Re: How is bamboo lumber made? (2016)
#27I would love to know if there are any "hobby" communities for "doing things" with bamboo. I'd love to pot some of the fast growing stuff at home and harvest it to muck around with.
You'd probably spend half your time mucking around with how to manufacture lumber. That might be fun on its own, just expect projects to take twice as long.
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Re: How is bamboo lumber made? (2016)
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seems about right; 1000psi assuming a 4x8 foot sheet, roughly. Bamboo is a -somewhat- soft pseudo-wood and can deform enough under that pressure to compress into the sheets they're describing. (for reference, I've operated a 10kton press at a previous job, which was roughly 30 feet high + underground hydraulic lines. I don't know how many presses of this scale are even left in the US)
Does the size of a press increase linearly with the amount of pressure it can generate?
I think; There could be other factors, but this is the main one
I'd guess that, on average, the bulk weight of the press loosely determines its maximum pressure... Just because it needs a certain amount of steel to confine and direct that pressure without damaging itself.
Over time, the engineering gets tighter and with less excess. You know that phrase, "anyone can make a bridge that stands up, but you need and engineer to make a bridge that just barely stands up" It probably becomes an economic issue, especially given the bigger your press is, the less people are going to need it for something.
Re: How is bamboo lumber made? (2016)
#29A general question: how does forestry avoid degrading the soil? If you keep removing the plants that grow, rather than allowing them to rot and return the nutrients they sucked up during their lifetime back the soil, do the trees steadily grow worse until it is no longer profitable and you have to go grow trees somewhere else?
Most of the non-cellulose elements (the ones nneeded for life) are in the outer layers of the tree.
Modern forestry machines strip off the bark and a little of the phloem (the living layer) in situ.
But yeah, there is a slow loss. Partly made up by the micrometeorite dust that falls everywhere, and in some places by dusts from other places. For example, the Amazon rainforset is replenished from the Sahara.
Deciduous forests are better at this. Deep tree roots break down rocks in the subsoil, recovering minerals that way, and leaf fall creates a realtively rich soil. Undisturbed virgin deciduous forests with deep soils have near 100% mineral recycling. The micrometeorite dust makes up the rest.
Re: How is bamboo lumber made? (2016)
#30I wonder what kind of glue it uses, it's used in all of the processes
Yeah, I was surprised too. They talk about a lot about the bamboo part but not at all about the glue part. And the glue part is certainly the most problematic one. Also, but that may be too much interpretation, you'll notice that the dirtier the place/the job; the more you see women on the pictures.