Processing

Coed Cymru has been involved with the conversion process of small diameter timber from the early 1990s. They, together with Dragon Engineering in Carmarthenshire, developed a two bladed circular rip saw called a Double Slabber. This machine is mounted to the back of a tractor and is PTO driven. The advantages of this are that timber can be converted in the woodlands without the need of transportation to processing yards and easier handling and conversion of small dimensional logs into billets (cants) or planks.

This has been an ideal machine to use for the primary processing of the logs into the initial billets. The dimensions of logs, that fit on the saw and are suitable for endgrain tiles and cobbles, range from between 150mm and 300mm in diameter and 1 metre and 2 metres in length. All timber species can be put through the saw and the fallen boards can be re-sawn afterwards into narrow boards. This maximises the material gained from each log. The standard billet size we used on the project for endgrain tiles was 115mm x 115mm. This was oversized to allow for movement and shrinkage of the tile blank before final machining to required size of 100mm x 100mm x 12mm. This was the average standard finished tile for the project.

Other saws and sawing methods can be used but must take into account the small size of the logs and consider all safety issues. Dave Manuel, of Heartwood Timber in Caersws, was a private partner on this part of the project and contributed a great deal of time and knowledge to the project. Coed Cymru are extremely grateful to him for his contribution.