Are the wood fibers in fiberboard & wood chips in chipboard by-products of other wood-working?

Question

ie. are they typically made from shavings & saw-dust left over from sawmills, timber-yards & solid furniture manufacturers,
or is it normal to grind up good timber to fulfill the demand for easily-worked fiberboard & chipboard?

Answer 1

I live in the heart of pine timber country here in east Texas and I get to smell the stinking saw mills too. When they plant pine timber, they plant the trees very close together. About 7 - 10 years later, they thin the trees and use those small trees for chipping, which makes the products you are referring to. Later, they thin the timber again and do the same thing. The last timber harvest is for 2x material, plus the scraps are used for chipping. So 2/3 of the planted trees are chipped and the remaining 1/3 is for traditonal lumber. Of course, all of the above has been genetically altered to produce fast-growth timber at the expense of wood density. So our countryside has lost most of our forests and hardwoods in exchange for tree farms. Here's what you see: 500 acre clear cut, 500 acre burn and replant with erosion, 500 acres of densely packed small trees, ......thinned trees,.....thinned out again trees with lots of briars,......mature trees ready for harvest. By the way, no branches reach the mill. That is left to be burned or rot to provide nutrients for new saplings since it is not profitable to haul branches. Much is wasted, believe me.

Answer 2

Yes. But, good lumber is not used for these products. Normally manufactures will use sawdust from lumber processing and wood stuff manufacturing for chipboard and fiberboard products. Recycled materials like old shipping pallets are also used in these products.

Answer 3

It's from the saw mills and lumber mills, chips from them. There are LOTS of that. They glue them into sheets and press them together to make fiber board, or OSB.

Answer 4

All the products you mention are made from scrap left over from saw mills and the building industry. Samsonite the hard dark brown sheets or made from sugar cane hulls, and most peg boards.

Answer 5

The majority of it is scraps from the saw mill. But some of it is recycled wood.

Answer 6

There were so many woodworking plans with this collection and you will not believe this but there are over thousands plans in the one package deal. Go here https://tr.im/QzmLp
This is really something to find that many all together. For someone like me who is just really starting to get involved with woodworking this was like letting me loose in a candy store and telling me I could have anything I wanted. That was my dream when I was a kid.

Answer 7

It is also made of the branches off the trees at lumber mills and sometimes trees felled by storms. Oh and lots and lots of carcinogenous resin. (wear a respirator while cutting)

Answer 8

Other people's scrap may be someone eles's fortune.

Answer 9

Read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particle_board