How Much Does A Forest Cube Weigh? Volumetric In 1 M3 And Specific Gravity Of Different Breeds, Table, Cube Mass In Kg On Average. How Much Dry And Damp Wood Weigh?

2024 Author: Beatrice Philips | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-16 04:36

The volume of wood - in cubic meters - is not the last, albeit decisive, characteristic that determines the cost of a particular order of wood material . It is also important to know the density (specific gravity) and the total mass of the batch of boards, beams or logs requested by a particular client.

Specific gravity

Specific gravity of a cubic meter of wood - in kilograms per cubic meter - is determined by the following factors:

• moisture content in wood;
• density of wood fibers - in terms of dry wood.

The wood cut and harvested at the sawmill differs in weight. Depending on the species, type of wood - spruce, pine, birch, acacia, etc. - a dry tree with a specific name of the harvested product has a different density. According to GOST, maximum permissible deviations of the mass of one cubic meter of dry wood are allowed. Dry wood has 6–18% moisture content.

The fact is that completely dry wood does not exist - there is always a small amount of water in it … If wood and sawn timber did not contain water (0% moisture), then the tree would lose its structure and crumble under any tangible load on it. A bar, a log, a board would quickly crack into individual fibers. Such a material would only be good as a filler for wood-based composite materials, such as MDF, in which bonding polymers are added to wood powder.

Consequently, after deforestation and timber harvesting, the latter is qualitatively dried . Optimal term - year from the date of procurement . For this, wood is stored in a covered warehouse, where there is no access to precipitation, high humidity and dampness.

Although the timber at the base and in the warehouses is sold in “cubes”, its high-quality drying is important . Under ideal conditions, the tree is dried in an indoor area with all steel, metal walls and ceilings. In summer, the temperature in the warehouse rises above +60 - especially during the sultry period. The hotter and drier, the sooner and better the wood will dry out . It is not stacked close to each other, like, say, bricks or steel profiled sheet, but laid out so that an unobstructed flow of fresh air is provided between the beams, logs and / or planks.

The drier the wood, the lighter it is - which means that the less fuel consumption of the truck will be spent on delivering wood to a specific client.

Drying stages - different degrees of humidity. Let's imagine that the forest was harvested in the fall with frequent rains. The trees are often wet, the wood is full of water. A wet tree that has just been cut in such a forest contains almost 50% moisture. Further (after storage in a covered and closed space with supply and exhaust ventilation), it goes through the following drying stages:

• raw wood - 24 … 45% moisture;
• air dry - 19 … 23%.

And only then it becomes dry. The time has come to sell it profitably and quickly, until the material is damp and spoiled by mold and mildew. A moisture value of 12% is taken as an averaged standard. Secondary factors affecting the specific gravity of a tree include the time of the year when a particular batch of forest was cut down and the local climate.

Volume weight

If we are talking about the volume of wood, close to one cubic meter, its weight is recalculated in tons. For fidelity, blocks, stacks of wood are re-weighed on auto scales that can withstand a load of up to 100 tons. Knowing the volume and type (wood species), they determine the density group of a particular wood.

Low density - up to 540 kg / m3 -inherent in spruce, pine, fir, cedar, juniper, poplar, linden, willow, alder, chestnut, walnut, velvet, as well as wood materials from aspen.

Average density - up to 740 kg / m3 - corresponds to larch, yew, most birch species, elm, pear, most oak species, elm, elm, maple, sycamore, some types of fruit crops, ash.

Anything that weighs more than 750 kg in a cubic meter volume , refers to acacia, hornbeam, boxwood, iron and pistachio trees, and hop-grab.

The volumetric weight in these cases is recalculated according to the same average 12% humidity. So, for conifers, GOST 8486-86 is responsible for this.

Calculations

The weight of a dense cubic meter of wood, depending on the species (deciduous or coniferous), the type of tree and its moisture content, can be easily determined from the table of values. Moisture content of 10 and 15 percent in this sample corresponds to dry wood, 25, 30 and 40 percent - wet.

View	Moisture contents, %
	10	15	20	25	30	40	50	60	70	80	90	100
Beech	670	680	690	710	720	780	830	890	950	1000	1060	1110
Spruce	440	450	460	470	490	520	560	600	640	670	710	750
Larch	660	670	690	700	710	770	820	880	930	990	1040	1100
Aspen	490	500	510	530	540	580	620	660	710	750	790	830
Birch
fluffy	630	640	650	670	680	730	790	840	890	940	1000	1050
ribbed	680	690	700	720	730	790	850	900	960	1020	1070	1130
daurian	720	730	740	760	780	840	900	960	1020	1080	1140	1190
iron	960	980	1000	1020	1040	1120	1200	1280
Oak:
petiolate	680	700	720	740	760	820	870	930	990	1050	1110	1160
Oriental	690	710	730	750	770	830	880	940	1000	1060	1120	1180
Georgian	770	790	810	830	850	920	980	1050	1120	1180	1250	1310
araksin	790	810	830	850	870	940	1010	1080	1150	1210	1280	1350
Pine:
cedar	430	440	450	460	480	410	550	580	620	660	700	730
siberian	430	440	450	460	480	410	550	580	620	660	700	730
common	500	510	520	540	550	590	640	680	720	760	810	850
Fir:
siberian	370	380	390	400	410	440	470	510	540	570	600	630
white-haired	390	400	410	420	430	470	500	530	570	600	630	660
whole-leaved	390	400	410	420	430	470	500	530	570	600	630	660
white	420	430	440	450	460	500	540	570	610	640	680	710
Caucasian	430	440	450	460	480	510	550	580	620	660	700	730
Ash:
Manchurian	640	660	680	690	710	770	820	880	930	990	1040	1100
usual	670	690	710	730	740	800	860	920	980	1030	1090	1150
sharp-fruited	790	810	830	850	870	940	1010	1080	1150	1210	1280	1350

For example, ordering 10 spruce boards measuring 600 * 30 * 5 cm, we get 0.09 m3. Qualitatively dried spruce wood of this volume has a weight of 39.6 kg. Calculation of the weight and volume of edged boards, beams or calibrated logs determines the cost of delivery - along with the distance of the customer from the nearest warehouse to which the order was placed. Converting into tons of large volumes of wood decides which transport is used for delivery: a truck (with a trailer) or a railroad car.

Driftwood - wood felled by hurricanes or floods; and debris carried downstream by rivers as a result of natural disturbances or human activities. The specific weight of driftwood is in the same range - 920 … 970 kg / m3 . It does not depend on the type of wood. The moisture content of driftwood reaches 75% - from frequent, constant contact with water.

The cork has the lowest volumetric weight. Cork tree (more precisely, its bark) has the highest porosity among all wood materials. The structure of the cork is such that this material is filled with numerous small voids - in consistency, structure, it approaches a sponge, but retains a much more solid structure. The elasticity of the cork is noticeably higher than that of any other wood material of the lightest and softest species.

An example is champagne bottle corks. The collected volume of such material, equal to 1 m3, weighs 140–240 kg, depending on humidity.

How much do sawdust weigh?

GOST requirements do not apply to sawdust . The fact is that the weight of lumber, in particular sawdust, depends more on their fraction (grain size). But the dependence of their weight on humidity does not change on the state of the wood material: (un) processed wood, shavings as waste from a sawmill, etc. In addition to tabular counting, an empirical method is used to determine the weight of sawdust.

Conclusion

Having correctly calculated the weight of a specific batch of wood, the deliveryman will take care of its prompt delivery. The consumer pays attention to the species and type, the condition of the wood, its weight and volume even at the stage of ordering.