Question:
Real quick question… I’m getting ready to build a 2×12 cabinet. I went to the store to get some wood and then got to thinking… I don’t really want to buy the ultra-high dollar wood, but if I can get better sound out of ‘medium’ cost wood as opposed to cheep wood – I’m more then willing. So how much does it matter? Primarily for blues, classic rock playing (if all that matters too). So… pine? oak? maple? ply? partical? balsa? Thanks – tom p.s. – mentioning balsa was a joke :)
Response:
what kind of wood did you buy? What do you mean by utlra high dollar? I would consider a die board grade grade birch plywood – BU grade. Things to avoid: voids and warping and plugs. Plugs can come loose and rattle. Birch die board is dense, dimensionally stable and also beautiful. Or Maple or Beech http://www.mccauseylumber.com/pdf/specialtywood_3.pdf The only place wood really affects sound is the baffle board (I’m sure someone will correct me here and therefore leave the details to them) I hate MDF – if it gets damp it expands, but if you insist, here’s a good how to finish MDF article – and absolutely NO particle board. You probably meant MDF. http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Finishing_MDF.html http://www.mccauseylumber.com/pdf/specialtywood_1.pdf
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – > what kind of wood did you buy? What do you mean by utlra high dollar? > I would consider a die board grade grade birch plywood – BU grade. > Things to avoid: voids and warping and plugs. Plugs can come loose and > rattle. Birch die board is dense, dimensionally stable and also > beautiful. Or Maple or Beech > http://www.mccauseylumber.com/pdf/specialtywood_3.pdf > The only place wood really affects sound is the baffle board (I’m sure > someone will correct me here and therefore leave the details to them) > I hate MDF – if it gets damp it expands, but if you insist, here’s a > good how to finish MDF article – and absolutely NO particle board. > You probably meant MDF. > http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Finishing_MDF.html > http://www.mccauseylumber.com/pdf/specialtywood_1.pdf
Zootwoman said: "what kind of wood did you buy? What do you mean by utlra high dollar?" I didn’t buy anything. I decided to research a bit first. I went just hoping for the best. And by "ultra-high dollar" I meant – wood that for the same amount (dimensions), some were 3 to 4 times the amount as the cheeper stuff.( Why spend $60 if $30 will be just fine). OK… I’ll look for some birch plywood, maple or beech. Thanks A LOT for the info and links – great newsgroup here. -tw
Response:
> Real quick question… I’m getting ready to build a 2×12 cabinet. I went > to the store to get some wood and then got to thinking… I don’t really > want to buy the ultra-high dollar wood, but if I can get better sound out > of ‘medium’ cost wood as opposed to cheep wood – I’m more then willing. > So how much does it matter? > Primarily for blues, classic rock playing (if all that matters too). > So… pine? oak? maple? ply? partical? balsa? > Thanks – tom > p.s. – mentioning balsa was a joke :)
I pick the highest number of NO VOID hardwood plywood, preferably baltic birch.
Response:
birch die board is the most dense and highest quailty. You won’t find it at Home Depot. We use it to make steel rule dies that have to withstand years of torquing while maintaining dimensional stability under a 2 tonne press – and the stuff is really beautiful to work.
Response:
> birch die board is the most dense and highest quailty. You won’t find > it at Home Depot. We use it to make steel rule dies that have to > withstand years of torquing while maintaining dimensional stability > under a 2 tonne press – and the stuff is really beautiful to work.
Well, I ended up getting some 3/4" oak (due to lack of inventory to choose from) and some 1/2" birch as instructed( minimal to "no void"). Total cost was $46 and I’ll have a fair amount of the birch left over for my next project. I’m guessing I’ll use about $30-$35 of the wood for the cabinet. Thanks a lot for your input folks. Its appreciated. One thing I noticed about this group is that there are never any attachments to the posts. Is it against the rules or something? I wouldn’t mind showing off my project when I’m finished. Thanks again, -tom
Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> birch die board is the most dense and highest quailty. You won’t find > it at Home Depot. We use it to make steel rule dies that have to > withstand years of torquing while maintaining dimensional stability > under a 2 tonne press – and the stuff is really beautiful to work. > Well, I ended up getting some 3/4" oak (due to lack of inventory to choose > from) and some 1/2" birch as instructed( minimal to "no void"). Total > cost was $46 and I’ll have a fair amount of the birch left over for my > next project. I’m guessing I’ll use about $30-$35 of the wood for the > cabinet. > Thanks a lot for your input folks. Its appreciated. > One thing I noticed about this group is that there are never any > attachments to the posts. Is it against the rules or something? > I wouldn’t mind showing off my project when I’m finished. > Thanks again, > -tom
It’s not a binary NG. I’d suggest alt.binaries.pictures.woodworking for the pics and a mention of it over here. Jeff
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Now that you’ve got the wood, and since I’ve only just read the post, I’ll wish you well -but I would have suggested aged pine as the most resonant possible material. I’ve made several cabs. My favorites are pine. My absolute favorite was made from a 50+ year old kitchen cabinet (about the size of a small Bassman cab) that had been tossed into the alley. It’s got so much life in it , regardless of speakers (currently some mid-60s Utahs), that it’s almost TOO resonant -kind of like an acoustic guitar can be. Birch is a very reliable choice -dense and solid, without coloring the tone much. Let us know how the project turns out. Chuck
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>>I pick the highest number of NO VOID hardwood plywood, preferably baltic >birch. > While I most certainly do agree that that would ideally be highest quality > material, I should mention that I have a 2×12 cab that I built 20 years ago, > out of everyday common interior plywood, smooth one side, as found at Home > Depot. I have been gigging with it ever since, and have been quite pleased. > I have had NO issues with it. It’s solid, it doesn’t rattle, and I defy > anyone who doesn’t know the difference to point out any difference, between > it and the highest quality Baltic Birch.
Perhaps you got lucky? What if there were some nasty voids in there? A builder may not want to risk it. If you’re gonna take the time to build it, I say use the best materials. We already know that it’s – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> withstood the rigors of 20 years of extremely abusive road use, and is as > solid as anything out there. No finger joints either, mind you, just butt > joints and interior bracing in the corners, glued and screwed. > I also built a 4×12 cab out of the same material, same techniques, some 5-10 > years earlier. I discovered that it was being used by the original > guitarist for Extreme a good many years after I traded it in on a pair of > 1967 Marshall 4×12 cabs. I wouldn’t hesitate to build more of the same. > The way it’s looking, this one will last for several lifetimes.
Response:
No-void plywood is superfluous in in cab construction, and long as we are not talking about really crap wood. Voids are an issue in structurally demanding marine (boat) construction, and mostly so that complex and/or moulded bends (fairing) will be uniform. Unless you are building a cab with compex curves that is also to be a flawless work of art, it is ridiculous to seek voidless marine ply. Also, all common types of plywood throughout the grade ranges now use the same type of marine-grade glue in the lamination process. I believe that within reason, wood type has little or nothing to do with guitar cab performance, but it is another emotional and "mojo" issue among some & my post is simply to point out some popular fallacies about plywood itself – and since all of it is very expensive now, and needless extravagance isn’t what most self-builders have in mind.
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- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – > No-void plywood is superfluous in in cab construction, and long as we > are not talking about really crap wood. Voids are an issue in > structurally demanding marine (boat) construction, and mostly so that > complex and/or moulded bends (fairing) will be uniform. Unless you are > building a cab with compex curves that is also to be a flawless work of > art, it is ridiculous to seek voidless marine ply. Also, all common > types of plywood throughout the grade ranges now use the same type of > marine-grade glue in the lamination process. > I believe that within reason, wood type has little or nothing to do > with guitar cab performance, but it is another emotional and "mojo" > issue among some & my post is simply to point out some popular > fallacies about plywood itself – and since all of it is very expensive > now, and needless extravagance isn’t what most self-builders have in > mind.
Response:
> No-void plywood is superfluous in in cab construction, and long as we > are not talking about really crap wood. Voids are an issue in > structurally demanding marine (boat) construction, and mostly so that > complex and/or moulded bends (fairing) will be uniform.
Speaking for myself: I don’t want to deal with a void at a cut line. I don’t what a void under a screw head. I don’t want a void where the speaker mounts. …I don’t want voids. Unless you are > building a cab with compex curves that is also to be a flawless work of > art, it is ridiculous to seek voidless marine ply. Also, all common > types of plywood throughout the grade ranges now use the same type of > marine-grade glue in the lamination process. > I believe that within reason, wood type has little or nothing to do > with guitar cab performance, but it is another emotional and "mojo" > issue among some & my post is simply to point out some popular > fallacies about plywood itself – and since all of it is very expensive > now, and needless extravagance isn’t what most self-builders have in > mind.
The additional cost of superior wood is probably not that much, when you factor in your labor and hassle. I’d do it top notch.
Response:
> > I pick the highest number of NO VOID hardwood plywood, preferably baltic > birch. > While I most certainly do agree that that would ideally be highest quality > material, I should mention that I have a 2×12 cab that I built 20 years ago, > out of everyday common interior plywood, smooth one side, as found at Home > Depot.
I wonder how machinable urethane die board would work?
Response:
> The additional cost of superior wood is probably not that much, when you > factor in your labor and hassle. > I’d do it top notch.
And that’s certainly an equally-valid opinion & philisophy. I have some biases against plywood related to its weight & machining qualities vs my equipment & skills, and prefer eastern white pine (adequately braced where necessary for larger panels) for its lightness, easy workability, long established and accepted tonal qualites (if any) in cabs, and also appearance if or when not fabric covered (and you know my disinclination to most popular coverings). But it also happend to be bountifully available to me, and air-dried for many years in the bargain, right out of my woodlot. But I shudder to think of someone buying clear or #1 KD pine from HD at equally high prices and going through the extra machining for glue-up to construct panels, vs quality sheet goods. Small personal problem: I am out of old air-dried EWP in 1" nominal, and have to resaw 2" nominal stock which I have oodles of. It must be schlepped elsewhere & paid a princely sum for resawing (and schlepped back too), but for exposed wood it will yield beautifully bookmatched panels. Then, we have the denting issue with pine (it’s soft). But Fender used it almost forever. ISTM we are at a point where it is time to forsake most woods for modern materials which offer many advantages, but this, too, is controversial. We are finding that many new easily-available sheet materials holding out this promise fall short of the mark & claims in applications like boatbuilding, but one has to start pioneering somewhere, and many options remain unexplored, with newer interesting materials being produced faster than people can build with them & learn.
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> The additional cost of superior wood is probably not that much, when you > factor in your labor and hassle. > I’d do it top notch. > And that’s certainly an equally-valid opinion & philisophy. > I have some biases against plywood related to its weight & machining > qualities vs my equipment & skills, and prefer eastern white pine > (adequately braced where necessary for larger panels) for its > lightness, easy workability, long established and accepted tonal > qualites (if any) in cabs, and also appearance if or when not fabric > covered (and you know my disinclination to most popular coverings). > But it also happend to be bountifully available to me, and air-dried > for many years in the bargain, right out of my woodlot. But I shudder > to think of someone buying clear or #1 KD pine from HD at equally high > prices and going through the extra machining for glue-up to construct > panels, vs quality sheet goods. > Small personal problem: I am out of old air-dried EWP in 1" nominal, > and have to resaw 2" nominal stock which I have oodles of. It must be > schlepped elsewhere & paid a princely sum for resawing (and schlepped > back too), but for exposed wood it will yield beautifully bookmatched > panels. > Then, we have the denting issue with pine (it’s soft). But Fender used > it almost forever. > ISTM we are at a point where it is time to forsake most woods for > modern materials which offer many advantages, but this, too, is > controversial. We are finding that many new easily-available sheet > materials holding out this promise fall short of the mark & claims in > applications like boatbuilding, but one has to start pioneering > somewhere, and many options remain unexplored, with newer interesting > materials being produced faster than people can build with them & learn.
Other that the fact that it comes from China Plyboo is a terrific "wood" Actually bamboo is a grass, it has a 7-9 year regroth turnaround and you can eat the shoots. I have a friend who is attempting to start a bamboo farm along the southern Texas coast in an effort to restart domestic bamboo production for both food and wood. I’m doing a building restoration using bamboo flooring. It’s harder than oak and just as beautiful. Anyone from Austin may have noticed plyboo being used for tables and counters at the fast Japanese food chain – Zen Palate http://www.plyboo.nl/ or http://www.silkroadplywood.com/ One of the downsides of using non-wood products is that they are mostly oil based and/or off gass nasty stuff. While The US government isn’t interested in babmboo farms yet, Mexico is. http://app1.chinadaily.com.cn/star/2004/1111/fe23-1.html Pipe dreams Shanghai Star. 2004-11-11 IT can be used to build homes, make deodorant, clothes and paper. Some industries fuel ovens with it. The Aztecs made flutes out of it. China may be the first place that springs to mind when we think of bamboo, but it has long grown wild in Mexico. Now, a handful of Mexican producers are hoping to turn it into a driver of local industry able to one day challenge the Asian giant in export markets from Europe to the United States. A pipe dream? It may be, but a small group of growers in Mexico are already talking about turning the tables on China and selling bamboo into its most lucrative markets. Analysts value the global bamboo market at about US$10 billion, with China claiming about half, and they see it growing to US$20 billion by 2015, led by US demand for paper. Mexican bamboo pioneers hope the country could take a piece of that pie, winning back some ground on Chinese manufacturing imports into Mexico and key export market the United States. Mexico, which sends 90 per cent of its exports to its northern neighbour, has been losing US market share to China in key sectors like textiles, televisions, automobiles and computer parts. Fight back Bamboo is part of the fight back. "In two or three years we could be ready, we could have an industry," Rafael Guillaumin said in Huatusco, deep in the lush hills of Mexico’s Veracruz state. He started planting bamboo on his 100-year-old coffee plantations five years ago amid a global coffee crisis. Guillaumin has formed a private group to promote the bamboo industry by teaching people how to grow it, process it and profit from it. The group, Bambuver, receives government funds and co-ordinates activities with private organizations and universities. It has already helped build low-income bamboo housing in Veracruz state at about one-third the cost of conventional construction. Bambuver is also talking with private industry in Mexico about potential, future uses for bamboo in construction, as a fuel and as the raw material for paper production. One of Mexico’s largest paper-products companies is looking at the possibility of making paper from bamboo or using it for fuel in its plants, Guillaumin said. There is also talk of major reforestation projects. Europeans like the idea of Mexican bamboo because it would be cheaper than the Chinese variety. "It’s a lot cheaper and less time-consuming to transport," said Rafael Bejarano, an expert in bamboo production originally from Costa Rica, which also has a bamboo industry. He said it takes 44 days to get a load of bamboo from China or Thailand to Europe, compared to about 11 days from Mexico. Growers are also looking at niche markets in the United States, for example in the trade of edible bamboo shoots that are currently imported from China and sold in tins and jars. "They could get fresh shoots from us, instead of buying it in preservatives," said Bejarano, who works for Bambuver. Bamboo is a type of grass, but it can grow into 100-foot (33-metre) giant timber bamboos. It grows quickly, in diverse climates, from jungles to high mountainsides and is environmentally friendly because it conserves water and prevents soil erosion. It takes three years for a farmer to develop a bamboo plantation from scratch. Start from scratch But bamboo growers and promoters have their work cut out for them if they want to create a solid industry in Mexico, in part because they are starting almost from scratch. "This is as much about creating a bamboo culture as it is about profit," said Bejarano, whose job is to teach people how to become bamboo farmers. "There is so much land that could be turned to bamboo that is not being used in Mexico because people think the land is useless," said 79-year-old Guillaumin. Enrique Lopez, an 80-year-old coffee farmer from the hills surrounding Huatusco, has planted Guadua bamboo, a hardy kind used for construction scaffolding, on the fringe of his organic coffee plot. He sells the bamboo to supplement his income and provide a natural shield for his small coffee plantation. He said a lot of other farmers are following suit. (Agencies via Xinhua)
Response:
> Real quick question… I’m getting ready to build a 2×12 cabinet. I went > to the store to get some wood and then got to thinking… I don’t really > want to buy the ultra-high dollar wood, but if I can get better sound out > of ‘medium’ cost wood as opposed to cheep wood – I’m more then willing. > So how much does it matter? > Primarily for blues, classic rock playing (if all that matters too). > So… pine? oak? maple? ply? partical? balsa? > Thanks – tom > p.s. – mentioning balsa was a joke :)
I love reading the responses and information in this thread – thanks to all. I did buy 4 speakers (same kind), and since I’m only building a 2×12 cabinet, I’ll build anather one when I’m done out of different wood to see if there is a difference. Thanks again!!!!!! -tom
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> Real quick question… I’m getting ready to build a 2×12 cabinet. I went > to the store to get some wood and then got to thinking… I don’t really > want to buy the ultra-high dollar wood, but if I can get better sound out > of ‘medium’ cost wood as opposed to cheep wood – I’m more then willing. > So how much does it matter? > Primarily for blues, classic rock playing (if all that matters too). > So… pine? oak? maple? ply? partical? balsa? > Thanks – tom > p.s. – mentioning balsa was a joke :) > I love reading the responses and information in this thread – thanks to > all. I did buy 4 speakers (same kind), and since I’m only building a 2×12 > cabinet, I’ll build anather one when I’m done out of different wood to see > if there is a difference. Thanks again!!!!!! > -tom
I may not know alot about amps but I know my wood! (blush)
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text ->Real quick question… I’m getting ready to build a 2×12 cabinet. I went >to the store to get some wood and then got to thinking… I don’t really >want to buy the ultra-high dollar wood, but if I can get better sound out >of ‘medium’ cost wood as opposed to cheep wood – I’m more then willing. >So how much does it matter? >Primarily for blues, classic rock playing (if all that matters too). >So… pine? oak? maple? ply? partical? balsa? >Thanks – tom >p.s. – mentioning balsa was a joke :) > I love reading the responses and information in this thread – thanks to > all. I did buy 4 speakers (same kind), and since I’m only building a 2×12 > cabinet, I’ll build anather one when I’m done out of different wood to see > if there is a difference. Thanks again!!!!!! > -tom
I’d be interested in the difference that you hear between a high quality ply (like 13 ply baltic birch) and a solid wood (like yellow pine).
Response:
> I may not know alot about amps but I know my wood! (blush)
I know both my local woods and some of the tropicals employed in marine use intimately, but am fairly ignorant about others. From what little I have seen of bamboo I am very impressed by some of the things being done with it. Apparently a few others are less inspiring. As ex, a friend recently located & installed bamboo flooring in his home. Not only was it less costly than the typical 3/4 red oak & rock maple widely used for high-quality flooring, but it has a grain orientation like quartersawn wood, and it is the most superlative dance floor material I have ever felt & slid across, and I am hard to please & critical about dance floors. It is also quite hard and resistant to dents or abrasion – not to mention very attractive with light color and robust character. Aesthetically it seems to combine the best and normally mutually exclusive aspects of lightness and heaviness. It isn’t remotely "oriental." HWVR we both have also seen laminated bamboo flooring which is crap. It is still somewhat mysterious to me how 3/4" boards 4" wide with 90 deg grain is produced from bamboo.
Response:
>It is still somewhat mysterious to me >how 3/4" boards 4" wide with 90 deg grain is produced from bamboo.
Big Bamboo? 
) -Dave
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>>It is still somewhat mysterious to me >how 3/4" boards 4" wide with 90 deg grain is produced from bamboo. >Big Bamboo? >:o) >-Dave
Bamboo’s cool stuff, but it’s an annoying weed that’s a lot like a really tough grass IMO. I had some planted next to the house that was transplanted from a place my sister lived for a while downstate. Had the thickest bamboo patch, but it required a lot of attention all the time because it wanted to take over the whole yard, even though it was separated by a sidewalk. The root systems crawled right under that. I spent hours and hours digging the roots out to get rid of the stuff, and the root systems are *very* tough. I used a pick axe (not a Tele) and a hole shovel, and my neighbor’s Australian Cattle Dog "Rocky" helped by digging around the roots because he could see that I was working on them. This is Rocky and my dog Belle waiting to get inside, and you can see the dug up area where the bamboo used to be to the left: http://picturefrompete.home.comcast.net/bellerockydoor.jpg Whatever you do… don’t plant bamboo! Pete — Can I borrow a bucket of worms and a keg of gunpowder? –Froggo
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- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> I may not know alot about amps but I know my wood! (blush) > I know both my local woods and some of the tropicals employed in marine > use intimately, but am fairly ignorant about others. From what little > I have seen of bamboo I am very impressed by some of the things being > done with it. Apparently a few others are less inspiring. As ex, a > friend recently located & installed bamboo flooring in his home. Not > only was it less costly than the typical 3/4 red oak & rock maple > widely used for high-quality flooring, but it has a grain orientation > like quartersawn wood, and it is the most superlative dance floor > material I have ever felt & slid across, and I am hard to please & > critical about dance floors. It is also quite hard and resistant to > dents or abrasion – not to mention very attractive with light color and > robust character. Aesthetically it seems to combine the best and > normally mutually exclusive aspects of lightness and heaviness. It > isn’t remotely "oriental."
You can buy bamboo flooring unfinished and stain it any color you wish if you have a hankering for a red floor or want to get crazy with a stencil. Another plus- termite will not eat bamboo. I am sure some other bug like bamboo but not termites. HWVR we both have also seen laminated > bamboo flooring which is crap. It is still somewhat mysterious to me > how 3/4" boards 4" wide with 90 deg grain is produced from bamboo.
It’s cut from very large bamboo canes that are stripped into pieces, glues and pressed together. take a factory tour here http://www.harmonygroveflooring.com/gallery.htm It would make great cabinets.
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There are hundreds of varieties of bamboo, some are invasive and weedy but the kind that are used to make plyboo and also bamboo scaffolding are varieties that don’t spread much and can grow from 40 to 70 feet high. some varieties grow as much as 2 inches in a day. Check out this grove http://www.harmonygroveflooring.com/016.jpg and chack out this scaffolding – ne steel there on either building http://www.the4cs.com/~corin/photos/HongKong2001/2001042719081.html There a beautiful book out called Grow you own house http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3575/is_1279_213/ai_111105947 www.bambubrasil.org WHY BAMBOO? … HERE’S WHY … DEFORESTATION and increased CO2 emissions threaten the earth’s biodiversity and the very air we breathe… ENDURING THROUGH TIME… Thomas Edison successfully used a carbonized bamboo filament in his experiment with the first light bulb. This light bulb still burns today in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. He also used a bamboo as rebar for the reinforcement of his swimming pool. To this day, the pool has never leaked. An unrivaled utility, (One resource book lists over 5,000 uses including paper, scaffolding, diesel fuel, airplane "skins", desalination filters, aphrodisiacs, musical instruments, medicine, food and was Alexander Graham Bell’s first phonograph needle SURVIVING THROUGH HARDSHIP… Amidst death and destruction, bamboo survived the Hiroshima atomic blast closer to ground zero than any other living thing and provided the first re-greening in Hiroshima after the blast in 1945. GROWING WITH STRENGTH AND SPEED… With a tensile strength superior to mild steel (withstands up to 52,000 Pounds of pressure psi) and a weight-to-strength ratio surpassing that of graphite, bamboo is the strongest growing woody plant on earth with one of the widest ranging habitats of more than 1500 species thriving in diverse terrain from sea level to 12,000 feet on every continent but the poles. It also grows the fastest: clocked shooting skyward at 2 inches an hour. Some species grow one and a half meters a day. BAMBOO PROTECTS THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE AIR WE BREATHE… Bamboo is the fastest growing canopy for the regreening of degraded lands, and its stands release 35% more oxygen than equivalent stands of trees. Some bamboo even sequester up to 12 tons of carbon dioxide from the air per hectare. Bamboo can also lower light intensity and protects against ultraviolet rays. Traditional belief holds that being in a bamboo grove – the favorite dwelling place of Buddha – restores calmness to emotions and stimulates creativity. Carbon Sequestration Information Net production and carbon cycling in a bamboo Phyllostachys pubescens stand. AU: Isagi-Y; Kawahara-T; Kamo-K; Ito-H AD: Kansai Research Center, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Momoyama, Fushimi, Kyoto 612, Japan. SO: Plant-Ecology. 1997, 130: 1, 41-52; 48 ref. PY: 1997 LA: English AB: Phyllostachys pubescens is one of the largest bamboo species with a leptomorphic (a type of rhizomatous system with solitary culms scattered rather evenly) root system in the world. The species originates in China and has been naturalized in neighbouring countries. It was introduced in 1746 into Japan because of the economic value of the young sprouts and culm woods. It escaped from the planted areas and expanded by invading the native vegetation. In order to clarify the basic ecological characteristics of the species, carbon fixation and cycling were determined in a stand of Phyllostachys pubescens in Kyoto Prefecture. The standing culm density and average DBH (diameter at breast height) in 1991 were 7100 ha-1 and 11.3 cm, respectively. The above-ground biomass was 116.5 t ha-1 for culms, 15.5 t ha-1 for branches, 5.9 t ha-1 for leaves and 137.9 t ha-1 in total. The total above-ground biomass is one of the largest among the world’s bamboo communities. The biomass of rhizomes and fine roots was 16.7 t ha-1 and 27.9 t ha-1, respectively. Annual soil respiration was 52.3 t CO2 ha-1, the highest among those determined in Japan. The gross annual production was high, at 32.8 t C ha-1, and allocation of annual gross production to the root system was also high at 11 t C ha-1 – 34% of gross production, and 46% of the fluxes out of the leaves. This pattern of allocation results in a net annual above-ground production of 18.1 t ha-1, which is within the average range of productivity of forests under similar climatic conditions. The correspondence of the allocation pattern of the species with its successful range expansion is discussed. DE: asexual-reproduction; biological-production; biomass-production; carbon-cycle; bamboos-; nutrients-; distribution-; carbon-; photosynthesis-; stand-characteristics; biomass-; cycling- AN: 950608033 TI: Carbon stock and cycling in a bamboo Phyllostachys bambusoides stand. AU: Isagi-Y AD: Laboratory of Silviculture, Kansai Research Center, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Kyoto 612, Japan. SO: Ecological-Research. 1994, 9: 1, 47-55; 42 ref. PY: 1994 LA: English AB: Gross production and carbon cycling in a Phyllostachys bambusoides stand in Kyoto Prefecture, central Japan, were determined, and then a compartment model showing the carbon stock and cycling within the ecosystem was developed. Aboveground carbon stock was 52.3 t/ha, increasing at an annual rate of 3.6 t/ha. Belowground carbon stock was 20.8 t/ha in the root system and 92.0 t/ha in the soil. Aboveground annual net C production was 11.2 t/ha. Belowground annual net C production was crudely estimated at 4.5 t/ha. Gross annual production was estimated at 41.8 t/ha by summing the amount of outflow to the environment and the increment in biomass. Leaves consumed 13.7 t C/ha per year by respiration; the rest (41.8 – 13.7 = 28.1 t C/ha per year) was surplus production of leaves and flowed into the other compartments. Annual amounts of construction and maintenance respiration of aboveground compartments were 3.4 and 18.5 t/ha, respectively. The annual amount of soil respiration was 11.2 t/ha. Soil respiration levels of 4.3 and 3.1 t C/ha per year were estimated for the flow of root respiration and root detritus. The proportion of net to gross production was 37%, which fell within the range of young and mature forests. A shorter life span of culms, compared to tree trunks, resulted in smaller biomass accumulation ratio (biomass/net production) in the ecosystem, of 4.66. DE: bamboos-; respiration-; biomass-; carbon-; models-; carbon- cycle; biomass-production; simulation-; cycling- To find out the latest information on global warming, click here EROSION CONTROL … A peerless erosion control agent,. it’s net like root system create an effective mechanism for watershed protection, stitching the soil together along fragile riverbanks, deforested areas, and in places prone to earthquakes and mud slides. Because of their wide-spreading root system, uniquely shaped leaves, and dense litter on the forest floor, the sum of stem flow rate and canopy intercept of bamboo is 25% which means that bamboo greatly reduces rain run off, preventing massive soil erosion and keeping up to twice as much water in the watershed. Bamboo is a pioneering plant and can be grown in soil damaged by overgrazing and poor agricultural techniques. Unlike with most trees proper harvesting does not kill the bamboo plant so topsoil is held in place. SAVING RAINFORESTS … Bamboo is one of the strongest building materials. Bamboo’s tensile strength is 28,000 pounds per square inch versus 23,000 pounds per square inch for steel. In the tropics it is possible to plant and ‘grow your own home;. in Costa Rica, 1000 houses of bamboo are built annually with material coming only from a 60 hectare bamboo plantation. If an equivalent project used timber, it would require 500 hectares of our diminishing tropical rainforests. Using bamboo to replace timber saves the rainforests. With a 10-30% annual increase in biomass versus 2 to 5% for trees, bamboo creates greater yields of raw material for use. One clump can produce 200 poles in the three to five years. Bamboo generates a crop every year. A RENEWABLE RESOURCE … Bamboo is a high-yield renewable resource: "Ply boo" is now being used for wall paneling and floor tiles; bamboo pulp for paper-making; briquettes for fuel, raw material for housing construction; and rebar for reinforced concrete beams. There are 1500 species of bamboo on the earth. This diversity makes bamboo adaptable to many environments. It can be harvested in 3-5 years versus 10-20 years for most softwoods. Bamboo tolerates extremes of precipitation, from 30-250 inches of annual rainfall. HOUSING … Bamboo related industries already provide income, food, and housing to over 2.2 billion people worldwide. There is a 3-5 year return on investment for a new bamboo plantation versus 8-10 years for rattan. The governments of India and China, with 15 million hectares of bamboo reserves collectively, are poised to focus attention on the economic factors of bamboo and its protection. In Limon, Costa Rica, only bamboo houses from the national Bamboo Project stood after their violent earthquake in 1992. Flexible and lightweight, bamboo enables structures to "dance" in earthquakes. Go to the "Comparative Strength of Bamboo or Grow Your Own House page. Just Available ! Simon Velez’s new book "Grow Your Own House" Click HERE to order. FOOD … Bamboo shoots provide nutrition for millions of people worldwide. In Japan, the antioxidant properties of pulverized bamboo skin can prevent bacterial growth, and it is used as a natural food preservative. Bamboo :litter: make fodder for animas and food for fish. Taiwan alone consumes 80,000 tons of bamboo shoots annually, constituting a $50 million industry. `Bamboo leaves are normally utilized as fodder during scarcity. Young bamboo leaves and twigs are a favorite meal for elephants and the Panda. D. strictus leaves have (on dry … read more »
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how about ROCK? as in immitation rock http://www.rockusticsinc.com/ all a mater of taste….i guess. rock N roll? Cabinets of Stone Tony Mul
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Of course, the whole idea of "tearing down to save the future" that the original poster proposed is pure poppycock. On our own local level, biomass will work well for our energy needs. On a larger scale, we need to ignore the fear mongers and start building some nuke plants. I grew up within about thirty miles of the Fermi II plant, and have yet to see a problem. The new pebble bed reactors will be even better. Ray Drouillard 