Long time lurker here, first time poster. I got pulled into the rabbit hole of building guitars at home during the covid lockdowns. My first build used traditional "tonewoods" (mahogany, ebony, rosewood etc.) and while purchasing materials for my second build, I stumbled upon bamboo boards on a German wood retailed shop.<p>Compared the properties to the wood I wanted to use for parts of it (mainly the core/neck and fretboard) and decided to go for it.<p>So the second build [1] is 40ish % bamboo with purpleheart veneers in between layers of bamboo and purpleheart/olive for the body. Next build will be around 80% bamboo. Trying to source some strand woven bamboo boards to try them out as fretboards as well, but for a part time builder like me, getting such small quantities of bamboo boards is rather hard.<p>But yeah, fascinating material even outside of construction use. The boards I used for the guitar builds were nice to work with, easy to sand and finish (using wipe on poly).<p>[1] <a href="https://i.imgur.com/fUyxd7n.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://i.imgur.com/fUyxd7n.jpg</a>
This was interesting in light of an interview I was just listening to yesterday, a CBC podcast [1] talking about the benefits of mass timber (glued wood) for large highrise building construction.<p>There were two guests on, both sounded like environmentalists, with the first one (Michael Green) saying that mass timber was<p>"currently the best tool we have to address climate impact and in the building materials for a large building"<p>while the second guest (John Talberth) was arguing:<p>"The idea that we can cut down our forests and turn them into two by fours and build our way to a stable climate is absurd, and it's just another one of these false narratives of big timber corporations are using to get us to buy more of their product and continue to subsidise their record profits",<p>and Talberth advocated Bamboo, mentioning it multiple times as an alternative. It kind of went back and forth a bit with Mr Green saying<p>"Bamboo, for instance, is not structurally a material that can actually satisfy the demand of three billion people that need a new home because it doesn't build large buildings"<p>and Mr Talberth saying<p>"Believe it or not, bamboo can actually be put together in the structurally with high structural integrity beams to make taller buildings"<p>It kind of left me wondering who was right... though Mr Green (an architect) sounded like someone with actual experience making buildings, where as the Mr Talberth (an economist) sounded like he might have been doing a bit of ill-informed wishful thinking about Bamboo.<p>Seeing the process here gave me a bit more perspective on the discussion. Given the labour involved and the fact that you are working with 20mm x 5mm cross-sections of bamboo, I can see how it would be extremely expensive to build a large building out of bamboo, and the $300 euro price tag on a sheet of plywood at the bottom of the page added more confirmation that it's not going to be a practical replacement for large-scale building.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-oct-20-2021-1.6217855/wednesday-october-20-2021-full-transcript-1.6218078" rel="nofollow">https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-oct-20-2...</a>
Really neat article, love things like this on HN. I thought this was really interesting:<p>> A bamboo stem reaches its maximum height in just a few months and shall not grow taller or thicker over time. In the following 4 years the fibers will "lignify" and get their extraordinary mechanical properties in terms of hardness, strength, density.<p>That seems pretty fascinating to me. Are there any other plants/trees that grow like that? I mean, from my naive knowledge, trees go wider with a new ring every year.
There is more glue than bamboo in the bamboo products, but thaks to the marketing department they are ECO, and friendly and yada yada... Just look at the proces to get decent thich board/beam.
My standing desk top, a Fully Jarvis, is made from bamboo.<p>Comparing the illustrations in TFA to the thing I'm leaning on, I think it is constructed of a core of side-pressed pieces, with a thin layer of plain-pressed pieces giving the working surface and underside.<p>I've had it for < 1 year. It is a little soft, and shows dents and scratches where I set down moderately heavy objects with too much force, but it still looks nice. I guess I can think of the marks as evidence of actual use and life.
This particular post is about making plywood sheets out of raw bamboo. But there is also work happening on mass timber applications of bamboo. For example a company called "Rizome" (<a href="https://rizomebamboo.com/" rel="nofollow">https://rizomebamboo.com/</a>) is working on LVL and LSL bamboo panels. One of their founders wrote a post about structural applications of bamboo last year (<a href="https://medium.com/rizome/bamboo-skyscrapers-eded5b234726" rel="nofollow">https://medium.com/rizome/bamboo-skyscrapers-eded5b234726</a>).
I posted this lower down as a comment, but some might be interested to know what specific glue is being used:<p>Most manufactured wood building materials contain one of these two types of formaldehyde-based glues:<p>* Phenol-formaldehyde (PF)<p>* Urea-formaldehyde (UF).<p>Its water resistant properties make phenol-formaldehyde glue more effective for production of exterior wood materials. Urea-formaldehyde glue, cheaper and less tolerant of excessive moisture, is most often used for interior materials including wall paneling, flooring and cabinetry.<p>In its natural state, softwood lumber emits a tiny amount of formaldehyde. While PF-glued products typically emit 10 times the formaldehyde outgassed by softwood, UF resins can release at least 100 times more formaldehyde than the natural wood.<p>A typical particle-board subfloor made with UF glue can release enough formaldehyde to result in a 0.3 ppm concentration of formaldehyde in a room. For healthy people who are not bothered by formaldehyde, the levels in softwood lumber and PF glue are usually not considered a serious health problem.<p>UF glue, on the other hand, has been implicated is causing people to become hypersensitive; a good reason for healthy people and sensitive people to avoid UF glues altogether"<p>More details here: <a href="http://www.healthyhouseinstitute.com/hhip-780-Formaldehyde-Based-Glues" rel="nofollow">http://www.healthyhouseinstitute.com/hhip-780-Formaldehyde-B...</a>
This probably made it to the front page because of yesterdays discussion on Hardend Wood. [1]<p>In my mind I can see bamboo lumber just made with the Hardened Wood process being extra “green” as no glue would be required.<p>[1] <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28945312" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28945312</a>
Some past related threads:<p><i>Why isn't bamboo wood a bigger industry?</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18844258" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18844258</a> - Jan 2019 (98 comments)<p><i>Bali’s 'magic' bamboo homes [video]</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18521724" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18521724</a> - Nov 2018 (78 comments)<p>Then there were these:<p><i>Bikes built from Bamboo</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2846074" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2846074</a> - Aug 2011 (2 comments)<p><i>Bamboo Bikes</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=683085" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=683085</a> - July 2009 (4 comments)<p><i>From bush to bike - bamboo bicycles</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=682329" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=682329</a> - July 2009 (1 comment)<p><i>Bamboo Bike Maker Grows His Frames, Bonsai Style</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=316325" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=316325</a> - Sept 2008 (1 comment)
A 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?
> The bamboo strands are placed in a massive industrial press and compressed with a pressure of 2,500 tons.<p>I wondered if this number was a typo. Quick research shows that presses can produce tens of thousands of tons of pressure. [1]<p>1: <a href="https://thelibraryofmanufacturing.com/presses.html" rel="nofollow">https://thelibraryofmanufacturing.com/presses.html</a>
Bamboo is surprisingly expensive considering it is a C4 photosynthesis plant that grows very fast in the tropics and is amenable to fully automated harvesting.<p>Anyone know why? Why is pine nearly 10x cheaper despite turning less light into carbon, growing in places with less light, requiring semi-manual harvesting and having a far longer plant-to-harvest time?
Somewhat related, there are these amazing homes in Bali made of (treated) bamboo. I believe they are treated by soaking them in a boron solution which results in better resistance to decay and insects.<p><a href="https://greenvillagebali.com/" rel="nofollow">https://greenvillagebali.com/</a>
Grandpa Amu makes items with bamboo: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=grandpa+amu+bamboo" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=grandpa+amu+bam...</a>
Beautiful bamboo home featured on TED and AppleTV, for reference: <a href="https://ibuku.com/" rel="nofollow">https://ibuku.com/</a><p>Note, little to no bamboo lumber used.<p>I think these kinds of homes are an excellent idea for the billion or two people living in suitable climate for it.<p>And maybe a bamboo lumber building can survive in harsher places, too. We will need to experiment to find out.
Related - cool "circular economy" company in Vancouver that collects chopsticks from restaurants and, using a similar process, makes some pretty amazing stuff: <a href="https://chopvalue.com/" rel="nofollow">https://chopvalue.com/</a>
Has anyone worked with bamboo plywood? How does it compare to other plywoods?<p>It doesn't appear (at least on the website linked) to be particularly cheap - a full sheet of 20mm bamboo plywood is almost €300! You could probably buy 3-5 sheets of 18mm baltic birch for that price - hardly the cheap material they're claiming.<p>I bought a cheap chair made of bamboo once and it was very soft - it didn't give me the impression it would hold up very long. Perhaps some of the processing steps for plywood improve that?
I wonder how long does take for bamboo to grow and if it can grow in US and Europe. Maybe it's economically viable to grow bamboo instead of cutting down trees.
With lots of glue. I don’t know why cellulose building materials yet so much hype. Yes part of the product is renewable, the other half is very nasty and we’ve not yet seen a fair comparison of the entire supply chain pollution of these materials vs more common one.
"Because laminated bamboo panels consist of individual strips, they show less swelling and shrinkage than solid wood panels."<p>As a layperson this kind of statement could as easily have said "they show <i>more</i> swelling" and I would have been equally as credulous.
I would love to know if there are any "hobby" communities for "doing things" with bamboo.<p>I'd love to pot some of the fast growing stuff at home and harvest it to muck around with.
>Strand woven bamboo panels are available in a maximum thickness of 20 mm, otherwise they would become too heavy<p>Does anyone know what this refers to? too heavy for what??
If you start with something that is natural and sustainable (for example, bamboo), and you add to it something that is neither (for example, glue), then you end up with something that is neither natural nor sustainable. Sorry.