Post pictures of your woodpile/splitting area

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Finished up my 10-20 lean to, got sick of tents tarps and skids in the winter. This is over kill but it's worth it. 4-4 frame, 2-8 decking and a galvanized roof. No sides because I want air to get in there, it has a nice sun exposure to dry stuff out. In the pics I included the picture of my stump from HELL. My tractor got it free but I needed my truck to pull it out. 4WL and a running start, 800 lbs in the bed and I was still spinning tires.004.JPG 023.JPG
 

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Very nice job, this inspires me to get rid of my tarps as well, thanks. I am not an engineer but I would add some bracing to make it multiple times stronger. The bracing would help to help resist sheer or lateral forces. I also think the angle of your 4x4 will cause the post to move out of place and you need a board or strap on each side to prevent this.
These are just some examples of additional bracing you could use. Anyway nice job and thanks for sharing.
 

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Been busy since November, roughly six cords of red oak, white ash, black cherry, and hickory...

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Still a dozen or so 28-34" logs to split up from the monster cherry that fell a month ago, but it was rotted and hollow in the center, so probably won't salvage much from them. Also more dead ash and oak to fell, but now that I'm ahead a year and not really feeling that monkey on my back.
Those are some sweet stacks. How do you do those?
 
Those are some sweet stacks. How do you do those?

Are you referring to the round stacks? If so, they're called holzhausen, it literally means "wood house" in German.

It's actually a pretty easy, layout your circular base 7'-8' wide (I use pallets, so just use the perimeter as a guide) and make a ring of splits circling around end grain to end grain. I find the half splits work best for this. That will be your base. Next start stacking around the base in an aray with the end grain pointing outward. You don't need to stack too tight, just enough so that it's rigid and doesn't move easily. At first the stacks will be slightly inclined, as you build higher it will begin to level out, but if it the stacks look to start pointing downwards, level them up with a 'shim' or junk thin split. After about 2' tall, start tossing in your short, knotty or goofy pieces into the center. Keep building upward to 5'-6' and then stack at an upward slope allowing the pieces to meet in the center, closing the opening. This creates the "roof" and helps shed water. I like to use 2-3" diameter unsplit limbwood lengths for this part. They're lighter and thinner, making them easy to weave or meld together.

Pro tip: if possible, sort your word first - choice half splits for base ring only, then clean splits, short amd goofy (to throw in the center), then thin or limbwood for the roof. I find if you take 20 minutes or so to sort the wood, then the stacking goes quickly. Usually takes me about 35-45 minutes total. No cribbing needed, very stable, ~2 cords of wood in almost half the footprint.
 
Are you referring to the round stacks? If so, they're called holzhausen, it literally means "wood house" in German.

It's actually a pretty easy, layout your circular base 7'-8' wide (I use pallets, so just use the perimeter as a guide) and make a ring of splits circling around end grain to end grain. I find the half splits work best for this. That will be your base. Next start stacking around the base in an aray with the end grain pointing outward. You don't need to stack too tight, just enough so that it's rigid and doesn't move easily. At first the stacks will be slightly inclined, as you build higher it will begin to level out, but if it the stacks look to start pointing downwards, level them up with a 'shim' or junk thin split. After about 2' tall, start tossing in your short, knotty or goofy pieces into the center. Keep building upward to 5'-6' and then stack at an upward slope allowing the pieces to meet in the center, closing the opening. This creates the "roof" and helps shed water. I like to use 2-3" diameter unsplit limbwood lengths for this part. They're lighter and thinner, making them easy to weave or meld together.

Pro tip: if possible, sort your word first - choice half splits for base ring only, then clean splits, short amd goofy (to throw in the center), then thin or limbwood for the roof. I find if you take 20 minutes or so to sort the wood, then the stacking goes quickly. Usually takes me about 35-45 minutes total. No cribbing needed, very stable, ~2 cords of wood in almost half the footprint.
Yes, I actually have been reading up on this since I last posted. Thanks for the explanation. I may try this with my next splits.
 
Restacked the remainder of my oak under the sauna awning (pic #2) and filled that now empty rack with birch that I had cut last fall (pic #1). Except for a couple wheelbarrow loads from my first rack, I’m completely full. There’s a tad over two cords here so unless I get real crazy with the fire pit, I’m good for about two years of sauna and fire pit use.

Now if I can get about 10 cords stocked up at home I’ll be good there too in the event that I’m in MN over a winter.

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Split up some of red fir I cut at my moms place last winterView attachment 660552

Does fir split easy or do you really need the hydro splitter? Until a few years ago, I had always assumed that density was the main factor and therefore softwood must be easy to split until I came across some cedar variant full of little branches and it just absorbed every hit. Didn't matter how hard I swung, it just laughed at me. Even the wedge and sledge was incredibly laborious. Sent me home with my tail between my legs....to get the 661 for a little payback :happybanana:.
 
Does fir split easy or do you really need the hydro splitter? Until a few years ago, I had always assumed that density was the main factor and therefore softwood must be easy to split until I came across some cedar variant full of little branches and it just absorbed every hit. Didn't matter how hard I swung, it just laughed at me. Even the wedge and sledge was incredibly laborious. Sent me home with my tail between my legs....to get the 661 for a little payback :happybanana:.
What svk said. Also this stuff was really stringy, had to run splitter wedge all the way down to get pieces separated on most of it. Some red fir isn’t bad, stuff we cut last weekend had recently died and after being halved most would pop apart with one hit from the fiskars.
 

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