Firewood drying/ transport ? an attempt at efficiency

[komatsuvarna]

sounds like an excellent idea. I just done the exact same thing your talking about at my place. works great. I do alot of property clearing for new construction and for underground utilities and when i get in a good spot i bring home a years worth of wood in one weekend. cut in 16 ft lenths, load em up bring em in and unload them right at the shed. then when i get time i cut cut, split and stack all at the same spot. 5 cords is all i use to with a indoor stove.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

I think that the question of whether to build a wood shed is more a function of interest and need for a project than a question of drying wood
.

I'm tired of tarp on, tarp off, when the wind blows. Plus, it's pretty humid here, and I don't have much sun in my yard, so a shed will definitely work better.

 

[headleyj]

I'm tired of tarp on, tarp off, when the wind blows. Plus, it's pretty humid here, and I don't have much sun in my yard, so a shed will definitely work better.

I was sick of tarps after one year too so I built the woodshed. I don't want to really put the effort into a drying shed, implement shed, then next year turn around and build a barn.

 

[justlearning]

Palletizing Wood

For those of you using pallets to store wood, can you share some images of how you stack/secure the wood to the pallets?

I've been ranking for a dozen or so years, but haven't ever tried to palletize my stacks.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

 

[Mike PA]

Here's what I've settled on:
1. Palletize
2. Let stacked pallets sit out in side yard this summer (good sun and breeze)
3. Get a year ahead
4. Move 1 yr worth in woodshed before Fall rains
5. Leave next years at edge of yard and cover tops only with tin, heavy tarps or whatever.
6. Build barn next year
7. Incorporate open ended lean-to on barn for wood and tractor implements

I think this makes the most sense, is the most efficient and the wife will just have to deal with covering a row or 2 of pallets somehow for a year

That makes the most sense to me. Ideally, the shed you have next to the OWB would be large enough for two years, then you would not need to move the wood. Except for that, this is the best plan you could have, I think.

 

[headleyj]

That makes the most sense to me. Ideally, the shed you have next to the OWB would be large enough for two years, then you would not need to move the wood. Except for that, this is the best plan you could have, I think.

That shed, stacked plum full to the ceiling, won't last me a year believe it or not! The Shaver must be horribly inefficient or my less than prime wood sux worse than I thought

 

[gwiley]

I think that maybe I have wood shed envy since I know that there is no way I can convince the "financial management committee" that we need one. You guys just go ahead and build your nifty wood sheds and leave the rest of us to be jealous.

 

[headleyj]

I think that maybe I have wood shed envy since I know that there is no way I can convince the "financial management committee" that we need one. You guys just go ahead and build your nifty wood sheds and leave the rest of us to be jealous.

I think we need a thread for all the names of the "financial management commitees" aka, book keeper, aka, accountant, etc.

 

[maplemeister]

Here's what I've settled on:
1. Palletize
2. Let stacked pallets sit out in side yard this summer (good sun and breeze)
3. Get a year ahead
4. Move 1 yr worth in woodshed before Fall rains
5. Leave next years at edge of yard and cover tops only with tin, heavy tarps or whatever.
6. Build barn next year
7. Incorporate open ended lean-to on barn for wood and tractor implements

I think this makes the most sense, is the most efficient and the wife will just have to deal with covering a row or 2 of pallets somehow for a year

She's really pretty cool - she's actually the one who suggested a permanent structure for wood AND a structure for implements. I think she'll go for it.

Maplemeister: how are you only going through 5 cords/ yr in VT when I'm burning through 10 in Indiana? OWB vs indoor maybe? OT a little, sorry

Headleyj,

Ok, here's the deal. I have a mid seventies vintage stove called a downdrafter. Simple box steel design that takes the draft from the top of the stove and works great in my 28x40 ranch. My house has 6" of insulation in the walls and 14 in the ceiling so it is well insulated. When I cut my wood in the winter and Spring, I save all the short ugly pieces of wood that I don't want to pass on to the customers. I usually end up with a cord or better of this stuff that would normally get thrown away, but I take it from my wood
yard with my tractor bucket and make a big pile on pallets next to the garage. I usually throw a piece of clear plastic over the pile and by fall, the wood is good to go. Usually around Sept. 1st, we start to use the stove for a couple of hours an evening or so. My good wife goes out to the ugly pile and comes back with two sheetrock pails of wood each day. We have found that since we started this routine that we can burn all the way up to mid November before we need to get into our primo wood. I used to use my good wood starting in Sept. and found that I was wasting wood and producing way more heat than we needed for that time of year. With this new approach and use of what used to get thrown away, I have yet to go over my five cord a winter. As on Ben said, "waste not, want not".

Regards,
Maplemeister:

 

[redprospector]

Reading your post it clicked.....I don't know what I need! How can you know what to do if you don't know what you need?

What I mean is if you are correct by "Rule #2 Heat, and air flow dry wood (mostly air flow).".....then as long as you're covered you're ok.

Pretty much. As long as you leave a little space for air flow, and the wind blows.
Where I live it might get to 80 degrees for a week during the summer, the rest of the summer it's in the low 70's. Since my wood dries out just fine I've determined that heat is like a stereo in your truck (it makes things nice but you'll still get there without it).
It all depends on how far you want to go, and how much you're willing to spend to get there. If you have a shed that will build up heat, and air will move through it your wood will dry a lot faster. If you go that far, the next step up would be a kiln.

Andy

 

[redprospector]

For those of you using pallets to store wood, can you share some images of how you stack/secure the wood to the pallets?

I've been ranking for a dozen or so years, but haven't ever tried to palletize my stacks.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

The little experience I have in palletizing wood is for shipping (usually in small bundles). We would lay out a layer on a pallet, and the next layer would go the opposite direction. Doing it this way each layer secures the last layer. After it has seasoned a while it was wrapped with shrink wrap.
I don't know if that's the best way, but if it will stay together on a truck going down the road, it should stay together in a wood shed.

Andy

 

[headleyj]

Wanted to follow up. Pallets seem to be working well. I need to reinforce the 2x4 sides a bit, had one blow out on me - maybe next year Saw someone on here with chain link on the sides, looked good.

So far I have 12 or 13 pallets full....have 1 more since I took the pic.

 

[vincem77]

Nice piles you've got there.
I see some pretty huge chunks, thats usually how I like to stack them as well. Tough to see but did you chop them up at least once? Monster rounds take a while to dry whole. I give em a bash or two with the fiskars and they pop right apart.

 

[headleyj]

Nice piles you've got there.
I see some pretty huge chunks, thats usually how I like to stack them as well. Tough to see but did you chop them up at least once? Monster rounds take a while to dry whole. I give em a bash or two with the fiskars and they pop right apart.

There's nothin gin there I would call monster....yeah I shoulda taken a closer up pic. If I had a 20" dia piece I split in half, then took one half and halved it again.....so I'd get 3 pieces outta one round - that combo seems to work well for me with big pieces serving as the "centerpieces" in teh stove and the smaller ones to shove in the corners.

 

[giXXer]

Wanted to follow up. Pallets seem to be working well. I need to reinforce the 2x4 sides a bit, had one blow out on me - maybe next year Saw someone on here with chain link on the sides, looked good.

So far I have 12 or 13 pallets full....have 1 more since I took the pic.

I've been slowly building the same types of "boxes" for my wood. I had a problem with side supports blowing out as well. I started making the boxes a little shorter and I use two pallet stringers on top to keep the sides from separating. The reason for making them a little shorter is once they are full I can stack one box on top of another so they don't take up as much space. I also only put two rows on each pallet leaving about 10" in the center for air movement. I only use the boxes for my "cast-offs" or "ugly" pieces that I burn in the spring and fall and still stack all of my "good" wood in 4'X8'X16" stacks. I do unfortunately still have to handle the wood again to get it to the boiler. The plan was to build enough boxes to be able to store and dry all of my "good" wood as well. Now my wheels are turning again after seeing Diesel pros set-up with the racks made out of tubing. I have a hydraulic pipe bender and chop saw, now I just need to find out where I can find a mile or so of old chain link fence for the tubing. I like that set-up and for a guy with a tractor, headleyj, it might work really well.

The topic of kilns has come up a couple of times and it is something that I have been researching lately. I think a solar kiln could be built pretty economically, I just don't know if it would be worth it. Instead of hijacking headleyj's thread I think I'll start one for solar firewood kilns. If anyone is interested, your input is always appreciated.

 

[headleyj]

I've been slowly building the same types of "boxes" for my wood. I had a problem with side supports blowing out as well. I started making the boxes a little shorter and I use two pallet stringers on top to keep the sides from separating. The reason for making them a little shorter is once they are full I can stack one box on top of another so they don't take up as much space. I also only put two rows on each pallet leaving about 10" in the center for air movement. I only use the boxes for my "cast-offs" or "ugly" pieces that I burn in the spring and fall and still stack all of my "good" wood in 4'X8'X16" stacks. I do unfortunately still have to handle the wood again to get it to the boiler. The plan was to build enough boxes to be able to store and dry all of my "good" wood as well. Now my wheels are turning again after seeing Diesel pros set-up with the racks made out of tubing. I have a hydraulic pipe bender and chop saw, now I just need to find out where I can find a mile or so of old chain link fence for the tubing. I like that set-up and for a guy with a tractor, headleyj, it might work really well.

The topic of kilns has come up a couple of times and it is something that I have been researching lately. I think a solar kiln could be built pretty economically, I just don't know if it would be worth it. Instead of hijacking headleyj's thread I think I'll start one for solar firewood kilns. If anyone is interested, your input is always appreciated.

what do you use for the stringers on top that's strong enough to stack another load of wood on? Another Pallet???

 

[giXXer]

I use the stringers from the interior of a pallet or if I have leftover 2X4's I use those. I found the trick is to stack the wood in the "box" under the top stringers so the firewood will help support the box that's on top. As I mentioned, I also make them a little shorter so they are wider and deeper than tall. The height ends up being about 2'4" so it takes almost three boxes to make a 1/3 full cord. The first one had a major lean to it so I made a little adjustment and the 8 that I am currently using are working pretty good. They are a little more fragile than I expected, I bumped one with the tip of one of the forks which sent the top box to the ground. I'm still working on a better way to do it, but these were free except for the screws and my time. I also don't have to handle the wood several times. When it comes time to burn I can grab a couple of boxes with the tractor and set them right next to the boiler.

I really like the design on those racks using tubing. Yesterday I checked with a couple of fence companies just out of curiosity and the tubing isn't all that easy to come by. One company that I deal with for our businesses said if he gets a demo job on a chain link fence he'd let me know. I won't hold my breath, but if it works out I'll give that method a try since I haven't had an excuse to use my pipe bender in about a year.

Isn't it amazing the lengths we'll go to to use our tractors? If the government will let me, I plan on burning wood to heat the house for years to come so once I find system that works really well for me I'll stick to it and reap the benefits of being efficient. For now, I think we are about in the same spot...trying to find something that will work...look nice, eliminate over-handling the wood, help the wood dry, and leave the heavy lifting for the tractor.

 

[headleyj]

I use the stringers from the interior of a pallet or if I have leftover 2X4's I use those. I found the trick is to stack the wood in the "box" under the top stringers so the firewood will help support the box that's on top. As I mentioned, I also make them a little shorter so they are wider and deeper than tall. The height ends up being about 2'4" so it takes almost three boxes to make a 1/3 full cord. The first one had a major lean to it so I made a little adjustment and the 8 that I am currently using are working pretty good. They are a little more fragile than I expected, I bumped one with the tip of one of the forks which sent the top box to the ground. I'm still working on a better way to do it, but these were free except for the screws and my time. I also don't have to handle the wood several times. When it comes time to burn I can grab a couple of boxes with the tractor and set them right next to the boiler.

I really like the design on those racks using tubing. Yesterday I checked with a couple of fence companies just out of curiosity and the tubing isn't all that easy to come by. One company that I deal with for our businesses said if he gets a demo job on a chain link fence he'd let me know. I won't hold my breath, but if it works out I'll give that method a try since I haven't had an excuse to use my pipe bender in about a year.

Isn't it amazing the lengths we'll go to to use our tractors? If the government will let me, I plan on burning wood to heat the house for years to come so once I find system that works really well for me I'll stick to it and reap the benefits of being efficient. For now, I think we are about in the same spot...trying to find something that will work...look nice, eliminate over-handling the wood, help the wood dry, and leave the heavy lifting for the tractor.

It does sounds like we're at the same point for sure.....If I have any great ideas I'll surely share them on this forum....my thing is to be as efficient (sp?) as I can, with reasonable cost (don't ask, I dont know what the $ limit is) and have it look nice/ organized.

 

[Slick]

I drew up some plans for similar boxes to what you guys are making out of pallets but with rough cut 4x4's in the four corners so they stacked nicely and could be forked once stacked. I plan on trying some soon. I sized them to fit nicely in my trailer, think they came out to 1/4 cord per box. Just got forks for my mini-skid steer so I'm planning to try some soon....not looking forward to like 25 bucks in rough cut wood per box which doesn't sound like much but for 8-10 cords a year to feed a CB 5036...it adds up, plan to start with afew and see how it goes.

 

[bluestem]

think they came out to 1/4 cord per box. Just got forks for my mini-skid steer so I'm planning to try some soon....not looking forward to like 25 bucks in rough cut wood per box which doesn't sound like much but for 8-10 cords a year to feed a CB 5036...it adds up, plan to start with afew and see how it goes.

I'm in the same boat as you guys, I'll take some pictures this afternoon when/if it stops raining and show you what I've come up with. Similar as everyone else, but mine are a little bigger it sounds like, I figured the stacked wood on mine are 3 x 4 x 5, if the wood is still green I can only stack them 3/4 full or my Case 1840 squats to much to carry them, then I fill the rest up by hand. I have 8 lined up with tin sheets nailed to the top.

It does get pricey, one way I've cut on costs is to scrounge construction dumpsters (with permission) for scrap 2x4's and what ever else looks useful so I just build them as I acquire more lumber.