Firewood Pallets w/ Welded Wire or Field Fence?

[avc8130]

I thought I remembered seeing pics of guys who made firewood containers from pallets and either welded wire or field fence. I was thinking about stapling leftover field fencing to pallets to make cages for firewood. I figure I can just tie the ends together to either make a cylinder or maybe square it off to match the pallets?

One of my concerns is emptying them. At 48" high, I'm not sure how I'd get the bottom splits out as my ams aren't 4' long.

How do these setups work out in practice?

ac

 

[brenndatomu]

Like this? You'll notice the second pic, I cut the front panel in half to make a fold down gate on the front so I can reach the back/bottom. Just use split chain repair links for hinges. Or could just bend up some wire for hinges. I wired the corners together with pieces of cut off fence. My pallets are 42x48 so two sides get 6" (or one "section") cut off of the 4' long fence panel. 2x4s nailed to the pallet makes a good place to staple the fence to on the front and back of the pallets. I usually wait 'til one of the farm supply stores have a sale on hog/cattle panels to get the fence panels.
Works out real well for my shorts/uglys that I feed to the lil stove in the fireplace until it gets cold enough to fire up the big dog in the basement, he get's to eat the "good" wood

 

[cantoo]

I just bend the end around to make it the size I want to fit the skid. To empty I reach in as far as I can and when I can't reach anymore I just bend the wires back and let it open up. I can then store the wire and skids flat until I fill then again.

 

[avc8130]

It looks like both of you guys are using welded wire, cattle panels?

Ever trying with cheaper field fence?

Cantoo,

Are yours even secured to the pallets?

ac

 

[iowaowb]

Interesting.

 

[cantoo]

avc8130, Nope mine are just sitting on the crate. I don't want to fasten them down because I take them apart when empty. Works good if you use some common sense when moving them. Level ground and low speed works best. I try to drop the wood in them as flat as possible so the stacks don't lean. I can put them in my heated shed for a day or two to melt snow off them too.

 

[steved]

I like the idea they just sit on the pallet.

I always thought about using field fence as its plenty strong and plenty stiff.

 

[avc8130]

I like the idea they just sit on the pallet.

I always thought about using field fence as its plenty strong and plenty stiff.

I'd prefer to use field fence also as it seems significantly less expensive. Those cattle panels are $22 by me. Welded wire field fence is less than $1/ft. About 25% cheaper per pallet.

Right now I need to add about 7 cord capacity to my rack system to get 2 years out stacked. That means I need about 21 more racks.

Ac

 

[Philbo]

I use welded wire fencing (4' tall, 4"x2" spacing) for mine. Stapled directly to pallet (oak pallets can be a pain to staple) and am using heavy duty zip ties to fasten the ends together, but you could also use T-post "clips" or just snip the ends of you extra fence overlap and tie/wrap it over itself. Zip ties are an experiment for me to see how long they hold up. As for unloading, I can reach down to all but the last foot or so, at which point you just cut the ties and the side opens up.

Field fence/woven wire fence could probably work here too as it's a little more elastic and doesn't bend quite as easily as welded wire, but the openings for field fence are too big for how small I split this wood (selling to restaurant for wood-fired oven)

Here's some pics. Holds roughly 1/3 cord by my calculations (tossed in) and should weigh less than 2000# when dry, even if it's oak.

 

[Philbo]

100' roll of welded wire is $60-75 and I can make 8 or 9 baskets with 1 roll which is roughly 3 cords worth.

 

[Joesell]

I was also trying to figure out a good way to reach the bottom of the bin. My brain automatically went to all sorts of cool and complicated fixes. That's when my wife walked by and said "Why don't you just tip it over?" Made sense to me, and easy enough to do.

 

[cantoo]

I use wire made for putting in concrete floors. Not such how much it's worth as I likely bought it at an auction sale. Fence wire will work and if it's not strong enough then you can just cut some 2x4's the height of the baskets and fence staple them upright around the basket, 3 or 4 should work fine.

 

[agstr]

I use welded wire fencing (4' tall, 4"x2" spacing) for mine. Stapled directly to pallet (oak pallets can be a pain to staple) and am using heavy duty zip ties to fasten the ends together, but you could also use T-post "clips" or just snip the ends of you extra fence overlap and tie/wrap it over itself. Zip ties are an experiment for me to see how long they hold up. As for unloading, I can reach down to all but the last foot or so, at which point you just cut the ties and the side opens up.

Field fence/woven wire fence could probably work here too as it's a little more elastic and doesn't bend quite as easily as welded wire, but the openings for field fence are too big for how small I split this wood (selling to restaurant for wood-fired oven)

Here's some pics. Holds roughly 1/3 cord by my calculations (tossed in) and should weigh less than 2000# when dry, even if it's oak.

View attachment 368990

View attachment 368991

Great idea -- reminds me of a Hesco barrier concept. Maybe you could use high carbon New Zealand smooth wire to tie the field fencing together, or hog rings. Have you thought of a way they could be stacked?

 

[Marine5068]

Hey to my Ontario neighbor Cantoo.
That wire mesh used for reinforcing concrete is called wire mesh or WWF(welded wire fabric), go figure.
I would think that the wire fencing is more money seeing as it galvanized and concrete reinforcement isn't.
Good ideas from you guys for ease of transport of your wood via a forklift/tractor.

 

[fred bergman]

like the 2x4 wire idea

 

[NSMaple1]

I'm on the lookout for empty tote cage pallets for this stuff - but have also had this in mind too. I would try bending the bottom 6" or so (or whatever) in so the bended in part lays on the bottom of the pallets & the wood laying on top of it will help hold the rest of the wire in place. Also think if you did want more height after you did that, you could stick a couple boards up on each end to stack against - that maybe won't work so good if you just tossing/heaping into the bin.

Either way - palletized wood kicks butt.

 

[husqvarna257]

This is my skid tote method. I can then haul them around with skid forks on the tractor.

 

[CaseyForrest]

View attachment 368526

Think Ive found my next project.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Pretty cool idea. I'd really consider using something like that though tracking steer steer across my yard would rut it up. I use a ZTR mower and cart to haul it from the driveway (where I dump it) to the yard, and then when it's dry from the yard to the front porch.

 

[cantoo]

CaseyForrest, I use these now.