Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[JB Weld]

I spent this afternoon out in the garage of repair and despair! I traded for a MS 361 a few months ago and I finally got to put a wrench on it. I think it will make me a good saw with a little more TLC. It will be my biggest saw. I spent most of my time cleaning the girl up. She was filthy! Not running yet, but hopefully she will be throwing chips soon!

 

[Philbert]

the mill is a pallet factory and they only use hard wood products. . .

Pallet companies are sometimes not picky about the type of hardwood that they use. Some will use popular, birch, cottonwood etc. Some will specify only certain species for selective customers.

Don't get me wrong. The stuff I got was great firewood for me. Easy to cut, split, and feed into my smaller woodstove. Burned great. I would use it again. Getting it for free really is a good score.

Philbert

 

[svk]

Pallet companies are sometimes not picky about the type of hardwood that they use. Some will use popular, birch, cottonwood

Lol that's the truth. You have two pallets sitting next to each other and one is rotten in 18 months and the other lasts 6 years.

 

[MustangMike]

Make a bean pole for the garden out of Red Maple or Silver Maple and it will only last a year, make it out of Norway Maple or Sugar Maple and it will last many years.

 

[dancan]

Gee , I'm not sure I like this thread being a sticky , it keeps it at the top and now it's in the wrong place not being with the rest of the other sticky's ......
I used a good rubber hook cord to split some rounds of scrounged wood the other day instead of my trusty old tire , "Try out new ideas , seen it on the internet" I thot ....

Won't be tryin that one again LOL
I worked on a scrounging tool today , built a 2 saw holster for the tractor .

Somewhere might be missing a detour sign
Also got a chance to use the set of forks I built for the little Bota to move logs around , works great but I need to add some weight in the back especially when I throw a pallet on it and load it up with firewood LOL

 

[Philbert]

I used a good rubber hook cord to split some rounds of scrounged wood the other day instead of my trusty old tire , . . .Won't be tryin that one again LOL

The version I tried uses a chain as the 'binder', with a piece of bungie cord to provide tension. It is easy to adjust for different diameter rounds, by hooking the bungie cord into different links of the chain. I also used the cloth covered bungies with multiple rubber strands - they seem less likely to fracture than the solid rubber ones, like you show.

Philbert

 

[dancan]

Mine parted ways with one fell swoop of the axe .....LOL

 

[JB Weld]

That is my kind of saw scabbard Dancan!

 

[tla100]

More 4' Pine kindlin.....work van

 

[Ryan Groat]

Some silver maple and Chinese elm. One more load from this residential area. I'm so glad I responded to the Craigslist ad. I've got roughly 10 cord from it so far.

 

[JB Weld]

10 cord! Holy Shemoly! That is like 4 years worth of firewood for me! I need to start cruising CL again.

After work yesterday, I went home determined to get out and cut or at least split some firewood. Nothing was going to stop me!

I ended up weaving a potholder with my 3 year old daughter.

After that, my 6 year old daughter looked at me and said, "Dad, I don't think you need to go split firewood. Would you read me a book?"

I knew my plan had been thwarted at that point......this evening though, nothing is going to stop me!

 

[MustangMike]

There will be plenty of firewood left to haul long after you blink your eyes and your kids are grown!

Enjoy their company! Besides, you don't need as much of it down there!

 

[Ryan Groat]

10 cord! Holy Shemoly! That is like 4 years worth of firewood for me! I need to start cruising CL again.

I may be a little off. My pile of rounds not stacked right now is about 20ft wide x 25ft deep with an average of 4-5 ft tall. That does not include the last trailer load. But if the math is correct I should be around 10 cord thinking that there is about 5 cord worth of loss once split and stacked neatly.

Either way there is a lot of wood that I have gotten for free, most of it involves just loading it in the truck. I have not cut down any of the trees and a lot of them have been cut up into manageable pieces. Just back up and load it up.

I burn about 5-6 cord a year, this will be my second winter in my new house so I am playing catch up. This summers goal is 15 - 20 cords CSS.

 

[morewood]

Within the last month I was given a huge poplar, already cut down and only 100 yds from the end of the driveway. Yesterday I was asked to come cut up a maple trunk that was left and a nice 30'+ poplar(same way), not a quarter of a mile from the house. My FIL called me to tell me that the property we had cut on last year(wood was already down and stacked in log length) and pulled out 20 or so truck loads was back available. The owners decided not to cut up the rest of the wood they had and asked me to come and take all I could. I conservatively guess another 15-20 stacked truck loads. All of this and my personal cutting area( I have 10-15 nice trees down ready to pull and cut up) which unfortunately has stayed too damp to cut on so far. I love scrounging firewood. I have found that politeness goes a long way. Also, if I take the less desireable wood I usually get more call backs for other wood. Pics when I get it started.

Shea

 

[Ambull01]

Just saw this on my RSS reader.
http://gizmodo.com/the-difference-between-hard-and-soft-wood-has-zero-to-d-1705444075

I may be a little off. My pile of rounds not stacked right now is about 20ft wide x 25ft deep with an average of 4-5 ft tall. That does not include the last trailer load. But if the math is correct I should be around 10 cord thinking that there is about 5 cord worth of loss once split and stacked neatly.

Either way there is a lot of wood that I have gotten for free, most of it involves just loading it in the truck. I have not cut down any of the trees and a lot of them have been cut up into manageable pieces. Just back up and load it up.

I burn about 5-6 cord a year, this will be my second winter in my new house so I am playing catch up. This summers goal is 15 - 20 cords CSS.

Nice! How many cords do you go through a year?

 

[Ryan Groat]

Nice! How many cords do you go through a year?

I burn about 5-6 cord a year, this will be my second winter in my new house so I am playing catch up. This summers goal is 15 - 20 cords CSS.

 

[zogger]

Within the last month I was given a huge poplar, already cut down and only 100 yds from the end of the driveway. Yesterday I was asked to come cut up a maple trunk that was left and a nice 30'+ poplar(same way), not a quarter of a mile from the house. My FIL called me to tell me that the property we had cut on last year(wood was already down and stacked in log length) and pulled out 20 or so truck loads was back available. The owners decided not to cut up the rest of the wood they had and asked me to come and take all I could. I conservatively guess another 15-20 stacked truck loads. All of this and my personal cutting area( I have 10-15 nice trees down ready to pull and cut up) which unfortunately has stayed too damp to cut on so far. I love scrounging firewood. I have found that politeness goes a long way. Also, if I take the less desireable wood I usually get more call backs for other wood. Pics when I get it started.

Shea

Ya man, lets see some pics! Using one of those army trailers?

 

[morewood]

Ya man, lets see some pics! Using one of those army trailers?

I use them on just about everything. I may borrrow my friends dump trailer when I go up to the mountain to the pile I had worked on before. Only worth it if I can get more than a truckload at a time. I may change the lights on one of the 105's and try it out since it does have surge brakes. You should see the pics of some of the wood I pulled out of there over the fall/winter.

Shea

 

[MustangMike]

Generally, hard woods have leaves and softwoods have needles (evergreens). That said, they all vary in hardness. White Pine is far softer than Hickory, and soft Maple (both Red & Silver) is much softer than hard Maple (Sugar & Norway).

You will notice a big difference in the cut speed of your chain. Also, larger trees of the same kind tend to get more dense (harder).

Dead dry wood is also harder to cut (and dulls your chain faster) than green wood that still has some sap in in. The sap tends to lubricate the cutting, like putting oil on metal when drilling it.

 

[mainewoods]

I wonder who made this thread a sticky, it wasn't me.