Tip for Building Better Stacks

Have you ever built a nice wood stack only to have it poorly built at the corner?

It might be your wood.

I see a lot of stacks using quarter rounds, but they really don't make good corners.

The problem is, it just seems natural to split wood into quarter rounds.

But, there's a better way...

I split some rounds this way, into six pieces, each round makes two usable "flats".

Like these:

And these "flats" really do build nice corners.

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And I enjoy handling and stacking them, the size seems about right too.



And they work well for really tall stacks too.


Well, I hope that helps some "new to stacking" member.

 

Looking good and solid advice for any member
I’ll add one thing for those of us that aren’t cutting saw-log quality timber: If you’re dealing with splits that have a slight twist to the grain, small scrap pieces of bark or splitter trash in the right spot can help stabilize the cribbed ends as you’re building them.

 

Ive done the same in the past with splitter shards as shims.

 

Yes, definitely make 4x4's to 4x6's for the corner/ end stacks. Two flats make it right

 

I agree that flats would be the way to go, however based on the diameter of the scrounged logs I am bucking/splitting, mine usually do not produce flats. I think a lot of it also depends on what species of wood you are splitting (I scrounge a lot of beech and silver maple which can be notorious for producing contorted splits). I can see an issue with corner splits if a person is stacking a single row, but if you take a couple extra minutes, using corners should not be a problem. Perhaps it's because I do double stacks and use the weight of the stack to help support the end cribbing, however in all the years of using corners for cribbing I have never had a stack collapse. The splits in the video look like they're about 10" long, which being that short would also contribute to instability (whereas mine are cut to 16"). Still, good advice and if you have larger rounds and can process flats then that just makes sense to use them for your cribbing.

 

I was going to say the same thing!

 

True, and sound advice, but I haven't needed to make the effort or take the extra time due to not having an issue with corners. I especially like 8-10 inch diameter ash as those usually produce perfect corners for cribbing. (Of course now when I am splitting I'll keep 'hearing' your post about making small slabs!)