Called hogwire fencing at Menards. Cut it to fit pallets And attached to pallets with conduit holders. Bent corners. Done.
Deacon, I'm eager to see what the results are without the bottom wrapping with slits in it. In thinking of trying at least a pallet worth of wood Augie style, and a pallet just stacked and top covered containing wood from the same trees on each pallet. If I get real ambitious, maybe one wrapped, with no bottom cover. Where I plan on putting the wood, it won't get all day sun though. I'd think that if using stretch wrap, you would absolutely have to start at the bottom of the stack, and wrap up, kinda like shingling a roof, to ensure no reason water enters. I bet there's shrink wrap for less than that amazon link. I'll take a look. We used to use that stuff back in my warehouse working days.
I found that uline had several types that would work. You get a better price by buying more at a time. Here's the least expensive I found.
That's the stuff! I used some extra lengths of my wife's green garden fencing inside mine this year but she might soon realize it so I'm contemplating different methods. The calf/hog pen wire is a good option especially since everyone seems to have found the plastic totes so valuable!
I do think I will try some thicker stretch wrap from Uline. Thinner Menards stuff has been ok so far. I don't know how I can feasibly wrap more of the bottom. Will work on it because it gets breezy here in the summer. With my OWB & two indoor (airtight) fireplaces I go thru 30 to 50 pallets per winter. I plan on checking both temps & moisture content this spring & summer. Storing in full sun. Any guesses what interior temps will be when its 100 in July?
One thing I would use next time is a smooth stick running the length of the stack to help shed rainwater
That's a good bit of wood you go through there. If my shop was insulated (so I could use it more) I suspect I'd go through nearly as much so that's what I'm preparing for next winter; two stoves in the house and the Daka out in the shop. To wrap the bottom I'd line it with an oversized piece of regular plastic with weep holes in it and then start stacking wood on top of that, letting it run up the insides. Then just stretch wrap it like you did the others. That should help a good bit I'd think. As to the interior temps in July, I'd be really surprised if it didn't go to at least 150ºf.
The temps I recorded on mine were ~106F at the top, 95 mid and 92 bottom with ambient temps of 85-86 It only received ~4-5hrs of sun late August -September. I don't have many full sun spaces on my wooded hilly property
Braggart! j/k HD. I've got about 14 trees on the whole 10 acres and they're all the decorative evergreen type besides two apple trees so I'm jealous to say the least!
I think that influence from evaporating ground moisture is not a concern. The factors that will allow water to evaporate (available energy to overcome latent heat and the RH) are the same for your wood or soil. If there is enough energy to overcome latent heat and the RH is such that evaporation can occur, water will change state, be it from the ground or from your wood. If either factor isn't enough then evaporation will not occur, so if the wood isn't drying then the ground isn't either. That does assume that the ground doesn't have a continuous supply of water. But at any rate the same factors would be there if you were relying on the wind to deliver your heat and take away the elevated moisture levels instead of elevating heat by trapping it and using the elevated heat to reduce the RH and relying on condensation to take away the moisture. The wind just blows, heat is what dries wood.
So long as you have enough sunlight hours to elevate your heat and reduce the RH within your wrap you will see accelerated drying. It is a tradeoff between letting the wind deliver your needed heat and take away the moisture or trapping the heat or relying the temperature swing and its effect on humidity to accomplish the drying task.
I am intrigued by this discussion. It gets right down to the principles involved in drying. I am thinking I may want to try a hillbilly kiln but leave maybe 6 inches open at the bottom and run a stick across the top to give moisture that condenses inside a clear path to drain down. I am thinking of the model used to produce drinking water in a desert where you drop a small rock in the center of a trapped air volume to allow collecting all of the moisture condensation at a single point where you collect it in a cup only reverse the water flow direction to move the moisture out of the enclosure by giving it a good path to run off and out.
Awesome discussion, folks. One thing I noticed today. Wood from the bottom had a much higher m.c. I'll have to check it as I go. Probably a lack of warming/cooling because it was exposed to the outside air.
Just relaying what I have read in the multiple (old) publications on solar kiln firewood drying. Most of those "tests" were done with wood stacked on the ground and poly tented over the wood - probably increased the ground surface area by 3-5 times the area of the stack. I agree ground moisture isn't a big concern in this configuration. With the wood stacked on pallets or timbers and only wrapping the wood you're not closing in the ground and not heating the soil
Interested in giving this a go. Think a pole in the center of the pallet higher than wood (tent) to shed water is a good idea or should it be at the side (lean-to)?
I'd say a center pole (I plan on using a sacrificial round) because the moisture would have less distance to travel horizontally.
