Pro sizer...measuring firewood

ive noticed most 50-60cc powerheads are approx 16 inches long from the end of the handle to where the bar is, i just use the saw to measure every cut.

 

I feel so inadequate... I just cut the wood.

 

Up in New England they use micrometers. At least that is how tidy the stacks look from the road...

 

You mean the piles dumped in the driveway? There's plenty of FHC'ers that know how to make a nice stack, but there's far more people up there buy a cord of wood that's been "seasoned" ( the entire duration of the way to the delivery lol) and it stays in the driveway in that pile.

 

I just received one of these as a gift, not something I would likely buy for myself, esp for the price, but it seems well made.

 

I just use a zip tie.

 

I do the same thing! Three long zip ties side by side on the lower end of the vertical part of the handle, tape them tightly together close to the handle, rotate them so they are 90° from the bar, measure desired log length from the bar, cut them off at that distance and tape the ends together. It's a brilliant, simple, cheap idea from one of the YouTube firewood guys! I don't remember which channel. If they're in the way, rotate them parallel to the saw.
I'm terrible at cutting consiistent lengths, this helps me a lot, and the batteries are included...

 

Yeah, I think the wood channels kind of feed off each other. Seems they all did about the same time in a month period.

 

If you only cut left to right, and only have ONE saw , it would be somthin to consider, but with 14 saws? That’s getting Expensive

speaking of expensive, how much rough handling will those take, chainsaws aren’t typically used in a protected environment, and with this crowd

While I PREFER Consistent 16” lengths, lately we have been cutting mostly sectioned down yard trees, so using a tape measure and crayon ️, I can get better utilization of the wood, sometimes 15”, sometimes 17” leaves little to no shorts


While almost all of this Spruce will become BTU’s, I hadn’t done any milling in too loooong, and for some reason this one log kept telling me, I ain’t just firewood, so I slabbed this one log, I don’t have anything in particular in mind for it




But Mary, my Wife’s Friend, who had the tree cut down, was Tickled when she saw this. It’s really kind of wide for a bench, and low for a table, but it was a spur of the moment thing, that just seemed to “Fit”that spot in her yard

It’s a Good thing that Mary lives close by, and we stopped by, before bringing the saws and trailer. When Mary asked my Wife if we wanted a Spruce that she had cut down, she told my Wife that it was probably, “ Oh about 40’ tall”, then we got there, and saw the tree on the ground ,uh Mary, that tree is closer to 40” Diameter, than 40’ tall. Yeah that’s gonna be more than a 50cc/18” saw, and an hour or so to cut and load

Sorry for the thread drift



Doug

 

They work just as well from right to left! Finish your cut , look at where the end of the zip ties lines up on the log. There is always a bit of lichen or an imperfection or something to line up on. Remember that spot for .5 seconds, move the saw over & cut.
I picked up a 100 pack of 15" zip ties at a trade show for $3-, enough for 16 saws 2x with a few spare.

 

I tried for a whole season to mark and measure every round. The problem is I like to choose the cut length for various reasons. Maybe I want to position a knot so it splits better. Maybe I'm coming to a crotch and if I make a couple rounds slightly shorter I can get more wood out of it. I would rather maximize the wood I get out of a tree than have every round exactly the same length.

 

I was referring to the Laser pointers, the topic of the thread. Someone mentioned a $70 price tag, that adds up to a whole lot more, for 14 saws, than a $3 bag of zip ties


Doug

 

Takes just a couple minutes to move from one saw to another.

 

waste of time

 

Seems the older I get the more I like to take my time and enjoy the process…with just about everything.

 

The older I get, the more Valuable I find my time to be

There definitely are things that I enjoy the process of, changing laser pointers on chainsaws, isn’t on that list


Doug

 

A few zip ties, a little tape & no perpetual wrestling with changing lasers amongst innumerable power saws. Which gives more time to build benches from those logs that do not want to be mere BTUs!

 

So I’ve been thinking about this little prosizer for a while, I cut around 25 cord per year for myself and it gets stuffed into my woodshed. I bought one and I’ve been using it the past few weeks and I really, really like it. I get tree service wood delivered so it comes in all manor of shapes and sizes, huge logs, cord wood, crotch pieces, everything and this little prosizer allows me to attack a pile really fast with great consistency.

No issues yet, but the bonus is.. that you are actually able to work the other way along a log. You just eyeball where the laser is, like set your eye on the spot where the dot is, move you saw to it and cut. Turns out I had a pic on my phone to show my brother, so maybe you can see what I mean…

My way to justify the cost was that my shed has a limited capacity, so being more consistent over the next few years will allow me to cram more in there. So boom, more BTU’s on hand.

Maybe it’s not for everybody but I’m glad I bought it, I told my buddy that the laser scans the log for a volume measurement, moisture reading, estimated BTU output and age of the tree. He almost believed me for a second, that was fun!

 

I’ve used one and it does work but not sure worth the money. Best way I found is to set it up so you mark the log with the bar tip because if you try to use another place the angle will change causing different lengths.

 

Kinda like sharpening a chain, I don’t really enjoy that either but I’ll spend a few minutes doing it to make the firewooding process more enjoyable.