Choke cherry (prunus virginiana) and black cherry (prunus serotina) are two different trees. prunus serotina is the taller version and considered valuable as a cabinetry wood especially in places where they grow a little straighter than they do around here. Except for height I don't think I could tell the two apart unless the leaves, flowers and fruit were side by side as there are small differences.
Thanks for taking the time to get back to me and there’s no need to apologize, as you were a busy man. I hope you enjoyed your birthday/reception! I appreciate the drawing, I’m not sure your way is one I would have thought of trying on my own. I do like it though and will be excited to try all the different methods everyone has so graciously offered up to me. I do like the vertical split as well, for anything of substantial size it makes life easier and more precise. Without a decent sized log catcher on the splitter I also find vertical to be a safer option when working with larger and heavier rounds. Thanks again for your time and input. I’ll hopefully get some time to try all the different methods out this weekend and report back on my findings!
I have decided that going forward I am done with stacking. I have access to an unlimited supply of IBC totes for free. I am going to build 3 bins that will hold about 5 full cords each. I burn between 4-5 cords per year. Will cut 2 sides out of the cages for corners and cut 3 sides off for side walls. Will go 2 totes wide and probably 4 totes long. Will have to do some measuring to know for sure. May have to drill some extra holes in the bottoms of the cage for better air flow.
That very likely wont hold up...those things are made of pretty thin metal and cutting that much structure away will allow it to fold like paper IMO, especially the single sided ones...now if you can run a cable from one side to the other, then you'll probably pull it off.
I’ve done it that way before and they held up ok. Lasted about 10 years and I left them full of wood when I moved from that place. Never had any issues with them trying to bow over. The secret is, the ones that are used for the sides of the bins, you have to leave the curved corners on them with one of the stakes in each end. Makes them stick out to inside of the bin about a foot, but doesn’t hurt anything and leaves plenty of structural support.
