One more post for the day. This is the balance of my firewood hoard (yet to be split) as well as one of the wood splitters that I co-own, a toolbox carrier I built for the back of my truck because the toolbox took up too much valuable bed space, and last years leftover pile in a mesh hoop. Oh and then there's a pile of bolts that I brought home a few weekends ago when we were using the flatbed to haul. They fit so nice on the beaver tail up against the ramps and it saved a bunch of time in the woods. I'm sure someone will notice that the toolbox carrier appears to be sitting a little kitty-wampus. It was not designed or built that way but it in fact suffered from a brush with the wood pile when we got home last Sunday. Nothing a floor jack and a chain can't straighten out. Edit: I see that the 763 snuck into the bolt picture. It is by far one of my handiest pieces of equipment I own, especially when I can convince my 14 year old son to run it while I supervise.
A lot of those rounds look nice and dead and dry. I really like the toolbox carrier. I took my toolbox out of my bed as well for the same reasons, takes up too much space. I also couldn't add my side boards with the box in place because it covered up the front stake pockets. The hitch carrier is very clever. Awesome truck
Everything I cut this fall, save for a couple of smaller trees that got in the way of the one I was felling, were dead standing with the bark nearly totally gone. I fully expect to be burning them later this winter, with any luck. Thanks for the compliments on the hitch carrier but I can't take full credit for the idea, I just custom built this one for my toolbox and to my standards so that I knew I'd be able to pull the splitter behind it. It's really handy except that the toolbox is full of, well tools! And chains, straps, jumper cables, etc. So that leaves the saws and gas/oil to ride in the backseat in totes or on top of the stack!
Nice set up ! You have the equipment to be able to go into some serious firewood production. You sell wood too ? I see one of the the reasons you burn wood, the big propane tank Makes those stack worth $$$. Splitter looks awesome, 50 ton at least, nothing you can't split
Thanks for the compliments. I've always wanted to get into selling a little firewood but I'd like to get it to the point where I can minimize the handling and maximize profit. The splitter is a beast to be sure. The pump is the limiting factor right now. The ram is what drew us to it initially and the pump "looked" substantial. I'm not sold on the moving wedge style yet either, even after years of use. Our other one is a stationary wedge but it's down for customization's right now. I purposely didn't try and crop out the propane thank, figured you guys would see the method to my madness! The LP delivery guy has commented on my wood hoard more than once, although he only get's to show up once, maybe twice if I'm unlucky, a year now.
Looks like you have some really great firewood'n tools! There only seems to be 1 missing.... You ever thought of building a sawbuck? http://firewoodhoardersclub.com/forums/threads/sawbuck-build.5730/ Could make quick work of that pile of branches, and keep your chains out of the dirt.
Lookin' good Sam, glad to have you here. Wood stacks and propane tanks, one off-sets the other. In the past, when I've had comments directed about the amount of wood I've had stacked, I just state- "That's not wood. That's propane I don't have to buy."
Sam, welcome to the mix. Looks like you have all the right tools for turning dead standing trees into BTU's.
It was enjoyable to see your operation and some of your equipment. I especially enjoyed the pic of the truck loaded to the top, I bet you had some decent weight in her then. Thanks for sharing.
I have thought about building a sawbuck but I think I'm going to throw together one of these things instead: http://www.paravivirmejor.es/1877-thickbox_default/caballete-smart-holder.jpg What's the consensus on sawbuck vs. "smart holder"? My idea is that the smart holder is a bit more portable so I could take it too the woods with me.
Well it certainly looks like you have the metal working skills to pull that off! I think something like that might be more tedious than using a sawbuck however. I can pile up a whole bunch of branches on my sawbuck and do them all in 1 shot. Seems like it might be difficult to get multiple branches to stay on that thing at the same time. As far as portability, a lot of people have built "folding" versions, that end up about the size of a pallet when they're closed. Mine doesn't fold completely closed; I had to make a tradeoff between folding ability, and the extra strength from the half-lap joinery I used. But mine is very lightweight - probably less than 40 lbs. Plus, it's built out of wood, so no worries about hitting it with the chain! (Just don't hit the carriage bolts!) Let's see you do this with a "smart holder"!
And there you have the one big advantage of a sawbuck, holding multiple pieces! A very nice one too I might add. Is there a reason you half-lapped your joints rather than just glue/screw or was it just mainly for strength and longevity? Toward that end I had even thought about using 1/2" treated ply instead of 2x cross pieces just for the rigidity it offers.
Yeah it was mostly for strength. The load wants to push the legs apart, bearing mostly on the top cross rail. Without the notches, much of that load is bourne on the fasteners. The half laps take most of mine. There's other ways to solve that issue; some guys will add a chain between a couple of the legs to prevent it from pulling apart. They also prevent any "racking", so I didn't need any diagonal cross bracing, making it lighter.
At first I thought those would be handy but quickly changed my mind. We've used a sawbuck for many years. Ours is a foldable one similar to Shawn's (I need to take a picture...) so it is very portable. It is 4' from end to end and set up to cut 16" which is what fits into our stove. This works whether I am working alone or if my wife is helping. But when she helps, as I trim the tops, she puts the smaller branches on and loads lots of them so that I'm cutting several of them with each cut. When we put larger ones on, they go on only one to a time.
Well here is what I came up with this weekend. I just threw it together in about a half hour out of scrap lumber a friend gave me from a deck tear-down/rebuild.
Looks pretty good to me, Sam! I'm one for reclaiming and reusing things whenever I can, it just makes sense. That sawbuck should last you quite a while.....
