This is what i am workng with. Will take some more time and pile higher next load. I played with the one hand electric saw. Need more faster method. Working on acquiring a roller table. I will sketch up H-rack tomorrow.
I develop large piles from my sawmill. Its not complicated. I just runt the 461 every 16 inches through the pile till I get close to dirt.Then add them to the wood pile. If they are two wide to fit my stove they get mualed.
The thing about slab wood is that it's all comprised of gopher wood. That is, you throw a piece in the stove and gopher another... What you have there is some nice quality slabs; I don't see any of the "splinters" that are usually associated with slab wood. Build yourself a sawbuck, (the one I built myself is a double) long enough to hold the 8' slabs-then start cutting to length. Yeah, its messy and ya gotta watch it so they don't crawl up and bite you every now and then; pain is the a$$ bending over for such a small piece of wood; and sawdust usually accumulates and stays on the slab...(future mess on burn day). But for the shoulder season or a cold starts, you bet! Thing is, you might as well try it and stop if you don't like 'em instead of not trying and wondering all the while what it would have been like!
I took a dozen or so loads of small stuff and limb wood from a landscaper connection this spring in order to stay in his good graces and repay the favor after he hooked me up with some good scores. Best solution I found was backing right up to the processing area and cutting straight off the tailgate. This way is easier with a helper to hold the wood down, but still possible solo if you pull from the bottom of the stack. I made a sawbuck for the remnants and got it all done pretty quickly.
Other than a saw buck I have nothing to add. I used to burn a lot of slab especially in the evenings and when I was at home. It does not do well in my cat stove so I gave up on it. I could have hauled all I wanted recently for 10.00 a bundle. I'd give it a run in your stove and see what you think.
This is about the same thing I did the first year with my OWB. Buddy kept dropping me off slabs in huge bundles. I cut as many as I could fit on my saw horses at one time. It worked well.
Takes a while to load and unload by hand, but less than a minute for 3 cuts, if you have it all in the back of the truck like that especially if there's little to no dirt on it just slide it right onto a rack like mine. Works slick! Just be sure to throw a couple bigger pieces on top, small pieces like to catch sometimes. I don't ratchet strap it or anything, load cut unload dry burn.
Also as far as sawdust goes, a lot stays in the middle cut but a lot also ends up on the ground, if your concerned about it lay a tarp down, safety glasses are a must, at the very least. Lots and lots of stuff flying around. Especially if you've got a big saw.
yes , the white pvc pipe slides out and has a stop ,it is secured on the other end with a clamp and is adjustable ,a wheelbarrow or cart goes under the piece being cut and they fall in .
something like this? currently accepting criticism. its 12' long, 6' high, 18" inside width between uprights (20" bar). i want to run the clutch cover up against the uprights to use them as a guide. pieces should come out 20.5" long minus cut width. i can fit 21" in boiler. is 6' too high? i dont necessarily need to pile them in there that high but i also dont want to lift higher than needed if i am loading this thing from the side. might be getting a dump trailer to make a run on saturday...
I load from the top mostly, so 6' is perfect to maximize cut distance and what I can comfortably lift. They do get a bit wobbly being so tall but only supported at the bottom. It might be rather long at 12' but easier to shorten after if that is case. You need to re-consider the 18" with a 20" bar.... dawgs will eat into your cut length so are you removing? I run the 25" bar on my setup exclusively.
that wobble is my concern. i dont really wanna tie them together across the top because you lose the top load ability. running another 12' piece along the top is an option if needed. i got 12' boards in the barn and most of the locust i will be seeing is 12'. some 16' and 20' too that will need to get cut in half first. the dawgs should be out of the way as my idea is to run the front edge of the clutch cover on the outside of the upright. no dawg on 562 clutch cover. i will confirm measurements tonight on the saw. theres actually 19.5" from the inside of one upright to the outside of the other where the front of the clutch cover will guide on. i think i need a bigger saw!
Did somebody say sawbuck? My biggest critique would be the amount of lumber needed to build that. My sawbucks can be built from five 8' 2x4s and can easily hold several 8' pieces for gang cutting: The stand doesn't need to be as long as the slabs/logs you're cutting. If you don't want the overhanging stuff to hit the ground, you could use the HDRock wagon/recycling bin method for catching the drops. As far as slab wood not being as good as "normal" wood, I haven't had an issue. It gets stacked in with the rest of my "normal" splits; which are sorted by species. Another thing about the H-buck design - I think it encourages you to pile too much in there, and then it looks like it might be more difficult to get back out. If I just want everything in a pile beneath my sawbuck, all I need to do is push the middle stack off the stand, and the rest usually falls away too.
hmm...it is a lot of lumber. if i backed it down to 4' high that would eliminate almost 50% of the 2x4s i need plus lessen the wobble factor and make be work smaller batches. i plan to use mill scraps to build the thing anyways. except for the 2x8s at the bottom. i got a pair of pressure treated that have been waiting for a project. i dont intend to be moving it around much.
I sure wouldn't build it 6' high cuz that would be to high for my height, I'd have to get a ladder I was thinking about getting some slab wood, it's not very far away but, I think the guy wants too much Slab wood - mixed hardwoods between 6' and 12' long typically. $35.00 for pickup load and $55.00 for a rounded up trailer load. (Landscape/car-hauler trailer) Slabwood - Firewood
