Revamping my stacks

Very nice, what's the loader capacity on your tractor and how many years have you used one pallet?

 

Wow
Great pictures
&
Some great set-ups .

see several hydraulic helpers & methods that are
great time savers.

 

The loader capacity is 2500 pounds but I try to stay closer to a ton. This is my first year doing this so I am unsure on pallet life yet. I'd like to get 40+ built to rotate what's drying, what's burning, etc. I'm sure I will have to perform maintenance each year to some degree...?

 

My apologies for using this thread...but the name was perfect.

Before-


After


I wanted to open up the way I had my stacks arranged. But had to wait until I had moved/burned some wood to do so.

I now have Left to right, A double row of 3-8ft racks. A triple row, of 2-8ft racks.

Where that single 8ft rack is I plan to have another double row of 3-8footers, just like on the left.

In the back, there is a double row of single 8footers. In the foreground, is another double row of single 8footers. Beyond that, where you can see a blue cover, is about 1.5 cords stacked between trees laying on saplings.

I needed to revamp the space, to be able to come close to a 3 yr plan, 3cord/yr. I figure 3 8footers is a cord. I stack to about 5ft high.

I used my wood wagon to measure space around the 6 middle racks. I need space to load/unload, and for my snowblower to navigate.

I had nothing to do with the snow going away.

The only that's wrong, is that the racks are empty!!! I hope to alleviate that problem, by starting to CSS the wood I've collected this past couple of weeks.

 

Great pics, MikeInMa !! Looks like you had some fun playing with your stacks. That is my ideal day off, just leave me alone to do a little straightening out and this and that with my wood. Looking good on your end Bud!

 

That's between me and my wood, and the wood ain't talking!

 

That last wood that ratted me out was fed right to the fire, that shut the rest of the stacks right up. Not a peep out of them since.

 

This is awesome. How did you cut the plastic inserts? Do these hold a little short of half a cord? I saw a listing on my local craigslist and it says the dimensions are 4x4x3.6'

 

I cut them diagonally on the 3.6' sides with a reciprocating saw.
a little short of 1/3 cord, more if you stack above the frame.


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I'm impressed by your detailed knowledge of tree types. Here in NZ gum (which of course all originates from Australia) is just usually sold as "gum". I have a batch at the moment that looks like it's going to be good burning, but no idea what type it is. It's certainly very tough to split.

 

A good rule of thumb here it that the hard to split wood is usually the best burning.


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It's been a busy "wood" week for me this week. Didn't have much to say to the forum over the (southern hemisphere) winter but now it's all on.

First I got a hydraulic splitter in to deal with ~5m3 of gum that I had stored in large blocks, off the ground since the end of last summer (about nine months ago). I had intended to split them with a maul over the winter for exercise, but it never happened, and they now had a very hard "shell" that defeated my every manual effort with maul and wedges. I needed to get them stacked for the NZ summer, so in came the trailer-mounted beast.

Thanks to this board (particularly leoht) I had been inspired to seek out some IBC cages. I bought six, without the internal bladders, which would have been handy to use as covers in the manner shown earlier in this thread, but the only cages I could find at a reasonable price didn't have them. What I do have is corrugated iron and lots of steel pipes that a previous resident had left behind. So I experimented earlier in the year and came up with this:



One pipe goes under the top rail of the IBC cage and one goes over the sheet(s) of iron, sandwiching them together. I tied them together with a constrictor knot but you could use cable ties, steel strapping, hose clamps, etc. - whatever you've got. Here's the detail:


Another thing that worked well was the same basic setup, but using tee clamps underneath where I had something to rest the back edge on (suitably weighted down of course). The "cage" in this case was made up of pieces of one of those enclosures for LPG (propane) tanks - also left behind by the generous former tenant.


Here are the IBC cages I just filled. I put some weed matting down for the ones in the foreground. In hindsight I should have put some concrete blocks down for them and/or wooden rails, but I think the full cages might be a bit heavy now to lift with one hand while I slip the blocks in with the other hand, so it'll have to suffice till they are emptied out. I did at least have the foresight to put down sturdy poles in a criss-cross at the bottom, to spread the load out to the (stronger) edges, for extra air-flow underneath the mass, and hopefully to avoid the drain holes being covered/blocked.



Close-up of the foreground ones.


I've got another cage in the front garden, but that's enough wood porn for one day.

The other thing that happened was that the landlord had arborists come in and chop down a few trees that were dangerously close to the house. Not great wood (liquid amber, poplar) but free is a good price to have wood supplied and delivered (so to speak) to your back yard.

When I got home I was delighted to discover that two gums over the fence line (on farm property) had been felled as well. That's more like it!

But, alas it was no to be. Two pieces of bad news awaited me.

The landlord wanted the gum.

The softwoods had contained nails and wire and had wrecked two chains and put the shredder in the shop as well. Apparently, tree houses and wire baskets and goodness knows what else had been left on the young trees to just grow into the structure. So it absolutely was not worth my while to risk my chainsaw or possible injury bucking the logs.

Oh well ... easy come, easy go.

 

This peice was 22 years old last november..nothing wa s ever done to it.

 

I love your wood cages, and am seriously envious of your corrugated panels! They aren't going anywhere with that pipe arrangement anchoring them!
What kind of a winter do you get?

 

Nice stack rearrangement, it looks like you get more out of your space that way. And your white oak is beautiful, great winter score! Think you can skip buying wood this year?

 

I do believe this will be the first year in will not have to shell out any $'s for any wood.

To replenish what I am burning this heating season, I have available standing dead trees at my folks, my SIL's, as well as on my property.

However, there are a few huge red oaks just over my property line, who's branches are starting to become a problem to me. I am in good standing with the property owner and I'm sure he'd let me take them doen6. But, that's a job for a professional due to the size and location. Probably looking at 2-3 grand for everything. Guessing 5 cords in total. The $'s saved by the right hsnd, get spent by the left. Oh well.

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If the branches are a problem to you, and you can afford it, have the trees taken down. You'll solve a problem, and get some recoup on your cost with the wood. Take pics.