# selling unsplit..How do you measure out a cord?



## bassflyrodder (Oct 9, 2011)

I am interested in hearing what you guys are using for a measure for unsplit orders. 128 cubic ft with big rounds seems you would short a person. I have a customer you want to split it himself and I want to make sure I do not screw him or myself. I delivered him a measured out 180 cubic ft does this sound fair?

Thanks for your time,

Pete


----------



## TreePointer (Oct 9, 2011)

BY DEFINITION 128 CU.FT. IS A CORD.

128 cu.ft. of SPLITS stacked fairly tightly in parallel is a cord of wood.
128 cu.ft. of ROUNDS stacked fairly tightly in parallel is a cord of wood.

The customer is getting a very fair deal. When he splits and stacks the wood, he'll find that his pile grows by about 10% in volume.

(I assume you are using the 180 cu.ft. figure as a measure of a thrown cord and not a stacked cord.)


----------



## KiwiBro (Oct 9, 2011)

But what about the extra air because the rounds don't stack as tight as split wood?
It just ain't fair, I tells ya'.

opcorn:


----------



## Dalmatian90 (Oct 9, 2011)

Concur. 180 c.f. thrown is probably about right and definitely doesn't short the customer. If it's 180 c.f. stacked you're giving him WAAAAYYY too much wood.


----------



## TreePointer (Oct 9, 2011)

KiwiBro said:


> But what about the extra air because the rounds don't stack as tight as split wood?
> It just ain't fair, I tells ya'.
> 
> opcorn:


 
Troublemaker.


----------



## bassflyrodder (Oct 9, 2011)

It was stacked. Thanks for your replies I will adjust accordingly. 

Have a good evening,

Pete


----------



## zogger (Oct 9, 2011)

*Math or weight*



bassflyrodder said:


> I am interested in hearing what you guys are using for a measure for unsplit orders. 128 cubic ft with big rounds seems you would short a person. I have a customer you want to split it himself and I want to make sure I do not screw him or myself. I delivered him a measured out 180 cubic ft does this sound fair?
> 
> Thanks for your time,
> 
> Pete



You can do it with some not very complicated math, or do it by weight and go find those species scales that show weight by the cord, green or seasoned. Most likely unsplit will be greenwood. 

If there are any truck scales you can use, you can do that

If you have big logs, you can measure in advance, mark off at where a cord will be, then proceed to buck them up.

To do a long log, there's a couple different ways to get there, but neither is hard. The (probably) easiest way is to estimate cubic feet in the log, from both ends, add those two together, now divide by two. That will give you an average and will be very close.

The reason you do two ends is you will have two different radii. Unless the log is super the same size all the way down, one end will be larger than the other. Measure diameter, cut it in half for a radius.

Cubic volume of a cylinder-your log- is Pi (3.14 is close enough), times the radius squared times the length of the log. Radius squared is take that radius measurement and multiply it by itself.

Now go to the other end of the log and do it again. Add them up, divide by two. that will be real dang close to the exact cubic feet in the log. Now buck it up, keep track of those rounds and get more if you need them.

At the end of the day, before delivery, throw in a few more rounds to compensate for what you lose in the cut to chips. It never huts to always give more, not so much you shaft yourself, but once the customer splits it and gets an honest full cord plus some extra, it will be appreciated no doubt.

If you have an oddball shaped log, you can guesstimate what the radius would be by measuring true circumference. Circumference is 2 times Pi times Radius. So, if you know what the circumference is, you can work it back.

Say your oddball trunk tapes out ten feet around. Divide ten by 6.28 (that's Pi times 2), you get 1.59, call it 1.6 or around 1 foot seven inches, close enough.

With that said..no one has ever done a chart with log diameters or circumferences? There most likely is such a chart out there for fast estimated amount of cord per your log size.

If you already bucked them things up...good luck! hahahahaha

Yaa, I just looked, yes, been done, old hat, the timber guys have scales to use in the field.

Using the Tree Measuring Stick, F-62-06

Here is an online calculator for figuring volume, just input your tree specs.

The Timber Buyers Network - Pulpwood Volume

Me, I'd be out there with some tape measure or trying to use a guide bar as a measuring tape and doing it with a stick in the ground for scratch paper...hehehehe

Most likely..you have split a lot in your life? You must have an idea now of what sort of pile of rounds really makes up a split cord.


----------



## KiwiBro (Oct 9, 2011)

My head hurts. 


zogger said:


> You can do it with some not very complicated math, or do it by weight and go find those species scales that show weight by the cord, green or seasoned. Most likely unsplit will be greenwood.
> 
> If there are any truck scales you can use, you can do that
> 
> ...


----------



## Steve2910 (Oct 9, 2011)

I did an experiment last year w/ some big straight Oak rounds.. I found that a round w/ a volume of "X", when split & stacked equaled a volume of "X x 1.5". Your mileage may vary.


----------



## zogger (Oct 9, 2011)

*Oh, it ain't that hard...*



KiwiBro said:


> My head hurts.



You can round that stuff off in your head to the nearest say foot or a fraction like a foot and a quarter,etc, use plain old 3 for Pi, then chuck some extra rounds into the truck. You'll hit it, especially when the customer stacks it and adds some air spaces. No matter how tight he fits it, you can never get that stack down as compact as the original round.

If you want to do it even easier, imagine that round log is square. Now just do width times height times length, get your cubic volume that way. Knock off around a fifth of that. That will be pretty close to the actual cord measurement.

I do that with real big logs, comes out pretty close once in the stack.

I'm not selling wood though, if I was, in the round, I'd keep a tape measure with me and a dollar store calculator, two minutes tops measuring and mashing buttons to get the volume of the log pretty exactly.

Or just pop for one of those timber scales I linked to and read the manual and learn to use it. 

Got to be some old timers here who sell wood and can just glance at the log and go "ay-yup, 'bout 2 cord and a scosh in that one"

Sell the two cord, put the scosh in your own stack....


----------



## KiwiBro (Oct 9, 2011)

zogger said:


> Got to be some old timers here who sell wood and can just glance at the log and go "ay-yup, 'bout 2 cord and a scosh in that one"


 Met a guy like that last year. Had a bunch of logs in a very unorganised stack - a bit like pick-up sticks -. He took one look at it, and just came out with "22 m3 thrown" of split wood. He was about 1/2 m3 out when I finally got around to bucking and splitting it. He probably doesn't even have milk on his wood chips for breakfast every morning.


----------

