4 Ft'r Bunk Ends

[lefturnfreek]

So for the most part I burn 4 ft's and to tidy up the wood area I made some bunk ends up a few years back out of 2 pallets and 2 simple braces each held with 4 screws. I stacked up 6 ft+ of wet wood and hit it down a few times with the tractor bucket, didn't fail so I made 3 more and thought, good to go right....nope....



It did last almost 8 months but I have had 2 fail, that one only on 1 side and another completely collapsed. Am I surprised, nope, cause I am no carpenter and I was completely shocked that it held up to the torture test, but over time it just couldn't stand that much weight.

So I grabbed another 2 pallets and went at it again. Same basic pattern but this time with 3 vertical braces, wedged in against cross boards and a horizontal brace. This time the screws holding the vertical braces aren't a direct stressed member, the cross boards are and there is a hell of a lot of screws this time.





What are you guys using to hold up you 4ft stacks?

 

[M.R.]

Don't generally 4' stack
fwiw .....nails in a shear load.
Screws in a compression load.
Forgot just how many sinkers it
takes to equal a 1/4" bolt in shear.
Looks good.

 

[blades]

Only 4ft, I don't have anything stacked that short height wise.

 

[kyle1!]

I'm no engineer but wouldn't you have more strength if the triangle area was 45/45/90 degree instead of the 30/60/90 degree in your latest picture. Make an L shape with the pallets and then angle brace them together.

 

[zogger]

I just criss cross stack the ends to make a vertical, and every so often, say every three pallets or so in a string. Fill in the middles just by laying them in. Everything is stacked so it leans inward. Shorts and uglies and smallish stuff in the middle, good splits on the outsides. Three rows wide, and usually as high as I can reach. I have some on a hill, but use big trees for the bottom, that has pallets leaned up against the tree and/or like longish 4-5 foot pine logs.

I am wondering just how dry the inside of four foot long logs (I am assuming unsplit??) really get.

 

[hupte]

thats a really neat idea. i usually just push my wood into a pile with the skidder. lol. so i was wondering, to protect your investment, are you going to paint the pine wood that you're using for the braces?? or maybe next time you could use some treated wood?? or maybe, since most pallets are oak, you could use some oak? that way they last longer?? just throwin some ideas out there... I really like the design though. i like how you're not relying on the screws for shear strength. your putting the load on the wood its self.

 

[fixit1960]

thats a really neat idea. i usually just push my wood into a pile with the skidder. lol. so i was wondering, to protect your investment, are you going to paint the pine wood that you're using for the braces?? or maybe next time you could use some treated wood?? or maybe, since most pallets are oak, you could use some oak? that way they last longer?? just throwin some ideas out there... I really like the design though. i like how you're not relying on the screws for shear strength. your putting the load on the wood its self.

hupte, most pallets used to be oak. I burn scrap pallet wood from a pallet recycler. It makes up about 90% of what I burn. Back when I started using by OWB (1998) probably 80% were oak. With the economy and times changing now only about 10 to 20% are. They are by special order only. Very expensive. And they don't crack/fail as often so I don't get as much in the scrap flow. Most now are the cheaper less expensive types of wood. Spruce and a lot of pine. Some stuff I haven't even figured out yet what it is? But it does burn better than pine. Supplement when it gets cold like now with big wood (that nobody else wants to mess with) to hold the fire for 8 hour burn times.

 

[hupte]

hupte, most pallets used to be oak. I burn scrap pallet wood from a pallet recycler. It makes up about 90% of what I burn. Back when I started using by OWB (1998) probably 80% were oak. With the economy and times changing now only about 10 to 20% are. They are by special order only. Very expensive. And they don't crack/fail as often so I don't get as much in the scrap flow. Most now are the cheaper less expensive types of wood. Spruce and a lot of pine. Some stuff I haven't even figured out yet what it is? But it does burn better than pine. Supplement when it gets cold like now with big wood (that nobody else wants to mess with) to hold the fire for 8 hour burn times.

wow. i thought most pallets were oak. but i guess that was years ago... i'm glad you got what you need now, to keep your owb runnin and keep your house warm.

 

[lefturnfreek]

I do see your point on 45's but the angles are what they are going to be as I'm as far out as I can get without getting really fancy with the saw, yes I'm no pro carpenter and I built that with a chain saw. As for strength, if 2 braces and 4 screws held up for quite a while, the remake will last a looooong time.

The row it's going to holding up is around 7 ft high 115 ft long of 4 ft's for more than 20 C, like this row using the old style bunk. New style is on the new row.



The wood it's self is just about all standing dead and dead fall to begin with and not that large, 10in and under, the larger stuff gets whacked to under 2 ft and is split. It use to be woods to boiler but I got ahead last year and it has been standing since late winter 2014 so it's good and dry. So nice to go to the pile, and take a load, and anything I'm cutting is going to a new row, big difference in burned cords and burn time. This year I've only stuffed it once and usually only 1/2 fill it for a 24hr burn.

This year's and probably next years is on the left , the one to the right is the new one.



As for the "monster", it nothing special, just a boiler that takes 4ft's, pardon the shed, the maid has been out a while...heats the house, shop and we get hot water also.

 

[turnkey4099]

My 'bookends" I built these to hold up the ricks on my porch, usually stock 4 ricks 6'x12'.

Made from 2 1x4 in a "T" with 1x2 brace. Like you I found that screws don't do the job. had to redo them with bolts. Last better then I thought. One of them spent 2 years outside holding up one end of a rick of Black Locust. The other three are still in service after several years.

Harry K

 

[fixit1960]

I do see your point on 45's but the angles are what they are going to be as I'm as far out as I can get without getting really fancy with the saw, yes I'm no pro carpenter and I built that with a chain saw. As for strength, if 2 braces and 4 screws held up for quite a while, the remake will last a looooong time.

The row it's going to holding up is around 7 ft high 115 ft long of 4 ft's for more than 20 C, like this row using the old style bunk. New style is on the new row.
View attachment 405304


The wood it's self is just about all standing dead and dead fall to begin with and not that large, 10in and under, the larger stuff gets whacked to under 2 ft and is split. It use to be woods to boiler but I got ahead last year and it has been standing since late winter 2014 so it's good and dry. So nice to go to the pile, and take a load, and anything I'm cutting is going to a new row, big difference in burned cords and burn time. This year I've only stuffed it once and usually only 1/2 fill it for a 24hr burn.

This year's and probably next years is on the left , the one to the right is the new one.
View attachment 405307



As for the "monster", it nothing special, just a boiler that takes 4ft's, pardon the shed, the maid has been out a while...heats the house, shop and we get hot water also.


View attachment 405305 View attachment 405306

As for the "monster", it nothing special, just a boiler that takes 4ft's, pardon the shed, the maid has been out a while...heats the house, shop and we get hot water also.



That's a lot of wood. Nice set up. If I had access to that kind of wood I would do exactly the same as you . My boiler will take a piece up to 54" long. All you got to do is get it picked up and in the door.

 

[turnkey4099]

I see I forgot to include the pic of my 'bookends'

Harry K

 

[lefturnfreek]

So here's my reman bunk end in use, that's near 7 ft of 4ft's stacked up and hasn't budged.




I have been asked a few times why I don't just sink a 2 poles at each end and that answer is kinda simple, the land I'm using is reclaimed swappy cattle pasture. I have built up the whole area 8 - 12 in and is now loaded truck worthy all year but under that it is nothing but sand and the poles will just keep spreading.

So far there hasn't been too many 4ft burner's, I'm kinda surprised. I was hoping to see some other idea's.

 

[blacklocst]

How about using another pallet for bracing up the ends?

 

[hupte]

So here's my reman bunk end in use, that's near 7 ft of 4ft's stacked up and hasn't budged.

View attachment 406390


I have been asked a few times why I don't just sink a 2 poles at each end and that answer is kinda simple, the land I'm using is reclaimed swappy cattle pasture. I have built up the whole area 8 - 12 in and is now loaded truck worthy all year but under that it is nothing but sand and the poles will just keep spreading.

So far there hasn't been too many 4ft burner's, I'm kinda surprised. I was hoping to see some other idea's.

gottta say i really like the set up and the burner!!! i can burn 6 ft logs but most the stuff i cut is twisted or so big i cant lift a 6 ft piece. plus my pile is a mix of mostly splits and everything else, its just pushed into a pile with a skidder. its no where near as clean or as organized as well as yours. so i'm kinda embarrassed to post pics after seeing yours. lol. here is a vid of me loading a log. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=P4obmpAf7Qw

 

[lefturnfreek]

Thanks for the props!!

I like the fact the boiler is sheltered in a shed and I keep an emergency cord in there, dry and right close by, but I will be moving it to it's own addtion so I have full use of that shed and won't have the smoke and ash issues.

I have gone this far to get the wood up off the ground to actually dry properly without waste and actually get a reasonable cord count instead of bout this much ...maybe..... We had 3 different people cutting different ways and one who would stack it so it looked "good"....I was also tired of truck to boiler and kinda did nothing but swing and haul the last couple years so I can be ahead.

To the left of the last pic is my kibbles and split box's, again made out of pallets, 2 box joined by a common center wall 3 X 4 pallets with full pallet floors, the open spot is walkway. That is an ugly, poor pic but that one side gets the split wood and the other is all the bigger cut offs and end dry end cuts.



I tried using 3 pallets but just wasn't feasible with my carpenter skills, screws taking all the load and the toe end was too short for my liking.

 

[lefturnfreek]

So here's try #2 at making a bunk end.




I changed it up a bit as the pallets were in a lot better shape and didn't have to add heaver cross boards before adding the 2x4 ends for the vertical braces. Turned out very solid and stable, I hope the other 2 I have to make will turn out this nice.

 

[zogger]

So here's try #2 at making a bunk end.

View attachment 411450 View attachment 411451


I changed it up a bit as the pallets were in a lot better shape and didn't have to add heaver cross boards before adding the 2x4 ends for the vertical braces. Turned out very solid and stable, I hope the other 2 I have to make will turn out this nice.

You only lose a little bit of space but that design is much stronger.