How do I Safely and Quickly cut this free wood.

[wdanforth]

I receive free wood from a steel warehouse. The wood is either 3" by 3" by 7', 4" by 4" by 7', or 4" by 5" by 7' mostly oak. I get a full size pickup load about every other week.

I sort the wood by size into three piles. Next I sometimes I make another firewood rack (4' by 7' by 5' tall).

In the past I would lay two identical piece on a 2" by 10" by 8' piece of oak and use my chainsaw make 4 cuts to produce five piece, ten total. I've read my chainsaw manual where it says to cut one log at a time.

Can I put my low-kick back chain on, pile the wood 3 wide by 3 high and cut away? If not any other suggestions?

It is a great source of free wood. My friend is the warehouse manager. In the winter month his employees take most of the wood. The rest of the time it used to build up then went in the dumpster. My friend says I save him a lot of money by taking the wood. Other people should look into these arrangements. Win - Win deal. If you have a OWB you could get away with cutting these in half.

Thanks for any input.

Bill

 

[Nuzzy]

Simple ratchet strap around the bundle of wood would help ease your concerns and keep anything from jumping.

 

[aandabooks]

I get cottonwood 3x3's from work. They are 64" long and I make two cuts and produce 3 pieces of wood. I do this with a 10" miter saw set up with a stop. I can get a pallet cut up in about 1/2 hour this way. I've tried it with the chainsaw and the miter saw is a much smoother operation.

 

[aktaylors]

I would use a sliding miter saw on a stand. It would make quick work of that lumber and it's a lot quieter

 

[wdanforth]

10 inch miter saw would be efficient. Might be worth the investment. For now the latest load will be cut with chainsaw and ratchet straps. It kills me to cut up these 4" by 4" and 4" by 5"s they are perfect. A friend used a bunch for fence post.

 

[turnkey4099]

10 inch miter saw would be efficient. Might be worth the investment. For now the latest load will be cut with chainsaw and ratchet straps. It kills me to cut up these 4" by 4" and 4" by 5"s they are perfect. A friend used a bunch for fence post.

The sliding miter saw sounds like the way to go if the throat will pass that thick of a chunk. A couple roller stands for infeed or a quicky bench and production will be much faster than a chainsaw - also a lot easier on the back. Harbor freight has them really reasonable - I bought one and haven't had any problems with it.

Harry K

 

[wdanforth]

I will pickup a 12" miter cheap locally off ebay. Add a roller stand from the local harbor freight. Use my black and decker workbench to hold the saw. Next time
I won't unload the wood until its time to cut. Pull it off the truck on to the roller stand and on the saw. Cut pull and repeat.

Thanks
Bill

 

[sredlin]

that is a great way to get excellent firewood--I used to get oak dunnage from rail cars and it was the best firewood I ever had

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

Try this:

http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=35417

Pictures here:

http://www.arboristsite.com/showpost.php?p=803785&postcount=36

 

[Zodiac45]

Like Mark, whenever I've gotten a bundle of hardwood slab, I use a sawbuck and throw as many on as fit, line them up, then strap or bungie the whole thing down and cut em up.

 

[Mike Van]

Bill, what I'd do - Use 2 4x4 or 6x6 on the ground for stringers, make a nice stack of the ones you want to cut on there, 4 or 5 wide, 8 or 10 tall. Go around the middle with a ratchet strap, and cut away. I do slabs from my mill like that, in 30" dia. bundles - it's the quickest way I've come up with. That chopsaw you're going to get off ebay is probably on there 'cause someone already ran the snot out of it.

 

[STLfirewood]

Ratchet strap a big bundle. Grab the MS880 with a 36"bar and let it rip. That is how I would do it.

Scott

 

[tatra805]

2 cents

as you are re-stacking them anyway, start with a small bundle and go bigger step by step. you'll find a balance and technique that suits your saw best.

If too big you might be struggling with the bottom part and once you re cutting different lenghts for 1 cut area the whole thing gets messed up.

I usually try to stack bar length high and length of the pile variable and then walk-cut over them backwards dugging in on the top layer and working the saw through it. Your weight is holding the stack together.

Maybe not the safest way, but it works for me.

This can be surprisingly hard work for the saw and again comes to finding the pace where the saw is working optimal. No surprise here when cutting WOT for 5minutes+ before reaching the end of such a 10ft pile.

Still way faster than a sawbuck, especially when working solo...

 

[Rookie1]

I also get wood from company down the street from me. Shipping and Recieving Manager was more than happy to give me permission to cut wood in his parking lot. Vice Pres of company seen me out one day and came to thank me for taking wood.You just have to be hungry enough to do it. Most people just dont have the moxy to scrounge wood like that. Good thing is that leaves more for us.

 

[wdanforth]

Bill, what I'd do - Use 2 4x4 or 6x6 on the ground for stringers, make a nice stack of the ones you want to cut on there, 4 or 5 wide, 8 or 10 tall. Go around the middle with a ratchet strap, and cut away. I do slabs from my mill like that, in 30" dia. bundles - it's the quickest way I've come up with. That chopsaw you're going to get off ebay is probably on there 'cause someone already ran the snot out of it.

Exactly what I did today. 3 of the 4x4 for a cutting block. Stack 3 wide by 3 high and cut away. Went surprisingly fast. My back is sore from bending over.

While talking to my friend that gives me the wood I mentioned the rolling table and miter saw method. He told me he will give me his miter saw which he no longer uses.

I will make a saw horse like BlueRidgeMark. Sure will come in handy some times.

 

[oneoldbanjo]

There is a company that makes wooden stairs near me and they put all their scrap outside and you can pick it up for free. Most of it is pine and some of it is Oak. I stop and get the pieces that are about 1.5" square and then put them in my saw buck that is similar to the one shown previously. I put a stack of them together until it is the right size to fit in a 5 gallon bucket and strap them together with a ratchet strap until I get a nice tight round bundle. I duct tape the stack at 16 inch intervals starting 8 inches from one end and then cut them half way between the duct tape. I end up with a hole bunch of foot long pieces of kindling that are all cut to length and stack great. When I need some kindling I just get another bundle and take off the tape and throw the new bundle into a 5 gallon plastic bucket and pull out what I need - and when the bucket is empty I get another bundle.