Moving to a pallet based wood storage system?

[sb47]

If I was going to make some for the house, I'd just use steel. C channel or square tube and make something that holds around 1/2 a cord or so.

That, or buy vented bulk bags. They are about $15/ea. It's what I use at the shop for storing and drying wood. Works well.

I use a yard tractor and cart at the house. Would be a PITA to bring the skid steer over, plus I don't want to drive it in my yard unless I really have to.
I only burn 2.5-3 cords a year so it's not too bad to deal with. The cart I have holds about 1/4 cord and I have a rack on my porch that holds about 1/2 a cord.

Steel lets wood dry faster then a wooden rack.
These work really good for me. Holds about a half cord each.

 

[dave_dj1]

View attachment 646003 View attachment 646004 View attachment 646005 Thought I would update this thread.

Used wood concrete forms that were part of my old house. They are 24"x8'. The sides are 2x8s. About 40" long. I nailed them with some weird spiral galvanized deck nails that I was about to scrap. I just cap the ends with logs longer than 24". I can fit about 9-10 wheelbarrow loads in each which is about 5 days worth of burning at pretty average winter temps. I spaced out the racks from the fence so I can trim all the way around them, and pick them up with the end loader with my non-conventional fork arrangement.

I think I will end up with 10 total racks before I run out of useable forms. Some wasted space, but seems pretty sturdy and uses minimum materials the short 24" board at the ends are very weak and often broken, but the 2x8s like this are really strong.

I must have cut up and burned a hundred of the forms and hundreds of warped or marginal 2x8 joists that would have been perfect for this already. Too bad..

Just wanted to thank everyone again for the great inspiration.

I like it! I think I will look into building some larger (longer) pallets. The half pallets I have now work well but bigger would be better, I think the tractor would do OK moving them with the rear forks. Thanks for sharing the pictures.

 

[dave_dj1]

Steel lets wood dry faster then a wooden rack.
These work really good for me. Holds about a half cord each.

Where do you get those and would 24" wood work in them? Thanks.

 

[dave_dj1]

Simple is good.
I used $0.97 8' landscape timbers. I bought a few and tried building a rack, and then bought 900 more, and several hundred after that. The small racks have almost five 8' pieces. Two rails; two for the ends (4-4' pieces); 32" feet plus the end top caps 16" each; and some 2" x 4" to get enough height for forks. Plus a center support under the middle; four pieces of angle; buckets of lags and bolts. The big racks took 21 8' pieces and 12 pieces of angle. That's 24 bolts for the angle alone. I made templets to tack to each piece for drilling the bolt holes on the drill press.
Several years later the price of landscape timbers ranged from $2.97 to $3.97 each, and I said screw it. They were beginning to rot already, rot and dry rot. Too much work and money for a temporary rack, five years or less.
For small scale I think a big firewood bag on a pallet and one banding strap to hold it there to keep it from shifting tipping when moving. Stack of empty pallets and a box of firewood bags instead of empty racks scattered all over.View attachment 627974View attachment 627975

Do you think the firewood bags would work with 24" wood, all hand tossed in? Thanks

 

[sb47]

Where do you get those and would 24" wood work in them? Thanks.

I have a friend that gets them from time to time and he only charges me 20 bucks each. Some still have the plastic tub, some don't.
I think there 48''x 48''x 42'' so just under a half cord. Not sure how 24'' wood will stack inside. I use them for chunk wood but I have stacked 18'' wood in them with no problems.

 

[NSMaple1]

I have a friend that gets them from time to time and he only charges me 20 bucks each. Some still have the plastic tub, some don't.
I think there 48''x 48''x 42'' so just under a half cord. Not sure how 24'' wood will stack inside. I use them for chunk wood but I have stacked 18'' wood in them with no problems.

I was watching for those around here for a long time, but gave up on them. Lowest I think I saw them for was $50. They seem to be popular. Maybe I will start watching again. Sure would be handy. Which I guess might be why they're so popular....

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Steel lets wood dry faster then a wooden rack.
These work really good for me. Holds about a half cord each.

I'm surprised those hold that much. I've used the totes for fuel, the ones we get are around $100 each and are roughly 35-40 cu/ft

 

[T. Mainus]

Do you think the firewood bags would work with 24" wood, all hand tossed in? Thanks

We cut our firewood to 16". We just run the wood off the conveyor and into the bags. We will "stack" the bags about 3-4 times before they are full. We just organize the wood a little bit to maximize the bags. Our bags are 42x42x60 and we fill them as full as we can. One bag full is a face cord. One of those totes full would be hard pressed to be a half cord, much less a face cord I would think. I think the bags would work with 24" wood. You just might have to take a little more time arranging the wood to maximize the bag.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

We cut our firewood to 16". We just run the wood off the conveyor and into the bags. We will "stack" the bags about 3-4 times before they are full. We just organize the wood a little bit to maximize the bags. Our bags are 42x42x60 and we fill them as full as we can. One bag full is a face cord. One of those totes full would be hard pressed to be a half cord, much less a face cord I would think. I think the bags would work with 24" wood. You just might have to take a little more time arranging the wood to maximize the bag.

View attachment 646468

I agree.
If I notice the bag not filling evenly I'll rearrange the wood a bit, usually do it a few times per bag, same as you are doing. I usually fill the bags as much as they will hold like in your avatari ? (whatever it's called) pic and it'll sink down a bit between the forklift handling and drying.

I've never tried with other than 16" wood. I'd imagine 24" would work ok, just might make more open spots between wood depending on how it falls in. Have been thinking of using a few bags to deal with the shop wood. We've been just dumping a cord or so at a time by the back and carting it in with wheelbarrow.

The downside I suppose the bags are kind of expensive. I found a place to get them for about $8 each, but the shipping brings it to about $16 each. That was a qty of 100 price, not sure about just 5 or 6 of them.

 

[FlyingDutchman]

Whats bugging me is, a large portion of the stuff on my racks was live oak with bark on it. I probably won't be able to burn it for a couple years unless I de-rack it and split it more. I still am only 1/2 of the way through my splitting piles too, which will fill all the racks with green wood that won't be able to be burned till next year.

While its good to be this far ahead, a little scary to not be able to burn but 1/6 of the wood in my already overcrowded wood yard, and it sucks I won't be able to use my rack system right away despite all the work I've put in it.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Steel lets wood dry faster then a wooden rack.
These work really good for me. Holds about a half cord each.

Doesn't matter the material as far as drying, was just that steel would hold up much better.

 

[sb47]

Doesn't matter the material as far as drying, was just that steel would hold up much better.

I have use both and I'm quite sure wood will dry faster on steel racks vs wooden ones. It will also dry faster if it's stacked on concrete or gravel vs just dirt or grass. My wood always dry's faster on my steel racks then it does on my wooden ones. I'll put my money on a steel rack vs a wooden one any day.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I have use both and I'm quite sure wood will dry faster on steel racks vs wooden ones. It will also dry faster if it's stacked on concrete or gravel vs just dirt or grass. My wood always dry's faster on my steel racks then it does on my wooden ones. I'll put my money on a steel rack vs a wooden one any day.

Makes no sense. A steel rack isn't going to somehow dry wood better than the same rack, just built out of wood.

 

[sb47]

Makes no sense. A steel rack isn't going to somehow dry wood better than the same rack, just built out of wood.

If it's stacked outside in the elements, steel racks are always better. Every time it rains the stack of wood gets wet, as does the rack it sits on. A wood rack will absorb moisture and wicks that moisture into the wood stacked on it. Same goes for stacking on dirt vs concrete.Moisture wicks up and evaporates into the air. That makes the area around the wood stack stay moister, causing longer dry times.
I know it makes no sense but it works. Try it yourself.
I have a spot next to my shop where I stack on angle iron stacked on gravel next to the sheet metal wall next to my shop. It's on the south side that gets almost no wind but lost of sun. That wood drys twice as fast as wood stacked the same way out in the open on dirt or grass. The gravel shields against ground moisture and radiates heat, the sheet metal wall also radiates heat and with a tin cover it also radiates heat back into the stack of wood.
Basically you create a dutch oven effect or solar oven effect that dramatically increases dry times.

 

[LondonNeil]

With the IBC cages, i've read/seen people cutting the plastic crate in half diagonally to make 2 pointy 'hats' that make great lids to keep the rain off.

 

[Hal-VT]

I stack three foot wood in the IBC cages for sugaring. I figure five cages to the cord.

 

[Tin-knocker]

Makes no sense. A steel rack isn't going to somehow dry wood better than the same rack, just built out of wood.

My thought is steel used to make the rack is skinnier/smaller than wood used to make a rack of the same size so possibly more airflow when making a steel rack.

 

[FlyingDutchman]

Today filling racks

 

[FlyingDutchman]

So the system works. This rack was the most ****ed out of all of them as far as how hard it was to get it picked up. It was off angle and I had used a pile of railroad tie scraps and it was barely off the ground in a dip, a sidehill, and pinched at less than a 90 degree angle in a corner. This means all the rest of the racks will be easy to pick up and it rides really well on the forks, didn't lose any logs at all. 10 wheelbarrow loads I don't have to move!

Small victories

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

So the system works. This rack was the most ****ed out of all of them as far as how hard it was to get it picked up. It was off angle and I had used a pile of railroad tie scraps and it was barely off the ground in a dip, a sidehill, and pinched at less than a 90 degree angle in a corner. This means all the rest of the racks will be easy to pick up and it rides really well on the forks, didn't lose any logs at all. 10 wheelbarrow loads I don't have to move!

Small victories

That a setup that steers in the rear vs articulating? I can an old Payloader or maybe it was a Michigan (was old!) like that, took a bit of getting used to vs a more modern design. Had to kind of crawl in between the lift arms and the cab wasn't really much of anything. Could stick your arms out and break them off in the loader arms if you wanted to!