Mower Crate Firewood

[spike60]

Doing a little experiment tonight, so I figured I'd share it with you guys. There's a fair amount of wood in the Husky zero turn mower crates. Normally when I take one home I cut out the clean stuff, (no metal or knots), and bust it up for kindling wood. The rest gets used in the outdoor fire pit. But tonight I thought I'd cut the rest of it up to fit in the stove and see how well and long it burns. Kind of a "what if you had to use this stuff" test.

Ended up with one wheelbarrow of kindling and two that I'll use in the stove. A 50/50 mix of 2x3's and 3/4" x 4". This one's just about all pine, so a crate with a lot of oak would last longer. This stuff is burning really hot. Lights off right away and I have to keep the air shut down very low to keep it from going nuts. Only need to put a few pieces in, and there's no way you could jam the stove full with this stuff as eager to burn as it is.

Getting about an hour between reloading, which I feel is pretty good. The flames last 40 minutes and there's a lot of good hot coals for the next 20. One wheelbarrow should last 2-3 nights, so safe to say there's enough for 5 nights of burning. (not counting the kindling). Of course we are just talking evening fires; 4-6 hours before going to bed at which time I'll put in some regular wood to last the night.

Cutting the crate down to stove size was a pain, but I somehow avoided hitting a single nail. So, if you were in a jam and had to use this stuff you could make it work. Would certainly have to have some larger wood for overnight, but otherwise it's doing great. I think the best set up would be to use this crate wood to stretch your main supply if need be.

 

[hamish]

I use all the hard wood pieces on the top on the crates, plane them, then use em for projects. The entire railing on the deck at our camp is oak, courtesty of mother orange. The side supports and the base of the crate get butchered up for my mothers kindling help (her with an axe is just not a good idea).

Crate wood n pallet wood are handy as all for the stove in the morning to get the bacon frying, just gotta remember not to toss the ashes onto the laneway, to help melt the snow, when I get lazy and dont remove all the nails.

editnce you figure out how to cut em, for your stove you will never hit a nail. All zero turn crates are the same and all tractor crates are the same, the rider crates/boxes/?? are the ones that get ya.

 

[deepsouth]

So the question is....

Can you sell 6 per month for the year?

Then you'll be well and truly set :hmm3grin2orange:

Best I could get from my work is tons of office paper.... Easier to go to the park and get all the gum tree sticks and branches that fall :biggrin:

 

[Hddnis]

Pallet wood is one of my secret delights. I love collecting and woking with and burning lots of it. The shipping pallets they use with fiberglass showers have some really nice wood, clear grain S4S type wood and pieces up to 5' long without a single nail once you cut a few inches off each end. Shingle pallets are nice, very close spacing on the top boards makes them really good for stacking kindling on. I use the 12' long siding pallets for fencing and they look good if you take them apart and rebuild them as a basket weave fence. The hardwood pallets and crates make good shop heating wood.

I process all the pallets with a Jonsered electric chainsaw and a couple of pry bars that I keep in the shop. Pallets that I want the wood from I take apart, pull the nails and then stack the wood in the piles based on size. Everything else I chop up into chunks 12" long or shorter and throw in into a bin made out of shingle pallets. I have one bin for wood chunks with nails and another for nail free wood. The nail free stuff could be used for kindling, except that I have so many cedar shakes that it will be a long time before I need pallets for kindling.

Overall the wood you get from pallets takes very little time compared to cutting down a tree and bucking and splitting and stacking and waiting to dry. Pallets are basically ready to go with just a quick bit of work, no bark mess either.



Mr. HE

 

[CTYank]

When I cut up skids, I don't want to have to worry about nails.

I cut the decking with an old circ saw and HF carbide blade, parallel the 4x-s (no metal there).

Then the 4x-s with saber saw & bi-metal demo blade. Made a little fixture to hold them steady, and to hold the deck pieces while cutting them to length.

 

[spike60]

Pallet wood is one of my secret delights. I love collecting and woking with and burning lots of it. The shipping pallets they use with fiberglass showers have some really nice wood, clear grain S4S type wood and pieces up to 5' long without a single nail once you cut a few inches off each end. Shingle pallets are nice, very close spacing on the top boards makes them really good for stacking kindling on. I use the 12' long siding pallets for fencing and they look good if you take them apart and rebuild them as a basket weave fence. The hardwood pallets and crates make good shop heating wood.

I process all the pallets with a Jonsered electric chainsaw and a couple of pry bars that I keep in the shop. Pallets that I want the wood from I take apart, pull the nails and then stack the wood in the piles based on size. Everything else I chop up into chunks 12" long or shorter and throw in into a bin made out of shingle pallets. I have one bin for wood chunks with nails and another for nail free wood. The nail free stuff could be used for kindling, except that I have so many cedar shakes that it will be a long time before I need pallets for kindling.

Overall the wood you get from pallets takes very little time compared to cutting down a tree and bucking and splitting and stacking and waiting to dry. Pallets are basically ready to go with just a quick bit of work, no bark mess either.



Mr. HE

You make a good point. As I said, cutting them up was a pain compared to normal firewood cutting, but once that was done the process is complete. Temp is supposed to dip into the high 20's again tonight, so I'll burn it again this evening. Worked great last night. :cool2:

 

[Hddnis]

I will say cutting up pallets isn't as fun as cutting firewood and I used to go back and forth on the value of investing the effort. But once I started looking at the time and mess it became clear that per BTU the pallets were a little less work. The tradeoffs are that most pallets wood is too small to make an all night fire and at least in my case the pallets I get are a little more limited supply and if I didn't have to dump them already they would have less advantage. The ones I use I either have to pay to dump or invest a little time and get some use out of them. I figure the time is roughly covered by the dump fees and the use is a bonus.

Once you add in getting a few nice high dolllar value bits of wood for projects you start to get excited about pallets. I sort of settled on liking them about four years ago. Now I have a couple other contractors that pile up the pallets that I like and deliver them every few weeks. I'll get a backlog over the summer and then use down time in the winter to process them. I had a plant offer to give me a few truckloads a month, but I can't use that many. I did think I would say yes and then grind them and sell it to the paper mill since they buy that kind of stuff, but it would take years to pay for a small grinder and I'd have to hire a big chip truck to haul it all to the mill.



Mr. HE

 

[zogger]

I will say cutting up pallets isn't as fun as cutting firewood and I used to go back and forth on the value of investing the effort. But once I started looking at the time and mess it became clear that per BTU the pallets were a little less work. The tradeoffs are that most pallets wood is too small to make an all night fire and at least in my case the pallets I get are a little more limited supply and if I didn't have to dump them already they would have less advantage. The ones I use I either have to pay to dump or invest a little time and get some use out of them. I figure the time is roughly covered by the dump fees and the use is a bonus.

Once you add in getting a few nice high dolllar value bits of wood for projects you start to get excited about pallets. I sort of settled on liking them about four years ago. Now I have a couple other contractors that pile up the pallets that I like and deliver them every few weeks. I'll get a backlog over the summer and then use down time in the winter to process them. I had a plant offer to give me a few truckloads a month, but I can't use that many. I did think I would say yes and then grind them and sell it to the paper mill since they buy that kind of stuff, but it would take years to pay for a small grinder and I'd have to hire a big chip truck to haul it all to the mill.



Mr. HE

I cant get my hands on *any* big hardwood pallets anymore, without purchasing them. Places that used to give them away now sell them, or have guys contracted to get them who sell them. They are around three bucks apiece now. All I can still scrounge are the smaller lightweight ones, making do with them to stack wood on. Can only fit two rows with some space in the middle I can put some uglies in.

You get in an area with a declining economy, and/or high unemployment, what used to be free is now sought after, scrap metallic anything is another one around here, complete total absolutely useless junk is now valuable and can be sold.

 

[hamish]

Keeps me out of the house and out of trouble, and kiln dried hardwood pallets are the king.
Hell I make kindling wood on my BSM, all them saw boxes throughout the year, get re-filled with re-manufactured slab wood off the pile, hardwood, softwood, whatever wood, its almost like some of the kindling was from IKEA 3/4x3/4x16. Cleans up the slab pile, and never have to cut kindling for the older folks in February at 2am when they think the world is over as they only have 43 pieces to start the next fire.

I had a great idea to use some oak pallet wood to make a bar for the camp, spent the summer a few years ago messing with it every day after work, when it was done we would have need a crane to even get it out of the garage. A quick do over an it became fire wood again.

 

[spike60]

Zogger, I've got an unlimited supply of this stuff. Both pine and hardwood. Too bad there's that distance issue cause you could take as much as you could haul. :msp_smile:

I did have a maple syrup guy who would take them for a couple years to fire his evaporator, but haven't seen him for the past two years. When we are moving a lot of product, these crates would really built up. Stacking them neatly, I'd still end up with 15-20 piles 6-8 feet high. Exmark and Cub Cadet have mostly gone to returnable crates, but I still get plenty of it.

 

[spike60]

I had a great idea to use some oak pallet wood to make a bar for the camp, spent the summer a few years ago messing with it every day after work, when it was done we would have need a crane to even get it out of the garage. A quick do over an it became fire wood again.

Geez, why not just have a party in the garage? :msp_w00t:

Speaking of crates, what do you think of the new tractor crates? Not too sure all that particle board is such a great idea.

 

[2rod511]

I work for a company that has to hire out a large mobile crane nearly once a week. The crane always brings these 4x6x42" oak blocks for cribbing underneath the outriggers. The blocks are heavy enough that all you want to carry is one at a time. After talking with the crane operators I was informed that there was tons of those blocks back at their shop that were cracked or damaged. I drove my dump truck to their shop and filled it at least 3/4 of the way up. Wish I could get a load of those every year.

 

[zogger]

Zogger, I've got an unlimited supply of this stuff. Both pine and hardwood. Too bad there's that distance issue cause you could take as much as you could haul. :msp_smile:

I did have a maple syrup guy who would take them for a couple years to fire his evaporator, but haven't seen him for the past two years. When we are moving a lot of product, these crates would really built up. Stacking them neatly, I'd still end up with 15-20 piles 6-8 feet high. Exmark and Cub Cadet have mostly gone to returnable crates, but I still get plenty of it.

Ha! About now I would just about swap firewood for heavy oak pallets so I could go get more firewood and split it and stack it up and...waitaminnit, thats retarded! hahahahah!

 

[hamish]

Geez, why not just have a party in the garage? :msp_w00t:

Speaking of crates, what do you think of the new tractor crates? Not too sure all that particle board is such a great idea.

Only the riders come with the particle board thus far.................

All this years booking order so far is the same old cardboard and wood ones.

There's always a party in the garage.

 

[hamish]

Speaking of crates, what do you think of the new tractor crates? Not too sure all that particle board is such a great idea.

Just got an tractor trailer of mowers in the "new" crates today.

What the hell am I gonna build with all that particle board? Who was the trigger happy stapler handler?

Initial impressions..........adds more to the dealers overhead, more time to uncrate, and more wood waste to dispose of.

 

[zogger]

Just got an tractor trailer of mowers in the "new" crates today.

What the hell am I gonna build with all that particle board? Who was the trigger happy stapler handler?

Initial impressions..........adds more to the dealers overhead, more time to uncrate, and more wood waste to dispose of.

Just so happens I was at the local shop the other day and they are tickled with the new mower crates. Some of the particle board and framing is going to make even more shelves there in the shop, the rest is going home with employees to do projects. They told me they never have any problem getting rid of crate wood around here, if they dont want it, people scrounge most anything.

I scrounge off beat size pallets there. Last 4 I got there are now filled up, need to go find some more.

 

[qweesdraw]

Doing a little experiment tonight, so I figured I'd share it with you guys. There's a fair amount of wood in the Husky zero turn mower crates. Normally when I take one home I cut out the clean stuff, (no metal or knots), and bust it up for kindling wood. The rest gets used in the outdoor fire pit. But tonight I thought I'd cut the rest of it up to fit in the stove and see how well and long it burns. Kind of a "what if you had to use this stuff" test.

Ended up with one wheelbarrow of kindling and two that I'll use in the stove. A 50/50 mix of 2x3's and 3/4" x 4". This one's just about all pine, so a crate with a lot of oak would last longer. This stuff is burning really hot. Lights off right away and I have to keep the air shut down very low to keep it from going nuts. Only need to put a few pieces in, and there's no way you could jam the stove full with this stuff as eager to burn as it is.

Getting about an hour between reloading, which I feel is pretty good. The flames last 40 minutes and there's a lot of good hot coals for the next 20. One wheelbarrow should last 2-3 nights, so safe to say there's enough for 5 nights of burning. (not counting the kindling). Of course we are just talking evening fires; 4-6 hours before going to bed at which time I'll put in some regular wood to last the night.

Cutting the crate down to stove size was a pain, but I somehow avoided hitting a single nail. So, if you were in a jam and had to use this stuff you could make it work. Would certainly have to have some larger wood for overnight, but otherwise it's doing great. I think the best set up would be to use this crate wood to stretch your main supply if need be.

Try a saws all they work well for pallets.

 

[crazycatwoman]

Pallet wood is one of my secret delights. I love collecting and woking with and burning lots of it. The shipping pallets they use with fiberglass showers have some really nice wood, clear grain S4S type wood and pieces up to 5' long without a single nail once you cut a few inches off each end. Shingle pallets are nice, very close spacing on the top boards makes them really good for stacking kindling on. I use the 12' long siding pallets for fencing and they look good if you take them apart and rebuild them as a basket weave fence. The hardwood pallets and crates make good shop heating wood.

I process all the pallets with a Jonsered electric chainsaw and a couple of pry bars that I keep in the shop. Pallets that I want the wood from I take apart, pull the nails and then stack the wood in the piles based on size. Everything else I chop up into chunks 12" long or shorter and throw in into a bin made out of shingle pallets. I have one bin for wood chunks with nails and another for nail free wood. The nail free stuff could be used for kindling, except that I have so many cedar shakes that it will be a long time before I need pallets for kindling.

Overall the wood you get from pallets takes very little time compared to cutting down a tree and bucking and splitting and stacking and waiting to dry. Pallets are basically ready to go with just a quick bit of work, no bark mess either.



Mr. HE

I've been lurking awhile and learned a lot.

My experience with wood pallets for home heating has been necessary for me to continue living in my home and supporting a disabled veteran and many dawgs and cats.

I bought a used Waterford Ashling wood stove from a party that was moving up to a pellet stove, and I moved the Ashling and installed it myself with a VERY strong neighbor.

It is NOT an ideal stove to heat a house and is, indeed, described as a room heater. Nonetheless, I have managed to heat approximately 920 sq. ft. well enough to keep pipes from freezing.

I collect wood pallets throughout the year from five sites in a very small city, bring them home in my battered 2001 Toyota Tundra, and cut them up with a 7 1/4 circular saw and store the wood in an unused bedroom and office and front porch.

Is this a monumental PITA? Yep. In spite of the fact I worked hard for many years, I am a pore widder woman and wooden pallets allow me to heat my house, water, and cook food on my wood stove's hot plate. Since it is still relatively cold here, I shall cook chicken, beans, and rice early tomorrow morning.