Efficient Firewood Handling

[mink]

george my set-up is the same as rods ,except my wood shed is straight and his is ”L” shaped.my boiler is a woodmaster thats plumbed for 2 seperate runs but currently im just using one .i just built a garage last summer so i hope to add another circulator and put a modine in there. as a side note my furnace has a forced air blower in the door and my 2 neighbors dont have the blower. i been noticing all winter that theirs puts out 3-4 times as much smoke as mine. i ususlly have just a slight wisp of smoke when no heat is called for and just heat waves when its going…..mink

[Carl Russell]

I skid as much wood as I can in the winter, downhill, on a sled to get the most efficient use out of the animals. Even use the sled during the summer.

I prefer to block the wood while the horses rest. Saves having to roll the logs up. Even if you are using a tractor it’s added energy and time. Also I abhor cutting blocks off of piled wood.

I use a stick cut to length to measure each block. Sometimes I will carry it while cutting, but the fastest is to mark out the blocks with a crayon. (Efficiency also comes in consistency of block size.)

I will start at my left hand end of the log with the saw. If the log was just skidded in I roll it away from any next to it, and if it is on a pile I roll it off and away. I leave the peavey at the opposite end from where I start to cut. I cut 3/4 of the way through, keeping the saw away from dirt and ground. When I get down to the end with the peavey, I roll the log over and work back the other way clipping the remaining wood in each cut.

If I am splitting by hand I don’t move any blocks and just start splitting by straddling the blocks and using the row of block as ballast against the force of my maul. Some blocks I may need to stand upright, but most of the time they split pretty well just laying on their sides between my feet. Sometimes I place a foot on them and split below my foot. I use a 6# maul. Same one since I was 15:eek:.

If I don’t split them, I stack the blocks until sometime later when I come in with the splitter. I use tongs instead of pulp hook. Much better grabbers. I can easily grab a block 50# or better with one hand and swing it up on the splitter.

I know that the work of blocking and splitting will interrupt, and add time to, the harvesting work with the horses, but over the years I have found that it helps with space and time management, and allows the horses to rest (especially if they have been hauling big loads).

Blocking the way I do allows me to use the saw to its best advantage, cutting at high RPM, and keeps the saw sharper longer. Also I can cut down on the number of times I handle the wood by blocking rather than piling logs.

I split into piles, or into the truck, then throw the wood down hatches into the basements in both houses. I generally stack the wood in the basement between other things, or my kids stack it when they want something from me.

The other thing I have found about doing more of the processing while harvesting is that each step is easier. It breaks up the monotony. Blocking or splitting for hours is exhausting to me, but a few minutes here or there, or an hour at a time makes it all seem easier to me.

We burn about 12 cords between two houses. We use a large chunk stove in our place, and we have a Yukon wood/oil combo forced hot air furnace in my mother’s place….that is one awesome unit… put it in during 1970’s and rebuilt the firebox in 2009. Very good furnace.

Carl

[Rod]

@Does’ Leap 26162 wrote:

Rod, thanks for the pictures. Do you know how many btus your modine is rated for. I am considering 2 smaller units instead of one big one. How well does the one heat your shop? How high are your ceilings? I am thinking of constant cycling to the heater as well and kicking the fan on with a thermostat when I need it.

Geoff, I plan to have a remote starter so I don’t have to get off my lounger to start the thing. Just kidding. I am so used to working in unheated space that any heat, even while warming, will be a luxury. However, any excuse for a cup of coffee is welcome.

George

Hi George

Mine is a knockoff brand and I can not find the rating on it but it is 16″ square on the front on the radiator. Photos is below. My ceilings are 10′ and this unit does fine. It may be only 40 or 50 when I come in but on a -20 degree morning it feels like Florida. Takes a while to warm the shop up but the blower send hot air down the center of the shop so it’s comfortable.

[bivol]

we used to heat on firewood all my childhood, and i still miss it!

well, as a rule of thumb the wood should be as dry as possible, be cause then it will readily smolder with little oxigen and so most heat will be transfered to what it’s being heated instead through the chimney.
after 18 yearsc experience i can say baked clay is one of the very best materials when it comes to conserving and dispersing heat. when using firewood, this kind of oven produces the most healthy type of warmth.

other than that, you should read “the complete guide to self sufficiency” by john seymour. he had a multi-purpose oven, made of bricks and cast iron plates. anyway, he said for efficient firewood management one should have an oven capable of doing at least four things at once:

1. cooking food
2. heating the house (therefore in middle of the house)
3. heating bathing water (tank in the wall next to the oven).
4. smoking meat

he also reports they had great success in fattening pigs on potatoes because they’d just dump potatoes ijn a big couldron in the evening, and by morning of smoldering oven they’d be cooked. he said labour was minimal.

but for this the firewood should be dried at least a year, to be completely dry…

this oven above can i think be built so that the house heating can be turned off in summer, via redirecting smoke flow.
if i had a homestead, i’d consider building one!

right, everyone interested in efficient firewood use should read this. i totally support what that man had to say, had almost two decades of personal experience with this type of stove! it’ll really need a lot of convicting to make me believe there is anything nearly as good as these stoves when it comes to heating living spaces!

anyway, we had like first one of these beauties:

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_3MPInjMAV1o/Rf1pbK4dZkI/AAAAAAAAJ5I/Dvww4dtJufk/DSC00018.JPG

[bivol]

anyway, it’s a spinn-off of a tile stove.

short description and building process is here. fired bricks could be used too, i think.

or, even better, 95% efficiency one?

link here. read carefully!

yes, five cords to heat a 3000 ft home. entire winter.

i’m only a bit off by them saying it’s a “russian” stove. ok, so this very design may be (i don’t know) but i do know similar stoves who work in the same way are found not only in russia, but also in what was once austria hungary (today austria, north italy, croatia, hungary…), swizerland, serbia, and reportedly scandinavia.

[Michael Colby]

Efficient firewood handling? Listen to the Red Sox beat the Yankees while splitting wood.

[Does’ Leap]

Does anyone have good sense how long it takes to block and split a chord of wood? I have sold a little firewood for $80 / chord, log length and for $250 split. I have never really timed myself and would like to know what the labor return is for the extra step of blocking and splitting.

George

[Carl Russell]

Does’ Leap;26228 wrote:

Does anyone have good sense how long it takes to block and split a chord of wood? I have sold a little firewood for $80 / chord, log length and for $250 split. I have never really timed myself and would like to know what the labor return is for the extra step of blocking and splitting.

George

Generally about 2-3 hours by myself with saw and woodsplitter. I can’t get $250/cd split, but $200-225 pretty easy. I figure about $50/hr, but I’m using both pieces of equipment the whole time, so I guess it is pretty reasonable.

However if you look at the landing value of $75-80/cd, and use the conversion 2cd/MBF, then we’re cutting and skidding at $150-160/MBF (not including stumpage) which is a losing proposition, even for skidder operators.

The money is definitely in the processing.

Carl

[efdgoon]

I’ve heated my home and 40 x 60 X 12 work shop with an out door wood boiler for 10 years now and can’t imagine paying for oil. I just wanted to throw this out as it helps me with not paying for my wood. About eight years ago I called all the tree service people in my area and offered a place to dump wood. I don’t take stumps or chips but any type of wood. I have had a great response. I burn anything and its usually cut to length. I just pile and split and I never run out. I also have a sawmill and use a lot of slab wood. It burns quicker but still free. I also use a team of boys from the church. They are always looking for a few bucks to go to snow camp or some other outing. Its a win-win. I hope this helps.
Jeff

[near horse]

So you all sometimes sell firewood in log lengths? How long is that – 8ft, 12ft? Out here if you can find someone selling log lengths, it’s usually by the log truck load with lengths over 25 ft – look like telephone poles.

Most firewood is sold either “split and delivered” or in “rounds” (I guess that’s what you all are calling blocks?). Again, most wood is bucked to length (16 to 24 in) in the woods and some guys split it right there as well. We’re seeing our “good wood”- tamarack and red fir (Doug. fir) selling right at $190 – $200/cord delivered but not necessarily split.

[Does’ Leap]

Geoff, there are plenty of folks with wood processors around here that buy firewood (tree length, or what they can fit on the truck approx. 28 ft)on the landing and truck it back to their processor.

George

[near horse]

Hi George –

What’s a firewood processor? 28 ft logs – that’s pretty hefty stuff and could only be handled reasonably here w/ a loader. Do you all sell to folks who in turn process and resell the wood? Here, most wood cutters cut off of public lands, do all processing themselves and deliver. No middlemen.

In fact, if one is cutting firewood on designated public lands, you are limited to either 6 or 8 ft lengths max.

Seems like things work a bit differently in different regions.

[mitchmaine]

hey geoff,when pulpwood started moving ‘tree length” here which meant 20’ body plus overhang, truckers started changing the bunks on the trucks accordingly. not all, but most. so logs and pulp went length wise on the trucks and that was pretty much the end of tiered wood. and so firewood started moving the same way. hardwood pulp and/or firewood was pushed up in the same pile. after delivery the customer worked up his own pile, but some guys went into the firewood business buying tree length wood and splitting and selling. so along came the processer. a chain feed deck holding a half cord or so feeding a hydraulic saw and splitter run by one man with the wood dropping into a conveyor filling your truck. ups production greatly for only $30,000. some stick with it but its kindof a boring job or must be cause they are always up for sale used and two years old.

[Simple Living]

Here is a video that I ran across some time back. I thought maybe someone here would want to use it as a prototype for their own system! If you do, I would love to see it in action. I’m not sure anyone here has the need for anything quite this big! Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhmKBDIAXd0&feature=related

Gordon

[PhilG]

We have been selling a lot more truck length stuff the last two years, much more than cut and split, the piles of beetle kill are all over the place(Colorado) we often get it for “free” just have to load it and truck it, but that is why prices are way down on cut and split – it is hard to get $125 a cord delivered – down from $180 4 years ago picked up ! We get 6-700 for the log truck full with 24′ lengths, but with diesel at 4.20 a gallon i think it will have to go way up to make it worth doing.not exactly draft powered either.

[Author]

Posts