Green wood weights all over the board

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scooby074

Feeling the Heat
Jan 7, 2011
423
Nova Scotia
Can anyone give me an accurate list of green wood weights? Seems the charts Ive looked at show several different weights/cd for the same species.

Im mostly concerned with Sugar Maple, Oak (white,red) and Birch because that seems to be what comes in a load here.

Examples:
http://www.firewood-for-life.com/firewood-weight.html
Birch, Yellow...................................................4312 (33.69/cuft)
Maple, Sugar..................................................4685 (36.6/cuft)
Oak, Red.........................................................4888 (38.19/cuft)
Oak, White......................................................5573 (43.54/cuft)

https://my.extension.illinois.edu/documents/1722110809110911/Nebraska producing, harvesting and processing firewood.pdf
Birch, Paper 4312
Maple, Other 4684
Oak, Red* 4888
Oak, White 5573

This chart, which is supposed to be based on information from the US government, http://www.sherrilltree.com/site/pdfs/Log_WeightChart.pdf has the weights as follows:
Birch, Yellow 57/cuft ............................. Calculated 57*128=7296 lb/cd
Maple, Sugar 56/cuft ............................ 7168lb/cd
Oak,red 63/cuft ........................... 8046/cd
Oak, white 62/cuft ........................... 7936/cd

Then Hearth has these figures, both cord weight and "weight per cord", but they dont work out correct for weight/cuft. Am I missing something??:

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/heating-value-of-common-wood-species.148121/

Birch, Yellow 3689 (43.4/cuft) .................... Calculated 3689/128= 28.8/cuft
Maple, Sugar 3757 (44.2/cuft) ................... 29.3/cuft
Oak, Red* 3757 (44.2/cuft) .................. 29.3/cuft
Oak,White 4012 (47.2/cuft) ................. 31.34/cuft

The numbers are all over the place it seems!

Yes its a natural product, but there seems a bit of range here. Im trying to design a wood stacking system to work with my small tractor so these small differences could mean the difference between being able to lift the load and not being able to. Based on the "Sherrilltree" chart I was using an average weight of 55lb/cuft, but that seems like overkill if you look at the calculated values from Hearth and the first two sites.

So which site is correct???
 
Based on a quick look, I think that:

The first 2 links are for a stack of split green firewood, meaning there is airspace between the pieces and the airspace goes into their density calculations. These are the charts you would want to use.

The 3rd link is the density of a single chunk of green wood without airspace, and you're right that would be overkill.

The 4th link appears to be for heating value purposes therefore probably assumes seasoned firewood, hence the lower numbers.

At least that's what I'd go with for your project. Sounds like it will be a handy system once you're finished. Have fun!
 
Thanks for the input. I think Ill use an average of 35lb/cu vs. 50+lb.
 
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