my first stacks!

[toonces]

i had a clear two-day weekend for the first time in a long time and did some work around the house. made some progress on adding tie down loops to my trailer (that metal is tough!) and finally got around to stacking some of that oak i gathered and split a while back.

i've been collecting pallets from shippers at work and had them lined up in the backyard ready to go. put a couple down behind my main pile and got to work today. turned out pretty good and the side structures (whatever they're called) were primo on my second stack. ignore the sticks in front, they're not really doing anything. i just want to stare at the fruits of my labor until it heats the house in a couple years.

 

[thewoodlands]

Very nice job toonces, had a great day for it.

zap

 

[tfdchief]

Good job. Nice looking stack.

 

[Realstone]

Doesn't get much neater or tighter than that. It'll be a shame to dig into it.

 

[Redlegs]

Good looking stack - another guy with wood all cut the same length. Makes me want to add one of those screw on measuring deals to my Stihl.

 

[bogydave]

Nice stack of wood
What are the small vertical splits for , at the bottom?

 

[tfdchief]

Good looking stack - another guy with wood all cut the same length. Makes me want to add one of those screw on measuring deals to my Stihl.

JC, Mine look just like that. But it's a trick. Ya just stack the outside ends all in the same plane. Stack 2 rows wide and it looks like you are a master If you were a mouse on the inside of the stack, you'd be LYAO.

 

[Ashful]

Beautiful! A quick question for you hand-splitting free-stackers, though... what do you do with the odd bits? I find myself cutting my lengths to make for easiest hand splitting. Nice clean rounds that will split in quarters get cut to a full 20" length, but branch wood or anything with knots gets cut thru the middle of the knot, so I can work from one clean end when splitting. Large rounds get cut a little shorter for easier splitting, and then there's always the pieces longer than 20" but shorter than 40" that just get bucked in half. Long story short... lots of odd lengths, and plenty of branch elbows, etc., to make free stacking difficult.

I suppose a hydraulic splitter would cure all those woes, but I'd rather listen to my own wheezing and the sound of a maul going thru wood than a log splitter droning next to me in the woods.

edit: I see "tdchief" answered my question before I even hit "Post"!

 

[tfdchief]

Beautiful! A quick question for you hand-splitting free-stackers, though... what do you do with the odd bits? I find myself cutting my lengths to make for easiest hand splitting. Nice clean rounds that will split in quarters get cut to a full 20" length, but branch wood or anything with knots gets cut thru the middle of the knot, so I can work from one clean end when splitting. Large rounds get cut a little shorter for easier splitting, and then there's always the pieces longer than 20" but shorter than 40" that just get bucked in half. Long story short... lots of odd lengths, and plenty of branch elbows, etc., to make free stacking difficult.

I suppose a hydraulic splitter would cure all those woes, but I'd rather listen to my own wheezing and the sound of a maul going thru wood than a log splitter droning next to me in the woods.

edit: I see "tdchief" answered my question before I even hit "Post"!

If they are really bad, they go in the ugly pile. Those are usually short and small enough, and where I stack/pile them, they burn fine the next winter, so they don't hang around long enough for some snoopy hearth.comer to come take an embarrassing picture and post it here for all to see.

 

[weatherguy]

If they are really bad, they go in the ugly pile. Those are usually short and small enough, and where I stack/pile them, they burn fine the next winter, so they don't hang around long enough for some snoopy hearth.comer to come take an embarrassing picture and post it here for all to see.

Thats your secret, I was wondering how you guys get these perfect splits and stacks that are perfectly plumb, you throw the odd ones in the ugly pile. I throw anything that stacks into my stacks and just the crooked ones and cookies go into the ugly pile.

 

[toonces]

Nice stack of wood
What are the small vertical splits for , at the bottom?

i kinda wedged them in there to see if they could provide any support in case the pallets collapse and the stack leaned forward. i don't think they're gonna do much, though. i did use some small splits to shore up the gaps in the pallets between the three supports. was sagging on the first stack so they should help here.

yeah, no ways those are all the same size splits. although i did put the longer at the bottom and shorter up top for stability. that hookaroon makes a great tool to tap rogue splits back into place and make everything look nice and tidy (on this side at least).

thanks for the compliments. i have a pile of hand-split jobbers that probably won't look as nice but will satisfy me by being up off the ground and in a neat stack. fun fun fun!

 

[DexterDay]

Lookin good..... Love a neat lookin stack.. Gonna be some nice BTU's.

 

[Oregon Bigfoot]

That's some nice stacks of wood there!

 

[Woody Stover]

You got some big 'ol splits in there!

 

[Redlegs]

I've been placing two or three face cords against each other, but was toying with the idea of leaving an air-gap between them on future stacks. This thread cements that for me, but now I will call them "evening-up gaps" so that once I get it all stacked I can get a picture worthy of posting here.

 

[firefighterjake]

Another nice looking stack of wood . . . makes my own stacks look pretty pitiful. But hey, I always said I'm not trying to win any beauty contests with my piles . . . just looking to get them seasoned so I can burn them up. That said, really . . . nice looking stack of wood.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Good work Toonces. Looks like you make larger splits than we do.

 

[Gark]

Nice even stack of nite-nite splits there, toonces. Did you use a laser beam to align the ends? Just kidding. People have got dizzy looking at the ugly stacks here.

 

[My Oslo heats my home]

That is a nice looking stack, you have perfect looking wood too! Where did you hide all the uglies?

 

[timusp40]

What's up with that Fiskers? Has a virtually unbreakable handle, but you got it all wrapped up.

 

[toonces]

just wait and see. i have a bunch of random stuff that's gonna be needing to be stacked and i'll post that too. most of the stuff in the above picture was split with my neighbor's splitter. you can see bits and pieces of my handywork in there, though.

i about broke my thumb off overshooting, so i wrapped the end of the Fiskars with a bicycle innertube. that started to go, so i added red duct tape. that started to go, so i added white hockey tape. i think i'll just replace all that with a rubber grip on the handle end of it b/c it's getting top-heavy.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Ouch! That will perhaps help you get a better aim!

 

[toonces]

man, what a difference a splitter makes on neatness. i had a hard time building my side stacks just because there were very few straight splits to choose from. glad all these uglies are tucked away..

 

[maplewood]

I like the ends of your stacks. I've never had luck with them. I don't have clean, even splits. A lot of mine are gnarly and crooked.
So I just ramp up at about a 45 degree angle to my 5' tall stacks. No muss, no fuss.
I tried putting a pallet on the end to square them up, but I'm not skilled in that department either, apparently.
My short pieces either go into an "ugly" pile for my stove for the shoulder season, or on top of my regular ranks for the boiler.
Either way they end up as ashes.

 

[tfdchief]

I like the ends of your stacks. I've never had luck with them. I don't have clean, even splits. A lot of mine are gnarly and crooked.
So I just ramp up at about a 45 degree angle to my 5' tall stacks. No muss, no fuss.
I tried putting a pallet on the end to square them up, but I'm not skilled in that department either, apparently.
My short pieces either go into an "ugly" pile for my stove for the shoulder season, or on top of my regular ranks for the boiler.
Either way they end up as ashes.

When you don't have good stuff to stack ends, just build them with a slight inward (to the stack) angle and they will stay just fine.