Yes. But I'm on the 3 year plan so it really doesn't matter, it'll be dry. The space savings is more valuable to me.
Santa Came Early!
- Thread starter Caw
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By splitting it on the diameter line first then still considering it a full circle of course.
Got it. I'm rapidly running out of storage space, and looking to build more, but I'll be wanting to burn some of the wood in the 24/25 season. I've got easy access to lots of free pallets, and pallet-based storage is easier to build than more substantial sheds. But an air gap between rows means dropping down to two rows, which takes more total land space, and would get in the way of future shed space.
Almost all of my wood is easier-to-dry PNW softwoods. Not yet sure if I can dry softwoods in a year in three-row stacks without a gap between rows.
I've historically done 2 x 1 cord interlocked stacks and they worked well for me. I could season any non-oak or locust wood in 1 year. I'll attach a picture. The flaw for me was my storage area is low laying and very soft in the spring, first heaves in the winter. The tremendous weight on the cinder blocks would cause a lot of settling. There's absolutely nothing worse than restacking 2 cords in the middle of mud season.
This year I'm burning from my overflow pallet island way out back. It's two giant oversized pallets my solar panels came on. I had 3 tight rows x 12 feet about chest height top covered for 3 years. It's largely in the shade and gets much less wind being tucked away. The wood was all maple/red oak and is bark falling off bone dry. Takes right off in the stove.
I'm using this data to assume that my new storage area being the same setup but primo afternoon sun and prevailing wind facing will work well. Even if the middle row is a tad lesser it should be fine and I'm gaining 60' x 6' feet of my yard back. Wife is happy. No more restacking and managing leaning stacks or worrying about them falling on a kid or dog so I'm happy too!
You can see one of my 2 cord stacks in the background here along with some cinder block casualties. I took this when laying out the new area:
really i've never heard that word in my life 
learn something new everyday.now i'll have to go impress someone
learn something new everyday.now i'll have to go impress someone
Whelp that's a wrap on log delivery #1 this season. I had the whole family out with me today to make sure we got it done before the small storm coming through tonight.
Quick summary:
2 cords of quality wood for the stove. Mostly oak.
0.5 cords of fire pit wood. Mostly elm.
0.25 cords or so of uglies.
Wood lot is up to about 10 cords C/S/S for the stove and about 1.5 cords for the fire pit.
Not bad for $100. My wife is very happy to have the driveway back for now. I'll probably wait a month or so to get another delivery. Storing our chopping blocks on the side of the driveway for now as we'll need them again soon. I totally forgot to move the pallet the kids chopped today and said F it at the end. Too tired. It'll be fine where it is for a few weeks.
Now onto more important things. 3 year old red oak and a nice red. 🥹
Quick summary:
2 cords of quality wood for the stove. Mostly oak.
0.5 cords of fire pit wood. Mostly elm.
0.25 cords or so of uglies.
Wood lot is up to about 10 cords C/S/S for the stove and about 1.5 cords for the fire pit.
Not bad for $100. My wife is very happy to have the driveway back for now. I'll probably wait a month or so to get another delivery. Storing our chopping blocks on the side of the driveway for now as we'll need them again soon. I totally forgot to move the pallet the kids chopped today and said F it at the end. Too tired. It'll be fine where it is for a few weeks.
Now onto more important things. 3 year old red oak and a nice red. 🥹
Ashful
Minister of Fire
No, it's still termed "radial". Radial simply refers to any ray, vector, or line intersecting the center of a circle.A-ha: a hidden assumption. It really isn't a radial split, it's a diameter split. (Yes, I already knew that)
When I split a 20" diameter with the 8" wedge on my splitter, it is entering the round radially. On most occasions. the round will split clean thru the full diameter, but just as often not. "Radially" covers both scenarios without assumptions, just as calling a square a rectangle is still correct, without implying all sides are always equal. Diametric is a special case of radial, in which the line extends far enough to intersect the perimeter at both ends, just as square is a special case of rectangle.
I can't believe this has even become a debate.
<-- math minor, among three other math-heavy engineering degrees
I'm reminded of 9th grade geometry. I got a B I think. One time I hit the teacher in the back of the head with a paper airplane. She turned around to the class of 25 kids and immediately said "I can't believe you just did that, Chris". She just knew lol. Wasn't so funny at the time but looking back it was one of the funniest things I remember from high school. I don't think it helped my grade...🤣
Very glad I got all the work done. Ended up with 12-14" or so. My wood is safely tucked away and Gordon is a happy snow dog.
The side pallets are screwed down directly into the ground pallets they are on and the vertical backs with some exterior construction screws. Then I have 4x4 runners on the ground to help prevent wobble. The middle vertical pallets are largely supported by the wood itself though. The end ones I added an extra cross brace 2x4.
The back pallets are sitting on the gravel (not the pallets, so I can easily sub out rotten ones) and are screwed into the vertical sides as well as the ground pallets. Then I used 18" 2x4 chunks to attach them to their neighbors at the seams. I also ran a 2x4 over the top to connect them.
So TLDR - lots of different connection points with 2x4s and construction screws. The goal was to add stability but keep it easy for me to replace rotten pallets as they wear out.
The kids and dog had a blast in the snow yesterday. Too bad it'll all be gone by wed but it was fun. We used to get snow like this all the time now it's more like a treat which is sad.
Ok ok ok...geometry war is over.
Btw I asked my wife to make a secant split the other day for fun and she smirked at me then did one perfectly. Son of a B.
Btw I asked my wife to make a secant split the other day for fun and she smirked at me then did one perfectly. Son of a B.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
I'm fully aware she is smarter than me when it comes to school stuff. Since we have the same degree and are in the same profession it's easy to compare apples to apples. She's also great with and loves numbers so she handles the finances which makes my life easy. I bring other talents to table such as the wood burning, construction/remodeling, cooking, etc. So we make a pretty good team.
HOWEVER...lol. It can be challenging as you're eluding to. It certainly makes arguing about anything a lot more difficult. When the heels get dug in can require an act of God to change her mind. There are times when we are both sure we are right etc. But that's life. Overall I consider myself very lucky!
Now what the heck are we going to do with 2.5 inches of rain and 14" of snow on the ground that's going to melt all in the next 24 hours. It's going to be an absolute mess out there.
Good time to check the tarping technique. Up at my place they are predicting 40 to 50 mph winds.
Yeah I was thinking the same thing. I made sure they are strapped down well and threw a pallet on top of each stack for extra protection. I'm out of heavy things to put up there so we'll see if it's good enough.
We actually discussed all the other cuts we were talking about earlier afterwards seeing what we could remember from geometry lol. It was a good time.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Making imaginary cuts could be interesting.Does your brain still automatically snap into a cylindrical coordinate system?
No more cutting or splitting for me probably until mid March. Weather is turning crappy then it'll be maple season. Though I'm not sure when that will be given this strange winter. Historically late Feb/early March but it's getting sooner and sooner. Then we're going on a trip early March. I'll try to jam in 2 more cords before golf season starts.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
I always try to get my racks all filled up in spring, which is always a challenge, given my access to the wood lot is across some pretty soft and soggy ground, when things thaw in spring. I try to pack in the several dozen tons of logs while things are frozen, as my only other chance is in the July heat and dry hard ground.
Cold winters with hard frozen ground makes everything easy, other than getting frozen logs un-stuck from each other and the ground. The goal is to be sure all wood racks are full before the summer heat, to maximize the number of summers spent CSS'd.
