Another craigslist score

[newstove]

Well, so far it is a score anyway, I haven't tried to split any of it. I'm thinking I may agree with my wife on this one - I am nuts. ;-)

A guy about 5 minutes away took down an oak tree and asked them to leave the wood after cutting it all up to 14-16" rounds, and chipping all the brush. Needless to say, it was a MASSIVE oak - the bottom round I took out of there measured 49" in diameter. But, we'll get to that.

So, he rents a wood splitter, and after a day, determines he has more wood than he will ever need, and now is stuck with a whole lot of wood that he now has to get rid of. He posted it on craigslist, I saw the picture, said what the heck, contacted him, and went and picked it up today. All I had to do was pick it up, no real cutting involved since it was all already cut into rounds. Luckily my brother-in-law came over and helped me load it up.

As I said, the bottom round was 49" in diameter. That one we split into three large sections with some wedges. They got smaller from there - a little. After 40' of tree, the rounds were still 30" in diameter.

All in all, I pulled out 4 truckloads - my truck will hold 3/4 cord when packed - and we overpacked it. So, I figure I hauled out 3 cords easy.

Oh, and of course, here is a picture after we got it home.

Now all I have to do is figure out how I'm gonna split all this Woo-hoo

 

[heppm01]

Schwing!

 

[wldm09]

I love having problems like how to split 3 cords of fresh oak.... Love it

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Well, time to become friends with the sledge and wedges!

Nice score!

Matt

 

[Wet1]

Nice find! Nothing wrong with a few cords of free oak, and only five minutes away at that.

I think I'd save myself the hassle of fighting the biggest rounds and just take a big saw and noodle them into smaller pieces. If you have a big saw, this might be a lot easier...

 

[newstove]

Yeah, that was my plan, to cut the larger ones with the saw, then split from there.

Although we did find that with the very large one we split, cutting it part way with a saw and then just wedging it in the cut worked great and quick, and it wasn't nearly as much cutting.

 

[Todd]

Nice score, was it free? Gota love Craigs list, I also scored over 3 cords of Oak this year thanks to it.

 

[smokinj]

49 in. oak is a monster

 

[northwinds]

Many of those big rounds aren't very tall. They should hand split fine, especially if you work around the edges with
the maul.

 

[Flatbedford]

Many of those big rounds aren't very tall. They should hand split fine, especially if you work around the edges with
the maul.

That's what I was thinking. Oak splits pretty nicely, just start on the edges and work your way around with the maul. I think that splitting goes faster with big rounds. You spend less time reloading.

 

[newstove]

Yeah, they all range between 14" and 16" tall (except one...)

I just pulled out the tools for a few minutes, and split two of the larger rounds right in half without too much effort (less effort than I thought it would take) with a pair of wedges and sledgehammer.

Splitting the edges off isn't working as well with a maul though. I know people say start outside and work in, but that isn't working for me at all. I usually notch and split in half, and then quarter and etc. I'm open for any suggestions, as I've never gotten that outside-in technique to work well for me...

Oh, to answer a previous question - yes, it was all free. ;-)

 

[LLigetfa]

If the wood is starting to shrink already, a noodle notch and a wedge works well. It tends to crack (check) radially as it shrinks.

 

[northwinds]

Yeah, they all range between 14" and 16" tall (except one...)

I just pulled out the tools for a few minutes, and split two of the larger rounds right in half without too much effort (less effort than I thought it would take) with a pair of wedges and sledgehammer.

Splitting the edges off isn't working as well with a maul though. I know people say start outside and work in, but that isn't working for me at all. I usually notch and split in half, and then quarter and etc. I'm open for any suggestions, as I've never gotten that outside-in technique to work well for me...

Oh, to answer a previous question - yes, it was all free. ;-)

If your technique is working, no worries. Whatever gets the job done. If I have to hit the center more than 3 times
to break it in half, I usually go around the edges with rounds of similar size.

I find that the bigger the chunk I try to take off the edge, the more it's like hitting the round in the center. So I take 4-6
slices off going around, depending on how big the round is, and then keep going around until the middle is small enough
to split in half. I take as big a slice as I can while still being able to take off a slice with one swing.

Unless it's elm. Then I just swear a lot and know that I'm going to be swinging the maul three times as many times
no matter what technique I use. I was splitting mulberry tonight. The bigger rounds weren't nearly as big as yours,
but many were 20" long, so I was going around the edges quite a bit.

 

[czorbach]

I just got a similar score off CL - a cord of red oak cut into rounds.
Waiting for the Fiskars to arrive from ebay.
This will be for 2010/11.

 

[mackconsult]

Well, so far it is a score anyway, I haven't tried to split any of it. I'm thinking I may agree with my wife on this one - I am nuts. ;-)

A guy about 5 minutes away took down an oak tree and asked them to leave the wood after cutting it all up to 14-16" rounds, and chipping all the brush. Needless to say, it was a MASSIVE oak - the bottom round I took out of there measured 49" in diameter. But, we'll get to that.

So, he rents a wood splitter, and after a day, determines he has more wood than he will ever need, and now is stuck with a whole lot of wood that he now has to get rid of. He posted it on craigslist, I saw the picture, said what the heck, contacted him, and went and picked it up today. All I had to do was pick it up, no real cutting involved since it was all already cut into rounds. Luckily my brother-in-law came over and helped me load it up.

As I said, the bottom round was 49" in diameter. That one we split into three large sections with some wedges. They got smaller from there - a little. After 40' of tree, the rounds were still 30" in diameter.

All in all, I pulled out 4 truckloads - my truck will hold 3/4 cord when packed - and we overpacked it. So, I figure I hauled out 3 cords easy.

Oh, and of course, here is a picture after we got it home.

Now all I have to do is figure out how I'm gonna split all this Woo-hoo

I had the same thing happen to me couple of years ago. Some guy published on craigslist a downed cherry tree. He said it was about a 1/2 chord. I was first to call and made my up to a mongo cherry tree that had split and fallen down. I hauled out about 3.5 chord over 4 days and we just used the last of it over the winter. It was a find ....... At least I can say I got it.

 

[kbrown]

Hearing all these scores from Craigslist is making me jealous...although I have yet to find anything in my area on there. Most are looking for free work to cut, clean, chip, etc the whole tree. This coming winter will be our first full season using the stove and we are stocking up on just about anything we can find other than pine. Wondering if anyone can throw some advice this way for getting free wood. Some things that we have tried was a posting on Craigslist for tree services or others to drop wood off at our place - no takers; another was simply word of mouth to friends & neighbors. That panned out a little bit as we got a couple pickup loads of dead wood. I was wondering about how to approach tree services to ask for wood. Anyone have any experience of this being a viable option or will most places just blow me off and want $$$ for it? Also, for those that have found Craigslist successful, any tips on how to deal with homeowners? I am always concerned about liability of being on someone else's property. This is such a great forum and site for information; look forward everyone's comments/suggestions. We are in the Walled Lake, MI area which is by no means rural but not city either. For any large amounts in this area, it would only come from storm damage from spring storms.

 

[johnn]

Heatit: Try posting a "new topic",,probably get more hitsYou could try the search, above, type in free firewood and read some posts for ideas. Most tree removal companys get in and get out, meaning your prescense may be an obstacle to them,,,however if their disposal spot is some distance away for those sections they cant chip,,they may be willing to load your trailer rather than theirs,,,they may not want you running a saw though,,may depend on how convenient you are for them. Some have found wood at the city dump for the taking

 

[mtarbert]

Make sure you turn those splits Bark side down so they can dry before you get around to splitting them. Wood dries from the ends and red oak will such water from the ground,
Mike

 

[newstove]

Yup, already did that - the picture was from right after we dumped them off the truck.

I've already flipped 'em up (and it's on a slight incline, so I watched them really round ones roll down it too. ;-) )

 

[wendell]

heatit, just call and ask. All they can say is no. You may be surprised. If they don't sell firewood themselves, they are just going to need to take it to the landfill and pay to drop it off so if they are working near you and can drop it of for free at your house you are saving them time and money.

I was cutting up a neighbor's tree last year and a guy stopped and asked me to come get wood from his lot. He has a tree service and just dumps the logs behind his shop and needs people to come get them.

 

[kbrown]

This is a follow up of my post a couple days earlier...Thursday evening, (April 30th) I just happened to look at Craigslist before calling it a night and found a post from a guy about 3 miles from me that was for free wood from fresh cut tree! Called him up left message. Called me back Friday am and said that it was not a pine and I can come get it; he had no idea what it was; got there and found it was a huge maple. Pulled out 3 p/u truck loads. Figuring maybe a cord? Anyhow, as I was bringing the first load back, drove past a company that has wooded area around it and their employees were keeping busy cleaning up the place - cutting dead wood, wind falls - pulled in there and asked what they were doing with the wood and scored another 2 loads :cheese: buy end of Friday I had pulled in 5 loads of new wood for the home! Funny how it can suddenly happen! I owe it all to the post here LOL ;-P