Cross stacking ends

[Backwoods Savage]

Another thread plus many other posts in other threads made me go outside and take a couple pictures today. Here are some pictures of older wood stacks and the cross stacking on the end just to show that they need not be weak and fall over. No, I do not take extra special pains when stacking like this nor am I attempting to brag in any way. I hope I am to humble to reduce myself to that. I show this only to show what can be done and you can do it without your wood piles looking awful. In fact, I think it can make a wood pile look very neat so that it is not an eyesore.

Many have seen pictures of these stacks; this is just from some different viewpoints.

Here is a side view:

To be a bit different, this was a 7 (or somewhere near 7 years in the stack) year old stack.

Finally, to show what we use to put under the wood. This is cheap and it works very well. These are just poles and saplings that we cut in the woods. As you can see, there are some cherry we used here.

 

[Remmy122]

Thats how my stacks are standing. Although one had the cross stacked end fall over, and rest of the split wood went with it!

Im a scournger, and the lengths of my wood is a gamble. I think that was where I ran into trouble.

I will say it was my first stack that fell and the next 3 are looking pretty.

 

[smokinj]

Nice, done of mine have fallen this year yet. That is an improvement over last year.

 

[muncybob]

Nice looking stacks Sav.

I will have cross stacking thru about 80% of my stacks- not just the ends, they are resting on pallets. I figure they will have even more stability this way. At 1st it was time consuming but I seem to be getting better at it. Some of the stacks are well over 5' tall..and so far no collapses(he says knocking on his wooden head).
No matter how you do it, it's always great to see the weathered looking wood with the bark about ready to fall off!

 

[Flatbedford]

Nice stacks. That wood might be too old to burn now.

 

[smokinj]

Nice stacks. That wood might be too old to burn now.

+1 maybe need to start a thread that my wood is too old and dry! ;-)

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Is it really the wood Jay? Dry?

 

[Adios Pantalones]

I do boxed ends like that, but often don't have very straight pieces. I do think that poles/uprights would speed up my stacking a fair bit, even though I've been doing them this way my whole life.

 

[jeff_t]

In my mind, cross stacks on the ends are only to square off the stack and make it look decent. I can pull the cross stack down and most of the stack will be standing except for a couple splits at the very top. Since I got this through my head, I haven't had a stack fall, and honestly don't remember the last time it happened. 'Knock on wood.'

 

[velvetfoot]

How do you split them nice and square like that, perfect for cross stacking?
For all the wood I split this last time, I never thought about maybe splitting some just for the ends.

 

[project240]

I'd like to stack like that, but I get most of my wood from an arborist. I get random lengths from 10" to 5' and lots of oddball/ugly pieces of wood, which somewhat forces me to stack in a rack.

 

[rdust]

How do you split them nice and square like that, perfect for cross stacking?
For all the wood I split this last time, I never thought about maybe splitting some just for the ends.

I try to split squares or rectangles as often as possible, the stove fills much better for me this way. When I'm staking I toss the ones that split nice in a separate pile that I'll use for the ends.

 

[Woody Stover]

Looking good, Dennis. I'd also think your stacks would be more stable than mine because the splits are much larger. I split this year's supply small to get it dry in time. The small splits and odd-shaped chunks are a bit harder for me to stack in a stable fashion.

 

[fishingpol]

Very nicely done Dennis. Around here we call it cribbing the ends. When house are lifted off their foundations to be moved to another location, or foundation repairs, they use hydraulic jacks with cribbing lumber to lift them.

7 years dried stacks is fantastic. There must be some mice nests in there.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/41/Railway-support.jpg

 

[smokinj]

Is it really the wood Jay? Dry?

lol, You know someone will post it! Wait for it....Maybe not to day but before Oct. There will be a thread can my wood be to dry! ;-)

 

[golfandwoodnut]

Dennis, I told them in the other thread that you are the man when it comes to cross stacking. I have been using it with good success for the last several years. I have a long row of pallets about 60 feet long and I cross stack every two pallets for added strenth and also when it comes time to burn the wood I can take stacks from the middle of the pile without consequences.

 

[bogydave]

BWS:
Ever since I saw a picture of your stacks, I started cross stacking the ends. I sometimes tie it in 1/2 way up if I feel it's needed for stability.
I consider you stacks the "gold standard". Learned allot from this site in 2 years & keep learning. I put in a few sticks between the rows to help stability too.


Hope you guys are right, don't need covered to dry. I keep thinking I should move it to the woodshed, maybe 3 rows with separation instead of 4.
But since everything else I learned here, I'm trusting you all are right.

Split & stacked most of it from a few days ago, ran out of gas on the splitter last night, bugs got bad anyway
Hoped to get it all split & stacked today, but golf got in the way & now it's raining..
Pic of my last 3 load of birch & spruce I dug out of the cotton wood pile I posted a a week or so back. Out in the rain & drying ???

Great pics Dennis, may cause some "wood envy" though

 

[Todd]

I gave up on cross stacking and went to the steel fence posts with a rope tied from post to post so they stay straight and level. This way I can stack 6' tall which takes up less room on my small lot. Cross stacking over 4 or 5 feet gets a little unstable for me.

 

[amateur cutter]

Okay seriously fellas, where do you find those straight grained phone poles that make such perfect splits? Even I could make a nice cross stacked end with that stuff. Maybe I need to go buy a smaller firewood saw so people stop giving me 3' 4' dbh knarly tree trunks for firewood. I'm sticking with my posts on the ends & just not gonna look @ the pics of your stacks anymore. :coolgrin: I'm not so sure some of you don't just have one perfect stack for posting pics of, & the rest of it in pile under a tarp. :cheese:

BTW Dennis, I don't think Jay got the old dry wood crack. Better PM him the explanation for that one. LOL A C

 

[n3pro]

You guys make me look bad. Compared to you Dennis my piles look like a 5 year old staked them. For some reason I tend to find the knottiest wood in the world to get so many of my slits are fatter on one end then the other.

 

[rdust]

Had to take a couple pictures today since Dennis did. I'm not on the level of Dennis but I haven't had any fall over yet! :lol:

 

[mywaynow]

Been pallet stacking for the last 10 or 12 cords. The entire pallet is cross-stacked so it is stable enough to move on it's own.

 

[PapaDave]

Tried some cross stacking in the shed this year to keep the stacks from leaning on and bowing out the side walls. Worked pretty well on all but 2 of the ends. Not sure what I did wrong, but the wood between the ends caused the end to tilt a little. That first stack will get used somewhere in Dec., if my guesstimations are right.
Looks like Dennis and rdust used cants or 4x4's on their ends. That takes planning or a lot of luck. I didn't split that way, so I just used the ones I had with the least amount of twist and that had one good flat face.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

How do you split them nice and square like that, perfect for cross stacking?
For all the wood I split this last time, I never thought about maybe splitting some just for the ends.

Velvetfoot, it is really easy no matter whether splitting with hydraulics or axe or maul. Most of the time I take a slab off two sides and then turn the log and, depending upon the size, just split it the opposite way so that I end up with rectangles. These do make building the ends much easier and also work great when packing the stove for overnight burns. Maybe the next time I do some splitting I'll have to take some pictures with each step to show how I do the splitting. Now if I can remember to do that..... The memory banks need some re-charging.


BogyDave. Thank you. Now I can learn by looking at your great wood stacks. You do great!

Amateur: It doesn't matter too much on the size of the log. I can make good square or rectangles out of some really big logs very easy too.

nepro: Nobody is trying to make you look bad and I'm sure your stacks are not as bad as you think. Stacking wood that is fatter on one end or has knots is not all that difficult. If the fat end is away from you then stack another fat end piece with the fat end toward you. Make a jigsaw puzzle if you need to. After some time you'll be stacking without even thinking about what you are doing and it will fit nicely. That said, I have to admit that sometimes my wood piles are not all that good. Case in point, the last few times I've stacked I've been hurting like crazy but just kept at it anyway. They are terrible stacks! But so far they haven't fell over. Maybe the first time coming up though. lol

rdust: Are those pictures of your stacks or mine? I don't see any difference. Holy cow, there is even ash....

Thanks to all.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Very nicely done Dennis. Around here we call it cribbing the ends. When house are lifted off their foundations to be moved to another location, or foundation repairs, they use hydraulic jacks with cribbing lumber to lift them.

7 years dried stacks is fantastic. There must be some mice nests in there.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/41/Railway-support.jpg

Yes, that is called cribbing but few know the term so I usually do not use it.