cutting question # 2

[basswidow]

How do you all seem to get your rounds precisely the same size? I see photos on here and guys seem to cut the rounds exactly the same. Do you measure it out or mark before you cut? All my stuff varies - usually because I cut to avoid knots and such. They all run 12 to 16 inches. Onces split and stacked - my stuff just doesn't look a polished. I guess it doesn't matter how it looks - but how it burns.

Do you all use those length markers off the saw?

 

[LLigetfa]

Three methods. Measure with the bar, use a sawbuck, and measure with a stick.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

They aren't the same size. They are close based on the above methods. There's also a pile of shorts that are good for the shoulder seasons.

Matt

 

[Jamess67]

all my rounds are exactly 16.25 inches long. LOL I wish. I mark a spot on my bar and use that as a measure stick. then with the tip I nick a spot where to cut.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Some I measure with a stick and some I just eyeball. Most of the time I can eyeball pretty darned close. I too cut to try to avoid cutting through knots.

 

[myzamboni]

Some I measure with a stick and some I just eyeball. Most of the time I can eyeball pretty darned close. I too cut to try to avoid cutting through knots.

So you eyeball and tell the wife where to cut?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Ya, but she doesn't like to listen to me. lol

 

[terrywillie]

I like the nail, string, and marking crayon, (yellow or white) approach. I can mark two or three cuts and put it in a pocket. That way I only have 4-6 places to look. If I do lay it down at least the color stands out, unlike the stick. I use to use the bar, but then I started loosing them and that really slowed me down.

 

[LLigetfa]

I use to use the bar, but then I started loosing them and that really slowed me down.

LOL Ja, I could see where that'd slow you down. I never put a nail in my pocket because invariably when I stick my hand in to retrieve it, the pointy end of it ends up jabbed under my fingernail. I think that's why they call them nails.

 

[basswidow]

After cutting 2 truck loads today, I realize it doesn't matter. I just eyeball it. I'm satisfied with that. Starting to feel like my time is worth more than this. It's so much work and I'd rather spend $ 170 on a cord and have some guy dump it for me - while I'm out on the boat fishing. Never been so sore. I bet those who split at the cut site dont' work as hard. Lifting bigger rounds will wear you out.

 

[mainstation]

get yourself a whip...
practice makes the difference, cut for a few years and your blocks will measure in within a 1/4-1/2 " in no time. There's no sense cutting 12" wood.

 

[Todd]

I always start out measuring with my chainsaw bar, but that goes away pretty fast and I just eyeball it. I end up with anything from 14"-20" and it all burns fine.

 

[ansehnlich1]

I use my chainsaw to measure off my rounds. Just measure a spot from bar tip to saw housing and mark it. I'm cutting my rounds 20 inches for my Oslo, 16 in. bar.

 

[xman23]

I to use the bar measuring method. It's quick, swing the saw sideways and dig the tip in where the cut needs to be. When I'm down to a piece 40 inches long I use a tape measure to find the center.

 

[CowboyAndy]

I also use the saw/bar method. There is a spot on the saw where there to tip is 20", and I dont really spend extra time making sure its perfect, but they all come out roughly the same.

 

[Henz]

I have a handy dandy bucking measuring thingy that attaches to my saw that I bought at the saw shop. Works the nutz extends to 20" but I set the tab for 16...I dont like using a stick cause I like to ahve both hands on the saw at all times and not holding a stick at the same time!

 

[smokinj]

I cut where the tree makes me those crochs can be nasty so there is always some that are off a little but its firewood and not going to the mill.

 

[mayhem]

Eyeball. No sense in making a big project out of it in my opinion. Stove will hold 22" splits, I aim for about 20" and only at the very end do I ever wind up with anything outside of 18" or so. The smaller chunks I save up for quick heat or for the wife to pick and choose from in the dead of winter as she does not like loading the longer splits.

 

[Jags]

Calibrated elbow. Its just locked in to where to drop the saw next.

 

[firefighterjake]

Eyeball method . . . cutting up wood doesn't really need to be an exact science . . . as long as they fit into the stove they're all good no matter the size . . . although most are pretty darn close in size . . but then again my wood looks pretty ugly . . . not all nice and straight like some folk's pics -- they're crooked, bent, split up all knarly looking . . . but as long as my ugly wood burns I'm happy.

 

[Wood Duck]

I get my wood in all sorts of lengths, which means i have to be flexible when I cut it to stove length. If i find a forty inch piece, I don't cut it into two sixteens and an eight, i try to cut it into three piece of about equal length. This results in three pieces too short for the stove i haven't yet purchased. Now that I think about it, maybe I need to start measuring.

 

[xman23]

Wood Duck, Any size that fits in the stove will work. The small 6 inch pieces go in sideways. More wood surface area from small pieces and alternately stacked is what you need to have when you have to light a cold stove. At the beginning and end of the season when we starting new fires 2 or 3 times a day, we don't have enough of the small size pieces.

That said, when I'm buckin 2 ft diameter oak I don't like to not make one more cut than I have to. So I try to cut ever piece 20 -22 inches. That 40 inch round needs to be cut very close to the center. My stove can fit a 25 inch log. There have been a few 26 that didn't make it.

 

[JEEPSTER 401]

I have a short piece of 1" angle welded perpendicular to a 16" piece of 1/2" plate stock. After I take a cut I put the piece of angle against the freshly cut side of the tree and cut at the end of the flat stock. Quick and painless until you hit a huge knot.