Do you stack your short splits?

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wahoowad

Minister of Fire
Hearth Supporter
Dec 19, 2005
1,685
Virginia
I've been splitting some scrounged up trees and accumulating a moderate quantity of short splits. I'm talking 6 to 10 inches long. They are the end pieces left over when cutting logs to size. I do not stack them with my 16-18" splits for fear of making my stack wobbly in spots. Last year I just threw them at the base of the tree I stacked against but they absorbed ground moisture. I wish I had a basket or something I could elevate and just toss these in there. They are too random in length to make a mini-stack. What do you do?
 
I take all my short and odd splits and stack them on the very top of my wood rows. Not that pretty to look at but it does the job.
 
Like others, I stack them on the very top. I burn the oddballs first, so the wood pile will take on a more , uh, nice, uh, look, or something like that. Why in the hell do I burn these first?
 
I keep a separate pile for them..I have a 4 x 6 pallet and I put anything small or anything real screwy in shape on that pallet..for stacking, I do my best to get them interlocking in some way..do not cover..I like to burn this stuff on sunday afternoons.
 
I hack mine up to fit in an old trunk ( hugh) I found in my grandfathers attic, there are 2 of them, I keep them outside under the patio roof, the larger one holds chunks of wood, the smaller holds the slim rounds 1- 3 inches with the wood scraps, bark etc. The larger trunk has a date inside of 1914, if it was in immaculate shape, it wouldn't be holding my wood!
 
Hi,
My girlfriend and I call these little beauties "chunklets". There are a number of ways we deal with them. The easiest thing we have found is to take three pallets and assemble them so that one pallet is on the bottom, and the two others form sides directly opposite each other. You can use a piece of scrap plywood screwed to the pallets to keep the sides from splaying out, and it acts as a dandy roof as well. We then stack the chunklets between the sides as we split the other standard sized pieces. The chunklets stay dry, are out of the way, and burn nicely at the beginning of the season when the nights aren't too cold and you don't want to waste the main stash. A lot of the pieces we have been burning in the Jotul Oslo so far have been from the chunklet pile.

JotulOslo
 
I use chunklets for filling in the odd size places in the wood pile. Since a lot of my stacks are made out of odd lengths, I've gotten pretty good at stacking peices that are short. With my bucking and splitting technique for elm I end up with tons of wierd shapes.

Many times these fill in the center of the stack where it doesn't matter much how neatly they're placed. The corners of my stacks on pallets are the critical peice of the piles.
 
I throw mine into a diffrent pile and stack them in voids in my other piles. I also use them to hold my tarps down.
 
I have 2 " orchard fruit boxes ( about 4'x4'x4') that I chuck all my oddball pieces into. I drilled about 500 1" holes in the sides and bottom for air circulation and keep em covered in the winter. seems to work well, and drys nicely. I burn em in the stove for morning chill fires or in the patio fire pit.
 
If you are talking chunks that look like firewood, but are just a little shorter, I just mix them right in the pile. If they are short enough, I stack two, end to end, where one log would normally be. If you are talking real scraggly or misshapen pieces, I just chuck those off to the side to burn up first.

Corey
 
ditto...the tree guy I get wood from likes to keep the larger diameter rounds short so I end up with a lot of shorter splits. I also stack them end to end and they stack just fine. At least so far.... :-)
 
the mini-me of Holz Hausen??

I've got a couple of piles/stacks and a barrel in the garage I keep them in. I just lump them in as `big kindling'...if ya do top down fires, they make a good base in case your splits are too big
 
[quote author="got wood?" date="1162237687"]the mini-me of Holz Hausen??


Yo Austin???

We know who you are going to be at the Halloween Party?? Is Lotsa going to be there?
 
I save my small pieces pieces and place them in different places. Then I point them out to my son (who is 3 years old and LOVES to "cut wood" with dad) and he picks them up and takes them into the house or to the pile or whatever it is that we are doing that day. His smile is priceless!
 
wahoowad said:
I've been splitting some scrounged up trees and accumulating a moderate quantity of short splits. I'm talking 6 to 10 inches long. They are the end pieces left over when cutting logs to size. I do not stack them with my 16-18" splits for fear of making my stack wobbly in spots. Last year I just threw them at the base of the tree I stacked against but they absorbed ground moisture. I wish I had a basket or something I could elevate and just toss these in there. They are too random in length to make a mini-stack. What do you do?


I've been reading here a long time and finally took the plunge tonight and joined. I end up with loads of ends trimmed from splits that are too long (somehow when I order wood that I specify can't be over 16" long, about 1/3 of it ends up being 18"+) and this summer I had too many for the bin I had been throwing them into. I ended up making a round cage (think tomatoe cage) with some leftover fencing wire which I placed over some bricks on the driveway to keep the wood up a bit.
I then tossed all the odds and ends in there and it gets all the air and sun needed for drying. I suppose such a cage could be any diameter needed.
 
I use my "odd" pieces as kindling. I split them down to about the size of fatwood and store them in the garage in milk crates that seem to find their way to my property.
 
Welcome Lakemann ~ Welcome Quackers Glad you can share your ideas.

I cut my own wood but the small splits and sizes are just bound to happen. I throw them on the top of the pile as some have mentioned. Normally i grab the small one and burn them in the spring when less wood is needed.
 
Roospike said:
Welcome Lakemann ~ Welcome Quackers Glad you can share your ideas.

I cut my own wood but the small splits and sizes are just bound to happen. I throw them on the top of the pile as some have mentioned. Normally i grab the small one and burn them in the spring when less wood is needed.


Thanks for the nice welcome Roospike!!!!!!! :-)
 
Welcome Quackers and Lakemann Great to see you joined.
 
Dylan said:
Quackers said:
I've been reading here a long time and finally took the plunge tonight and joined.

I placed over some bricks on the driveway to keep the wood up a bit. I then tossed all the odds and ends in there and it gets all the air and sun needed for drying. I suppose such a cage could be any diameter needed.

Welcome Q, and L-Man.

Generally speaking, the (asphalt??) driveway is meant for the automobile, but, for me, represents a great work area that drains well, keeps me from damaging the lawn, AND, because it is black, collects more insolation than any other horizontal part of my property, thus creating a VERY good drying space. The warm convection that your cage is experiencing must be quite beneficial.


Yes, my drive is asphalt. It's a huge driveway that goes to the garage and then has a portion that goes alongside the garage. I have my wood stacked there on pallets and you're correct, it's a great place to dry the wood as it gets really hot in summer.
 
Since I get 10'-15' tree logs delievered I'll cut all my lengths to 18 inches. Makes for great stacking. With the odd lengths left over I'll split them up too. I'll make a bin with a pallet on the ground and some plastic construction fencing and just throw the chunks in the bin. The pieces are great for this time of year when your not really loading up the stove. Nothing is wasted except the sawdust. Any use for that?
 
Glassman do you get your logs from the local lumber yard? I see people around me that seems to get logs delivered. I'm part of the DNR wood recycling program so when trees go down in state hay fields We go in and get them. It is hit and miss. I'm looking for
another way to get wood next year cheap or free.
 
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