How to keep the cross piled ends from toppling

[LLigetfa]

I've had it happen more than once. The first thing I learned was to be careful using split quarters. They flop over so easy. I like to use split halves for cross piling.

In my woodshed I have nine foot high piles and no matter how carefully you stack, a nine foot tall cross piled end is very precarious. What I do is to tie in the cross pile at about mid height. I leave some pieces twice as long and lay those in lengthwise.

Here is a photo that shows the tied in long piece behind the tractor's lever. Ja, I know I said I like to use split halves but the first course shown is actually catching the corner post a bit.

 

[fossil]

When I stack those ends, I look for half-splits & use them 2 x 2, and I'll build the whole stack on both ends even before I start filling between them. I watch them carefully as I'm building them, to make sure they're trending "back" and "in", if at all. I use little splitter trash or whatever as shims where needed. Tomorrow when it's light I'll get a pic so you can see what I'm talking about. I've had more than one of them come tumbling down, but not since I got smarter about building them. The "tie-in" is a great idea. Nice looking wood stash you got there, LLigetfa! Rick

 

[Dune]

Fossils got it right, I stack as high as I can reach, don't know about nine feet, carefully selecting and placing coss pieces to get that back and in lean going on.

 

[LLigetfa]

Nice looking wood stash you got there, LLigetfa! Rick

When I took that pic, my woodshed was mostly empty. That small stash is just some low grade Poplar that I culled out.

My 12 cord of good Black Ash was sitting out in the sun all year and has since been moved into the shed. Here's a pic of when I got started at the other end of the shed.

 

[branchburner]

Wow, even nicer looking wood stash! Good stacking.

I had a small row go over twice in one day this summer because it was mostly branch wood. Needed a few more splits - square wheels don't roll.

 

[LLigetfa]

One year I couldn't get Black Ash and had to settle for Birch and as everyone knows, unlike Ash, Birch has to be tinder dry to burn. After I filled my woodshed, I still had 5 cord left over so I stacked it in my canvas roundtop shelter. Since the roundtop has sloped sides, my cross piled ends leaned in at the same slope as the shelter. That was the easiest stacking I've ever had to do. If I hadn't spent so much money on my woodshed, I'd be tempted to stash it all in my roundtop.

If I were stacking firewood outdoors, I would simply put a lean inward on the ends and I certainly wouldn't be stacking it 9 feet high. When I was stacking outdoors, I would stack 3 courses deep and on the crosspiled ends, I would tie all three ends together with the odd piece three times the buck length.