Splits too long

[BirthofSerpents]

Hi all. So, my stove takes 18" splits max, 16" preferred.

I found a good price on half a cord of well seasoned u-haul fir, but it was longer cuts when I got there. The guy was very nice and said I could throw out any longer splits, but I wanted to be fast and was eye-balling it. So while I ended up with mostly 18" splits or less, about a quarter to a third of it is 18+" - 21".

To save that stuff, I was of thinking of chaining a bunch of splits together to form a sort of ad-hoc round and topping off about 2" - 3" with my chainsaw. Before attempting, I just wonder what others have done when they have a significant amount of wood that's too long for the stove.

 

[GadDummit]

My stove eats 36" logs so I rarely run into this, but when I do I just line them all up in rows on the deck and saw off the ends, walking down the deck. (logs are on the deck, me down on the ground.) Makes it easy to run a wheel barrow aside me too to catch the extras for kindling or spare wood.
Waste not, want not and all that!

 

[BirthofSerpents]

My stove eats 36" logs

Dear lord. What kind of monster is that?

 

[GadDummit]

The cabin stove is an old fella from the 50s. The fireplace is just an oversized fireplace. Both eat 36". Finding a woodsplitter was tough becasue of the length though. I had to build my own and use a cylinder off an oil drill.

 

[Prof]

A miter saw might work in this case, depending upon how thick the splits are....just a thought. A chainsaw can be tricky when cutting relatively short pieces.

 

[Adabiviak]

I use a Forest-Master Quick Fire Saw Horse for cutting my logs. When I get longer ones than my stove likes, I put them in this and nip the end off. Those small chunks go into containers with the rest of my unstackable "uglies" to be burned.

 

[Montanalocal]

Another approach would be to cut you too-long splits in half. An 18-21 would give you two 9-10.5 that could go in their own stack and be burned in the North-South direction. On my stove the air comes in the front and it actually likes to burn splits in the N-S direction better.

 

[jebatty]

Long splits might also work if loaded on the diagonal and even raised on one end if needed.

 

[Simonkenton]

Take a tape measure along next time, and measure the wood before you load it.

 

[Riff]

Second the miter saw in that it is going to be easier to control the smaller splits. I've also done the suggestion of cutting lengths in half and running them N-S in a stove, worked fairly well.

 

[BirthofSerpents]

Long splits might also work if loaded on the diagonal and even raised on one end if needed.

I had a fire this way and I felt it took longer to take off and didn't burn as hot. Doable just not preferable.

 

[EbS-P]

My plan is to sort them all out then stack them on one end of my wood rack and just cut them in half with the chain saw. My rack is 2x4 suck in cinder blocks with landscaping timbers laid across the top of the blocks. Haven’t done it yet wanted to try N-S loading my F400. I would just saw down between the vertical 2x4s. Concern would be kick back as I can’t cut all the way through the stack and if the sturdiness of the stack while sawing. Getting the bar pinched. I now have longer vertical 2x4. I would not stack higher than the 2x4. Alternatively. I don’t see why you can’t just hold the saw in a vertical to 45 degree tip down position and saw the entire length of the stack if it stacked off the ground. To be honest I wouldn’t actually cut it like this. Really I just have a pile of the longs I would lean them up on a branch or log and and walk down the line back baring them. Doing a line or two very week. Seems safer than my other plans.

 

[firefighterjake]

I am a bit surprised some of the folks who have made saw buck/jig (I forget exactly what they call it) have not been on to post a photo.

Some folks have built a saw buck type deal -- either in an X shape or H shape (or some other letter). They then load up the too long pieces and cut them down to size.

Me . . . I am too lazy to spend time building any such contraption. I just toss the too long pieces to the side and cut them down one by one when I get a chance.

 

[MTASH]

I had this problem when I upgraded stoves. I used my miter saw for most splits. I clamped the bigger ones cross ways in my wood splitter and cut with the chain saw.

 

[Prof]

Long splits might also work if loaded on the diagonal and even raised on one end if needed.

This works well for the occasional long split, but I wouldn't want to make this my standard operating procedure. I think it would be aPITA.

 

[Stinkpickle]

I have to miter saw mine down for the smoker anyway.

 

[qwee]

Sometimes I get wood from a college that is of various lengths. I tried to think of a way to shorten the too-longs. A miter saw worked but I could tell this wasn't a permanent solution. I thought, all I need is a durable saw that chops the wood - a chop saw. Harbor Freight sells several - you need to find a 14"saw blade though. I've seen some. I haven't done this yet so I'm unsure how it will work. But in theory.....

 

[Woodcutter Tom]

A miter saw might work in this case, depending upon how thick the splits are....just a thought. A chainsaw can be tricky when cutting relatively short pieces.

I urge you to be very careful when using the miter saw for this. I had many pieces that were too long and I wanted to cut them into 9 1/2 inch lengths for N-S placement in my stove. My wood was not like dimensional lumber where you have a flat surface to place against the saw fence. My splits were odd shapes where it was difficult to place a flat side against the back surface of the saw.
On one piece I had the fingers of my left hand holding the wood between the wood and the back fence. Part way thru the cut the blade bit into the wood forcing it back against the fence. It smashed up my middle finger real good. It hurt like crazy. I had on a thick glove. As I removed the glove I saw all the blood gushing out of my finger. I know to put pressure on an open wound, which I did. I sat in great pain with pressure on the cut for 40 minutes before I even attempted to look at the cut again. It was bad. It took months for it to heal. I ended up losing the nail as a new one grew under the damaged one.
Bottom line: Make sure your wood is supported from behind and below. Never put you fingers between the wood and the saw fence. Take your time and figure out the best way to support the piece before cutting.

 

[TreePointer]

Do some searches on "h-frame" sawbucks. Here's an older discussion:

If you already have a log rack with a couple 2x4 uprights, you can spin some screw eyes or hooks into the base/horizontals to anchor a ratcheting strap to hold logs in place before trimming the ends with a chainsaw.

EDIT: I found the old post I was looking for. See the pictures:

logs to long

The firewood I have is 18-20" need 14-16 for new stove. Is there a ez way to cut shorter? The wood was cut for my old home which had a wood furnace and could take large pieces.

www.hearth.com

 

[moresnow]

Sometimes I get wood from a college that is of various lengths. I tried to think of a way to shorten the too-longs. A miter saw worked but I could tell this wasn't a permanent solution. I thought, all I need is a durable saw that chops the wood - a chop saw. Harbor Freight sells several - you need to find a 14"saw blade though. I've seen some. I haven't done this yet so I'm unsure how it will work. But in theory.....

After using a chop saw to shorten part of a years supply of long splits a few years ago I can say for certain. Find another way. Splits are to un uniform for safe cutting in a chop saw. I had many that bound the blade causing some scary dangerous results. Never again. My 2 cents worth.

 

[NaturalCauses]

Do some searches on "h-frame" sawbucks. Here's an older discussion:

If you already have a log rack with a couple 2x4 uprights, you can spin some screw eyes or hooks into the base/horizontals to anchor a ratcheting strap to hold logs in place before trimming the ends with a chainsaw.

EDIT: I found the old post I was looking for. See the pictures:

logs to long

The firewood I have is 18-20" need 14-16 for new stove. Is there a ez way to cut shorter? The wood was cut for my old home which had a wood furnace and could take large pieces.

www.hearth.com

I built an H-Frame sawbuck similar to the ones in the old post listed. It only took about an hour to throw together out of mostly scrap wood, and worked like a charm to trim all the log splits down to a consistent length.

 

[johneh]

I'd use a sliding compound miter saw
hold tight to fence and back cut into them
split always being forced against the fence
But what do I know

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I built a wooden box that is 18in deep.. the lenth I want.. the box is 20x20in. It has the sides open. I fill it with splits and use a ratchet strap to keep the splits from moving around.. I use my chainsaw to cut them down.. I also use this box for my kindling.. I put the splits in half way cut them to 9in and run them through the splitter again... all the kindling I need

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Northern Tool sells a sawbuck with a chainsaw holder, and it periodically goes on sale for about half of its listed price. We have used one for years, first in a situation where we had to cut down splits that were too long. Now most of our wood is branch and stem pieces that are often not even large enough to be worth splitting, and so the sawbuck sees more use than the log splitter these days.

 

[RandyBoBandy]

I usually just stack them with all my other splits. The ones that are to long stick out farther leaving opportunity to trim them back with the chainsaw. The weight of all the other splits holds them in place just fine.