Ideas for tipping pallets

shooterdon · Sep 21, 2023

civilian said:
Shooter, does the wood dry in those bags you have? As in fresh cut trees are normally cut, split and stacked for drying. And would the bags hold up to wood splits falling off the end conveyor of a fire wood processor? Just finished cuttting this winters dead ash with a fire wood processor and have a mess to clean up. Using the processor somewhere else would make clean up easier. Can the bags be reused? Lots of thinking to do. Thanks, Jon

The bags are advertised to last about six times. Bags are $15 delivered. So cost per use in less than $3. I have used a few bags 3 times in testing and no issues so far. Bags do not tear from splits falling into them. I expect them to last 8 times for a cost of $2/use.

Green wood dries well in the bag if you put the bag on a pallet so air can flow from underneath as well as from the sides. Bags are ventilated and wood is loose in bag for good airflow. No piece of wood is more than 2' from the side of the bag. I place the pallet/bag units about one foot apart for seasoning.

For me, these bags are a game changer. I can process wood almost effortlessly. If it costs me $2-3 a face cord to eliminate stacking and to have something I can easily move around it is worth it to me. But the best part is I can stage these in my garage in the winter using a pallet jack. I never touch the splits until I carry them from the bag into the house.

The modified IBC totes I have shown in other posts are my preferred way to handle firewood for personal use. They hold just under 1.5 face cords. The downside is if I process and stack alone, it takes me 2 1/2 to 3 hours to get 1.5 face cords. That works out to 25-30 hours for a year's supply. If I have a person stacking and another running the tractor (to keep the log table on the processor full and move totes) we get a tote (1.5 face cords) in 45 minutes. With three people we process a year's supply of firewood (15 face cords) in 8-9 hours

Using bags, and working alone I get a face cord done in about an hour. My processor will produce about 2 face cords an hour. Time is "wasted" loading the log deck, putting a pallet under the bag stand, mounting a bag, and then moving the pallet/bag to the storage area. Working alone and using bags, I can get 15 face cords (year supply) done in about half the time of using IBC totes. WITHOUT STACKING!

Jon, if you are using a commercial processor your productivity will be higher...say 3 face cords/hr. IMO bags make even more sense in that case if you have a helper. You cannot afford to waste time mounting and moving bags. You will fill a bag in about 20 minutes. The ideal set up would be to have a swinging out-feed conveyor so you can have two bagging stations. When one bag is filled, swing the conveyor to the other bag and keep processing. Your helper can move the full bag and set up the next pallet/bag. My processor has the swinging conveyor, and this is what I plan to do when my fiancé retires next year.

shooterdon · Sep 21, 2023

BlueKnife said:
Do I understand correctly that you're looking to dump the wood out of the bag? Not leaving the bag at the customers house? If so, why bother putting it in a bag at all? Just a thought, but a fit person can throw 1600 lbs of loose firewood out of a pickup in less than 10 minutes. Less of an option of course if the person is overweight, elderly or has some other physical handicap.

The bag seems to make sense for how I want to process wood...without a lot of work. See my previous post

I am 73 with minor back issues and want a system that I can handle as I get older.
You are right. I can empty a pickup bed full of wood in about 15 minutes with a bit of effort. If I can dump it in 2 minutes without much effort that has value to me.

\

BlueKnife · Sep 21, 2023

shooterdon said:
The bags are advertised to last about six times. Bags are $15 delivered. So cost per use in less than $3. I have used a few bags 3 times in testing and no issues so far. Bags do not tear from splits falling into them. I expect them to last 8 times for a cost of $2/use.

Green wood dries well in the bag if you put the bag on a pallet so air can flow from underneath as well as from the sides. Bags are ventilated and wood is loose in bag for good airflow. No piece of wood is more than 2' from the side of the bag. I place the pallet/bag units about one foot apart for seasoning.

For me, these bags are a game changer. I can process wood almost effortlessly. If it costs me $2-3 a face cord to eliminate stacking and to have something I can easily move around it is worth it to me. But the best part is I can stage these in my garage in the winter using a pallet jack. I never touch the splits until I carry them from the bag into the house.

The modified IBC totes I have shown in other posts are my preferred way to handle firewood for personal use. They hold just under 1.5 face cords. The downside is if I process and stack alone, it takes me 2 1/2 to 3 hours to get 1.5 face cords. That works out to 25-30 hours for a year's supply. If I have a person stacking and another running the tractor (to keep the log table on the processor full and move totes) we get a tote (1.5 face cords) in 45 minutes. With three people we process a year's supply of firewood (15 face cords) in 8-9 hours

Using bags, and working alone I get a face cord done in about an hour. My processor will produce about 2 face cords an hour. Time is "wasted" loading the log deck, putting a pallet under the bag stand, mounting a bag, and then moving the pallet/bag to the storage area. Working alone and using bags, I can get 15 face cords (year supply) done in about half the time of using IBC totes. WITHOUT STACKING!

Jon, if you are using a commercial processor your productivity will be higher...say 3 face cords/hr. IMO bags make even more sense in that case if you have a helper. You cannot afford to waste time mounting and moving bags. You will fill a bag in about 20 minutes. The ideal set up would be to have a swinging out-feed conveyor so you can have two bagging stations. When one bag is filled, swing the conveyor to the other bag and keep processing. Your helper can move the full bag and set up the next pallet/bag. My processor has the swinging conveyor, and this is what I plan to do when my fiancé retires next year.

How do you define "face cord"? Most states have a legal definition for a cord, but none that I'm aware of define face cord. That can vary quite a bit regionally. Just curious, so I can understand your numbers better.

Eagle1 · Sep 21, 2023

Face cord or rank here is 4x8 one row stacked. Huge difference between 24" and 16" lengths. I prefer 16" ish, a lot of local cut 24" ish length. One is about half a cord the other is a third of a cord.

shooterdon · Sep 21, 2023

BlueKnife said:
How do you define "face cord"? Most states have a legal definition for a cord, but none that I'm aware of define face cord. That can vary quite a bit regionally. Just curious, so I can understand your numbers better.

Face cord is 1/3 of a cord. A stack of splits 16”x48”x96”.