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Super Member
I've been doing firewood or wood for 7/8ths of my life. The axiom as it applies to firewood especially being "the least you touch the wood, the more efficient the process". From my experience, this is dead nuts true. For this discussion, let's take the wood processor out of the picture as it narrows the firewood aspect for most home owners as to its large initial expenditure..
I tried pallets for the first time last year. It was a disaster. The most inefficient thing we do is stack wood in my opinion. We do so to season it properly. I brought my stems to the splitter, cut rounds and split them and stacked them right on the pallets. I built the pallets with 2x4 wood stanchions to hold up the stacked firewood as criss crossing wood for end support was making me nuts. I then wired the wood stops together to tie them in to each other so I would not get stack "lean." To have to build these things was also making me nuts because I need 40 of them as I season my wood for two years. It takes 4 pallets to make a cord and I use 5-6 cord per years burning from Oct- April.
Now in my head, the most efficient way to make firewood is getting a conveyor and have the splits fall right into a basket. No stacking done at all. You then bring the pallets under cover and bring them over to the burning conveyance. And this wherein lies my problem. Pallets take a heck of a lot more room to organize than stacked wood. You have the pallets themselves wasting space when put next to each other. You have uneven surfaces if you're trying to stack pallets and then the pallets seem to want to fall apart no matter if you used timber lock screws or not as they are being man handled around.
I think one of the more efficient processes is Sawyer Rob's. He splits his wood right into a carrier. He then brings his carrier to where he burns wood after it has seasoned.
Now to me, the absolute best way is to have a huge greenhouse with a cement floor that has grooves in it for air travel and just keep splitting wood as the splitter gets pushed along. A green house big enough where you could get 12 cords in separate lines and simply have the wood "bake" in the green house. The only time you're touching wood is to split it and bring it to the firing conveyance and you can do that with a front bucket. No stacking.
Well, that's my dream sequence and as I cannot afford a 100'x40' greenhouse, this will forever remain a dream.
I tried pallets for the first time last year. It was a disaster. The most inefficient thing we do is stack wood in my opinion. We do so to season it properly. I brought my stems to the splitter, cut rounds and split them and stacked them right on the pallets. I built the pallets with 2x4 wood stanchions to hold up the stacked firewood as criss crossing wood for end support was making me nuts. I then wired the wood stops together to tie them in to each other so I would not get stack "lean." To have to build these things was also making me nuts because I need 40 of them as I season my wood for two years. It takes 4 pallets to make a cord and I use 5-6 cord per years burning from Oct- April.
Now in my head, the most efficient way to make firewood is getting a conveyor and have the splits fall right into a basket. No stacking done at all. You then bring the pallets under cover and bring them over to the burning conveyance. And this wherein lies my problem. Pallets take a heck of a lot more room to organize than stacked wood. You have the pallets themselves wasting space when put next to each other. You have uneven surfaces if you're trying to stack pallets and then the pallets seem to want to fall apart no matter if you used timber lock screws or not as they are being man handled around.
I think one of the more efficient processes is Sawyer Rob's. He splits his wood right into a carrier. He then brings his carrier to where he burns wood after it has seasoned.
Now to me, the absolute best way is to have a huge greenhouse with a cement floor that has grooves in it for air travel and just keep splitting wood as the splitter gets pushed along. A green house big enough where you could get 12 cords in separate lines and simply have the wood "bake" in the green house. The only time you're touching wood is to split it and bring it to the firing conveyance and you can do that with a front bucket. No stacking.
Well, that's my dream sequence and as I cannot afford a 100'x40' greenhouse, this will forever remain a dream.
