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Fun cutting today.
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Keeping it spicy. A bunch of stuff in the air. Fun to buck. One of these bigguns tried to roll on top of me. Got most of it on the ground so I can go back and get the big stuff tomorrow.
I split a bunch of 18" rounds with that splitter and it worked fine in fact it split everything we cut, they have a 2speed ram faster/less power or slower/more power for larger rounds, look at the customer reviews it averages 4 out of 5 because Using an electric splitter is WAY FASTER WAY LESS WORK in fact any 98 lb weakling can split wood as long as they can lift them onto the machine so the guide can bring in any of his buds and feed him a few beers to run to the splitter
In the case of a ski hut where everything has to flown in at huge expense the electric splitter is lighter to fly in and runs off the generator which also tops up the batteries and runs other electrical shit while you split
Not having another motor to deal with/fuel like those gas powered splitters which are usually on a trailer is also a plus
Your not falling it to burn this year are you?Quote:
Originally Posted by telemike
No. That's money in the bank. Water flows out of it. Found a stash of excellent down-and-dead tamarack. Some obviously fell in last year's big blow. Some is a few years old. That will sit for a year or two. The older stuff could go in the stove tonight.
Madrone is awesome. I used to get some of that when I lived in Humboldt County. Seriously heavier than shit though.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dantheman
Attachment 122789
This will split with a butter knife.
And that keeps the sheep happy?Quote:
Originally Posted by Jer
No. That keeps the sheep warm. Jer keeps the sheep happy.
firewood is like anything - it's the perception of value that matters, not actual cost - I really enjoy cutting firewood, so it has a high value to me
I scored some very good softwood, so I'm all over it - tamarack burns clean and hot - cuts easy when green - splits easy when seasoned - tougher to split when green - tougher to cut when seasoned
hardwood is harder to cut for around here - I usually buy a cord or two of oak or almond to augment what I cut - almond is easy to find at orchards in the valley, and is usually a few bucks less for me to haul than to have oak delivered
I find I need 2 or 3 cords of softwood and a cord+ of hardwood every year - with all the tamarack I've cut recently, I can probably stand down for a year or two and just cut or buy hardwood as needed
but I found such a good source I don't think I can stand down - must cut more wood
The chainsaw thread
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyoverland Captive
A trick I learned. Put a tire on your chopping block, put wood you are going to split in the tire, when you split the wood it won't fall on the ground, it will stay up on the block in the tire. Worth a try.
Attachment 121381
firewood sculpture
www.woodheat.org is a good site for newbies
firewood calculator helps you figure out how much you've cut, bought, sold, poached, etc
if you cook with wood go here
Forest Service and Fish & Game were out in force today.
Saw one convoy of hunters who looked like maybe they were in a bit of trouble with F&G and FS. Also one regular woodcutter I see out in the world a lot who didn't have tags on his load when stopped by Smokey.
No worries for me.
Being new to paying for firewood I did'nt really know what the costs are and it seems there is a wide range across the land. From what I found around here Loggers cord is $85 to $125 for hardwood, birch,oak, ash, maple. Popple is used for pulpwood and generally not sold for firewood, although I cut popple on my land for use in the barrel stoves. My pile costs $950 delivered, so one less ski adventure this year. Better than giving money to EVIL big oil.
Cut all my own firewood, mostly off of my parents 65 acres of woods that abuts my property.
Real nice stand of dead tamarack behind my house that I mix with maple, cherry, elm (I only cut the dead stuff), some poplar (only cut this stuff when it is in the way and needed to be cut up anyway), Yellow Birch, and ash.
I split most by hand, which can actually be faster than using a woodsplitter if given decent wood. Especially gnarly stuff I save for the splitter.
4 Cord Shed:
http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...k/Woodshed.jpg
I just got done cutting, splitting and stacking almost 10 cords of wood over the last few weeks. I feel like I could rip apart a phone book or something. Grrrrrrr!
Here in BC, it's actually fun to go out on bush missions 4X4ing up sketchy old decrepit logging roads into cut blocks. Finding the mother lode is almost like christmas, but you gotta take it fast or your fellow scavengers will snap it up fast. We really only get douglas fir and mtn hemlock to burn. Cedar is good for kindling. Most people would cringe if they saw the nice fir timbers I was bucking up and splitting, but it's just gonna rot on the ground otherwise. Nothing like maneouvering down a steep as fuck, loose as fuck, bumpy as fuck logging road with an overloaded F-150 and a big death roll off the side. Extreme firewooding!
They were pretty common near our place, but he never felled live ones. He was always way psyched to find one that had dropped over the winter.Quote:
Originally Posted by Buster Highmen
Been any easy wood season in northern CO this year with all the wind we had last fall. Also just starting to harvest some large pine that I felled 3 years ago behind my house. Bucked up about 10 cords worth this summer, had 2 cords left over from last year and have split about 6 for this year. I think this is the year I'll get 1 full year ahead. There are few things I'd rather do on a cool fall day than work on the woodpile.
This is my kind of brappin'.
http://www.jungle-busters.co.uk/WebR...CD/MS460-1.jpg
Holy shit you people go through a lot of wood. Now you mean full cords? A cord being 4 feet wide ( 3 rows of 16") 4 feet high by 8 feet long. I go less than 2 cords and will probalby go through 3 cords this year with wife being full time and once and a while bringing barn up to temp. But my wood is 50% aspen which per volume has 1/2 the heating value of pine and way less than birch or other hard woods.
I know some people around here that go through 10 cords but have a wood boiler that supplies hot water to two large buildings and they only have to cut to 3' length and don't have to split anything.
Every winter I go through 128^3 * 6-7 easy.Quote:
Originally Posted by DougW
Got ~ 6 cords split & stacked on friday.
On top of a couple left over from last year.
I'm beat & I'm done. Commence burn!
This should be in all firewood threads. I want one.
Jeebus, us CA types are weak comparatively. My neighbors and I split 4.5 cords of (almost seasoned) eucalyptus on Saturday with a splitter, and we're all ready to die. We did break 3 machines through, and I can't imagine swinging a splitter through that stringy shit.
Oh hell no... There is some species of spruce common out west that is really stringy and horrible to split even with the splitter. I'll split lodgepole by hand and it's especially good for kindling, but whatever that spruce is, I had one round laying around for 3 seasons before I tried to split it this year and even ith the splitter it was horrendous. By hand, I'll bet I would have been on it for 2 hours.Quote:
Originally Posted by DJSapp
I believe ya ^^, I broke a splitter which used a hydralic jack as part of mech in only a few cords of 18" pine that had big knots in it, I think its about the wood/knots, ya I have split some stuff with just a tap of the maul that was really easy when its frozen but not all wood is easy to split
http://reviews.canadiantire.ca/9045/...ws/reviews.htm
but this electric splitter ^^ has done all the wood for 2 seasons at a fly-in ski lodge operation and shows no signs of failing
Around here the locals who have the room will just buy a 7 axle logging truck load for I think 1200$ which is maybe 20 cords, have it dumped on their property, cover it with a trap and slice it off with the chainsaw like a loaf of bread
These are people who all own 4x4 trucks, saws, there is easy wood every where already cut down sitting in slash piles ready to burn but given the time saving/cost of truck fuel/truck & saw wear n tear ... they buy the BIG load of wood
I had a Yellow Birch stump a few years back and no access to a hydrolic splitter. My 8lb maul would just bounce off the bastard. I waited until mid-winter when we had a -35 below morning. Bundled up, mosied outside. Set the block up and split that round with three swings :biggrin:.Quote:
Originally Posted by XXX-er
That piece delivered some good heat the next year.
That Bobcat attachment is fuckin tits, I want one, bad.
Ok where can i get one of these. And can it be mounted to a regular tractor loader that has an extra set of hydrolics?Quote:
Originally Posted by FrankZappa
Almost looks like three sets of hydrolics are needed.
I figure I've got my cost down to just over $21 per cord.
... course, I didn't add in the cost for all the asprin for my back.
Times wood picked up Load truck 1 Unload truck 1 Out of cut way 1 To splitter 1 Off splitter 1 Stacked 1 To house 1 In stove 1 8
Attachment 122932
Overloaded
I'm looking at bush cords. 8ft bed of a truck stacked to the roof inside a canopy, so subtract out a bit for wheel well and what not. I probably only burn about 4 myself, but it's all fir which burns hot/fast and I heat my house all winter with it. Me and another dude have sold the stuff left over for $250 a p/u truck full to dumbass Vancouver weekenders to pay for our season passes. 10 loads sold and delivered. I'm turning away calls because we have no wood left.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DougW
Pffft!Quote:
Originally Posted by telemike
It's not overloaded until there's so much hanging out 3 feet past the tailgate that the front tires just kinda skip and the brakes don't work.
^ there's not even a trailer involved! You know you're overloaded when your 3/4 ton pickup is doing 20 in low gear driving up the pass... WRNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
Should have taken a pic from the side...
saggy
how much are you paying yourself?Quote:
Originally Posted by FrankZappa
Thats because it's a 1/2 ton truck, it will sag with a sheet of paper in the bed.Quote:
Originally Posted by telemike
that should be about a cord , 8' bed x 4' high if stacked and 4' wide to wheel wells so plus a bit. jebus that must be time consuming to stack inside a canopy!! and then have to unload and stack again. All I have to do is back up utility trailer to wherever wood is being cut , cut and throw when in way, back trailer to shed , if row already 2' high back right to row and stack off trailer and stack up to 8'.Quote:
Originally Posted by powder11
Times wood picked up
throw on to trailer 1
Stacked from trailer1.5 ( some from front of trailer to back)
To house via garbage can 1
some wood goes to box box most stays in can
In stove 1
4
moving trailer from cut to shed .... 50 yards one way
load truck - 1
unload truck - 1
split using borrowed splitter - 1
stack - 1
move to house - 1
in stove - 1
I've been driving 50 miles each way, so I'm looking at something like $50/cord.
I pay myself well.
yeah we did that with the roomies F350 3/4 ton ford with the 7.3 diesel, lengths sticking out the back of the truck, we were also towing a trailer made out of a 3/4 ton PU box with lengths sticking out the back of that box, we had to chewed thru 8" of gumbo which the truck amazinly did, we cut up all the lengths at homeQuote:
Originally Posted by FrankZappa
except a week later the transfer case shit the bed as buddy is driving to a consulting job and it cost buddy 1500$ or maybe that was $ 2200 ... sometimes overloading a truck can really hurt eh?
It's not too bad because I'm loading in 24 inch diameter by 16 inch fir rounds or stacking 8 ft lengths of small diameter stuff direct from the cut block. I take it home to cut/split in my yard and then just hand bomb it back into the truck to deliver. We did a test in delivery from a split pile that I know was a legit cord and it just barely fit in under the canopy by kind of tossing it in and not really stacking in the bed. I don't stack when I dump it in someones driveway. The only wood that I actually stack is my own at home, so I only have to actually stack 4 cords; once. Next year I might get the trailer and do more selling. It's crazy how much money you can make from folks who just don't want to deal with it.Quote:
Originally Posted by DougW
I keep thinking someone needs to post some hot chicks with chainsaws just to keep this thread more interesting.
I guess I should take the initiative.
http://media1.break.com/dnet/media/2...efb_thumb.jpeg
http://media1.break.com/dnet/media/2...d70_thumb.jpeg
http://m.cdn.blog.hu/dr/drogosokugyv...hainsaw1-1.jpg
I'll take #1 for the win Bob.
yeah
one hot
the other two..........not
not at all