Saturday, March 28, 2020

The things we make. Firewood pallets


 Or "firewood huts" as my sister tells curious neighbours. Processing firewood is a never ending task for those who burn wood. I like most of the process, the chainsaw work, the challenge of dropping a tree safely, being in the woods managing the forest, sitting beside the wood stove. 
 One thing I hated was handling of each piece of wood multiple times, saw each length, split it, throw it on the trailer, dump it on the ground, stack again as close to the back door as was practical, etc...
 I reasoned if I could build a pallet that I could carry on the loader forks of the tractor the process could be more efficient. Load once. If the pallets were covered, they could sit out in the wind and sun, drying all summer, and then moved to the back door as needed. 
 The basic construction is 2 inch angle iron with 1/4 inch wire 6 inch concrete reinforcing mesh. I made the first one too big. They are two rows wide, this was 6 feet long and 5 feet tall. That's about 2/3 of a cord and if loaded with unseasoned oak or maple, they tell me it could top 4000 lbs.  From experience, that can/will tip a 6000 lb tractor. So the rest of them are 1/2 cord capacity, 5 feet long, 33 inches wide, and 5 feet tall. Still heavy and it's best to travel slowly with the loader just off the ground.


The various style roofs are just for fun. I'm getting fancy with this one, with decorative picket fence bits.





4 comments:

JP said...

There you go again, Mr G, "...2/3 of a cord", unerringly leading this poor sucker to what has to be one of the longest, most enthralling Wikipedia entries,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unusual_units_of_measurement

Mister G said...

Yeah, the word "cord" is certainly subject to interpretation. A pile of wood 4x4x8" unless...

Mister G said...

Dog year. Cow's grass, molar mass of cellulose?

userbronco said...

I do the same, except I use the metal cages from the 240 gallon liquid totes. I just throw away the plastic part that held the liquid.