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Curing firewood

Started by bandmiller2, January 07, 2019, 05:26:21 PM

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bandmiller2

Guys I've been heating with wood for 50 years and burn 10-12 cords a year in my outside boiler. I know wood will dry better stacked but is a loose pile that much worse for curing. It would save a lot of labor to just pile it. Thanks Frank C.
A man armed with common sense is packing a big piece

Allar

As long as it gets direct sunlight and wind  you're good to go. Just try to have it spreaded as much as possible.
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doc henderson

Air movement in and around speeds up the process. So if you are the guy who is cutting, splitting and drying three years in advance, you are good.  If so, I have never met anyone like you!    :)   To speed things up you can stack in long rows oriented to get heat from the sun and or wind through the stack.  Also you take a step back every time the stack gets wet so cover well.  Timber green has a video on making a solar kiln with plastic.  i hope to someday build an 8 x 20 solar kiln to dry and store my wood in.  It is recommended to season for at least 1 hot summer.  Also if you get it up off the ground that is good, like with pallets.  if you are on the farm and can make piles to set for years, that is how my uncle does it.  if you like to google stuff, there is an old German i think way to stack like a silo to promote water shedding and air movement.
Timber king 2000, 277c track loader, PJ 32 foot gooseneck, 1976 F700 state dump truck, JD 850 tractor.  2007 Chevy 3500HD dually, home built log splitter 18 horse 28 gpm with 5 inch cylinder and 32 inch split range with conveyor powered by a 12 volt tarp motor

doc henderson

Bandmiller, if you are full of energy you might divide your next wood into two groups, one into a stack and one into a pile.  Stihl has a cheap pin firewood meter and you could do a study and let us know.   :P  If you have really been doing this for fifty years, you prob. already know more about it than I ever will!
Timber king 2000, 277c track loader, PJ 32 foot gooseneck, 1976 F700 state dump truck, JD 850 tractor.  2007 Chevy 3500HD dually, home built log splitter 18 horse 28 gpm with 5 inch cylinder and 32 inch split range with conveyor powered by a 12 volt tarp motor

mike_belben

I pile wood and for certain the center of the pile stays wet after a rain.  If i knock the pile around with the skid steer it dries faster.  The bigger the pile the more the center will stay soggy. 
Praise The Lord

red

I am thinking of a European pile like a pinwheel stacked about 6 ft tall.
Honor the Fallen Thank the Living

red

Holz Hausen firewood stacking
Honor the Fallen Thank the Living

doc henderson

That is right!  Looks like band miller may be looking for an easier way.  
Timber king 2000, 277c track loader, PJ 32 foot gooseneck, 1976 F700 state dump truck, JD 850 tractor.  2007 Chevy 3500HD dually, home built log splitter 18 horse 28 gpm with 5 inch cylinder and 32 inch split range with conveyor powered by a 12 volt tarp motor

bandmiller2

Yup getting older and lazier, I have always stacked in a single row. I try to get a full year for the split wood to dry. My outside furnace is a water tube boiler of my own manufacture with a Dutch oven firebox. It burns vicious hot and will handle semi green wood with no problem but of course it not as efficient as dry wood. Frank C.
A man armed with common sense is packing a big piece

hedgerow

The only real good luck I had with piling wood out in the pasture was with hedge. That stuff won't rot season's out and won't soak the rain up. I had some Locust that the logs were pretty wet when bucked it and split it and stacked it in grain box trailers and put in shed. A year later those loads were still wet in the middle of the loads. I back a load of hedge next to it and blended the hedge with that wet locust in my Garn.

Dave Shepard

As you can see here, the wood on the left is loosely piled, and on the right it is stacked. I don't see much difference in burn times. Of course the wood was bucked and split yesterday, and will be gone by Thursday at the latest.

 
Wood-Mizer LT40HDD51-WR Wireless, Kubota L48, Honda Rincon 650, TJ208 G-S, and a 60"LogRite!

thecfarm

Pile wood in a stack? ???  :D  I bring my wood out,push in a pile and cut it up. I cover with some old corrugated plastic and call it good.  ;D  That is all dead wood,mostly fir,with some cedar and than I bring out some pine limbs to add to the "pile" I am trying something diffeant. Cutting my wood about 6 inches long,the bigger wood,6 inches across and bigger. Thinking it might dry better. ::)  Summer time is a time to work the land,not the wood. ;D Now is the time to split and saw the wood. I had quite a pile of 6 inch wood. I put it in the bucket and pile it that way.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

TKehl

Depends on how big the pile is.  When the ground is too muddy for a truck, we will cut, split, and toss in a pile to pick up later.  Sometimes tarpped.  Sometimes they sit a year or two.  The inner center of a 5 foot pile has much more moisture than the outer.  Bigger the pile the bigger the moist core.  

I'd recommend throwing it on top of some pallets to keep it off ground.  That and keeping the rain off should be enough for a darn big pile.
In the long run, you make your own luck – good, bad, or indifferent. Loretta Lynn

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