Firewood bins ?

[TCove]

I'm have an outdoor boiler, under a lean-to.
I also have a skid-stear.

I have a 16' trailer with high sides, that a local mill fills with cut-offs, from their pallet and railroad tie operation.  I'd like to unload the trailer, and toss the firewood into some kinda set of "bins" I can then lift with my skid stear, and place and perhaps stack, under my lean-to.

Can I make such bins out of wood? Will they just get destroyed from the rough handling of firewood?  Would I be better off making steel bins? Anyone else doing something similar?

I'm just looking for a way to move my firewood around, to get it closer to my stove, and the winter grows long, rather than eating my way into a huge pile....

[Ljohnsaw]

Get a bunch of IBC totes.  Steel cage with a large plastic jug.  Can remove the jug or just cut it into an appropriate storage shape for you.  If you watch CraigsList, they can be had for free, especially the dirty ones (paint, oil, etc.) that won't bother your firewood.

[TCove]

IBC tote, eh?
Hmmmmm.....ok, I'll keep my eye open for those....

[thecfarm]

This was just a few days ago.

1/2 Cord Firewood Pallet Racks. Easily transported w Skidsteer in Firewood and Wood Heating

[Nathan4104]

i very crudely, screwed 3 pallets together, on top of another pallet making a 3 sided box.  The bottom was a good hardwood one, sides were the in between quality ones..... I know it won't last forever, but it was free and only took 5 minutes and a handful of 3" or 4" deck screws.  I have it filled with cutoffs, and stacked the larger ones in the front to hold the rest in.  i've moved it around with the tractor.   The IBC totes work great too.  On another forum, a member removes the plastic tank, cuts them in 1/2 (diagonally) and that becomes the 'roof' and it's a 2 for one obviously so there's an extra for the pallet totes!  

[ksu_chainsaw]

 

 
I use IBC totes to move firewood around here. They hold 1/4-1/3 cord, depending on length and how much you mound up the crate. These are 11 crates of red elm that I have been fighting for a couple months. 

[samandothers]

Happy birthday KSU!

[trapper]

do they have a door or how do you fill and then get the wood out?

[ksu_chainsaw]

do they have a door or how do you fill and then get the wood out?

They are about 4' tall, so I usually just reach over to move wood around. Sometimes when I'm starting to fill one up, I will have to jump in and stack the wood. When it's almost empty, I just tip it on its side and grab the remaining few pieces. Empty they are about 60 lbs

[TCove]

...and  you're 39.
I'm 62, so I'm not "jumping" in and out of any IBC totes....lol.

Tipping them on their side, should be easy enough, however.

[Stuart Caruk]

We use the 330 gallon IBC totes. I buy them from a rock pit for $25 / ea in lots of 10. That's what fits my trailer...

I bring them home, my wife removes the top metal barsm lifts the plastic liner up with a chain and the forklift, then cuts the tops off 
with a chainsaw and sets them back down. I screw the plastic to the tubing with sheet metal screws. We have about 40 of these that we use 
everywhere. Used to be when a tree fell, it would get handled half a dozen times. Now She takes a tote to the tree. I blow it into chunks with a saw,
splitting it if needed. She picks up the pieces and tosses them in the bucket. 

There are always a couple totes near the chop saw, and it seems we fill 2 or 3 a week with cut off chunks. They move easy with a skidsteer or forklift. The wood dries with the plastic liner, and you don't drop small chunks everywhere.

We have a low cut one for our dogs swimming pool. It's easy to drain to clean with the lower valve.

[Unclefish]

On the IBC tote just cut out on 1 side, 2 panels  down over to leaving 1 on each side helps with leaning into and stacking in tote.

[TCove]

my wife removes the top metal barsm lifts the plastic liner up with a chain and the forklift, then cuts the tops off 

Are you saying you leave the plastic liner inside the bin, after she cuts off the top of the liner?

[TCove]

Is there really much physical difference in the 275 gal size, and the 330?

The 330's are $65 in my area, vs the 275's which are $25 or $30.

[OH logger]

I think the 330s are about 10" taller if I remember right

[mike_belben]

I welded up 3 sided pallet racking and nail it to a pallet.  Not climbing over a tote cage. 

[stavebuyer]

Most practical way to handle firewood is a concrete pad and a few of the big pre-cast blocks used as a backstop to push against. Pick up the wood with a rock or grapple bucket. Even a closed bucket with teeth will work. 

[OH logger]

Most practical way to handle firewood is a concrete pad and a few of the big pre-cast blocks used as a backstop to push against. Pick up the wood with a rock or grapple bucket. Even a closed bucket with teeth will work.

This is what I do too. Started on stone. Still sucked. Cement good

[mike_belben]

I agree.  

:sigh:

Someday!

[doc henderson]

we hold the tree over the bins when cutting.  load and unload from trailer.  dump one at a time to split then back in.  can move whole bins up to the house to burn in the wood stove.



 


 



 



 


 

these are not indestructible, so you need a grown up operating the forks.  they will corrode over time and are easily crushed.

[doc henderson]

we split and they drop in by conveyor, season in the crate and are easily moved with track loader and forks.  I also make lids from the plastic.  rubber strap with S hooks to keep them on.  Well in Kansas it at least keeps them out of the neighbors yard!

[mike_belben]

When heaping over with wet oak i cant move this one, and it takes 3 full panels.  I only made one.  







Bending L's  with a torch i can make these with just two panels and a rebar spreader across the top front.  They fit half a rick and like them better.  I move them up to the house in winter.

[jmur1]

I made this stand for my 22" long stock.  Filled both sides it is very close to a bush cord.  When wet it is too heavy to lift (without holding the top with a strap) for my backhoe.  Then one day I blew a front tire!.  Only used for dry wood now!  Live and learn.

jmur1




 

[TCove]

Most practical way to handle firewood is a concrete pad and a few of the big pre-cast blocks used as a backstop to push against. Pick up the wood with a rock or grapple bucket. Even a closed bucket with teeth will work.

Ya know, that does make a lot of sense, and I could then just scoop, and pour near my stove.  What are these "pre-cast" blocks you speak of that are large?

[TCove]

When heaping over with wet oak i cant move this one, and it takes 3 full panels.  I only made one.  

Hey Mike, I really like what you've got going on here.
That's pallet racking shelving.
I've actually got about 25 of those shelves sitting outside right now
I can easily figure out a way to connect them to the pallet, but it seems for strength, the key is to connect the shelving at the corners.  How are you doing that?

[stavebuyer]

Most practical way to handle firewood is a concrete pad and a few of the big pre-cast blocks used as a backstop to push against. Pick up the wood with a rock or grapple bucket. Even a closed bucket with teeth will work.

Ya know, that does make a lot of sense, and I could then just scoop, and pour near my stove.  What are these "pre-cast" blocks you speak of that are large?

Most ready mix concrete plants have them for sale. They usually cast them with left overs so they sell cheaper than you could buy the concrete. Here the common size is 2'x2'x4' for $50.

[reride82]

Most practical way to handle firewood is a concrete pad and a few of the big pre-cast blocks used as a backstop to push against. Pick up the wood with a rock or grapple bucket. Even a closed bucket with teeth will work.

Ya know, that does make a lot of sense, and I could then just scoop, and pour near my stove.  What are these "pre-cast" blocks you speak of that are large?

Tcove,
They are called ecology blocks. They can be stacked to form retaining walls.
Levi

[mike_belben]

When heaping over with wet oak i cant move this one, and it takes 3 full panels.  I only made one.  

Hey Mike, I really like what you've got going on here.
That's pallet racking shelving.
I've actually got about 25 of those shelves sitting outside right now
I can easily figure out a way to connect them to the pallet, but it seems for strength, the key is to connect the shelving at the corners.  How are you doing that?

Sorry i didnt catch your question sooner.  I will take a pic or two tomorrow.  The first ones i think i just twisted with fence wire because i didnt have my welder for the first year or so when i moved. I probably welded right over what i had when i hauled that down.  
For attaching to the pallet, good quality U nails work good.  Co-ops have them for fence, with barbed sides to prevent backing out. The top front is the spot that needs a tension member to keep from spreading too far.  Chain, wire, strap, weld in rebar etc. 

[mike_belben]

I forgot all about this.  

For the 2nd set of bins i trimmed and torch bent the racking at the braces to put them in the corners. Then just lapped and wired them and later booger welded the laps and added some rebar at the front and back tops to keep the walls from blowing open. U-nails for fencing hold it to the pallet.










Theyre great but not something i want to give away.  For that i have started making my own wood pallets from sawmill waste. 



 3 chunks of dunnage on bottom, just pieces of doaty cants. Then 3 heavy slab pieces  for a bottom, and 4 uprights.  I bang them together with an air nailer in my shed and then tie the upright top and bottom with bailing twine.  Theyre delicate when empty but pretty stout once loaded when the twine gets tight.  Hold about half a rick and i fill them in straight off the splitter.  Eliminates handling to load/unload.  Will just give it to customer or dump into the truck. 

[SpaceBus]

How many cords is a Rick? 

[doc henderson]

usually a rick is the ht. and length of a cord like 4 feet tall and 8 feet long.  the width is one row so wood that is 16 inches long is 1 rick equals 1/3 cord, and a rick that the wood is 24 inches long is a 1/2 cord.  a cord is 4 x 4 x 8 feet or 128 cubic feet.  stacked

[SpaceBus]

usually a rick is the ht. and length of a cord like 4 feet tall and 8 feet long.  the width is one row so wood that is 16 inches long is 1 rick equals 1/3 cord, and a rick that the wood is 24 inches long is a 1/2 cord.  a cord is 4 x 4 x 8 feet or 128 cubic feet.  stacked

Synonymous with "face cord" then. 

[doc henderson]

yes.  I have a rack by the house, that is 4 foot tall, and 12 feet long.  with 16 inch wood it is a 1/2 cord

[mike_belben]

usually a rick is the ht. and length of a cord like 4 feet tall and 8 feet long.  the width is one row so wood that is 16 inches long is 1 rick equals 1/3 cord, and a rick that the wood is 24 inches long is a 1/2 cord.  a cord is 4 x 4 x 8 feet or 128 cubic feet.  stacked

Synonymous with "face cord" then.

Yeah, and theyre a pain in the butt.  People want your 24" long rick for the same 50 bucks as a 14" rick.  If you start talking cubic foot or tonnage or cords they get huffy. Youre just sposta give away more wood for the same money.  Oh and deliver and stack it too plz. 

[mike_belben]

The other day i measured up in my truck bed for a delivery and converted to square inches to be sure i brought what i said i would.  9,216 square inches.  

That oughta get em riled up.

[Ianab]

That's why we only sell firewood by the "cubic meter". So that's a box 1m x1m x1m, or the equivalent. I know an official cord is a proper measurement as well, so probably stick to that, or fractions of. Those other measurements are pretty much whatever someone wants them to be.  :

[SpaceBus]

I have a lot of respect for folks that sell firewood. It's hard to make money doing it and most of your customers aren't well off. 

[mike_belben]

When times are good i am not in the firewood business.  When they are bad, theres always eeking by this week on firewood, its always piled around here somewhere.  

Making throw away crates for all the wood i do whether mine or not should cut down on overhandling.  Im tired of stacking mine nice then having to restack to fit it in the truck then  throw it off then stack it for them.  The way im doing it only makes sense as a last resort.

A dumptruck is the next big streamliner for me.  The processor is still a ways off.  Then it'll make sense cents.  But there isnt enough money in a rick to buy new equipment or break even before you wear it out.  Ya kinda need free money, free equipment, or free time and a junkpile. Ive got the junk, still needing the time.