Firewood yard layout/Flow pattern

[ocfwjdh]

Folks,

I am trying to research and layout my operation to achieve the best use of all available space that i have.  How many have sat down and created a flow plan or layout for your processing yard/operation?  I would appreciate any insight, words of wisdom and constructive feedback and or pictures that not only I but, others could use to improve our operations and bottom line. Thanks

[mike_belben]

Ive never drawn it but im constantly working on it.  What are the details of your operation and your current bottlenecks or issues?

[stavebuyer]

Usually competing priorities; and often your specific site will offer natural advantages or pitfalls.

1. A pile of split wood is the best advertising you will ever have. Higher demand creates opportunity for increased pricing.
2. Rotation of logs and splits. Your piles or stacks (logs&splits) should be accessable from both ends.
3. Sorting usually pays both in the log piles and split piles. This includes sorting logs that may be sized or shaped for optimum processing or premium pricing. Larger and harder to split logs can be saved for outdoor boiler orders or chainsaw/splitter rather than fighting through a processor and re-splitting.
4. Close is handy but so is having room to work and clean. Sunshine and wind is your friend both for drying the ground where you work as well as your wood. Spacing and orienting your piles to let the sun and wind aid in drying will more than offset a little extra loader distance.
5. Gravity is your friend when it comes to drainage. A south west slope will need a lot less gravel to keep it in shape.

[jmur1]

Have to say in my area most people want dry, seasoned wood.  I have seen on you-tube some guys cutting and splitting logs directly into a trailer for delivery.  I could dream of that day - but not so much right now.  I mention this because the time lag for material handling is very long for firewood so this means careful space planning can save an operator alot of headaches in the long run.  And the other associated issue is restocking.  Material flow must be lapped at some point.  I would say that everyones space is probably different enough that special customization will be required.  A basic flowchart is a good place to start.  Identify your specific stages, machinery, and output and then you can draw a site plan of the layout.  I would also make the store into a circle with a time delay so that dry wood can be removed.  See the attached lumber example and just switch out dry with split, then plane with store, and so on :



 

jmur1       

[hedgerow]

I only process around 15 to 20 cord a year and that's about what I burn. Most all of my wood comes off one farm 160 acres about 15 miles from my home place. There was a time we would cut a few trees and then process the wood all the way to split wood. I find for us it easier to just cut from one to five years of trees at a time. We cut the trees down haul the trees to a brush pile log the tree out and load on the trailer to haul to a nice south facing good draining area and pile the logs. Then when we are ready to process to firewood. I have one of my helper's come out in the afternoon after his real job and I used a skid loader and grapple to hold the logs and he blocks the wood up. Then on a Saturday I have two helpers and we just split and conveyor the wood into trailers and stack about two to three cord on each trailer. These are good sized trailers. The wood seasons in the trailers in my shed. We mostly cut hedge and locust wood. The grapple and the conveyor have been a big time and back saver for us. 

[Al_Smith]

I'm not real organized .I have piles of the stuff hither and yon.Cut pieces, logs .Spit or not split .Not real tidy but it works for me .

[mike_belben]

I think local market conditions and duplicated work are the biggest grievances i have.  

The woods are all high grade jungles needing 60 to 70% cull for repair back to productive timber so one way or another it needs cut.   Leaving it lay just isnt my thing, so it comes out.  Well if its out then it needs to be processed.  In the summer a rick of green wood can be as low as $35 delivered, via the meth head vendors.   Whats that ..$4 an hour?  I wont do it.  I hold my wood back until their piles are empty before i start advertising.  I send cheapskates to them to accelerate the process.  Normally when they run out i begin.

I got $70 a rick to some obsessive seasoning people in the high efficiency stove business the other day and they have want for hundreds of ricks when you factor in their clientele.. But its got to be seriously dry.  That basically means a kiln (not doing that again) or stacking every piece under cover (nope) to meet their expectation. And obviously a year or more of delayed gratification holding wood piles all over the yard as i sell everything i can produce each year with ease.

Processor, conveyor, dumptruck and hoophouse would all be nice and will happen as i build them, but how long to recover the cost?  I shouldnt do firewood but its one of those things that always calls me back as just being the right thing to do to maintain a high end forest.  I think its more to teach the boy than to make anything.  Sense of satisfaction?  Stupidity and self punishment maybe..  I wish i cared about money more sometimes but i just dont.


Perhaps a continuous circular air drying arrangement like how big mills have circle pad cranes for their logs.. If im always adding at one end and pulling from the other it would cut down on having the dryest ricks that some days are in high demand, from being blocked in behind the others. 

[Old Greenhorn]

You don't say what equipment you have or what machines you might be planning on, that leaves things pretty wide open. I see you have been here for a while so perhaps you have seen the setup that @BargeMonkey created for his operation. Quite the setup. Logs go into the side of the building, firewood comes up a conveyor out the end of the building, through a tumbler and dumps right into a truck for delivery or moving. He has a chip conveyor built into the floor to move what ever falls out from the saw/splitting area and take that out the other side of the building. I have visited this site and it is nicely designed and works very slick. He has lots of photos in his gallery.

[moodnacreek]

My sawmill yard is very small and mostly side hill. [The firewood processer sits on the upper road and dumps to the lower yard]  Here is what I have learned the hard way; If the stuff is carried to a deck to feed a machine, put that set up back in the corner and save the roomy flat spot for stacking product or loading trucks. Also in a snow area have shed roofs sloped to the land you can't use. I hope this makes sense to those who read it. It makes alot of sense to me because I did it all wrong years ago.

[BargeMonkey]

If you want to see a yard that's all set up wrong mines the one 😆 I've got to change how my piles are set up, doesn't take long and your yard becomes cluttered. 
 Biggest thing is ease of loading, how you bring wood in, out and least amount of handle / distance. 

[Old Greenhorn]

If you want to see a yard that's all set up wrong mines the one 😆 I've got to change how my piles are set up, doesn't take long and your yard becomes cluttered.
Biggest thing is ease of loading, how you bring wood in, out and least amount of handle / distance.

Gee, I dunno Barge, I think you have a really slick setup and having it almost completely out of the weather is really pretty neat. Yeah, I can see how you would want to re-arrange the stuff in the yard to get the loading easier, but that is very do-able once you process that mountain of logs you have. A small excavator with a thumb should make it work pretty slick and I think that is already on your list? BTW Barge, do you know of any trommels that might be available in our area? I know somebody who is looking to separate wood scraps from sawdust/dirt. A conveyor too.