How might you saw your slabs into firewood?

[WV Sawmiller]

   Amazes me how these old threads come back to life sometimes but this one is certainly pertinent. I am very small potatoes compared to many on this forum. I used to haul my waste slabs to a burn pile and burn them when the pile was too big and weather conditions were right. Then I got the bright idea of selling them pretty much like the OP said he did. I started selling them for $25/trailer or truck load then people started getting them in small trucks and such
and I felt guilty so charged them $10/pu load which is what I do now. I have one old derelict neighbor who has been buying them about as fast as I generate them. He comes up with his brother and saws them into pieces 8-12 inches long so when he leaves he has a full truck load. If I am around I go out and help and listen and laugh at those two bickering at each other. Right now he is paid up a load ahead.

  I have given them away to anyone with a hard luck story and tell
woodworkers they are welcome to scrounge through my slabwood pile.

  I'd love to be able to sell it for a premium price but firewood sells cheap around here. Anybody who needs beer money will go out and cut a load of oak or locust firewood and sell it for $35-$40. My little FEL is too small to carry much of a load so I haven't found it worth my time and effort to cut and/or bundle them. I have a dozen or so bundles I cut for campfire wood which never sold. There is a market but I'd have to put more money and time into it and the juice ain't worth the squeeze for me. I commend those who do but I'm not at that point yet.

   I'm not really making anything much off mine but I get help getting rid of them and  they are being used and I get a little entertainment visiting with my neighbors. I even build and staged some more sawhorses out there for them to use when sawing into small lengths.

[Stephen1]

It is amazing how old threads come to life.
i have 2 racks built that are 3.5x3.5 x8' long. I always build the bundle even from 1 end closest to the mill. I saw the far end even, and then I will then strap the bundle 3 times, makes sawing the bundle with a 24" chainsaw easier, then I move the bundles to a pile to air dry. We use the slabs for our Sugar Bush to boil sap. What we do not use I sell to locals for $50 for softwood or mixed soft & hard. I charge $100 if i know they are pure hardwood. Customers like the 3 straps as they do what I do to saw off the firewood.

[Magicman]

When I saw for myself getting rid of sawmill slabs/waste is easy, plus it makes folks happy:

what to do with the slabs in Sawmills and Milling

[PAmizerman]

I pull my slabs back a roller conveyor and stack them in a rack. When the rack is full I strap them and move them to a pile. Using 4x4 in between. Once they are seasoned I sell them either by the bundle or cut into 16" pieces. I built a rack that keeps it all neat. I just cut down through the full bundle with a 36" bar. The pieces stay in the rack until the customer comes to pick them up. So no extra handling.


 

 

 

 

 

[moodnacreek]

Have a slab drag that is 20' long. When it gets full I feed the slabs through an old Cornell slab wood saw that feeds a conveyer that loads the fire wood truck. Next I have to make a delivery. No slab wood hits the ground here nor is there any inventory, tried that years ago.