What to do with your slab wood........

[Robert Long]

While custom cutting at customers sites I have seen many ways of handling the slab wood off the mill, everything from just throwing it on the ground in a pile to throwing it on the bond fire just to burn it and rid themselves of the burden of cutting it into firewood.

When I cut in the yard I take it off the mill and throw it onto a yard trailer for future cutting and stacking into corded fire wood.

I have seen a rack made of steel and a bed of boards with markings to where to cut with a chain saw into firewood sizes.... this too is a good way to cut some time off the job.

What do you do with the slab wood as it comes off the mill??? ???

Robert

[logwalker]

I have a system that works well for me. I have a rack that is about 7' long and 5' tall. It is built tough enough to be tossed around a bit. I place it with a forklift so it sets about 5' off the end of the mill, a LT40HD, at a little angle to the mill. After cutting the slab I put one end on the top of the saw frame and slide the slab over the top and directly into the rack. It is very fast and efficient. When the rack is full I take it to the slab pile with the forklift and topple it over next to the pile. Then I use the forks to upend the rack and it empties. Then back to the saw and into position. I can also put a single ratchet strap around the slabs in the rack and tighten. The whole mess can then be removed from the rack and set aside for delivery later. A neighbor comes by with a ten foot flatbed and it goes to his house. The best part is sliding over the top of the frame. It helps place the slab accurately in the rack and it is very easy on me. Joe

[Robert Long]

Joe;

Do you cut the slab into fire wood size later? 
Or do you sell the slab in lengths?

Robert

[mike_van]

I'm pretty low tech Robert - I have two "brackets" made of three 2x6's ea.,  about 30"x30" opening [a C laying on its back]  When they're full, I tie the bundle in two places wih that yellow plastic 1/4" rope, lift & carry the bundle with the  grapple on the front of the tractor, and pile 'em up. In the spring, I get one bundle at a time, set it on 6x6's, and cut to 2' lengths  and stack it. I've got about 12 bundles waiting right now. It's all fire wood for me, or fuel for the evaporator.

[metalspinner]

I have sawyers out to my place several times a year.  I hammer four green fence posts in the ground forming a box 20" wide and the depth of my chainsaw.  While stacking slabs in it off the saw,  I am careful to keep the ends aligned and the pile level.







Just yesterday I cut and stacked this.  The slabs are centered in the posts.  This is an easy way to do this on sight.  Also, the customer doesn't have to handle slabs twice.

[Kelvin]

I've got two 6x6's lying perpendicular to the mill.  The slabs get tossed onto this as far away as i can and the pile builds up towards the mill.  When i can't move anymore i get the tractor with forks on the loader and fork the pile bite at a time and put in the firewood pile.  I simply work from the oldest end with a chainsaw and cut down through the stack one firewood size piece at a time until i hit the ground.  this is chucked into the tractor bucket.  Tree tops that are split into to firewood are piled onto pallets that i've nailed scrap wood sides onto.  I fill these up and they dry there.  When i want a bunch of wood up by the house.  I simply fork it up and move it.  I hate all the handeling.  Little as possible.  I also fork full length slabs into the dump truck and dump at friends houses for winter heat.  Think i heat about 3-4 houses every winter and still have to burn big piles of scarp.  What i have learned is its better to sort out the crap before you build a firewood pile.  Those little tiny edgings catch the saw chain.  and i don't want certain woods in the firewood pile. Mostly just hardwoods.  Keep two piles.  One unworthy bonfire wood, the other nice firewood grade.  Helps on down the line.
Kelvin

[Robert Long]

Thanks guys ;D
both of you have great ideas but I was looking for something that is perhaps on wheels or  moveable with a tractor and was dedicated to just the slab wood.

I got some ideas from what you have said....Thanks

Robert

[4woody]

Hey just make benchs with them

[Dave Shepard]

We have two cribs just outside the saw shed, one for hardwood, one for softwood. When they are full we put banding around them and set them down back. We now have an outdoor wood boiler, so I think it will go fast.


Dave

[Robert Long]

Dave;

How do you move your cribs around?  Are they like pallet skids and a fork lift is used?

I like the idea of using the slab for energy!!!

Thanks

Robert ;)

[Robert Long]

4Woody

My skills...............there would be a lot of benches short one leg :D :D

Robert

[tcsmpsi]

I cut some for firewood.  Some, folks want for craft and other projects.  I had a couple women come and take a whole rack for building horse stalls.  Generally, if they just want the slabs 'as is', they are welcome to them (always take some trade in consideration).  If I cut them to firewood, I charge, depending on who, what, how and again, trade consideration.

Most of it goes onto the old, upturned rack off my '65 GMC.  I can mark it and cut it to firewood lengths as deep as I wish.



When working by myself, I toss them off the feed side of the mill, toward the rack.  If someone else, is working w/me, they take them off the feed side and stack them as they go.

[Robert Long]

Tcsmpsi

Wow!  Thats one nice, neat pile of slab wood.   I would guess that's a pile of soft wood....Up here the logs of hard wood don't come that straight so we have short pieces of bark edge as well as wained slabs mixed in with the long ones.

Do you remove the boards the same way?
  ??? ??? ???

Robert

[tcsmpsi]

Most of it is SYP, but there is all kinds of stuff mixed in that stack.  Short, long, barked, debarked.  I just try to always fill in a void. 

The boards I take off on 'my' side.  I run (well, walk actually  ;D) the mill head down down the log/cant through the cut, if it's slab, I toss it (if it's not too big) off the feed side, if it's board I take if off my side and stack it, take the head back and go again.

You can kinda tell how it goes by the pics I posted in "....Now I have lights" a while ago.   The slab stack is 25-30' from the mill deck, toward the rear.

[Robert Long]

tcsmpsi ;D

Thanks for the details!!!!! :P

Robert

[Robert Long]

Hey, tcsmpsi ;)

We live in Tecumseh (pronounced...tecsmpsi) Ontario, Can. named after the great Native American chief Tecumseh who died in battle just east of here.

Is this just a name you gave yourself or is there a conection?

Robert :-\

[Polly]

 8) 8)you all might want to check this out , i have a neighbor that run a circle mill just retire ,he had been in business more then thirty years i was their about three years ago he lived back a lane close to a mile long their was hardwood slabs bundeled and stacked both sides of the lane all the way back to his mill , i went to see him about a month or to ago , the slabs were all gone and he was living in a new underground house , he said and i quote i sold the slabs to a company in western ky for thirty thousand dollars and used money to build my house , supposedly the slabs were to be used to make wood pellets for heating stoves  you all might want to chevk this out  :P :P ;) ;)

[Robert Long]

Polly

Wow! that's a lot of slab, I will never have that much to sell nor do I have a mile long drive to clutter. ;D

Robert

[Polly]

 8) 8)  mr meyers said they came in with flatbed semi trucks and hauled slabs away by the way his mill and eqpt is still for sale i know circle mills around here are just about a thing of the past :( :(

[beenthere]

Buzz_sawyer has a circle mill. Hopin he, his son, and daughter (off-bearer) are doin well. Buzz is also an off-the-grid member too, I believe.  I suspect he heats with his slabs.

[tcsmpsi]

Hey, tcsmpsi ;)

We live in Tecumseh (pronounced...tecsmpsi) Ontario, Can. named after the great Native American chief Tecumseh who died in battle just east of here.

Is this just a name you gave yourself or is there a conection?

Robert :-\

Well, it's always been said that there is a high probability of my dying in battle.   
But, fortunately, though rumor has, from time to time, given false witness, opportunities for that have been unsuccessful.   :D

As the WWW (internet) began and has continued as a business entity for my purpose, those are the initials of my 'main' business structures.

[Buzz-sawyer]

Buzz_sawyer has a circle mill. Hopin he, his son, and daughter (off-bearer) are doin well. Buzz is also an off-the-grid member too, I believe.  I suspect he heats with his slabs.

Hey beenthere.....still cirle sawin gallor here in Ill, and staying warm too....this year we built an outside forced air type wood stove.....usually running us outta the house at 0 degrees... 8) 8)

[Robert Long]

Hey Buzz-sawyer

Can you load that wood stove without cutting down the slabs into small pieces?

Robert

[Buzz-sawyer]

Robert you got the right idea for sure.
Next year the boiler is going at the end of the slab pile so I can grab a * foot slab and just chuck it in ....semms to make more sense that way doesnt it?? Right now they have to be 24 inches in the little rig I am using....ugggg. ;)

[farmerdoug]

I just have three 40x48 pallets in the row(the 48" in the row) with a couple inches in between them..  As I cut I pull the slabs and scraps and pile them on the pallets.  When the pile is as high as I want it I take the chainsaw and cut between the pallets.  The slabs are now 50 inches or less.  Then they are hauled over to the outdoor boiler to be burnt.  When I get the forks for my TLB buckets I am going to nail frames on the pallets and just move the whole pallet after it is cut off to the stove.

Farmerdoug