Calculating Green Lumber Weights

[kantuckid]

I need to decide how to bundle my EWP green cants as sawed for cabin wall logs to prep them for transport. They are "D" logs so fairly consistent to calculate BF using a rounded off cant size. 
The trick is to keep them where my tractor loader easily handles them. Truth is I can sort of look at the pile and visualize how many should go in each bundle and be well under my loaders 2700-2800# FEL limit. Being that they'll travel 24 miles then up a steep hill to my unloading spot it gets more tricky to be using a close estimate that also maximizes the gooseneck trailer.  
 I did an open web search that came up with a calculator from a Polish startup group (Omni Calculator.com) that says they specialize in mathematical solutions to everyday issues where number solutions can help. What they helped do was to get confused!  :D
Their lumber calculator can be nominal or actual dimensions and KD or green, PT, etc.. I chose 30% moisture as they suggested that number. 

After arriving at their number I then used the FF drop down calculator and got a weight about 25% higher than the Polish group. 
Google came up with a BF weight that split the two first results. 

[barbender]

I don't know what green EWP lumber weighs, logs would be in the 4400-4500# per cord area. I can say that with Red pine, which is about 10% heaver than EWP, I can lift packages of about 500 bf with my Case 1845c skid loader and it's starting to get a bit light in the back. 

[SwampDonkey]

Green EWP runs ~36 lbs/ft³ (from sample data in the Wood Handbook)

A 10"x10"x12' (10 inch x 10 inch x 12 feet) cant is 8.33 ft³ so it weighs ~300 lbs. I would assume the cant is square (out to the widest part), even if 2 corners are rounded, gives a little wiggle room. ;) If the fat of the D is wider than top to bottom, adjust the calculation for say 10" x 12" for instance. Make it easy, not hard. Don't try to build rocket ships. :D

Green red pine runs ~49 lbs/ft³, way heavier (26%) than white pine.

[Chuck White]

There's a lumber weight calculator in the EXTRA'S at the top of the page.

Click on Extra's then click on tools!

Fast and simple

[firefighter ontheside]

Can you do some math and come up with an average weight per linear foot of the your logs you're using?  That way you can just add up total feet in length and multiply.

[kantuckid]

There's a lumber weight calculator in the EXTRA'S at the top of the page.

Click on Extra's then click on tools!

Fast and simple

My post says I used the FF Toolbox... ;D  
Note that these are "sort of cants", not true cants as they all have varied taper, bark edges and most of the bark until I get them home to peel and stack on sticks. The 10's & 12's lengths will be mixed as will the 14's & 16's for bundling.  
For simplicity I'm going with bundles of 6 pcs of 14' & 16' cants/wall logs and 9 pcs of the 10',12' ones. 
They all have most of the bark still on as one rounded bark edge so allowing for remaining bark along with what's somewhat less than a 1x6 for the length of each the 16' ones will weigh about 230# each given ~ 64-72 BF weight estimate plus the butt taper/swell on 16' cuts. 9 pcs of 12 footers will come in close to 1,350# which matches up well with 6 pcs of 16' footers.
I'll toss in this sidenote on my experience with sawing "D" logs: 
Two sawmills local to me saw D logs, one does cants only that are then run through a milling machine thus a milled rounded edge from true cants. I could have sawn my entire bunch of logs into cants then paid to have "sort of" perfect wall logs-which wasn't the look I wanted, plus the added transport and costs doubled as well for mill work.  The other mill does sawn "D" logs and but only saws them from his smallest top or next to top tree logs which yield one "D" log per tree log. Labor/time matters more for his operation than the man I'm using to saw my logs. I had no source for those small logs except the ones he buys then adds his markup which left me paying more for a much lower grade of logs overall. The ideal source for "D" logs IMO is a plantation tree that mostly gives you the spot on sizes you need to saw and build with. 
I bought all sizes of logs as they came from the woods and paid current local price. Some of mine are larger than ideal but work fine with more effort.
Once a log is sawn into a piece or pieces, with two bark edges and 6" thick I (personally ;D) measure the centerline of the piece on each end (wood only, not bark and somewhat inside the butt swell) and make a tick mark, then snap a line from mark to mark. Using a speed square I ensure each log is standing exactly square on mill bed then mark a sharpie line from the chalk mark on the operators end. I then measure from the chalk line to the mill bed top on each end, again inside the butt taper and the mill operator uses his hydraulic toe boards to raise or lower until I get the chalk line aligned with the sawmill bed. I then recheck the piece with the speedsquare and mark a horizontal sharpie mark which the operator uses to align his band blade.  On small logs I choose the best bark edge and the other side becomes 6" wide lumber. It takes me about 2-3 minutes to set up the "D" log cuts. I considered using a string level but that asks for other factors to play in so I scrapped that idea. 
A very few logs have enough tension that I watch for, and we run the blade back over them to gain a more even 6" thickness.  
The "D" log process would be far more difficult on my manual mill than the WM hydraulic! The hydraulic toe boards to level the chalk marks yields a far faster & better wall log than my own LT15! 
The man sawing my logs always charges an hourly rate not BF rate.    

[kantuckid]

Can you do some math and come up with an average weight per linear foot of the your logs you're using?  That way you can just add up total feet in length and multiply.

That would work but I went with cant weight per BF then added a rough estimate for bark edges and how many wall logs per bundle. Back when I was estimating how many trees to get enough actual wall logs (an exact figure from my planned design) I used LF of wall logs then turned that into tree log yields.

[wkf94025]

A friend I coach little league with turned me on to 80,000# of redwood and cedar logs on a land clearing job across the road from him.  I didn't want to be way over my legal weight on the road, so I asked the faller crew to cut me a cubic foot of redwood from the base of a stump.  Weighed it on my buddy's bathroom scale across the street.  I was expecting 45#/ft3, but it clocked in at 60#!  Good thing I checked.  From there, it's simple pi r squared times the log length to get ballpark per trailer load.  I rolled across the scales on a couple loads, and my wet finger in the wind was +/- 10%.  Happy how that all worked out.

[Ljohnsaw]

wkf94205,
Do you have a self-loader?  Looks like you are just a bit south of me, the other side of Sacramento!

[wkf94025]

I have a Bobcat T76 wide track.  Not quite sure what you mean by self-loader.  I also use a tree service whose truck has a nice crane behind cab and a skilled operator.  He can carry 20,000# per trip, and my F350+ttrailer can carry 11,000# per trip.

[Ljohnsaw]

Not quite sure what you mean by self-loader.

A log truck with the grapple behind the cab.  I had a couple of BIG logs brought up from Baxter to Yuba Gap last week.  35' x 48" ponderosa.  20k a piece.  There is a stack of 15'10" to 17' pine in Alta that I'd like moved up to Yuba Gap but need "self loader" of some sort to do it.

[wkf94025]

I wish I owned one of those truck/crane combo's.  Tree Co charges me $275/hr inclusive of labor and fuel.  Not cheap but the operator is VERY skilled.  

[Ljohnsaw]

My guy out of Grass Valley charges $160/hour from his door to his door.  For me that is about 1½ hours on top of my work.  A full load of 16s from there would run me around $500.  In a few weeks, I will have him deliver me a load or two of 33's and they are $1,500 each delivered.

[wkf94025]

Envious of your economics.  There are only certain species that pencil for me, given costs like that.