Advice on wood drying/stacking

[mtek]

Hi Guys,

So, I got 5 pallets. Two for the base, two for the uprights and a fifth to provide the bracing to keep the uprights in place. Then we (wife & I) filled it to the brim, side to side and front to back and finally I added a cheap blue tarp on top.

Following suggestions here, I went to a local Ace hardware. They do give them away but only had one. Home Depot said they couldn't because they had no "Procedure" that allowed them to do it. All the ones at Wal-Mart belonged to their vendors and were not to be given away. The woman at Home Depot said that a Verizon place about ten miles south of us (Not a store - more a distribution sort of facility) had lots and would part with them. On my way there I saw a local Lumber store (one of the kind that HD is slowly killing) and they had a pile of them out back. The guy actually said "We save them for folks that want them to stack firewood!! We need more places like this and less of the "Procedure-bound" behemoths As it is, while there I saw some lumber I'll be stopping by tomorrow to buy for another pre-Winter project. So their thoughtfulness is going to pay off for them.


Anyway, thanks for all the answers. I have to say this is the most awesome forum I've found on the 'net. Always friendly and always eager to help.



Thanks Again,

Jim

 

[ironspider]

These seem to work well(broken image removed)

 

[STIHLY DAN]

Gotta love the wood fence.

 

[KindredSpiritzz]

I have a buddy that has a garage door business so i get nice10 ft long pallets (the ones leaning up). Im going to use regular pallets for the ends, maybe two high, plastic tarp cover them and that'll be for my over flow wood. I'd call a few local garage door installers and see if they have any they would let you have. Alot of them are glad to get rid of them otherwise they have to pay to have them taken away.

 

[leaf4952]

I've been having good luck at CVS pharmacy in 2 different locations. Even found a heavy duty "blue" one. They leave them out back for days so I didn't even bother asking. They were in the trash area. Nice pallets too. I'm replacing 7 yr old pallets that rotted. I used to get 1 per week from the CocaCola delivery man at the convenient store I manage. If you have a truck it makes sense to hit up the big box stores where you'd get more than 1 or 2. Good luck.

 

[tomc585]

I came across plastic pallets a few years back, what a score!

 

[KD0AXS]

I can get lots of standard 40x48 pallets for free at work. I take 5 pallets, lay 3 on the ground end to end, and the other 2 standing up on the ends. I use scrap 2x4s to brace the ends. (I get those for free too) That gives me room for 2 rows 12 feet long and 4 feet tall. I figure each one of these stacks to be a cord, but they're really a little more than a cord because most of my splits are longer than 16" and I stack a little higher than the end pallets.

(I'll put up a pic when I get home from work)

 

[tomc585]

No need for bracing here...

 

[Ashful]

It's faster stacking with the braced book ends, tho. Try processing 15 cords/year, and you'll begin to see it. ;-)

 

[KD0AXS]

Ok, so it was dark by the time I got home last night. Here's a pic of one of my stacks. (Just stacked this stuff last weekend)

(broken image removed)

 

[Ashful]

Here's one of mine:



Two rows, each about 100 feet long.

 

[AnalogKid]

This works well for me. Best if you stack wood in a windy and sunny location. But if you have to pick between the two, go for windy.

View attachment 138576

Hey, that pic looks familiar.