Tractors and wood! Show your pics

Parkanzky · Jun 29, 2015

Parkanzky said:
I haven't ordered yet, but I found them here:

Ventilated Super Sack ｮ Containers

I can get the non-ventilated bags free from one of our plants, so I'm going to grab a bunch and play with them to see what I think.

Here's an update on this.

I grabbed some bags from our plant. They have a chute on the top and a chute on the bottom, with string closures at both ends. The bottom string closure has a quick-release clasp. There's a flap on the bottom so that you can tie the chute closed and then cinch up another string to close the flap. That one also has a quick-release on it. These contained food-grade material, so there was also an inner plastic bag. I just pulled those out and tossed them.

The chutes are useless for firewood, so I closed everything up at the bottom. At the top, I cut around three sides at the edges of the cube to make a big flap:

Firewood Sacks by parkanzky

Then just fill them up. I don't fill them to the very top so that there is extra material to close them off with:

Firewood Sacks by parkanzky

And set them on a pallet:

Firewood Sacks by parkanzky

Then, I pulled all four lift straps together and through the top chute. Then I tie the top chute tight around them. Now I can move them around with the tractor.

So far I'm really happy. I will be able to split and toss the wood right into a sack, then I can move my split wood around anytime I want to. When I want to give a load to a friend, I just set the pallet in my truck or on my trailer and away I go.

We've had a few heavy rains and there is no evidence of water in any of the sacks, so my closure system seems to be working.

Sawyer Rob · Jun 29, 2015

Seems to me, if they aren't letting any water in, then they aren't letting any water out either... That means you aren't going to have that all "important" well seasoned firewood, when it's time to burn it.

At least, you won't unless you put "older seasoned" firewood in the bags in the first place.

SR

Parkanzky · Jun 29, 2015

Sawyer Rob said:
Seems to me, if they aren't letting any water in, then they aren't letting any water out either... That means you aren't going to have that all "important" well seasoned firewood, when it's time to burn it.

At least, you won't unless you put "older seasoned" firewood in the bags in the first place.

SR

I don't think so. The tops are nowhere near air-tight and the wood is tossed in at random. I think they'll act as greenhouses. The sun will heat them, the water vapor will escape through the top of the bag, but rain will roll off the top and not get in.

Time will tell.

KiwiBro · Jun 29, 2015

Far too much of the water vapour does not make it to the top of the bag where it can escape. Instead, it condenses on the sides or adjacent wood. Unless you have a long time to wait, the closer you get to the bottom of the bag the less dry the wood will be and in some cases the wood at the bottom will seldom ever be well seasoned no matter how long you leave it.

At the very least, some vent/drainage holes at the bottom, will help immensely. You might be surprised how many and how big these can be without reducing the strength of the bag below suitable levels.

If you can open the tops in periods of dry weather, that'll help also.

I've often wondered if a largish clicker press capable of punching holes all over the bag, excluding the seams, would be a good compromise between these bags which can be had for cheap and the relatively expensive vented material bags.

Parkanzky · Jun 29, 2015

KiwiBro said:
Far too much of the water vapour does not make it to the top of the bag where it can escape. Instead, it condenses on the sides or adjacent wood. Unless you have a long time to wait, the closer you get to the bottom of the bag the less dry the wood will be and in some cases the wood at the bottom will seldom ever be well seasoned no matter how long you leave it.

At the very least, some vent/drainage holes at the bottom, will help immensely. You might be surprised how many and how big these can be without reducing the strength of the bag below suitable levels.

If you can open the tops in periods of dry weather, that'll help also.

I've often wondered if a largish clicker press capable of punching holes all over the bag, excluding the seams, would be a good compromise between these bags which can be had for cheap and the relatively expensive vented material bags.

These bags hold an impressive amount of weight when they're intact. As soon as you compromise a panel, they lose all their structural integrity. You can put something like 3000# in one and it will hold it, but a 1/4" slit with a box cutter and the side will immediately blow out.

KiwiBro · Jun 29, 2015

Parkanzky said:
These bags hold an impressive amount of weight when they're intact. As soon as you compromise a panel, they lose all their structural integrity. You can put something like 3000# in one and it will hold it, but a 1/4" slit with a box cutter and the side will immediately blow out.

Must be made of different material to the FIBC's we see here, because a slit doesn't seem to get any bigger under load. At least not until after a few fill, carry, stack, store, unload rotations. In fact, here, we can cut gaping big holes in them that the firewood will bridge unless big enough.

Good luck seasoning the wood as you propose. You are far more patient than I.

s219 · Jun 29, 2015

Parkanzky, if that is fresh sawn/split, you're asking for trouble, either mold or at the very least, greatly slowed seasoning. At that phase in the firewood's life, rain is not a real concern -- the moisture inside the wood is the main problem.

I don't even like to cover the top of my firewood stacks until just before the wood is due for burning. For the 1.5 years before that while it seasons, I leave it open on all sides. Airflow has a huge impact on drying/seasoning wood, and that goes for firewood as well as sawn lumber and boards -- there's a good reason we sticker and stack sawn boards and then allow them to get airflow on all sides.

KiwiBro · Jun 30, 2015

s219 said:
Parkanzky, if that is fresh sawn/split, you're asking for trouble, either mold or at the very least, greatly slowed seasoning. At that phase in the firewood's life, rain is not a real concern -- the moisture inside the wood is the main problem.

By no means a terribly scientific experiment but I tested a bag of green, split firewood placed in a river, against green split wood from the same tree left to season in both non and partially, vented bags. Which do you think seasoned faster? Yeap, the one from the river. It was an 'old wives tale' the old-timers mentioned.

Not entirely sure if an accurate projection to all or any other timbers can be made, and can only guess at the mechanism that allowed for this, but it seems like the water helped dilute the woods natural oils and with these thus diluted, they could evaporate faster when the bag was removed to dry alongside the 'control' bags. I dunno if that is even remotely why, but I do know it worked as the old-timers said.

terryknight · Jun 30, 2015

who likes big wood

posted this log a couple months ago. well it dried enough that i could lift it. so we moved it, the case 580E has a lot more grunt than my little 5055E