Good morning!!!!

[rswyan]

RS, your wood pictures have me wondering: What happens when the length of a round falls mid way between what works best in your stove? Do you buck one side to best length and leave the other side short, and if so, what do you do with the short? Or do you split it down the middle?

RNG,

We have three stoves here - the WBF and a wood-burning fireplace insert in the basement here at the house, and the double barrel stove up in the shop. And of course, the "ideal" length for each is slightly different

Usually what I do is cut for the WBF - 22" is about right - so mostly it's one side to the ideal length and the other side short. Sometimes I will just split it in the middle, as the woman prefers handling smaller pieces ... easier for her.

Loading the fireplace insert front to back, rather than crossways, means shorter pieces ... maybe 16" at most. The double barrel stove in the shop can take a 28" length no problem.

I ask because I use pallets to stack my wood, and short lengths waste space on the pallets. Maybe that doesn't matter to you?

It might this winter, if we have to heat again with wood. I actually need to come up with a way to handle the wood for the house with the tractor ... pallets are looking pretty good at this point, but I have to round some up. Usually can find plenty of free ones on Craig's List. Part of the issue will be the limited lift capacity of my loader.

The wood pile for the shop, which is masonry block, gets built on the east side of the building, partially under the overhang, on the driveway. No need to do anything fancy with that ... just stack it ... it's easy enough to get to.

The wood supply for the house is another issue however. I guess the plan at this point is to palletize the wood after it's split, then move it down to the house in late summer/early fall with the tractor and stack it outside under the deck by the back sliding glass door (it's a walk-in basement)

I'm not sure that even with packing that area, it will be enough to last the entire winter ... might have to use the "unused" half of the garage.

Also, that looks like a serious counterweight on the back of your tractor. Homemade?

Yup ... built it last winter ... weighs around 1150 - 1200 lbs. ...

I have to manually give it an "assist" when I pick it up with the 3PH, otherwise the 3PH won't lift it ... need to add another shim to the PRV on the 3PH.

And finally, I don't know about sycamore, but the oak around here splits much more easily when it's dry. And the dryer the better. When it's wet, the wedge acts more like a knife and tends to cut across the grain instead of wedging it apart. That takes a lot more force and it's easy to get the wedge stuck if I'm not paying attention.

I've been real lucky ... haven't stuck too many so far ... but like you say, the pine that I've been splitting tends to tear across the grain. Maple and ash, not so much ... they usually just pop ... haven't tried any of the sycamore yet.

It will be interesting to see how it goes with those two huge red oaks I still got to go cut up and split

 

[RedNeckGeek]

RS, for what it's worth, the local tile shops get their inventories delivered on pallets, and they have a hard time gettin' rid of them. They come in all different sizes, so it's pretty easy to pick and choose those that will work for any size wood. I usually pick up some extras to cannibalize for the racks I build on top of the pallets, and size on those isn't important at all. Any left overs makes great kindling, too, so all it really costs is the labor to take 'em apart and a few drywall screws to put 'em together.

 

[Larro Darro]

Good Afternoon. 1400, partly cloudy, 88F {96F heat index} with 58% humidity. Forecast high of 88F with 20% chance of rain today, and a low of 71F tonight.

Today is Margie's 62nd birthday. {Happy birthday Ron's Mom} Some of our Tampa Cousins, John and Dee asked us to breakfast at the Altha Diner since Margie took the day off. We went and had a good time, even running into more Tampa cousins while we were there. About lunch time Margie remembered we had a scheduled bug spraying for 8-10 this morning. There was nothing left on the door knob, so I think he blew us off, not the other way around.

I've been working on the expanded garden fence since we got back. Almost got it all the way around. If there is time when I finish, I'll put the disc on the 3930 and get started turning grass into garden. Then we are all going to Pizza Hut tonight for Margie's birthday. Not sure who all will be there, but it should be 8-10 folks at least.

Hope everyone is having a good day,

Larro

 

[bakerg]

Today is Margie's 62nd birthday. Larro

 

[dave1949]

Perhaps your chainsaw has mysterious powers like mine. As some people can divine for water with bent coat hangers, my chainsaw can find steel. Not consistently though, it only seems to have this gift when wearing a brand new chain.

I am not alone in the universe of chainsaw mysteries.

 

[sodamo]

Yeaaaaaaaaaa, diesel generator is working, more importantly stopping when commanded. We switched out the the injector/pump/governor. I, and the mechanic, think something is amiss internally with the old one.

application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=utf-8

 

[txdon]

This is a test to see if I have master the new technology - (new to me) - iPhone to email/Mac to iPhoto (crop out out finger) to desktop to TBN. Saw this on the road about 2 miles from here.
small Timber rattle snake sunning on the road - this is not the big one that's hanging around my place.

 

[vtsnowedin]

This is a test to see if I have master the new technology - (new to me) - iPhone to email/Mac to iPhoto (crop out out finger) to desktop to TBN. Saw this on the road about 2 miles from here.
small Timber rattle snake sunning on the road - this is not the big one that's hanging around my place.

Nothing wrong with him that a 12 gauge with a load of no. 6s won't cure,

 

[RedNeckGeek]

[B

iPhone to email/Mac to iPhoto (crop out out finger) to desktop to TBN.

Beautiful photo (and snake), but you probably already know you took the long way 'round. If you hook the iPhone up to the Mac with a USB cable, iPhoto will open and you can import the images directly. Then edit, save to a handy folder like you're doing, and the rest...

 

[sodamo]

Something doesn't sound right here, David. If the fuel solenoid is cutting the flow of fuel to the engine, the engine has to stop, regardless of what the injection pump is doing. I'm no Diesel mechanic (I don't even play one on TV), neither did I sleep in a Holiday Inn Express last night, but at this point I'd suspect I don't understand what Diesel man is telling me or that what I'm hearing is BS. Any chance you could get a second opinion from somebody you trust? :2cents:

About everyone would agree with you, well, maybe not the generator guy, who is convinced it is the EGR valve First thought was always a defective solenoid, but it wasn't. I had to shut engine down by cutting off the air, not a good solution.
Somehow, fuel was still getting into the system after the solenoid activated. One of my first successful test was to crimp the fuel line - it worked. I next installed a manual valve in the line, that also worked, but would take more than a minute before all the fuel was gone, also not a good solution for autostart operations.

<_UIImageViewExtendedStorage: 0x16d5fde0>