Chris;
How did you cut the limbs up into chunks. When I cut fire wood this winter I took the hay wagon to the woods and loaded the limbs onto it, while the fire wood went into a trailer. I was able to chunk the limbs up to about 2" with the chunker on my tractor wheel, but bigger that that bent the blade again. I have a buzz saw but the tractor that drives it isn’t running and I don’t want to stop working on my gasifed truck. Was thinking about getting a 14" cross cut saw blade for my “chop” saw.
Tom, I’m using a DeWalt chop saw with a 12" regular carpentry blade on it. It’s really not nice for the saw, and it tends to kick back if you’re not extra careful. I don’t recommend this method to anyone, but it’s what I’ve got for the moment.
I’ll echo the firewood disappearing phenomena.
Since I’ve switched to 50-70 pound rough chunking, putting in and only fine splitting daily in the shed at use it’s been startling how much less “evaporates” in the out of sight woodlot drying step.
S.U.
Just an afterword concerning legal wood removal from roads. Remember that there are essentially two kinds of roads 1) the ones that the State (or county or municipality) owns in fee simple (either they paid for it or condemned it, meaning they legally stole it), and 2) the ones the county maintains as a prescriptive easement - that is, the surrounding landowners own to the center of the road, but the county road crew paves, grades and patches the travelled area. In Texas, there is no standard width for precriptive roads, so bear in mind that the land owner may walk out and legitimately ask what you are doing, since he technically pays taxes on the part where your truck is parked, even though he can’t fence it or otherwise prevent you from being there. Common courtesy should dictate your response. You are actually doing him a favor, but if he sees you with a saw in your hands, you’d better have a good answer.
On State fee-simple roads, you should have no problem with landowners, but at least in Texas, if you are doing ANYTHING on the side of the road other than changing a flat tire or something similar, you’d better have a hard hat, reflective vest, and “WORK CREW AHEAD” signs posted.
How do you know the difference? Check the publically available highway department maps. Beyond that, anything the State assigns a number to and paints passing zone stripes on should be considered a fee-simple road.
The road I was on was a county road, KY 1659. No stripe, however.
I don’t think I’ll have to collect roadside wood anymore, plenty of folks are happy to get rid of the wood in their yard. Just look on Craigslist under “free wood”. My next investment may have to be a chainsaw.
Word of mouth that I burn wood has people coming up to me with free offers. Snow won’t stop me this year.
An AMC! I think thats a potential woodgas vehicle there. Put in a v-8 motor, mount a sway-away gasifier on the back.
Oh No, I’ve got a 1995 Tennessee Dakota waiting. But I know that the Canadian jet stream will shut me down if I’m not prepared. I’m stocking up 3 times as much wood than I’ve ever had. The following holidays will not be boring - Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s.
So, I bagged the wood off the trailer (photo above); and the final count… 25 bags. About 400 pounds.
Should do me for a few miles anyway!
Try it again Chris, I think it is OK now.
Thanks Don,
Got the video now .
That’s a neat rig Don. Do you sharpen the blade yourself by hand with a file, put a little set in it once in a while?
Carl, I have one of those old Belsaw sharpeners that has a setting attachment. That keeps it consistent all around.
Hi Don,
I like the belt setup, do you have some video showing details of it?
TerryL
Here you go Terry.
Thanks Don,
It seems when ever I’m trying to put something together… The engine is horizontal shaft and the part to be driven is vertical, or the other way around.
Thanks for posting!
TerryL
State by state the woodownership along roads is a MESS!
There have been several legal cases here in IL. Most land under and next to roads here even to the level of state highways are owned by the adjoining landowners.
Since these roads here are created and defined by public use landowners have contended that government triming of trees is a illegal. You might not wanna get involved with the ocational landowner with a attitude about woodcutting.
Hey Chris, I love that you’re calculating for a particular long trip. I know that Wayne obviously has done this plenty, but I believe that you might be the first to visually layout what it will take for the long haul. A question I have is that I’m noticing 4 to 6 inch diameter pieces in there. Are you going to split those up or make the gasifier use it? Doug D.