Labor-Saving Firewood Racks

Labor-Saving Firewood Racks WOODLOT EQUIPMENT Miscellaneous 32-3-16 "My homemade firewood racks eliminate 90 percent of the manual labor that's normally associated with burning wood," says Frank Redford of Fort Frances, Ontario. He used old metal pipe to make the racks, which have a steel base and sit on a wooden pallet. Each rack measures about 3 ft. wide. The process starts by placing three of the racks together side by side. Then Redford cuts uncut tree lengths into 9-ft. pieces and uses a tractor loader with forks to drop the 9-ft. lengths of wood into the racks. After each load is dumped into the racks he uses a chainsaw to cut the wood into firewood lengths. This procedure is repeated until the racks are full. The wood is then stored that way for a season. When he wants to burn the wood, Redford uses his loader tractor to pick up the pallets one at a time and then place them next to his outside wood burning furnace. "Using this method, the only time I ever touch the wood is when I take it off the rack and drop it into the furnace," says Redford. "The racks keep the wood neatly piled. By putting a number of these racks together into a group, it's easy to keep them covered in order to protect from rain and snow. "The loader I used is a 1961 Treefarmer skidder that I refurbished. I built a quick-tach style loader for it. However, you could use any type of loader that's equipped with pallet or bale forks and build the racks whatever size you want," he notes. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Frank Redford, Rt. 1, RMB no. 45, Fort Frances, Ontario, Canada P9A 3M2 (ph 807 274-3782; fastjac@nwonet.net).

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.