palletized firewood

doghunter · December 11, 2011, 10:54:43 AM

anyone out there have any experience selling pallets of firewood i am talking with a local rental yard about selling them a stock of palletized firewood just seeing what everyone thinks

T Welsh · December 11, 2011, 11:20:08 AM

We just started doing this,ease of handling is what sells them I think.we measure the skid and adjust the price for the amount of wood that,s on the skid. in fact we have started to stack another 5 to 10 pallets up for future use or sale. I like it because I dont have to get out of the machine and can load it up and deliver by myself. Tim

leonz · December 11, 2011, 11:25:43 AM

The isssue is more of labor than anything else as it takes
you time to build a pallet with sides or invest in one of the
european wood palletizers that use netting witha steel tube to
build a thrown pallet volume as dictated by the height of the
steel tube used to create the volume of firewood.

It is fine in practice but labor is the issue.

doghunter · December 11, 2011, 01:21:51 PM

i have a source for used pallets @3.00 each so i will just add supports to the sides made from scrap. the extra labor of placing the wood on pallets will be added to the price of the wood. we already have a loader at the sawmill to handle them with so really not a lot of investment to start up.we already sell about 150 cords of bulk firewood just looking for a new market since pulp prices here are lousy

T Welsh · December 11, 2011, 03:04:57 PM

leonz,Thats why we are trying this,yeah I know it takes time to stack on the pallet,but I dont think we are saving or losing any time doing it any other way. it has started to take off and we have been asked if we could do it! we said yes and gave them a price and thats how this has started out in the first place. The retailer likes it because he can unload and reload with little effort on his part! Tim

bull · December 11, 2011, 05:48:49 PM

I put up 1/4,1/2, and full cords on pallets.. It is sold as pick your own fire wood, I started doing it a few years ago to meet the late season demand when everyone was running out of wood.... now I sell up to 10 cords a season this way.... right here on the farm, the pallets never leave the farm and are refilled asap, when emptied !!

blackfoot griz · December 11, 2011, 08:15:19 PM

I started doing this as well. I built a firewood processor. The split wood goes from the conveyor into the pickup. It takes about 15 minutes to fill it up. I use a hand crank live deck and move the wood from the pickup to the pallet. I stack 3 rows of 16 inch length wood 4 ft high then wrap the load with stretch wrap netting (allows good air circulation). I built a rack w/caster wheels and set the firewood on it. Even my wife can push half a cord of firewood around the garage

Al_Smith · December 13, 2011, 10:25:16 AM

I've got a rack in the garage on casters that holds exactly 1/2 of a face cord or about a weeks worth of wood in addition to the in the house which holds about two days worth

On the palletized stuff they make a shrink wrapper for bundled stuff they sell at gas stations for $4.95 for about a peck basket full .It looks like each pallet holds about a 1/2 cord and what that figures out to is some outragious price for wood .

I think the only people that buy the stuff just want the ambiance of a little fire to woo and make woopie in front of on those chilly nights .Google woopie if you haven't figured it out . :D

T Welsh · December 13, 2011, 03:59:45 PM

Al_Smith, Thats what we are trying to cash in on. :D Tim

Al_Smith · December 13, 2011, 04:15:59 PM

Cash in on what ,high priced firewood or woopie ?---or the fact high priced firewood might lend itself toward woopie .Now that might be an advertising idea .

Lets see now,a peck basket of firewood complete with a little handle all saran wrapped up .A little bottle of wine ,two dixie cups and a couple candles --$22.95 out the door .Perhaps a Kenny G CD for another 10 bucks .If it works you'll be rich in no time .--- a mere 5 percent to good old Al for the idea if you hit the big time 8)

Banjo picker · December 13, 2011, 08:51:45 PM

Now Al you have complicated matters....Should we use red wine or a white wine....would that be dixie cups or solo cups? Should they be red , blue, or possibly yellow? Should the candles be sented or unsented? According to a current video on cmt the cups should be solo and red, but what about all those other possiblilties? Banjo

T Welsh · December 14, 2011, 04:30:13 AM

Quote from: Al_Smith on December 13, 2011, 10:25:16 AM
I've got a rack in the garage on casters that holds exactly 1/2 of a face cord or about a weeks worth of wood in addition to the in the house which holds about two days worth

On the palletized stuff they make a shrink wrapper for bundled stuff they sell at gas stations for $4.95 for about a peck basket full .It looks like each pallet holds about a 1/2 cord and what that figures out to is some outragious price for wood .

I think the only people that buy the stuff just want the ambiance of a little fire to woo and make woopie in front of on those chilly nights .Google woopie if you haven't figured it out . :D

Al,I do not care who buys them or why, as long as they buy them. But you do marketing well :D. Tim

Al_Smith · December 14, 2011, 04:42:28 AM

I really haven't fully researched the woopie package yet only speculated .

On the little cute firewood to go deal I'm thinking it was something like 64 little bundles of wood on a pallet .Seemed like a lot .At 5 a pop that equates to about 600 a cord minus the saran wrap and pallett which you could retrieve unless somebody stole it .

The deal I saw at the Paul Bunyan show in Cambridge sit on the end of a big processer .It seems however the little bundles they sell around here is slab wood from hardwood mills .Nice and green,burns a long while in case it takes a while for the Ripple to kick in in the woopie package I suppose .

Geeze at 600 a cord I could be talked into selling the stuff again I think .

T Welsh · December 14, 2011, 05:37:38 AM

Quote;On the little cute firewood to go deal I'm thinking it was something like 64 little bundles of wood on a pallet .Seemed like a lot .At 5 a pop that equates to about 600 a cord minus the saran wrap and pallet which you could retrieve unless somebody stole it .( It makes you think ) I know we have been thinking about it and have gone as far as making our own wrapper and we will stack them up on a pallet a let season in the field over the summer. Tim

SwampDonkey · December 14, 2011, 06:05:21 AM

Just think you fellas are responsible for a population boom with all this firewood dreamy-eyed psychology. Is there a support group for the firewood ambience addicts? :D :D

doctorb · December 14, 2011, 06:58:51 AM

Where's the best place to obtain cheap / free pallets - without stealing?

thecfarm · December 14, 2011, 07:26:52 AM

We use to have nice hardwood pallets at work. True one inch boards and those things was HEAVY. We use to have pelletize plastic in a big nylon bag come on the pallets. They use to throw them away. I took a few home to stack wood on before the OWB days. Some business will just throw them away instead of returning them back to where they came from due to cost of freight and getting enough to send back. But you have to find that company. I have seen some out by the road,but most times they are just the light pallets that break easy when any amount of weight or used 3-4 times.

Al_Smith · December 14, 2011, 08:24:30 AM

You have the heavy oak pallets made of about 1" thick stuff and lighter of maybe 1/2" .The light ones are good enough to stake cinder blocks on .

I visited a local pallet works just to check out their pallet reclaim saws which use rubber tires as I'm building a rubber tired mill .They actually reclaim the lumber from old pallets and use them for light weights .

I might also add there are people that get just piles of old pallets and sell them for a couple bucks a pop .Some smash them up and burn them for fire wood nails and all .They're out there if you can just find out where .

Al_Smith · December 14, 2011, 08:32:12 AM

The next time I get gasoline I'll check to see the pallett size and how many they actually hold .I kind of think the actual processer would probabley sell them for about half what they retail for which would be 300 a cord .Now that is just about twice what firewood sells for in these parts .

I'm almost thinking there was someone on this forum that sold packaged wrapped wood I just can't remember when or where .

Kansas · December 14, 2011, 08:55:42 AM

Any pallet recycler should have different grades of used pallets. a cheaper one should work just fine, such as a #2 or block pallet. A regular customer probably would pay around 4-5 dollars each for them. They may have odd size pallets that they might sell cheaper.

Norm · December 14, 2011, 09:41:16 AM

Wish you lived closer doctorb, we burn a few every week. We're out in the boonies and no recyclers here.

Al_Smith · December 14, 2011, 10:14:48 AM

I suppose it just depends on where you are .I've got 50-60 of them plus the ones I have the firewood stacked on .Never payed a dime ever for palletts or firewood for that matter .

beenthere · December 14, 2011, 10:25:55 AM

Quote from: doctorb on December 14, 2011, 06:58:51 AM
Where's the best place to obtain cheap / free pallets - without stealing?

I've found several places around that have pallets to give away. I usually stop by a local feed/hardware coop that has a stack of pallets that they cannot re-use or send back (depending on the supplier, some pallets go back for re-shipping). Among the stack are unusable pallets only good for burning. So have to sort through the stack.
Some places have customers or friends that take all the left-over pallets, so good to ask (and to even drop a tip a time or two for the coffee fund helps).
A bit like finding free wood. Might have to take some bad with the good. ;)

Al_Smith · December 14, 2011, 10:45:53 AM

The guys that go around and get heavey weights get a buck or so selling them by the truck load .Some pallet places buy them and repair and resell them and make a few bucks on the deal .

That place with the rubber tired resaws has them by the thousands .Heats his business with giant stoves which looks like big barrel stoves with the scrap. Started out in a garage and now has about 10 acres and 40-50 employees so there must be some money in it .Must have a half million board feet of oak plus a zillion pallets all stacked up .

Funny ,the guy on the other side of the road is one of the biggest veneer log exporters in the midwest .Started out as a gypo logger and turned it into millions .You just never know .

doctorb · December 14, 2011, 10:51:19 AM

Thanks for the pallet tips. I have taken the advice I learned here on the Forum ( beenthere, I think, and maybe others) and now stack my outside wood on pallets. I am completing next winter's wood splitting and stacking now. The pallets I used came from a neighbor, who had something delivered and wanted to burn them. Prior to pallets, I stacked my outside (non shed) wood on 2X10' boards. Worked well enough, but the pallets get more air to the lower sections of the stack. I built some end rails that fit into the pallets from 2X4's. My three pallet stacks are 5 X 5 X 20, which is about 4 full cords each. I wish I had a way to move all this wood easily into my shed.