TALE OF TWO SAWBUCKS
(Page 2 of 3)
By Milo Lamphier
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I JUST INVESTED TWO HOURS OF ANafternoon
and about $15 worth of materials to make a firewood-cutting
rack that's already proved to be one of the biggest
time-savers on my place. It's a 6' x 8' stud-lumber frame
that folds flat for storage or transport. Unfolded, it
takes up a space about 9' deep and supports the logs in a
safe and comfortable sawing position.
All told, I used just ten 2 x 4s for the entire project:
seven 8- and three 6-footers, plus a handful of 16-penny
nails and seven 1/8" x 3 1/2" carriage bolts with hardware.
You wouldn't notice this at first, but I also planned my
lumber purchase to minimize waste and thus keep the cost
down. How? I purposely bought 8' studs so I could trim them
down and use the tails as log stops, rather than paying a
higher price for odd-length pieces that are less likely to
be on sale.
Putting the rack together was easy. First, I cut five of
the long pieces down to 72", and drilled a 1/8" hole in the
center of each leftover tail. Then I bored a hole 1' from
the end of each of those 6' pieces, and sank two more holes
12" from the ends of the two remaining full-length studs.
Next, I put the rack platform together by spacing the 6'
uprights 16" apart and nailing a cross-board to the ends.
Then I bolted the five log stops in place, and cut and
fastened the second cross-board to the top of the rack
(just below the stops, so they'd lock when rotated
perpendicular to the uprights).
Finally, I attached the two 8' legs to the sides of the
frame, after first drilling a bolt-sized hole about 4" from
each upper corner. To brace them, I nailed another
cross-board between their lower ends.
Using the rack, I can convert half a dozen o r so 8'
timbers to stove length in a matter of minutes. First, I
trim the ends of the logs, then make a full-length cut
between each of the uprights. I usually leave the bottom
log uncut to protect the lower crosspiece from the chain
saw. The tilted platform keeps the logs from binding up, or
from tumbling down once they're cut. It also takes the
strain out of loading and unloading the wood, which can
take a real bite out of your workday.
