Steve Last Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 If a stere is a cubic metre, how much wood do you get in a stere of logs? in the past 7 or so years I have used a number of suppliers, and when the wood is stacked it seems pretty consistently to be about 20% short by volume, e.g. today 3 steres fits into a space of 2.4 cu m. Am I being ripped off or is there something I'm missing here?? Like wood suppliers have special "metres" that are only 80 cm?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clair Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 [IMG]http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q296/clair46/stere.jpg[/IMG](source) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 I am not sure if I read this right, is this saying that the cubic metre is made of 1M long whole logs and that when cut to 50cm lengths and then split you get less than 1m3 because there is less airspace? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 But only if the seller lines the logs up neatly and they are all dead straight! Very interesting though, Clair. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clair Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 It isn't new...Question 6 on this page.More of the same, in more detail here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 So what your really buying is 0.7m3 of wood and 0.3m2 of air, pretty neat trick. I measure my wood, its cut to 50cm lengths and split. I have my wood storage marked in 1m3 measuremnts and twice I have asked for, and got, more wood because there was not enough. Seeing as oak is 65 Euros a pop down here I want wood not air. [:@] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachapapa Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 That's real cool!Buy a stère of wood in 1 metre lengths.Have it granulated immediately and pop it in to the boot of the car in a jiffy bag.[I] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardian Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 Steve .........I don't doubt that you're being shortchanged: probably not by much, but shortchanged nonetheless.When we first got here, we bought a few deliveries and at €60-ish / stere, it was a pricey business. I cut it to 25cm because it suits our grate and the stack just never seemed very big.We now cut and pollard our own and neighbouring (with permission of course) Oak. Just paid €600 to have 4 trees cut and 16 pollarded: the deal was that they left it where it fell, but cut to 1-2m lengths. I do the rest. A lot of work, but I've got nearly 10 stere of tightly packed wood: probably 3 year's worth. That's equivalent to 15 stere delivered.BTW, we don't just do this to economise on wood purchase: it's about managing the trees, which start to shade our outdoor living area and can get a bit 'splindly'.I suspect that the terrain on your side of the Rhone is a bit less wooded than over here, so suppliers may be harder to come by. If you want / need to get a big delivery at a decent price, then you might want to talk to some of the boys over here and negotiate a big lorry load. They're always working hard at this time of the year and are probably open to a deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Last Posted March 12, 2011 Author Share Posted March 12, 2011 Clair, thank you VERY much for that. It was the definition of a stere for this purpose as being a cubic metre OF 1 METRE LONG LOGS that I was missing. I can see now it's actually a version of the cornflakes packet issue - "contents may settle after packing" - smaller objects fit together more easily so take up less space when organised. (Also I guess it's a form of fractal maths for those who understand that stuff, just like the distance round an irregular object increases if you use smaller units of measurement!) Anyway since my 3 steres is made up of 50cm logs and comes out at 2.4 cu. m. just as predicted I don't think I'm being ripped off after all. Incidentally price here (supplier in our village in the N Vaucluse) is currently €64/stere delivered but not stacked. Thanks to everyone for the commentsSteve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Posted March 13, 2011 Share Posted March 13, 2011 It depends on the thickness of the wood as much as anything, the space between the logs will vary depending on their diameter, so the length is less relevant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyh4 Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 It is not just the air between the logs it is also the real loss due to the cutting.Take 1 1m long log and cut it into 30cm lengths - now wonder where the missing 10cm went.Answer, the sawdust on the ground Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob T Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 [quote user="andyh4"]It is not just the air between the logs it is also the real loss due to the cutting.Take 1 1m long log and cut it into 30cm lengths - now wonder where the missing 10cm went.Answer, the sawdust on the ground[/quote]That must mean that each of your cuts is 5cm wide! Huge chainsaw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 Why not try and save the sawdust by cutting over a container of some sort. Then using accumulated cardboard boxes which you fill with the stuff, burn it. I never waste a bit that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin963 Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 [quote user="woolybanana"]Why not try and save the sawdust by cutting over a container of some sort. Then using accumulated cardboard boxes which you fill with the stuff, burn it. I never waste a bit that way.[/quote]Or - as someone mentioned cornflakes earlier - use empty branded cornflake packets as the collectors and then sell the sawdust as cornflakes.Years ago my mother always used to preach to people who ate these things that research had shown that the cardboard packaging was more nutritionally useful than the actual cornflakes. Studies on mice in the 1970s had proved it; I was reminded about this a couple of months ago by a TV programme devoted to the subject.Sorry, I've gone seriously off beam on what is a very useful topic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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