Building a Wood Store

[anthony_d]

Evening all,

With a wood burning stove going to be istalled in my house, I'm obviously in the need for a woodstore. After having a look on the internet for some woodstores, I'm finding that prices vary wildly between £100 - £500. So I thought to myself that maybe this is a project that I can do myself in order to improve my experience with wood, practical design & save some money.

Now then, apart from adding some noggings to a plasterboard wall, my joinery experience is limited.

I've started this job by making a plan of the design:

woodstore.jpg (387.02 KiB) Viewed 30064 times

It's a basic 8x3x5ft store. I figured these dimensions should minimise offcuts. The Idea is to install the woodstore on existing paving slabs, with no additional foundations. Logs resting on planks of wood, raised up from the ground to protect from ground moisture.

Would "TurboGold" wood screws be OK, or should I use "A2" rated screws for this job? I have the turbogold trade pack already.


Roof shall be covered with planks, and (leftover) roof felt laid over.

Pricing up materials (all tanalised wood), using the wickes prices:
Item Qty Price Per Unit: Total
Frame: 4x2inch x 8ft: 8 6.29 50.32
Roof Joists 3x2 inch x 8ft: 2 4.98 9.96
Planks: 4x0.75inch x 8ft 20 14.69 (5 pk) 58.76
Planks: 4x0.75inch x 6ft 15 11.39 (5pk) 34.17

Grand Total of £153.21

Tools for this job. Not sure what I'm missing:
Handsaw
Spirit Level
Drill
"Quickgrip" clamps
Saw Horse and workstand

Would a chop / mitre saw be a worthwhile investment for this job? I'm keen to ensure that my angles & measuerments are spot on.

Feel free to add some advice.

[walesy]

I bought a compound mitre saw from B&Q...just the own brand one, £80 or so. It has been a very very handy tool to have, saved me alot of time and effort. The turbo gold screws sill be fine, I have used these recently and previously and they seem to be very good.

[jmc67]

I recently built one from some old 4x2 timber that came from next doors loft. Here's a link to it (the final item is on page 2).

log-store-build-t47290-15.html

I used hand tools all the way through apart from using a router for a few bits, and an angle grinder to cut down the wrought iron gates. Good fun to build and would recommend to anyone with a log burner to store for - the bought ones are a rip off.

My joinery experience was pretty much zero, but these types of builds are relatively easy. At least you have a plan - I made mine up as I went along, lol. BTW I have set mine on concrete slabs and it's fine.

[anthony_d]

Yes it was actually your post jmc that gave me the inspiration to ask "why not just make one?"

How do you make your upright timbers sit on top of your base frame? I've planned for the uprights on my store to be screwed to the inside corner of the base frame, but Ideally I'd want them to sit on top, or at least achchieve a flush look by some other means. Do you have a an upright hidden from view, or have you driven some screws in from the bottom?

I made the plan myself. I coudn't find any on the internet without this registration or payment nonsense. I could do with a better (free) CAAD program to what I have though, it's not designed for this purpose in mind.

[jmc67]

Cool. Nice to see I have inspired someone, lol. I was like you - I looked around found some very expensive stores, and others which looked like they'd been made form old pallets whcih were still silly money, and I thought 'I'll try making my own'. I must admit, attaching the base to the uprights was the one part I was never 100% happy with. With mine the uprights are pretty much sat on the base. I then used 8 80mm screws (2 on each upright) in at 45 degree angles to anchor the uprights to the base. If the wood is stacked right there should be very little force out to the sides on one of these stores, so that should be sufficient. However for added security I added in horizontal braces near the base between each of the 4 uprights to increase the stength. Given the volume I reckon it's got about a ton of seasoned wood in there, and it has shown no sign to giving up.

If I were to do it again, I would do it differently, but only to make it neater. Ideally I would do something like a half lap or even moritse and tenon for the uprights, but to be honest as I say only for cosmetics.

Make sure you make loads of air gaps at the sides and base (and back unless it's going to be up against a fence or wall). You want as much air circulating as possible with logs. Also make the roof overhang each side by a few inches - you don't want water running down the sides. Are you going to be buying your logs preseasoned? If not then I would have thought 3 feet is quite deep for getting the ones in the middle to dry efficiently and quickly.

If you go down the route of cutting it all by hand, invest in a try square and scribe as well, as when cutting through 4x2 you really want all the cuts to be 90 degrees, as any slight deviation will mean they don't line up. As for plans, I am a graph paper person - I'm currently planning a storage shed for the garden, and given I'll be buying all the timber for that, that is one I will plan out first.

[anthony_d]

My plan is to have plenty of airgaps in the sides, and base of the store.

I'll use butt joints for now. I've no idea how to (quickly and precisely) prepare mortice & tenon joints, or for that matter lap joints. I'd imagine any attempt with a hand saw, hammer & chisel will result in an epic fail.

I'm planning to buy an intial batch of either seasoned or kiln dried wood. The woodstove shop recommends kilndried wood with 10% moisture content, but I would have thought that storing that outside would see that wood soaking up the atmospheric moisture rather than releasing it. Air humidity in Aberdeenshire I'd have thought is rarely 10%,

Longer term, I'm eyeing up a pile of leftover leylandi logs in my neighbours driveway that they haven't shifted in 18 months since they chopped down the trees. I'll ask if I can relieve them of their clutter! Also heard rumours that another neighbour is going to have a nice big silver birch in their garden trimmed or chopped down. Another neighbour is a proffessional gardener. So, if I go for unseasoned wood, I'm sure I'll be investing in additional woodstore capacity, and a log splitter.

[jmc67]

I use a splitting axe, and Wood Grenade splitter for breaking down my logs. Using those I've been able to get through even knotty holly tree wood up to about a foot across. One thing you will find is that all wood burns differently. Birch will season quickly, but will also burn quickly, and not give off huge amounts of heat. I've heard mixed reviews about Leylandii, from being good to burn, to coating your chimney with tar. If I were burning it I would definately mix it in with other less resinous woods. Holly, blackthorn and hawthorn all good when well seasoned. If you can find someone removing an Ash tree then befriend them - they burn very well.

[anthony_d]

Evening all,

Got the materials, got the mitre saw, also invested in a square (finally!), measured and marked up the cutting lines, and almost ready to go.

Got a problem which I envisaged a bit late:

mitre.JPG (129.49 KiB) Viewed 29879 times

What's the piece called for extending the saw horse support upto the level of the mitre saw? Or are there any good improvisation methods?

Cutting will wait till it's daylight.

Cheers

Anthony

[wine~o]

Yellow pages/argos catalogue/Harry potter book under the legs of the sawhorse...

[anthony_d]

Formulated another idea in my head of clamping another 4x2 underneath. It should work according to my measurements. I'll try it out tonight.

[royaloakcarpentry]

Chop saw on the floor and use blocks to sit the timber on when you cut. Could have saved £15 on the plastic horses lol.

[anthony_d]

Progress so far, most of the frame made: Except for one ground support and the roof joists.

wood1.JPG (295.01 KiB) Viewed 29806 times

Now a question: How should the roof joists be prepared?

wood2.JPG (97.39 KiB) Viewed 29806 times

[darrenba]

Cut the notch - known as a birds mouth.

[anthony_d]

Progress so far tonight.

wood3.JPG (194.8 KiB) Viewed 29775 times

The bird's mouth wasn't so successful:

wood4.JPG (148.17 KiB) Viewed 29775 times

I used a jigsaw for this notch. The plumb cut was easy enough, but the horizontal cut was a FAIL. Not only could I not follow the line, but the blade wasn't perpendicular to the surface, so the joist leans a little when resting of the birds mouth.

I could do with some tricks for making this better. First joist was marked up with aid of a spirit level. Once cut the first joist was used as a template for the subsequent joists. Wouldn't mind it if I could bevel my mitre saw at 72 degrees. Then it would be perfect, but 45 degrees is the max angle.

[Simon Site Manager]

Yellow pages/argos catalogue/Harry potter book under the legs of the sawhorse...

Hmm Wino, we very much frown upon cutting on the floor, and Harry Potter of course

SSM