calculating cordwood

[Dave177]

does anyone know an easy way of calculating the cubic meter of cordwood? I know 8x4x4 is roughly 2.4 meters.

but what if I have different sizes such as 6ft length?

 

Cheers

[b101uk]

Logic dictates that if 4ft x 4ft x 8ft (1 cord) is ~2.4m3 of actual wood volume not including airspace then

 

4ft x 4ft x 7ft would be 7/8 of 2.4m3 or ~2.1m3

 

4ft x 4ft x 6ft would be 3/4 of 2.4m3 or ~1.8m3

 

4ft x 4ft x 5ft would be 5/8 of 2.4m3 or ~1.5m3

 

4ft x 4ft x 4ft would be 1/2 of 2.4m3 or ~1.2m3

 

4ft x 4ft x 3ft would be 3/8 of 2.4m3 or ~0.9m3

 

4ft x 4ft x 2ft would be 1/4 of 2.4m3 or ~0.6m3

 

4ft x 4ft x 1ft would be 1/8 of 2.4m3 or ~0.3m3 (~2.4m / 8 = ~0.3m3) so any of the above would be a multiple of this, or e.g. a 6ft6in (6.5ft) long would be 0.3m3 x 6.5 = 1.95m3 given the other two values of 4ft x 4ft are staying the same.

[Dave177]

thanks, I have worked it out like that in the past, just wanted to check it was correct and see it there was a shorter way of calculating, guess ill jut have to keep the calculator handy

[b101uk]

Another way would be to come up with a factor for conversion, e.g. 4ft x 4ft x 8ft in metric is, 1.2192m x 1.2192m x 2.4384m with an actual volume of ~3.624556m3, if you divide ~3.624556m3 by 2.4m3 you will get a factor of ~1.51 which should work for converting any m3 from actual volume to true volume of wood stacked in that space,

 

So if you measure stacks in meters L x H x W = actual volume in m3 / 1.51 = true volume of wood in m3,

 

e.g.

Our stack is 50m long including the ends that are angled at about 45deg, the stack is about 2.5m high and the timber is 2.4384m (8ft) long, as the stack ends are at ~45deg we only need to include one of them in our stack length parameter as the other unmeasured ends serves to square off the one we have included, so our length including one end is 47.5m thus

 

47.5m (stack length inc 1 end) x 2.5m (stack height) x 2.4384m (wood length) = 289.56m3 (actual volume) / 1.51 (factor) = ~191.76m3 of wood