Rick rack, the firewood keeper

admin

A month or so ago a young lady called me about a double drive gate.  She was a little short with me because I was supposed to meet with her four or five months previously to see about doing the gate and I hadn't showed up, called, or nothin', damn my hide.  It was a touchy situation because I had done some stuff for her father in law twenty plus years ago and she was dead set on me doing the job.So I showed up to do the job and there in her backyard was something I hadn't seen in person in twenty years, a Rick Rack.  I had made them for a couple of years but me being me, I got tired of it and then moved on to newer and better, but most importantly, different things.  I made them in the late eighties.I figured out that if I took a piece of 1 1/2" (1 7/8" O.D.) schedule ten pipe and cut it exactly, well, within an inch or two, sixteen feet I could take it down to the muffler shop and make 1/2 of a rick rack.  Schedule ten because no reputable muffler shop wants to bend one eighties with schedule forty pipe.  And 1 1/2" because they usually have dies for that size but not the other pipe sizes like 2" (2 3/8" O.D.) or 1 1/4" (1 5/8" O.D.).So I would cut a bunch of pieces 16' long and then middle of the week late morning I would go to the muffler shop and they would charge me by the hour for the bender and an operator.  First bend a ninety at two feet, second bend same direction ninety at ten feet, then finally a one sixty at 14'.I would take all of the bent pieces back to the shop and then weld any two of them together, well, mostly those that fit best, within an inch or so.Here in North Texas we mostly burn oak, oak weighs approximately 2 1/2 ton per chord, rick is half a cord so it will eight 2,500 lbs or so.  We never had a failure and this one is at least twenty five years old. Attached Imageslife is good
Reply:harv; you make them too good. it looks like it'll last forever.i.u.o.e. # 15queens, ny and sunny fla