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Topics - Scratch

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1
Fire Wood / I got some free firewood
« on: December 18, 2023, 04:17:45 PM »
Today they just finished dropping off their final delivery of 25 dump truck loads of free wood. It's Cottonwood, but it'll still burn!



2
Fire Wood / Firewood full dates
« on: September 29, 2021, 08:17:17 AM »
I decided to start a searchable thread as way to keep track of when I get my woodshed full each year.  I think I'd like to know when I get my woodshed full every year.  More of a way to record those dates for me, but feel free to use it to record yours here if you wish.  I did the same thing with my "First and Last Fires" thread here: https://outdoorwoodfurnaceinfo.com/forum/index.php?topic=923.msg6569#msg6569

Anyways, here's my first entry

2021
9/28/21

2022
10/26/22


3
Fire Wood / Seasoned firewood?
« on: June 26, 2020, 10:38:36 AM »
What do you consider wood that is ready to burn efficiently?  Wood that has been cut, split, stacked and covered for one summer?
Two summers? 
Three summers?

Let's say as a general rule, with most types of wood.

4
Site Suggestions / What happened to the site?
« on: March 27, 2020, 07:57:02 PM »
Thought it was gone for good, anyone know what happened?

5
Fire Wood / HOLY FIREWOOD BATMAN!
« on: February 13, 2020, 09:55:10 AM »
I have a friend who remodels churches and builds new church pews. A few years ago he asked if I wanted his scrap lumber to burn, he would even deliver it.
Of course I said yes.

On Friday February 7th he brought a load out. One snowmobile trailer full and one pickup bed full of church pew backs, seats, and the little racks that hold the hymnals on the back of the pews.  On Monday he brought out another load with more backs and the ends of the pews.  He had them all cut up to about 2-3' long so I didn't have to cut hardly anything. 

I helped him unload it outside, near the back of my wood shed and hoped I would figure out an easy way to move it inside my wood shed since there was still a pile of firewood in the back of the shed, and I didn't want to have to move that just to bring in this lumber.  I want to burn this lumber first before it gets snowed on.

Most of the wood he brought was all flat pieces about 2' square and about 1" thick. I could toss it over the firewood pile, but that would make a huge mess, and if I had someone helping me, I could easily hit them. Then I remembered I have 3 of those 12' long aluminum roller conveyors that hook together. I brought one over and set it on top of the firewood pile on one end, and on a wheelbarrow on the other end and it worked great!  Not one piece ever fell off the conveyor early, and I would stack them up to four high.

I'm posting this so that maybe it'll give someone an idea on moving wood, but mostly so that I have an idea of how long it took me to go through this lumber. I think I loaded the stove 3 times since then with regular firewood, and now am strictly using the pews.  I fill the stove 1-2 times a day with about 15 flat pieces and it even lasts all night. Temps in the 20's and below.

I've also asked that next time he gets a load, to save me one good church pew about 4-8' long for our basement.  My in laws have one and it's kind of neat.

(The last pic is random scrap lumber, and hymnal baskets.)

6
Central Boiler / Edge 750 users
« on: December 11, 2019, 11:07:29 AM »
My brother is getting a new stove and is considering an Edge 750 to replace his 22 year old CB 6048.  He is concerned about using non seasoned wood in the Edge though.  He doesn't always have time to cut, split and season his firewood and sometimes has to burn wood that isn't quite dry enough.  It doesn't burn as well, but it sometimes happens for him.

He was told by the dealer that you pretty much NEED to burn only seasoned wood in the Edge.  Is there anyone here with an Edge that does occasionally burn not fully seasoned wood, with good results?

7
The Wall Of Shame / Smashed my thumb (warning graphic image)
« on: January 09, 2019, 04:08:00 PM »
 I'm on my 11th season now I think, so I guess maybe I should feel lucky. About our fifth season in, my wife smashed her finger against the stove while loading, and broke her finger.   I smashed my thumb last night while loading the beast. I was wearing gloves, it didn't break any bone, but there was so much pain I didn't sleep until 7 o'clock this morning.  The pain is better now and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to sleep tonight.  You can see the hole in the center of the nail that I drilled late last night to help relieve the pressure.

Anyone else smash their fingers while loading, bad enough to cause problems the next day?
Commiserate with me.

8
Equipment / How often do you sharpen your chain?
« on: October 07, 2018, 11:07:31 AM »
I know the correct answer is "when it gets dull" but about how long is that for you in terms of gas tanks? 
1
2
5
10
15
20
30
50...?

Let's say cutting for firewood, which includes bucking some wood that is laying down already for who knows how long.  Not strictly falling clean trees and bucking.

9
Equipment / Suggestions for new chainsaw
« on: May 01, 2018, 06:20:07 PM »
Looking to buy a new chainsaw and hoping to get some suggestions.  I want it to be new, lightweight, powerful and have a 16" bar. 

I had a Husqvarna and was very happy with it but am considering a Stihl also... Open to others.

Any suggestions?


10
Plumbing / Is my Taco working?
« on: October 11, 2017, 08:59:28 PM »
So I've had my CB6048 for like 7 years now and love it.  I just started a fire today to burn some cardboard and scrap lumber up and noticed that it seems like maybe my pumps aren't working.  I'll try to describe my setup:

My stove is outside, 100' away from the house.
The water comes in through 1' PEX and straight into a Taco 007-F5 pump (~3' below ground level)
About 10' later it goes into my forced air furnace heat exchanger.
Then it goes about 50' to another forced air furnace heat exchanger.
Then it comes all the way back again and goes back outside... but that PEX goes by two T's first, right before it goes outside again.
The first T sucks the water through another Taco pump...
Next is a mixing valve...
Then my 4 radiant heat floor loops.
And finally, back out the second T, then it's outside and back to the stove to get reheated.

Today, I got my water up to temp at 185, the PEX is too hot to hold onto for very long as it comes into the first pump and into the heat exchanger.  But the Pex coming out of the heat exchanger is barely even warm to the touch... I'll call it room temp!  If I shut the furnace fan off, it'll eventually heat up to hot, but as soon as the fan starts to blow past the HX, it cools down to room temp.

Both of my pumps I can feel are vibrating and warm, but I'm not sure how good they're pumping.  I replaced both pumps less than 2 years ago.  I have bleeder valves going in and out of the HX and they seemed to have no air in them.

Is there a way to tell if they're pumping enough?

Could there be an air bubble in the line somewhere and if so, how do I get rid of it?

Is there a way to manually prime the system somehow?

Nothing has changed in my system in like 5-6 years of great heating.

Any ideas?

11
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Some pics of my setup
« on: October 06, 2017, 09:10:14 PM »
Thought I'd post some pics of my stove setup since I recently completed some work by it.  A couple years ago, I decided to stop digging under a tarp in the winter to get wood for my stove, and I built a wood shed.  It's one of those steel tubing framed, carport thingies from Menards.  (They have small ones in their parking lots for their carts)  I just bought the frame for it since we had lots of pole barn steel left over from my pole barn build.  The shed is about 22.5 long and 24' wide and butts right up to my stove, so my wood, and I... stay nice and dry all winter long.  I even have lights and an outlet out there!

But the new addition that I talked about earlier is the patio out front!



I've always wanted a dedicated area for having fires and making s'mores and thought this would be the perfect location.  Far enough away from the house to get rowdy if needed, but close enough to go back and get another bag of marshmallows.  There's also power for crock pots if needed, and it's easy to wire up some overhead lights too.  (I haven't done that yet, I'll wait till I figure out exactly where I want them)
It also has lots of access to dry firewood... obviously!



As you can see in the pictures, I still need to add a few more pieces of steel to enclose it, and I need to trim out the edges, but I don't like to rush things....
Here's the firepit I made.  I have a CNC plasma cutting table and came up with this design a few years ago.



Here's My daughter and I "breaking in" the new patio with some s'mores!



While we're at it, I'll show you the back.  It's enclosed on three sides with steel, but the back just has a tarp on it.  It's actually one of those billboard tarps so it'll last a while.  I use a 27' piece of old well pipe to roll it up and hang it on a couple of bars coming out the back when I'm filling the shed.





I also store my trailer back there.


You might be able to tell that the wood shed is split into two sections.  I use about half the shed during a season.  I stack it tight and go 7' high.  The side the stove is on holds about 12.1 cords of wood, and the other side holds about 14.7 cords of wood. (The door swings inward and there's a 4' cement slab in front of the stove so that takes up some room) Here's a pic with the door open, going in from the front.



If you go through the door and turn to the right, this is what you'll see.  The stove door is on the right, my tools are hanging on a wooden door I put in. (That's where I empty the ashes)  It goes down a hill into the woods.



If you go in, shut the door, and turn around, this is what you'll see.  There's more wood on that side since it's filled full because there's no need to keep it clear on that side.



I have the one side full and ready for this season, but I only have about half the wood stacked in for next season.



I still have lots of wood to put in there though, but it was too hot to move it during the summer.  I'll finish filling it in the next week or so, then I'm ready for winter!

12
Fire Wood / Rotating seasoned wood
« on: March 14, 2016, 12:21:58 PM »
I'm having a hard time figuring out how to rotate my wood pile.
I have a woodshed that is closed in on the front and both sides, completely open in the rear, is 24' wide and about 22.5' long.  Here's what it looked like before the patio was built in the front.




And this is how I load it with wood, I'm calling this...
Option#1:


I load it from the rear open end, putting the most seasoned wood in first, and the greenest wood in last.  It works great until I have to reload it.  As you can see the top left pic is full, then at the end of the burn season, it looks like the top right pic.

My choice then, is to either load in all that wood through the small, front, 36" door, across our patio, with green wood... like in the bottom left pic, or to rotate all the old wood to the front, putting the more green wood in the back, like in the bottom right pic.

But that's a lot of wood to move just a few feet...




Option #2 is to build a wall right down the center of the wood shed, floor to ceiling, but leave an opening to walk through (with no door) in the front like this:

The top left pic is full, and I would pull only from one side per season.  At the end of the season, one side would be empty like in the top right pic.  If it was a hard season, and I had to pull from the other side, it would look like the bottom left pic.

But then I'd still have to restack the old wood down closer to the stove, then it could be easily filled with green wood from the back, like in the bottom right pic.  But again... It requires lots of restacking...




Option #3 would be to have the wall down the center, like in option 2, but have an opening in the front and the rear like this:


The top left pic is a full woodshed, and again, I'd only pull from one side at a time, and if I need more, I'd pull from the other side in the rear... Making reloading in the summer easy to do from the rear. 


Any other ideas of how to do it?

13
Electronics / I need a new temp sensor
« on: October 27, 2015, 04:30:00 PM »
I need a new remote water temperature gauge for my stove. 

Years ago, I got one from someone on here, and it worked great.  It was just a simple plastic, rectangular display that I supplied some voltage to, (can't remember how much) and ran wires to a probe.  But last year, it started to read funny...  Like the actual water temp at the stove would be like 185 and it would flicker between 185 and 32 then up to 60, then to 55 then 21 then 120 then 44 then back up to 185 where it would stay for a while before starting to be random again... It got annoying last year...

This year... It's just stuck at 32.0.

I've tried powering it down multiple times, checked the wiring... All that jazz, still no go, so I've decided to get a new one.  I know the BBQ grill ones are popular and I'm not opposed to one of those, but it thought maybe someone here has found something they like that isn't a BBQ grill one.

Here's what I have:
Cat 5e running along side my Pex out 100 feet or so to my stove.
I obviously have power out there.
I also have one of those temperature probes in a fitting out there already, for my old setup.
In the house, I have an AC power outlet right where I want the display to go and it can easily hide a large transformer.
I also have plenty of room for a transformer in the utility room.


I'd like to put just a simple gauge in my kitchen window, which is directly above my unfinished utility room, which is where my Pex comes and goes out to the stove.

My ideal situation would be to put a hardwired temp sensor directly on the incoming Pex or copper fittings in the utility room, then run a wire up to the kitchen where the actual temperature reading would be.  Ideally, it would be a small simple display only showing the temp.  No buttons or anything else.  I don't want to run batteries.

It would be super nice if there was some way to adjust the offset, so if the temp at the stove reads 185 but by the time it gets into the house, and the sensor on the copper fitting the temp reads like 7 degrees less... I could adjust that...
But if not, no big deal.  I can do math...

...Simple math....


Any suggestions?

14
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Your wood usage?
« on: November 19, 2014, 08:04:14 AM »
I think there was a thread started on this, but if I remember right, it was a brand specific question, and I can't find the thread so I thought I'd start a new one for all brands. 
Warning... There is math involved. Feel free to correct me if my formula is wrong please... It seems fishy to me...


Post up using this template please:

Brand and model of stove
Location and average daytime temps of the past few days
Approximate square feet of heating area
What type of wood you're burning
Approximate fill times
Approximate firebox width
Approximate stacked length of wood in stove
Approximate fill height
Cords per day burnt
Take the above three measurements, multiply them together, then multiply by how many times you fill it per day. Let's call that daily usage.
Take your daily usage, and divide it by 221184 (full cord in cubic inches) to get your daily cordage.
Any other details you'd like to share as well as a picture of how tight you fill it.

15
General Discussion / Sick of tarps!
« on: October 22, 2014, 10:56:57 AM »
Well I've had my OWB since like 2007 or so, and honestly... I don't seem to come on here much during the off season.  I have other things to worry about besides my OWB.

But this year I finally decided to do away with:
Lifting the tarp off the woodpile, only to have snow slide down my back
Having the tarp freeze to the ground
Pulling the tarp and hearing the rrrrriiiiippp sound
Trying to keep the tarp down in high wind
Getting soaking wet while loading the stove in that wet snowy mix
The list goes on and on...

So this year, I ended up getting a carport.  It's 7-1/2' high at the sides, 24' wide and about 22' long.
I had a bunch of sheet steel left over from a pole barn build so I only had to buy the frame.  I still have to stack abunch of wood inside it that you can see in the picture, add in some ceiling lights, and I'm also going to enclose the front side with an entry door, but should be able to get that done here before the snow flies.

This year will be so much more enjoyable going out to the stove!

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