Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
All-Purpose OWF Discussions => Fire Wood => Topic started by: AirForcePOL on May 27, 2015, 12:13:53 PM
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Has anyone ever burnt slab wood from a sawmill in a gasser before? I'm curious as to how well it performs. I plan on running a G Series this season but I am behind on my wood supply this year. I can get some for free and can also buy 4x4x8 bundles at a place on my way home from work for $30. If anyone has used this type of wood before please let me know what your results were. Thanks!
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I have burnt some in mine, quite a bit of ash with all the bark plus mine were all softwood. They burn hot.
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Did you have any trouble getting your 12 hour burn times? I figured I could mix it with my split wood. They said the budles are a mixture of oak, walnut, cherry, maple and sycamore. It seems like a lot of work to process it but I really just don't have the time to go cut this year. I've got about 3 cords stacked at home right that's all walnut and oak so I figured if a bought a few bundles now and let it dry out it might be ready by october. I used about 9 cords with my E Series last winter and a lot of that wasn't hard wood. I think if I had about 6 or 7 cords ready to go it should be enough to last a season with a G Series.
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I never tried for a 12 hour burn, don't think i would have made it. hardwood would be a bit different, but they are hard to find around these parts.Everyone keeps them for themselves.
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Depends on the slabs of course, the bigger the tree they are sawing the more wood vs bark on the slabs. Of course if you could get hardwoods that help a lot over soft.
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That's what I figured, Marty. I'm probably going to stop by and take a look this week at what they have. From what he explained over the phone today it sounds like it's mostly hard wood. I think the amount of bark will be the deciding factor for me.
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Is it a small mill? most larger mills debark the logs because the bark is worth real money as mulch!
I would not be afraid to give it a try, I have been burning a lot of crap in my G 200 so far in order to see how it performs and I'm impressed, I have not yet been able to plug the nozzle!
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I'm not really sure how big the mill is. It's a local lumber yard but they make their own cabinets, doors and all that kind of stuff so I think they would keep the mill pretty busy. I'm really hoping that it's a decent product. It would save me quite a bit of time! Thanks Richard, hopefully I'll be running a 200 this year also.
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My dad has a sawmill of his own (WM LT40-Manual) he has a fair amount of slabs to burn. He mostly uses them during the day, when loads are light or during the summer for heating DHW.
He likes to use the bigger pieces and blocks for overnight. He does not go any extended burn times, as he checks the stove 2 or 3 times a day in the winter, depending on what the weather looks like. He is firing a CB eClassic 2300 or 2400 (cant remember exactly), and heating 7000sf over 2 building (mostly in slab, with some aluminum panels) BTW he has burned about 37 cords in the last 2 years, yes almost 4 semis worht of wood; but ma is happy so he is happy.
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Thanks for your input John! I feel like the smaller pieces from the mill would work very well for mixing with regular split wood. For right now I'm really just looking for a solution for the upcoming season. However, if it works well it might turn into a long term source of wood depending on how hard it will be to cut all the pieces into firewood length.
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I burned a lot of slab wood last year but unfortunately I do not have a gasser yet. The slab wood I can get is all hardwood, all debarked (yes they use the bark for mulch), comes in bundles 9 feet long and weighs approx. 3000 lbs. for $25.00. Like all slab wood it has pieces as small as your thumb to pieces big enough that have to be split. I have a P&M ML30 and had no problems getting a 12 hour burn in normal weather when loaded full. I have a 20 ft., 14,000 lb. flat bed trailer that I put railroad ties down and spaced to the length I want the pieces cut to. 2 bundles go on the bed with one more bundle on the top of these two held apart by some old 4x4's the mill gave me. I put one additional ratchet strap around the bundles and cut them in place on the trailer. I forgot to mention the mill loads the bundles on the trailer for me. Each bundle is a little over 2 face cord so each load I bring home is 2 full cord for $75 plus gas there and back. Slimjim seems to think this slab wood will burn ok in a gasser and I would tend to agree. No bark is really nice for a lot less mess.
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I burned a lot of slab wood last year but unfortunately I do not have a gasser yet. The slab wood I can get is all hardwood, all debarked (yes they use the bark for mulch), comes in bundles 9 feet long and weighs approx. 3000 lbs. for $25.00. Like all slab wood it has pieces as small as your thumb to pieces big enough that have to be split. I have a P&M ML30 and had no problems getting a 12 hour burn in normal weather when loaded full. I have a 20 ft., 14,000 lb. flat bed trailer that I put railroad ties down and spaced to the length I want the pieces cut to. 2 bundles go on the bed with one more bundle on the top of these two held apart by some old 4x4's the mill gave me. I put one additional ratchet strap around the bundles and cut them in place on the trailer. I forgot to mention the mill loads the bundles on the trailer for me. Each bundle is a little over 2 face cord so each load I bring home is 2 full cord for $75 plus gas there and back. Slimjim seems to think this slab wood will burn ok in a gasser and I would tend to agree. No bark is really nice for a lot less mess.
Where is the sawmill you get them from?
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I stopped by the mill yesterday. They were running the mill when I got there and didn't have much time to talk. They were processing some walnut and most of wood in the bundle that they were building was walnut. Like schoppy mentioned, it is all different sizes. Some of it looks like it would be decent firewood and other pieces were pretty small. I might buy a bundle and just see what kind of volume I will get out of it after I cut it up and how much of it could actually be used for firewood. Some of it looked like it had some bark on it and some of it had none. They didn't have any bundles already made up when I was there so I couldn't get a good idea of how much wood I would be getting in a full bundle. I'm trying to finish up a room addition and then I'm going to start building a solar kiln that should hold about 6-7 cords when it's full. I'll be sure to post some pictures of my project when I start it.
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I burn everything, even the small stuff, it stacks in just fine and honestly there isn't that much that's really small for the entire length of the bundle.