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16

HeatMaster / hooray for the wife and Heatmaster SS

« on: January 02, 2017, 02:46:53 PM »

So today was the first time I've seen my OWB since last Friday am when I came down with the stomach virus from HELL. Spent the whole weekend in the fetal position. My wife really doesn't know anything about using the OWB and I've only really told her about how to properly load wood a couple times. Well the good news is the heat stayed on , the water stayed hot , the boiler stayed lit , and there was not a single incident. Nice to see how easy the G-Series is to operate. With a couple more lessons I'm sure that my wife could easily maintain the unit as well. A couple of my buddies have CB units and another has a Wood Doctor and I'm not sure the same could be said for them (the boilers not the wives). Just one more reason we are happy with Heatmaster products. 

17

HeatMaster / G-200 smoking more than usual

« on: December 27, 2016, 07:49:05 AM »

So with the holidays and a delay on starting our next house I have been home more than usual. I have noticed a couple of things that I can't explain. First it seems like sometimes there is a lot of smoke coming from the stack , never really saw that before. Second it's relatively warm here and we are using more wood than normal. I cleaned the out the bottom chamber , not much in there. I checked and cleaned the bypass door to make sure it was closed tight. The damper is clean and working properly. All my wood is well seasoned oak , maple and cherry that has been top covered since October , was going to check the moisture content today. Can a leaky door seal cause any of this? Second year with this boiler , and first time I've had issues that I can't say I caused directly.

18

Electronics / Indicator Light or Buzzer

« on: December 15, 2016, 07:18:06 PM »

Hi guys I would like to have a way to know when my boiler is not running for some reason , like when it goes out. Looking for a simple way to let me know when my water temp is under something like 150 or so. I want something to alert me when the boiler is out before I wake up and it's down to 110. Wireless would be nice but not completely necessary.  I know some of you have already figured this out. Thanks for any input.

19

Equipment / Hydraulic Winch

« on: December 10, 2016, 07:33:13 PM »

So I'm in the process of adding a davit to my wood trailer. I have it mounted to the front of the trailer so I can swing it over to both sides and pick up some of the logs that my back says "don't do that". I usually cut all my wood in 4' pieces to haul them out then I cut them in half to split. I tried a 4000# electric winch , but it is way too slow. Most of my tractors have rear hydraulic remotes to connect to so I was thinking a hydraulic winch might be a lot faster. There is one of the largest fishing ports 15 mins from us so I started looking there for a winch and came up empty handed. Most of the new winches I can find are big$. Any of you guys out there know of anywhere to get a small hydraulic winch at a reasonable price? Internet searches haven't revealed much. Thanks guys  Alan

20

Equipment / Stihl MS 250 C Update

« on: March 06, 2016, 05:43:52 PM »

so from advice from fellow members here I went onto to arboristsite.com and I found what I was looking for. Stihl says can't change these saws over to regular pull start , turns out you can. I bought a new recoil start cover and flywheel for the MS 250 , found both on e-bay for about $30 total. A little fiddling around to change things over and 2 pulls later saw was running. I'm sure some people love the easy start model but I like pulling it like a real saw , at least it starts every time. Guess I'll have to add it to my Husky line-up for now anyway.

21

Equipment / Predator Engines

« on: March 01, 2016, 06:30:10 PM »

I built my log splitter a couple years ago and I didn't know what I wanted to power it with. I had a couple old engines laying around but I decided to go new.My first thought was go Honda they have never let me down. A friend of mine told me he had bought a couple of Predator engines from Harbor Freight and they ran great. I don't hold a lot of faith in the "China Tool Store" but for $99 for a 6.5 hp motor it was worth a try , and $15 for a 2 year replacement warranty wasn't bad either. I can say that I have run about 15 cord through my splitter and not one issue. The motor starts 1 or 2 pulls every time , it is fairly quiet , and very fuel efficient. I bought another one and put it on the kids go-cart and they beat the heck out of it , no problems there either. I have to say I am impressed and I would recommend these engines to anyone. Maybe it wouldn't stand up to everyday use , but we haven't killed one yet.

22

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / thumbs up for logstor pipe

« on: February 25, 2016, 06:03:47 PM »

ok so as I posted a couple weeks ago I messed up thinking I could save money by putting together my own insulated underground pipe. I was melting snow in my yard and my wood consumption went through the roof. For example I filled the firebox on my G-200 at 5:45 and my wife checked it at 9:15 and it was almost out of wood  , only 3.5 hours on about 12 large splits and rounds. So to the rescue came Slimjim with the magic bus and his custom pipe roller. We dug up my underground and replaced it with Logstor duel pex. Since then it has been over a week and what a difference. I am putting half the wood in the firebox and getting 14 hour burns. For anyone on here looking for information about underground pipe , all I can say that from my experience don't try to save money on pipe. save the money somewhere else.

23

Equipment / Stihl MS 250 C Question

« on: February 24, 2016, 04:13:53 PM »

So one of my customers just turned 75 the other day and he has decided to give up cutting wood. I know it's a shame , but be gave me his lightly used Stihl MS 250 C chainsaw. It's one of those easy start, pull it a few times to wind the spring models. I've prob pulled it about 1000 times in total and got it to start about 3 times. I tried about every possible way to pull the cord and it just doesn't seem to wind over enough to start. When it did start it ran great and for a little saw it has some zip. I have had it apart a few times and I can't find any mechanical issues. My question is : Does anyone out there know if I can change the recoil start over to a regular pull start cover? Maybe the cover off a regular MS 250 model will bolt on? or one from another saw? I don't really want to spend the money to fix what's on there now , but it is a nice little saw. You guys always seem to have the answers to life's little questions. Thanks  Alan

24

General Discussion / when you thought you heard it all....

« on: February 18, 2016, 04:47:08 PM »

So i'm sure that some of you out there have gun safes with electronic locks. My father called me tonight and told me that one of his friends had someone get into his gun safe and stole his guns. No one could figure out how they got in without the combination. Well it turns out that there is a video on the internet showing how to use a rare earth magnet in a sock to unlock the safe. Apparently you place it on the door over the actuator and slide it over to unlock the lock. I don't really want to end up on some watch list for searching it out online but I thought I would pass it on. Just when you thought you were doing the right thing to keep your valuables safe , some dope decides to tell everybody how to break in. nice 

25

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Why you don't make your own ins pipe

« on: February 13, 2016, 08:13:02 AM »

So I tried to save myself some money a while back and put together my own version of insulated pipe for my owb installation. So I looked around the interweb to see what other people or companies were building. I live in SE Mass so i figured i didn't really need the best insulation if i buried it deep enough and moved the water fast enough. So I bought 2 100' rolls of pexworks 1" pex-al , 1 24"x100' roll of reflective insulation , and 100' of 4" black drain pipe. We used 2 tractors to hold the pex stretched out and taped it together. Then we cut the roll of insulation into 25' pieces and wrapped it around the pex giving us about 4 wraps and we taped that together. We took that and slid it through the big black snake and done 100' insulated pipe. I buried it 4' deep and I thought / think I was very careful with the back fill. I thought everything was going fine until my wood usage more than doubled and I couldn't figure out where I was loosing all the heat. my 2400 taco pump flows 30+ gal/min so I wasn't seeing the heat loss between the owb and the gauge on hx supply. It finally came to me what was happening when i started getting snow melt in a strip of my yard over where the pipe is buried. Apparently I have water in my piping and I have created a really nice snow melt system that I don't need. I never considered this could happen when I built this pipe system. So next weekend I am laying down some logstor temp. and i'll get it buried in the spring. This type of piping may work good in some climates not here. Wish I had come here for information first instead on looking around the web

26

HeatMaster / Keeping my 1840 house at 70 with g200

« on: January 30, 2016, 07:23:29 AM »

 So after months of research and thanks to information from guys like you here on the forum we bought a Heatmaster SS g200. We are so glad we did. Slim Jim came down and helped me get it up and running. Thank you so much!! So after running the boiler for about a week here's my observations. There is a learning curve to running a gasification boiler ,after you figure out how to load it and when to leave it alone it's really simple. As of right now I am getting 12-14 hour burn times on good seasoned wood. Our house is easily staying at 70 degrees and we have the hottest DHW I have ever seen and it seems to be unlimited. I am also running a small modine heater on the return loop and heating the basement. Our house is about 2500 sf and was built in 1840 , no insulation and old windows. This boiler is really impressive. I have friends and neighbors with conventional style wood boilers and I cant wait to show them what this one can do.