Burnin' Wood ( and other fuels...)

[kmcconaughey]

Ryan, posts are pressure treated 4x4 set somewhere between 3.5 to 4 feet in the ground, no concrete (IMO concrete holds moisture and causes the posts to rot faster). I believe I set the posts 24" apart front to back and 8' apart side to center to side. The rafters are 2x4 and the beams that the rafters set on are 2x6. The ends are closed in with a single sheet of plywood so it's 4' deep. I forget what the slope is. It's a bit higher then 8' in the front as the plywood is full height at the front and is up from the ground about 2" to 4". Though with the 2x6 beam, there is less then 8' clearance. Before I stacked any wood in it I folded up a tarp to fit between the posts and laid it down, then placed two 2x4s over the tarp and put two pallets on the 2x4s. The wood was then stacked on the pallets. Two pallets fit perfectly between the posts, yes I planned for that.

Next time I have it open to haul in some wood I'll try to remember to take some photos of the inside.

 

[cellis]

Gents: Question: Now that I'm heating with wood, I've found a few pieces that just wont split easy with the maul. Well, more than a few, actually. I'm all for exercise but not for hurtin' myself. I'm thinking about buying an electric logsplitter because I don't want yet another gas engine to maintain. Specifically, the "Ramsplitter" with 3 hp 220v motor and 20t cylinder. Anybody know anything about these?? I've read all the internet postings but sure would prefer hearing from a source I trust.

Ken: LOL. Nice dino. I've got one of those left over from the kid's holloween costumes. Now I've got a steel one outside the back door and another one painted on my barn.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Craig, never tried an electric splitter. My in-laws have a gas powered hydraulic splitter so I cut up a big pile to have ready to split then borrow that and split the pile up. Before they bought the splitter I used to just rent a splitter once a year for a day and my wife and I would just split wood nonstop for several hours, it's a lot of work but when you have that pile of firewood all split up it's a beautiful thing.

Oh, and for splitting by hand I use a Log Blaster but they are available anymore, however THIS is almost the same thing. I do NOT like splitting wedges, or for that matter, wedgies.....

And yes, those are parts Cubs in the right background behind the spruce trees......

 

[aaytay]

....and we wonder why Kraig doesn't have time to resto K4K.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Art, yep!

 

[cellis]

Kraig: Yeah - that is some pile of wood. I see a horse trailer back there, too. I fear that due to SWMBO's life-long dream of horse ownership, I will soon be needing one of those as well. That's why I'm heating with wood...can't afford a hayburner.

 

[rwilke]

Kraig McC.,
I get the picture now... Thanks for sharing your shelter dimensions.

Wow! That's quite a pile of wood!
Looks to be pretty nice wood at that - red oak or cherry wood?
Ryan W

 

[kmcconaughey]

Craig, the horse trailer belongs to my parents, that's their old one, I was using it to haul scaffolding for my house residing project a few years back. One of next years projects is to fence in a big chunk of my 5 acres for horses. My father passed away this past May and my mother didn't want to take care of all the horses, there were 15 of them. She sold and gave away several and then my horse Rocket died in June, we think he had a bad reaction to a vaccination. She's down to 4 horses now and once I get the fence built they will be rotated 2 at a time up at my place. Here's a photo of my daughter on Austi, the palomino in the background is Rocket.

Ryan, that was a mixture of red oak, white oak, black walnut, ash and maple but mostly red and white oak. Wish I had a pile like that now, but I'm down to just slabwood... Come spring I'll place my order for the semi load of hardwood 8' logs. Have I mentioned that I hate slabwood?

 

[kweaver]

 

[kmcconaughey]

KENtucky, what's the problem with a post driver with handles? I've used both styles with no problems...

 

[kweaver]

The problem with handles ????

I had to fix a fence next to a road one day in a ditch line. I was standing on the road. The post was tall enough that I had to hold the driver around the pipe instead of by the handles. I didn't look up to see the orientation of the handles. It was a wet ditch and the ground was soft but I must have started on a rock. I slammed the driver down and a handle hit me on top of the head and drove me into the ground.

It's not something I want to do again ... besides I think holding onto a pipe is a better grip and less shock than holding handles.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Ah!

 

[kide]

KentucK:
Coffee's hot - com'on up... Pump is a 1/25th horse Grundfos 2P310, moves 18.5 GPM at 1' head pressure, down to 1.4 GPM at 15' head pressure. We've been keeping the house warm with no problem - the weather has been mostly low 30's at night and anywhere from mid 40's to 58 or 59 yesterday. I've been burning mostly small junk wood so far - I'm waiting for a friend's small dump truck to get the diesel engine fuel pump fixed before I do serious cutting. The foam insulation seems to be vastly superior to wrapping the tank in fiberglass bats, as most of the previous ones my son-in-law built were completed with (by the owners - not him). We let the fire die out one day and the water temperature had only dropped about 12-15 degrees in 24 hours (the circulation pump was off, so we weren't drawing heat to the house). The thermostat in the house isn't calling for heat more than 1-2 times an hour at night when it's cold now. I eliminated the heat anticipator setting on the thermostat, as there shouldn't be a heat overrun, like there is with a gas or oil furnace (when it's up to temp, the air handler just shuts off, pronto). I'm already regretting not putting the second loop in for the workshop (about 500 sq feet, insulated) this winter, as I'll probably spend close to $400.00 on propane this year and the new furnace sets right in back of it (DOH!)

BTW - your post driver brings up my problem a few years ago.. I was using a home made tamper, made from a 4 foot piece of 4 inch pipe that had a piece of 6 inch C channel welded to the end for the tamper foot. Has a pair of D handles welded on close to the open end to grab on to.. Turn this sucker upside down and it looks almost like a post driver, with almost being the operative word here.. I was driving standard 8 foot steel fence posts 16 foot apart for stacking firewood and got 3 posts driven - had started the 4th, when the foot came loose from the end of the pipe and fell about three feet - I managed to slow its progress towards earth with my head, fortunately padded with a knit wool "dummy" hat and a baseball cap..
I weighed the foot later at 7 pounds - I had just tacked the thing on the end of the pipe, cause it was just a tamper..... Now, the doctors said that it was just a coincidence that I had vertigo the next day and that the resultant inner ear damage( that I still cope with) was caused by a virus.. I was off work for a month and the better half made me go buy a post driver at F&F.....

 

[kweaver]

Kendell - How's it workin ?
How's it workin out for ya talkin yer better half into going out and throwing more wood in the fire box with that ice falling ?

 

[kide]

Working fine - keeping the house at 74 degrees, I should have put in the second loop for the workshop which is right behind the furnace (DOH!), but I wanted to wait until we'd seen how it worked with the house first. I am sure we're using more wood, but I don't have to put as much time into splitting as I'm using a lot more halves now (although the pics below show a bunch of quarters, cause I've gotten quite a bit of fairly green wood.

129 NOT ready for snow duty yet (almost dark on Sunday night)

OT ZTR makes great trailer hauler WITHOUT chains..

About a cord of wood, permanent wood storage planned for next summer

 

[bbrigham]

Thats funny, first time I seen a ZTR pullin a trailer

I like it . How bout fabbin mounts for a snow plow ? Bet it would work good .

Bren

Oops, spoke too soon, seen snow plows for them on flea bay

 

[kweaver]

Looks like Kendell got kicked out of the house for making her feed the fire demon ... I see he's got his suitcases strapped to the ZTR and has a supply of wood to make his coffee.

Kendell - You need a cab on that Hey quit wasting wood ! You think that stuff grows on trees !!

 

[kide]

<u>I</u> feed the fire - it's not her "hobby"

Third year using the OT ZTR for hauling <font size="-2">(I'll get spanked, but it <u>is</u> a (Tiger) Cub also - not sure how Scag got away with that)</font>. Front blade is in the works for light duty.. 129 still gets the QA42a, the "Smoker" 149 will eventually get that or a blade. (Got two of everything now - the 149 came with a 36a ..) Too many projects, I'm gonna have to retire from retirement.

 

[cellis]

Gents: I discovered a method of cleaning the glass on my woodburning stove that you might be interested in. I learned it from a chimney sweep but I understand it is not a well-known techique...but it sure does the job.

Open the door when the stove is relatively cool - like in the morning when you get up - and let the glass cool a bit until you can touch it. Then crumple up a sheet of newspaper and wet it under the faucet with hot water. Not dripping, sopping wet but wet. Dip the wad of paper in ashes from inside the stove and scrub the glass. The creosote comes right off.

Use a couple wetted paper towels to clean up the gray slurry and you're done. I put a dry sheet of newspaper under the door to catch the drips and junk, then wad it all up and toss in the junk (too wet to burn).

Works like a charm.

 

[kide]

Craig:

See the coffee can in the pic of the front of the outside furnace?? It's a drool can for the creosote dripping from the corner of the door.. We'll be doing a little re-engineering next summer - in the meantime, I'm stocking up on fence posts to treat... Anyone got other uses for liquid creosote?? Maybe it'd be good bug repellent...