Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[KiwiBro]

Worth slabbing the last few meters of that trunk, Cowboy? Might have some interesting grain.

 

[JustJeff]

Put the last couple pieces on the scrounge wagon project so out backnit went for a wire wheeling After squirting some paint on it. I scrounged the paint too so color choice wasn't mine but free is free and it looks ok to me.

 

[chucker]

cat yellow, sneaky hey! nice job.

 

[farmer steve]

looking good Jeff. nice color for a base coat of desert camo.

 

[Cowboy254]

@Cowboy254 why not stack on pallets? Keep the tarp for the top of the stack.

Pallets would be good but there's one fundamental reason why I'm not using pallets for this stackage.

The tarps are shagged anyway and no good for keeping water off the top but good enough for keeping dirt out of the bottom. Past experience tells me that the layer sitting on the tarp will be wet next winter but won't rot - our generally hotter and drier environment probably helps me get away with this. I have some plastic I'll chuck over the top before winter that will keep the worst of the moisture off. Then it has two years in the shed to dry out in any case.

Worth slabbing the last few meters of that trunk, Cowboy? Might have some interesting grain.

I think you'd be right, some nice grain and light gum veining would be easy on the eye. There are, however, a few problems.

1. I have no way of moving big slabs
2. Manna gum is heavily prone to honeycombing and internal collapse
3. I have no current purpose for slabs, nor the skill to do anything with them (yet)
4. I'm a firewood whore with no secure supply beyond what I already have so I regard any (and every) tree as future heating BTUs.

I bet some beautiful hardwood lumber gets made in Australia. Some of the pics you post @Cowboy254 , show some real interesting colors and grains.

You're right, there's beautiful wood here - though I guess most parts of the world will have great looking wood also. This pic is from our old house during some renovations when we put down some new floorboards - alpine ash in this case, some great looking boards with the bonus inclusion of the devil-possessed Cowcat sitting on her carpet sample.

 

[MustangMike]

My 261 is MMWS ported, so I'm running 18" 3/8 RS, pulled it real well, and now I'm converting the RS to square.

 

[dancan]

Well

Done

The developer will load all them poles in his dump truck and haul them to the pit where Jerry and I have a stockpile .
As I was cutting the back part I came across this

The remains of a spruce blowdown that I had scrounged the butt 2 years ago lol
Paul also asked if I could drop a clump of sugarmaple on one of the lots I cleared the septic field a couple of weeks ago

I went over to the selling pile and blocked up a couple of cord after .
The trailer is hitched , I'll go get that maple tomorrow and then go over to that lot that had some oak to collect that .
Just like Cowboy254

4. I'm a firewood whore with no secure supply beyond what I already have so I regard any (and every) tree as future heating BTUs.

 

[JustJeff]

Jeez it does look yellow in the pics. Sun was setting. It is beige. I kind of like the camo idea....

 

[KiwiBro]

My 261 is MMWS ported, so I'm running 18" 3/8 RS, pulled it real well, and now I'm converting the RS to square.

Thanks. 7-tooth/pin?
For some reason, I never even thought of 3/8". Buried in dense wood, are you happy it stands up ok on 18"? I'll have to experiment some more. Would be good to standardise on 3/8". That said, I still love picco but haven't found a formula to help chip clearance when the bars get over 18".

 

[dancan]

I also retired my Mac T today , made in 1969 makes it almost as old as me lol
I decided to update to something that will pass some safety regs .

Cantdog brought it with him on his visit to the Maritimes

 

[KiwiBro]

What happens to the slash piles, dancan?

 

[dancan]

They usually burn if they have time but lately they just grub off the lot and haul it to his pit where he'll just fill in a low area .

 

[Cowboy254]

Panic over here, middle class outcry and the mayor has backed down wrt domestic stoves after realising it's unenforceable really. He is still pushing for tighter regs on stove sales to stop all but the cleaner ones to come in sooner though, which seems good to me. Just need that scrappage scheme too.... One of my stoves isn't the newest. I always miss out on the handouts though so it won't happen.

It's amazing how quickly a politicians convictions will wilt when he realises it'll cost him his job. That said, I could certainly accept tighter regs on new stoves as long as they don't force existing stove owners to upgrade or pull them out.

I really like some of the euro fireplace designs (https://www.eurofireplaces.com.au/) and one of our neighbours got one for their new home - in fact they are on the testimonial page on the website. 80% efficient. They showed me their wood stack - it was two rows deep, about 3' high, 10' long or thereabouts - and he said it's two years supply! He lights it, puts one piece of redgum in and that's it for the night. I nearly fell over. However, there are considerable differences in our situations. Theirs is a new house, single storey and very well insulated, ours is big, not well insulated - yet - and the main living areas are double storey with a lot of air volume to heat. While those small euro heaters look good and have high efficiency, they still don't put out as much heat as our big norseman (60% efficient) which eats big wood - lazy cubes win in the end.

 

[MustangMike]

Thanks. 7-tooth/pin?
For some reason, I never even thought of 3/8". Buried in dense wood, are you happy it stands up ok on 18"? I'll have to experiment some more. Would be good to standardise on 3/8". That said, I still love picco but haven't found a formula to help chip clearance when the bars get over 18".

First saw I have ever run 18" 3/8, but so far so good. And yes 7 T.

 

[LondonNeil]

• I really like some of the euro fireplace designs (https://www.eurofireplaces.com.au/) and one of our neighbours got one for their new home - in fact they are on the testimonial page on the website. 80% efficient. They showed me their wood stack - it was two rows deep, about 3' high, 10' long or thereabouts - and he said it's two years supply! He lights it, puts one piece of redgum in and that's it for the night. I nearly fell over. However, there are considerable differences in our situations. Theirs is a new house, single storey and very well insulated, ours is big, not well insulated - yet - and the main living areas are double storey with a lot of air volume to heat. While those small euro heaters look good and have high efficiency, they still don't put out as much heat as our big norseman (60% efficient) which eats big wood - lazy cubes win in the end.

About 80% efficient is the norm for our decent stoves, although since they all use secondary burn and are made so they simply can't be shut down to smolder they all roar and eat wood. They throw heat, burn clean, but eat wood. The very best stove I've seen is a make called Burley, 89% efficient!

Not sure how our stoves compare to the EPA regs, my perception is that the EPA is tighter again.

If you put your tarp over your plastic it'll keep the UV off and make it last longer. Old tarps over newer ones to make newer ones last.

 

[svk]

And to think when I met @MustangMike he owned 4 saws and I had pared my collection down to two. Lol.

 

[JustJeff]

My stove is only a couple years old. 77% efficiency and 3.4gm/hr emissions. And 8 hour burn time.
In 2020 EPA regs change again allowing no more than 2gm/hr particulate emissions.

 

[woodchip rookie]

I think the NC30 is already better than that.

 

[LondonNeil]

Cheers Jeff. I'm not sure our regs currently consider particulates, although it's those that are causing our bad air quality, along with NOx. I've read papers that say stove nox emissions are purely related to N content of the fuel as temp and flame residence is not great enough to oxidise N2 in the air, so there's nothing stoves can do on that. Good clean burn to get particulates down should be the aim if it isn't already.

I'd love your long burn times, but with an ickle 5kW stove (about 18000 Btu I think) I'm loading it every hour, fine if your sat by it, but otherwise a bit limiting.

 

[JustJeff]

Pretty amazing really for a non catalyst stove. Not many current stoves will make the cut in 2020. If you look at the EPA list, half of the low emissions stoves use a catalyst or are pellet.
As good as the catalytic stoves are, poor use and maintenance will degrade the catalyst quickly making them worse than a secondary burn stove.