Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[MustangMike]

I'm a hoarder … my cabin is 20 minutes in on the trail, and at least 15 minutes more to any store.

At home, I just don't want to waste the time going to the store when I'm working on a project. I often use things I stored away 10, 20 or more years ago. When I made the wood shelves for my saws, I had stored the 1 X 12 I used for over 20 years (in the back of my garage … out of the way, but I knew it was there). Actually, My Dad had bought it, and I took it off his hands when he moved to FL. I knew someday I would use it for something.

When I concoct something I often tell my wife (who like to throw everything away) "I knew I would need that sometime"!

I built this house in 1986 and still have some nails, screws and bolts that were left over from the "bulk" purchases I made when building this place. It gives me comfort to think that I almost have my own hardware store, and when I need something, I almost always buy extra, as it is usually cheaper in bulk (like HD give a discount on a 12 pack of caulking, etc). I always end up needing it sooner or later.

When I dismantled the above ground well that was in my backyard (and never was used when I was here) I repurposed the angle iron for 1) my log hauling trailers, and 2) to support grates above the outdoor fire place up at the cabin.

 

[cantoo]

That's what, about a 3 hour commute? Only way I'd ever clear a lot is if was for myself. That's a lot of slugging!

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It's 2 hours and 15 minutes each way. I hate motels so I usually drive back and forth but when I have guys there working I sometimes stay right in Tobermory, $205 a night for a room. I leave home around 6:30 in the morning, work all day and leave site around 6:30 or 7. Had my wife there playing today and she was real impressed, I doubt she will be back. Only a couple days of cutting left. Heading to Port Dover for Friday the 13th tomorrow.

 

[H-Ranch]

When I concoct something I often tell my wife (who like to throw everything away) "I knew I would need that sometime"!

LOL - I almost make a production out of it, telling my wife that I've had this part for 15 or 20 years and I even knew where to find it!

 

[Deleted member 150358]

There is talk here about going back to glass jars and bottles. Allegedly it is the greener option. Funny how the old timers might have known more than we ever gave 'em credit for at the time.

I think all our trash that used to go to China comes back as packaging.

No but seriously the disposable era has to end and take it packaging with it.

Glass? I dunno used to see broken glass everywhere. Have to be some serious appeal. Beverages taste best bottled but weight has to be factored in too.

 

[sb47]

I’ve got another half dozen jars on since this pic

View attachment 759076

Why mount the lid? It doesn't save any space and you can't take the lid with the jar when you need to take it out in the field or to a project location.

 

[svk]

Why mount the lid? It doesn't save any space and you can't take the lid with the jar when you need to take it out in the field or to a project location.

It’s meant to stay in the shop. Works great

 

[JustJeff]

Agree with the disposable stuff. It's a generation of it now. I remember spending time with my grandfather. He would pull a couple of those jars down from the rafter and we would sit on a stool and straighten nails that he had pulled out of something. Uncle was a carpenter so there was no shortage of supply or demand.

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[LondonNeil]

It's not clear re glass is good. The current war on plastics.. very muddy. I'm a big fan of reduce waste, REMOVE UNNECESSARY PACKAGING! But paper can be bad for the environment too and cotton for shopping bags... The water needed is a real problem! Glass, endlessly recyclable but heavy. Everything we use had an impact and how do you weigh bad pollution against climate change or water consumption? We aren't going to solve this easily. What I do believe is certain though.... Any solution requires reduced consumption. So far that is unacceptable. I hope they changes.... Or a fear for my little girls.

 

[rarefish383]

I built a shooting bench out of used pt 2X6’s from a deck I tore down. Used all straightened nails. Now I use a screw gun and screw every thing together. My BIL wanted to use his nail gun when we built the 8X12 addition on my hunting trailer. I said no, I might need to use the plywood someday for another building. Now I have the 12X40 foot building that needs wiring, insulation, and interior walls, I have 20 sheets of 3/4 plywood for walls. Plus all of the 2X4’s used for studs, screwed them together also. I’ll throw all of those screws in a coffee tub and reuse as we go.

 

[svk]

I spent my entire youth straightening used nails so that’s one thing I don’t save. My dad had buckets worth stowed in the shed and garage. I finally threw them all away. I will save used bolts though. Decking screws lose strength over time in the elements so I’ll reuse if they look decent.

I have all of my decking screws and nails in zip lock bags in clear bins. It’s just the bolts and nuts that are in cans with the need to sort.

 

[steved]

I think all our trash that used to go to China comes back as packaging.

No but seriously the disposable era has to end and take it packaging with it.

Glass? I dunno used to see broken glass everywhere. Have to be some serious appeal. Beverages taste best bottled but weight has to be factored in too.

They supposely passed regulations to limit the import of plastic to China as a way to force them to recycle...

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[sb47]

I spent my entire youth straightening used nails so that’s one thing I don’t save. My dad had buckets worth stowed in the shed and garage. I finally threw them all away. I will save used bolts though. Decking screws lose strength over time in the elements so I’ll reuse if they look decent.

I have all of my decking screws and nails in zip lock bags in clear bins. It’s just the bolts and nuts that are in cans with the need to sort.

I did the same and still do. Nails have gotten expensive so I tend to save the ones that are not twisted up to bad. Dry wall screws have also gotten expensive.

 

[MustangMike]

We built a 3 story tree fort in an old White Oak tree with thrown away lumber and straightened nails!

I even made some small explosives by peeling the gunpowder off rolls of caps, and we made rockets with used CO-2 cartridges that we filled with match heads. Careful, if you make the hole too small, they explode! We would shoot them through plastic tubes that were sold to protect golf club handles.

 

[KiwiBro]

Why have capitalism if we persist privatising the profits and socialising the costs? By that I mean why not establish the true life-cycle costs of product packaging that have thus far been socialised and making sure those costs are put back on the producers/distributors/importers so that the product prices rise enough to give purchasers an incentive to alter their behaviour and migrate towards choices deemed better for the environment. If the choice of packaging hits a company's bottom line not just because of the costs of producing or distributing it, but also dealing with it at the end of its life or the costs to reuse, then that's a significant driver for change.

But how do we do that? Some countries in Europe have a tax stick they wield above the backs of companies that sell undesirably packaged products. They also use a carrot of tax incentives if said companies maintain refund schemes and automatic bottle return machines people can place their bottles into for a refund. It's a start. I just can't see how we are so comfortable socialising the costs like we have for so long, when if the costs were put back into the product price our behaviour would change. Price is a big driver of such behavioural changes if the hike is meaningful. The higher prices would also give some much needed differentiation room for the bulk food retailer. We used to have a chain of stores here called Bin-Inn where they had food, mainly ingredients and the like, in bulk and we'd bring our own re-usable containers, etc and scoop the required amounts in. Brilliant i thought but there wasn't enough of a price difference to overcome the convenience of buying conventionally packaged foodstuffs. The store might still be around but it hasn't really taken off like I had hoped it would.

That same higher pricing of environmentally unwelcome packaging also leads to more R&D into recycling schemes because, again, of a profit motive. There is a company here that has a pilot plastic recycling plant that is carbon neutral, I think it's energy neutral (or not far off it) and very close to profitable. That sort of thing just needs a helping hand.

I'd like to see this at a country level rather than supra-macro, global control-freak new world order level like the climate change protocols, etc.

 

[KiwiBro]

Our old decking, recycled:



A mates ceiling rafters, recycled (including recycled railroad tie bolts and washers):



A mates floor, recycled (excluding the legs that were from another persons house post):

 

[KiwiBro]

A thought occurred to me a while back; all these cars, needing new tires and brakes. Where does the thousands of tonnes of rubber and brake lining end up? Same for the particulates from vehicle emissions? it's funny how we just don't seem to consider such things. At least I, and I suspect most of us, had been conditioned to not giving it a second thought.

 

[James Miller]

Took my splitters for a ride earlier. Seemed like a good day to swing an axe. Never got out of the 60s. Got a little done. Sometimes i like being in the woods without all the noise of running a saw.

 

[rarefish383]

Stopped in the Stihl dealer that sold me the 4 big Homelites last year, for $10 each. Asked if he had any 1/2 inch chain to fit the Poulan Super 68. He said he had 2 rolls of Oregon 10. He cut me a loop for the 31" bar for $30. That stuff sure looks good on the saw. If I can make it to Steves that one is coming. Any log that I stick it in has to be off the ground, that chain has to last me the rest of my life!

 

[rarefish383]

What size chain is this?

 

[sb47]

My nephew was down last weekend and built his dad a big ammo box and a 5 lb box of drywall screws was 25 bucks. I can remember when that same box was $2.50
Most nails these days are the thin nail gun nails and are harder to recover because there thin and bend up easily and because there thin, they are harder to drive with a hammer. It does make reusing them a challenge though.