ChoppyChoppy
Tree Freak
Yeah I'd bet. At nearly $4k each it's not something we replace. The 648D wold need 2, but with chains it still pulls good.
Slash fire methods
- Thread starter northmanlogging
- Start date
Help Support Arborist Forum:
Yeah I'd bet. At nearly $4k each it's not something we replace. The 648D wold need 2, but with chains it still pulls good.
ChoppyChoppy
Tree Freak
Try 5 gallons of methanol, that seems like pretty flammable stuff....
I tossed an empty jug in the stove a while back. Damn thing blew out and flew right out the shop! (Vehicle door was open)
You don't want flashy fuels in a slash pile. You want something that will stick and burn awhile. When we mess with ratios, it's because the standards didn't work. Nobody who's been the business awhile will jump right to a hot mix. We all love our eyebrows too much for that.
Fun thread being in PNW and 'Pungnet' sound area also.
Just about anything except 1 wadded newspaper to start -- everything else technically illegal here. 3 ft dia fires in residential areas and ya gotta be sitting within 20 feet with a hot dog on a stick !
The housing developers around me have not been able to burn slash in this area of King Co for over 20 years, chpped and hauled away, usually in tub grinders.
In these here 'green days', have used crushed HDPE milk jugs for fire starters down by Mossyrock, smokeless and lots of BTUs. Save all my milk jugs for various uses anyway.
Did use some tires in the past in the early 70's, nothing beats old tires with some diesel inside the for starters. Old car seat foam worked pretty good back then also.
Comment on 'flash' ; Back in the 60's, a cousin in ND filled an old tractor inner tube with oxy acet to re-start a slash pile.
Dragged the tube into the smouldering remains*, when it ignited it blew the pile apart!
*with a 50 ft rope, cousin was not THAT dumb. -
Just about anything except 1 wadded newspaper to start -- everything else technically illegal here. 3 ft dia fires in residential areas and ya gotta be sitting within 20 feet with a hot dog on a stick !
The housing developers around me have not been able to burn slash in this area of King Co for over 20 years, chpped and hauled away, usually in tub grinders.
In these here 'green days', have used crushed HDPE milk jugs for fire starters down by Mossyrock, smokeless and lots of BTUs. Save all my milk jugs for various uses anyway.
Did use some tires in the past in the early 70's, nothing beats old tires with some diesel inside the for starters. Old car seat foam worked pretty good back then also.
Comment on 'flash' ; Back in the 60's, a cousin in ND filled an old tractor inner tube with oxy acet to re-start a slash pile.
Dragged the tube into the smouldering remains*, when it ignited it blew the pile apart!
*with a 50 ft rope, cousin was not THAT dumb. -
This pile I'm working on currently is in the middle of a "nice" lake neighborhood, bunch of 1/2 acre lots in the middle of nowhere on a lake with an algae problem.
Using the weed burner is technically illegal but the fire dept looked the other way on that, their concern was the size of the pile, and ******** complaining about the smoke.
So the first day they where called roughly 20 minutes into starting it, still had the weed burner and some unburnt straw everywhere, later that day, they came out again and asked me to make the pile smaller (it was probably 20' and burnin real good)
The second day... got it burning quick and easy, already had a hot bed to work with, they probably would have left if the wind hadn't picked up a bit. Because of the wind they made me put it out, which was mostly fine since I was planning on letting it burn mostly out anyway after the last wad of stuff I'd just stacked on, since I had to go back to the day job fer 3 days anyway.
Torched it again on Tues, and it stared up real nice, 2-3 minutes with the weed burner and 10 minutes or so with the leave blower and it was back where I'd left off on thursday... of course then the wind picked up, so I didn't stack much more then what was immediately around the pile, and that mostly by hand.
I figure next week, I'll get er going good again, I think the neighbors mostly work during the day, so I'll burn hot in the morning and slow it down in the evenings.
Do what I can to get the pile burned, anything left will have to be hauled off, at $50 a ton plus trucking, so like $600 per 60 yd end dump. Or if I can get most of the brush burned up I'll use my little dumper truck, take a lot more trips, but then I'm not paying for a driver and his maintenance. And if I'm down to just stumps it won't be all that bad.
Using the weed burner is technically illegal but the fire dept looked the other way on that, their concern was the size of the pile, and ******** complaining about the smoke.
So the first day they where called roughly 20 minutes into starting it, still had the weed burner and some unburnt straw everywhere, later that day, they came out again and asked me to make the pile smaller (it was probably 20' and burnin real good)
The second day... got it burning quick and easy, already had a hot bed to work with, they probably would have left if the wind hadn't picked up a bit. Because of the wind they made me put it out, which was mostly fine since I was planning on letting it burn mostly out anyway after the last wad of stuff I'd just stacked on, since I had to go back to the day job fer 3 days anyway.
Torched it again on Tues, and it stared up real nice, 2-3 minutes with the weed burner and 10 minutes or so with the leave blower and it was back where I'd left off on thursday... of course then the wind picked up, so I didn't stack much more then what was immediately around the pile, and that mostly by hand.
I figure next week, I'll get er going good again, I think the neighbors mostly work during the day, so I'll burn hot in the morning and slow it down in the evenings.
Do what I can to get the pile burned, anything left will have to be hauled off, at $50 a ton plus trucking, so like $600 per 60 yd end dump. Or if I can get most of the brush burned up I'll use my little dumper truck, take a lot more trips, but then I'm not paying for a driver and his maintenance. And if I'm down to just stumps it won't be all that bad.
Matt, that seems bass ackwards. I try to burn HOT if neighbors are around. A hot fire doesn't smoulder and the smoke is a bit thinner. In the words of our late fuels guy, You Got To Get That Column Built. He was the first fuels guy I ever worked for who actually tried not to smoke out the crew holding line. So, I'd (more of his words) Pour the heat in it and get it hot. But you know the temperament of the neighborhood so just tell me to .....off. 
Odog
ArboristSite Operative
I get what you're saying, I was kinda being a smart a** with the methanol comment. I can see the reason for oily fuels
big and hot=clean and fast.
Its just nosy people with nothing better to do then bitch about their neighbors, so the fire is going to take 3 times as long, and be 6 times as smokey.
PSCAA is the big problem here, can't burn without a permit, DNR won't give a permit for LDA's, so I have to go through the Fire Dept, so the fire has to be small.
Meanwhile 5 miles away, where the brush would get hauled to, folks complain about the smell... of decomposing woody debris, which is releasing exactly the same amount of co2 as my fire is, but my fire arguably smells better, until some one makes me put it out... then its a little stinky...
Granted the fire releases more particulate, but its not harmful particulate, mostly silica some potassium chloride (lye), carbon, etc.
The ologists at PSCAA have deemed slash piles bad so burning is verboten.
Its just nosy people with nothing better to do then bitch about their neighbors, so the fire is going to take 3 times as long, and be 6 times as smokey.
PSCAA is the big problem here, can't burn without a permit, DNR won't give a permit for LDA's, so I have to go through the Fire Dept, so the fire has to be small.
Meanwhile 5 miles away, where the brush would get hauled to, folks complain about the smell... of decomposing woody debris, which is releasing exactly the same amount of co2 as my fire is, but my fire arguably smells better, until some one makes me put it out... then its a little stinky...
Granted the fire releases more particulate, but its not harmful particulate, mostly silica some potassium chloride (lye), carbon, etc.
The ologists at PSCAA have deemed slash piles bad so burning is verboten.
Spotted Owl
ArboristSite Guru
How early in the day can you start?
dawn to dusk
Spotted Owl
ArboristSite Guru
Get a five gallon bucket, gear & bar oil buckets work good, if there's a little left over that's great. Add 4 gallons of gas, mixed gas takes down the poofyness, diesel works best but is tougher to light up. Run a couple bars of ivory soap through a cheese grater. Dump soap shavings into bucket of gas and stir. Add a couple sleeves of styro coffee cups. Let it thicken up a bit then slop some of it around with a good puddle in the middle. Torch it off right at daylight. It'll get everything going before the neighbors are up and moving for the day if you need to burn when they are going to be home. If there's any dark smoke it will be minimal and mixed in with the heavy starting smoke and steam. Don't burn the bucket.
Started up two green piles with this mix Monday. It worked and smoke was normal, we figured on a big cloud of blackness that didn't happen. If you use a lot it will send up black smoke. The big pile that got 3 full buckets, sent up some black. It's our new go to for burning, should be great on a seasoned pile.
If the neighbors complain, toss in a couple dollar store bags of potpourri.
Owl
Started up two green piles with this mix Monday. It worked and smoke was normal, we figured on a big cloud of blackness that didn't happen. If you use a lot it will send up black smoke. The big pile that got 3 full buckets, sent up some black. It's our new go to for burning, should be great on a seasoned pile.
If the neighbors complain, toss in a couple dollar store bags of potpourri.
Owl
did you burn her at the stake?
try not to burn distant relations at the stake, makes family reunions awkward
That gives me an idea. Make a religious ceremony out of it and it'll be OK. Burning the pile that is, not people. When is Guy Fawkes day? Or have a St. Lucia festival on the 21 next month and torch it off. Lots of ceremonial (religious) possibilities out there.
Remember remember the fifth of november and the gun powder treason and plot...
Yule is the 21st, well its 12 days long really
Yule is the 21st, well its 12 days long really
Howdy, Owl!
1270d
ArboristSite Guru
Spotted Owl
ArboristSite Guru
Howdy.
No idea. That's just what we mixed up. He brought the stuff. I think it's a thickening agent, but I also thought that was what the styro was for too. All I know is it works great, but don't get any on yourself, it sticks like glue and burns for quite a while. Mixing with diesel seemed to burn hottest, but it was a bit of a bugger to get started.
Owl
old napalm trick, makes the fuel sticky and thick.
Used to be old formula Tide+naphtha+jet fuel/kerosene/diesel
enough tide to thicken the fuel, enough naphtha to ensure a good start.
This is definitely not a mix I would suggest using for starting brush fires. Way more woosh then slow burn.
On the topic of liquid fire starters, Hydraulic fluid, automatic trans fluid, tractor trans, all burn real good, and hot fairly easy to light too, just a bit of paper, takes off better then diesel, and burns longer too.
windthrown
361 Junkie
911? Man, that is forked up. Wind? Like anything is going to burn after several ~feet~ of rain this and last month? I sold some saws to two fallers in southern Washington a couple of years ago, and they talked about all the problems they have burning slash up there. We can burn out here in the Oregon Cascades if we are residents (not absentee) without a permit during non-fire restrictions. Burning slash, loggers in Oregon can pretty much burn whenever they want during the non fire season. Again, they have to do that by law.
Sounds like you need a permit to burn flaming liberals.
