At Home In The Woods
- Thread starter Obed
- Start date
brin
Super Member
Doesn't get much better than that ...you are making memories...blink and you will be walking her down the aisle...she sure has grown fast....yikes...
OP
Obed
Elite Member
I filled up a wheelbarrow with firewood and moved it into the garage.
Removing the plastic off the wood adds a little inconvenience to the process of filling the wheelbarrow each time. I'd like to find some scrap pieces of OSB to cover the pallet crates out of which I'm getting wood for the fireplace. Uncovering then recovering the pallet crate with a piece of OSB when I'm getting some wood would be a little easier than dealing with plastic.
Removing the plastic off the wood adds a little inconvenience to the process of filling the wheelbarrow each time. I'd like to find some scrap pieces of OSB to cover the pallet crates out of which I'm getting wood for the fireplace. Uncovering then recovering the pallet crate with a piece of OSB when I'm getting some wood would be a little easier than dealing with plastic.
Coyote machine
Super Member
- Joined
- May 4, 2009
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- 7,660
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- Southern VT
- Tractor
- 22 SANY SY 50U, '10 Kioti DK 40se/hst KL-401 FEL, loaded tires, KB-2485 bhoe, Tuffline TB160 BB, Woods QA forks, MIE Hydraulic bhoe thumb & ripper tooth, Igland 4001 winch, & GR-20 Log Grapple. Woods BBX72" Brush Mower. Diamondplate aluminum canopy
Wow! This thread is STILL going?! It's like the energizer bunny...it just keeps going and going and going.
See you're still experiencing some serious issues with your wood burning endeavors. I read through a bunch of pages just now and it seems it might make sense to ask Metalbestos about whether you need a spark arrester screen in your current setup- and I'd send them the pictures of your creosote buildup to help them understand your particular situation. After all they make the pipe so they ought to be able to offer some insight.
And I see you're going to get yourself a real saw- a Stihl! Yahoo! See my signature....
I note you mentioned the 'sawdust' in one post. If your saw is cutting correctly you won't be seeing dust you'll be seeing 'chips' of wood.
If you get a new saw, with an EZ start system you'll have to adjust to the way they start. Especially restarting after running one for a while. It is quite different than the way older saws start, and one has to be careful to realize that when you pull on the cord the saw will likely start with almost no effort. I found this quite disconcerting at first and hard to adjust to, for me, after being so used to drop starting saws all my life and having to pull the cords like there was no tomorrow. Make sure they demo a saw for you so you can determine if it's right for you.
I also noticed when you showed pics of your stove door open it seems the gasket cord around the stove door is maybe not sealing as tight as it should. (It's hard to tell from the pics for certain). Open the doors and look at the imprint of the seal on the stove face, both left and right, and check the rope seal in it's groove to see if it could fit better which will give you better draft up the flue thus creating a hotter fire, etc. There ought to be a way to adjust the tightness of the doors and gasket.
If it were me I wouldn't allow for any throttled down fires at any time, day or night. You ought to be burning as hot a fire as possible to prevent creosote buildup. I'd remove the spark arrester, after discussing it with Metalbestos first, and see what happens with creosote buildup. I doubt you have a hot enough temp at the top of the flue to cause any fire issues greater than the one you have already with the flue being blocked with creosote. If the creosote at the flue cap were to ignite it's being balled up on top of your chimney in the end of the flue and contained by the spark arrester could result in an unstoppable 2000* fireball ending up on your roof - much worse than a few errant sparks.
I would also supplement your current wet wood with some dry as you could possibly find wood from someone who could sell you a few cords.
And if you can't get to cut up all your current wood supply of logs at least get the bark off them so they stop rotting and drawing insects to the wood, which will end up in your house reeking havoc.
I'd also have a few fire stopping Chimfex 'flare' like safety extinguishers that could be put into the insert to smother a fire if it got out of control. They are shaped just like a road flare but are designed to kill the fire in an emergency. See the video: Chimney Fire Extinguisher by Rutland Products - Chimfex - YouTube
One other thought about how you handle your wood. If it were me I'd use the pallet forks and lift the logs up, placing one across the forks, and cut them from each end toward the forks and when I could cut no further then use the Peavey to hold the remaining section off the ground. I would also cut each section of length, say, 16" along the entire log length and then roll the log over on the forks to cut through the rest of the way.
See you're still experiencing some serious issues with your wood burning endeavors. I read through a bunch of pages just now and it seems it might make sense to ask Metalbestos about whether you need a spark arrester screen in your current setup- and I'd send them the pictures of your creosote buildup to help them understand your particular situation. After all they make the pipe so they ought to be able to offer some insight.
And I see you're going to get yourself a real saw- a Stihl! Yahoo! See my signature....
I note you mentioned the 'sawdust' in one post. If your saw is cutting correctly you won't be seeing dust you'll be seeing 'chips' of wood.
If you get a new saw, with an EZ start system you'll have to adjust to the way they start. Especially restarting after running one for a while. It is quite different than the way older saws start, and one has to be careful to realize that when you pull on the cord the saw will likely start with almost no effort. I found this quite disconcerting at first and hard to adjust to, for me, after being so used to drop starting saws all my life and having to pull the cords like there was no tomorrow. Make sure they demo a saw for you so you can determine if it's right for you.
I also noticed when you showed pics of your stove door open it seems the gasket cord around the stove door is maybe not sealing as tight as it should. (It's hard to tell from the pics for certain). Open the doors and look at the imprint of the seal on the stove face, both left and right, and check the rope seal in it's groove to see if it could fit better which will give you better draft up the flue thus creating a hotter fire, etc. There ought to be a way to adjust the tightness of the doors and gasket.
If it were me I wouldn't allow for any throttled down fires at any time, day or night. You ought to be burning as hot a fire as possible to prevent creosote buildup. I'd remove the spark arrester, after discussing it with Metalbestos first, and see what happens with creosote buildup. I doubt you have a hot enough temp at the top of the flue to cause any fire issues greater than the one you have already with the flue being blocked with creosote. If the creosote at the flue cap were to ignite it's being balled up on top of your chimney in the end of the flue and contained by the spark arrester could result in an unstoppable 2000* fireball ending up on your roof - much worse than a few errant sparks.
I would also supplement your current wet wood with some dry as you could possibly find wood from someone who could sell you a few cords.
And if you can't get to cut up all your current wood supply of logs at least get the bark off them so they stop rotting and drawing insects to the wood, which will end up in your house reeking havoc.
I'd also have a few fire stopping Chimfex 'flare' like safety extinguishers that could be put into the insert to smother a fire if it got out of control. They are shaped just like a road flare but are designed to kill the fire in an emergency. See the video: Chimney Fire Extinguisher by Rutland Products - Chimfex - YouTube
One other thought about how you handle your wood. If it were me I'd use the pallet forks and lift the logs up, placing one across the forks, and cut them from each end toward the forks and when I could cut no further then use the Peavey to hold the remaining section off the ground. I would also cut each section of length, say, 16" along the entire log length and then roll the log over on the forks to cut through the rest of the way.
MotorSeven
Elite Member
Obed I cleaned all 24' of my flue the other day with the Sooteater. I got about half a gallon of creosote. The Sooteater worked perfect running it up from the basement...no roof climbing(whew).
OP
Obed
Elite Member
Hey Coyote Machine. It's been a while.
Yes, this thread about the mundane things I do is still going and going. For some reason, some people seem to keep reading it so I keep posting.
I didn't know about Chimfex. I watched the videos. It sounds like something that would be good to for me to buy. I would definitely be willing to pay $30 if it might prevent burning down my house. That's some cheap insurance.
Next season I plan to have drier wood so the risks will go down. For now, I will just periodically clean the chimney.
Obed
Yes, this thread about the mundane things I do is still going and going. For some reason, some people seem to keep reading it so I keep posting.
I didn't know about Chimfex. I watched the videos. It sounds like something that would be good to for me to buy. I would definitely be willing to pay $30 if it might prevent burning down my house. That's some cheap insurance.
Next season I plan to have drier wood so the risks will go down. For now, I will just periodically clean the chimney.
Obed
OP
Obed
Elite Member
Bob, I haven't yet met any boys good enough! Probably never will. ObedDoesn't get much better than that ...you are making memories...blink and you will be walking her down the aisle...she sure has grown fast....yikes...
OP
Obed
Elite Member
Rick, it looks like your plan worked out. I can't say I'd be thrilled about the thoughts of climbing a steep metal roof. It's a long way down off of your roof.
Obed
jdonovan
Gold Member
If chimfex was such a great product, ask your self, why is it that so few fire departments use it? What do we use... nothing more than basic ABC dry chemical.
Hopefully do you have a large (5-10lb) dry chem extinguisher near the wood stove?
Coyote machine
Super Member
- Joined
- May 4, 2009
- Messages
- 7,660
- Location
- Southern VT
- Tractor
- 22 SANY SY 50U, '10 Kioti DK 40se/hst KL-401 FEL, loaded tires, KB-2485 bhoe, Tuffline TB160 BB, Woods QA forks, MIE Hydraulic bhoe thumb & ripper tooth, Igland 4001 winch, & GR-20 Log Grapple. Woods BBX72" Brush Mower. Diamondplate aluminum canopy
Homeowners are not fire departments. Chimfex is for homeowner use like for instance, Obed's wife if he's out somewhere and a chimney fire started she could use it in addition to calling the FD and waiting for them to bring out the trucks to make sure the house didn't become engulfed in fire.
Rutland Products, the makers of Chimfex, are up the road about 45 minutes from me, and make all kinds of proven products for stoves, chimneys and fireplaces. I have NO connection to them other than being familiar with their products through personal use of their 'crack mortar' and keeping a Chimfex tube near my fireplace/inserts for the last 20+ years. Fortunately I've never had a call to use it. Absolutely NO creosote build-up in my stainless steel liner. YMMV.