rswyan
Super Star Member
- Joined
- May 12, 2004
- Messages
- 11,203
- Location
- Northeast Ohio
- Tractor
- Kubota B2910, Cub Cadet Pro Z 154S, Simplicity 18 CFC, Cub Cadet 782
26F and cloudy ... headed up to 31F supposedly.
Ran into a little problem with the wood furnace yesterday ... didn't seem to be much in the way of a draft, couldn't get the fire stoked up and really going. Open the ash drawer and had smoke coming out the air intake ... something that almost never happens.
I assumed it was probably creosote buildup in the flue pipe going to the chimney, but also figured it might the chimney itself that was clogged or that the stove just couldn't get enough air through the intake to burn this very, very green wood.
So I decided to kill the fire by burning up what little fuel/coals were in the furnace and scope things out.
While I was waiting for the burn to finish, I fabbed up and installed a smoke flap for the loading door. Took an 11" x 4" piece of steel sheet and drilled a couple holes in it and slotted it so that it would swing and then drilled the neck of the loading door and installed two eyelets for the flap to swing on. Swings up and out of the way when tossing a chunk of wood in and substantially reduces any smoke that might come back into the house when the door is opened.
After that, since the fire was almost out, I pulled the air intake damper off and took a die grinder with a rotary burr and a big round file and opened up the steel plate on the front of the stove when the air intake damper mounts. Originally, from the factory, this hole had been torched out ... without much care being given to an unrestricted pathway for the air to flow in. The damper has three trapizoidal (keystone) shaped holes in it ... only one of them had a clear, unrestricted path for air inflow ... and that only due to my previous efforts 10 years ago.
After putting that back together the furnace was cool enough to pull the flue pipe going to the chimney. It had some creosote in it ... but it really wasn't that much ... maybe 1/2" to 3/4" on the walls at most. Cleaned that out and reassembled it.
Then I commenced to starting a fire. Started with a bunch of sawdust, wood flakes, and bark and covered that with a few small pieces of straight-grained maple that wasn't all that well seasoned, and then added a few small pieces of the very, very green oak ...
Stuffed the ash drawer full of wadded up paper and lit it up.
In about 15 minutes or so I had a (smaller) roaring fire.
Piled it up before I went to bed (with the green oak) - although I didn't fully load the furnace - and when The 'Cake got up this morning the only thing left was a small pile of coals ... which she tried to build a fire on ... by throwing a couple of large chunks of green oak on ... :confused2:
This - after I sat there yesterday and remarked to her that this process (tinder ---> small wood = fire started) would probably work really great to rebuild a fire from coals ...
SMH ...
A case of "I-really-really-want-it-right-now" if ever there was one ...
Ran into a little problem with the wood furnace yesterday ... didn't seem to be much in the way of a draft, couldn't get the fire stoked up and really going. Open the ash drawer and had smoke coming out the air intake ... something that almost never happens.
I assumed it was probably creosote buildup in the flue pipe going to the chimney, but also figured it might the chimney itself that was clogged or that the stove just couldn't get enough air through the intake to burn this very, very green wood.
So I decided to kill the fire by burning up what little fuel/coals were in the furnace and scope things out.
While I was waiting for the burn to finish, I fabbed up and installed a smoke flap for the loading door. Took an 11" x 4" piece of steel sheet and drilled a couple holes in it and slotted it so that it would swing and then drilled the neck of the loading door and installed two eyelets for the flap to swing on. Swings up and out of the way when tossing a chunk of wood in and substantially reduces any smoke that might come back into the house when the door is opened.
After that, since the fire was almost out, I pulled the air intake damper off and took a die grinder with a rotary burr and a big round file and opened up the steel plate on the front of the stove when the air intake damper mounts. Originally, from the factory, this hole had been torched out ... without much care being given to an unrestricted pathway for the air to flow in. The damper has three trapizoidal (keystone) shaped holes in it ... only one of them had a clear, unrestricted path for air inflow ... and that only due to my previous efforts 10 years ago.
After putting that back together the furnace was cool enough to pull the flue pipe going to the chimney. It had some creosote in it ... but it really wasn't that much ... maybe 1/2" to 3/4" on the walls at most. Cleaned that out and reassembled it.
Then I commenced to starting a fire. Started with a bunch of sawdust, wood flakes, and bark and covered that with a few small pieces of straight-grained maple that wasn't all that well seasoned, and then added a few small pieces of the very, very green oak ...
Stuffed the ash drawer full of wadded up paper and lit it up.
In about 15 minutes or so I had a (smaller) roaring fire.
Piled it up before I went to bed (with the green oak) - although I didn't fully load the furnace - and when The 'Cake got up this morning the only thing left was a small pile of coals ... which she tried to build a fire on ... by throwing a couple of large chunks of green oak on ... :confused2:
This - after I sat there yesterday and remarked to her that this process (tinder ---> small wood = fire started) would probably work really great to rebuild a fire from coals ...
SMH ...
A case of "I-really-really-want-it-right-now" if ever there was one ...
