How do you light your bonfires?

[PHPaul]

Typically, I use the forks on my tractor to make a cave in the pile, stuff a bale of hay in there, soak it good with diesel fuel and put a match to it.

Most fun I've ever had tho, I belonged to a fledgling gun club. Lots of "work days" clearing brush for the firing range. We had a pretty good pile of brush stacked up and decided to have a little fun burning it. We placed a couple of gallon milk jugs about 3/4 full of used oil and thinned with a bit of gasoline.

Then we duct-taped tannerite targets to them, backed off 25 yards and started plinking at them with .22 pistols. When someone finally hit one, it was pretty darned impressive!

 

[aczlan]

Typically, I use the forks on my tractor to make a cave in the pile, stuff a bale of hay in there, soak it good with diesel fuel and put a match to it.

I use a few flakes of hay spread around the pile, soak them with used motor oil and light them with a propane torch...

Aaron Z

 

[oosik]

Interesting - that tannerite must be fairly wild stuff. We had a major wildfire(Watermelon Hill wildfire) just miss my property last summer. It was just by the graces of the gods that the wind blew the mile and a half front just beyond the SW portion of my property.

It was determined that the fire was started by three men shooting at tannerite targets with high powered rifles.

 

[JSanders10]

I have a 20' high, about 30' diameter burn pile ready and waiting for a good damp weekend to light the pile.
All miscellaneous stuff, wood, carpet, trash from cleaning out an old farm house we're renovating.

All the family has asked me wait for an day they can be there, and we'll have a cookout and evening of it.

What whisky goes well with a bonfire?

 

[Industrial Toys]

Nothing but a big bottle of Jack would suffice, IMO!

Yes, carpet, foam rubber, and apholstered furniture is all good! Sometimes best done at night, otherwise people think a plane went down! For some reason those horrible white plastic chairs don't burn very well.

I save my cardboard too, but it can tend to create a hazzar when it flies away still burning.

 

[tcartwri]

I used Coleman stove fuel once thinking it was closer to diesel than gas. I was wrong.. lol.

 

[Dutch445]

FIREBALL!!!

 

[J_J]

Not like this.

http://youtu.be/3f4lPzxSm5A

 

[milligjg]

I use one of these hooked up to a 20lb propane pig. I light brush piles with it mostly.

Flame Weed Dragon Torch Kit — 100,000 BTU | Torch Kits| Northern Tool + Equipment

 

[xzcVAbc5]

Not like this.

http://youtu.be/3f4lPzxSm5A

On the bright side, this not so bright individual didn't catch the corn field on fire.

 

[MoKelly]

Not like this.

http://youtu.be/3f4lPzxSm5A

Question --- how many actually skipped the ad before watching the video?

MoKelly

 

[Xfaxman]

Question --- how many actually skipped the ad before watching the video?

MoKelly

There was no ad to skip when I watched it just now.

 

[Industrial Toys]

That video is priceless and HIGHLY educational. I have seen it numerous times before. But it begs the question. Why does my gasoline never have enough octane or omff, left to run my 2 cycle garbage, but will blow me to Mars if it gets the chance?

 

[Rayster]

I'm sure this will spark some discussion; flare gun...

 

[NS Gearhead]

I use cardboard and newspaper in a pile. Add the driest branches I've got over to a modest size pile. Pour old motor oil over that pile and light the paper. Feed the fire as I go. I used to light the entire pile I had, but I like controlling how hot and fast it burns.

I usually burn a full day, three of four times a year... although my need to has been going down the longer we've been on this property. I used to burn old brush, branches, dead trees on the property in the woods... but found even in a clearing, the trees around the edge would have their roots burned and fall over with time. Now I just make piles. I figure it's a house for critters, so it's a win/win.

 

[farmer2009]

I use the fire starter bricks. Find an area with good starting material and then set a brick under it. Once it's going good then add some used oil or diesel fuel to make it spread. Then keep it pushed tight with the dozer. As it may take 3 or 4 days to burn a brush pile made with the dozer.

 

[Xfaxman]

I use diesel. The piles are dead trees and freshly pulled cedar trees. Doesn't take much to get it going! :thumbsup:

 

[DKCDKC]

I now just pile brush generally for wildlife. My Dad would build a huge pile in the middle of a field. He would take a huge old tarp and have us kids spread it over the center of the pile. Then he waited for a rain. Just after the rain he'd pull the tarp, get some hay bale sections soaked in kerosene and chuck them in, then light with a torch. Worked well. Never lost control and usually had nothing left but ash.

I am burning some old dead locust stumps this spring by covering them with tarps then, when I'm ready, filling them with some old scraps of lumber I have and pouring a bit of kero on them. I expect they'll take some time to burn. They are about 5 feet tall. Can't cut them further because they were used to hold a fence over a century and are full of nails.

 

[E/S]

I use a propane weed burner.

E/S

 

[Qapla]

The forestry service here uses a mix of gas and diesel, don't know what the mix is. Then they put it in a heavy iron pot with a screw on lid. There is a piece of 1/4" pipe welded to the lid with a loop bent in the middle. In the end is a piece of rag twisted into it. You pour some mix out so the rag is soaked and light the rag on fire. Then you just pour out burning mix and it drips out fire. Works well, just walk along and leave a trail of fire behind you.
BTW the spring no burn season has started here.

When my brother worked for the Forestry Service here in Florida they used a mixture of 2 parts diesel to one part gas and a rig like the one mentioned here.

We do not have a rig like that but the mixture still works just fine for starting a brush pile.

We just burned two of them Saturday. Just poured some of the mixture on a spot that had a good amount of dry, fast-burning material and lit it with a BBQ lighter .... then walk away. It does not flash or "wooosh" but the dry stuff may burn rapidly.