Wood Heat Thread ~ post pics

A Dutchman, that's the term for the cut I used (I think). Couldn't think of it earlier. Had one of those mental blocks

 

Would be nice if you could accomplish that while clearing a flat property!

 

Bought a new noisemaker yesterday. My 51 managed to vibrate the bar tension screw out somewhere on Saturday and I didn't want to wait the 'up to two weeks' for the replacement to come in. Since I'd been toying with a newer, larger saw for a while now anyway this followed me home.


Cuts nice, too.


I'll still use the '51 as my primary, I think, but this will be handy for the larger stuff.

 

Nice

 

Afternoon, all (morning, if you're left coasters like the Oz). Running into an unusual problem with my saw; it's cutting in a leftward curve. I've checked the bar with a straightedge (while off the saw and in a vise) and it's 100%. To be on the safe side I flipped it over to see if she'd curve the other way, but no dice, still pulling to the left. The only time I've ever had a saw pull like this was because the bar got bent when a tree pinched it, but I'm certain there's nothing wrong with this one.

 

How's the chain tension? Is it a new bar? I've had saws that cut a dish before and I was able to fix it with a bar file.

$48 PFERD 13025 Universal Edge Sharpener

https://www.amazon.com/PFERD-13025-Universal-Edge-Sharpener/dp/B000HD4LWI

 

Pretty new; it's on the 455 I just picked up so it's only got about a cord through it at this point. It's probably due for a sharpening, but as near as I can tell the blade and chain are mint. I haven't rock'd it or anything, and I've just been cutting cordwood that's already down so it's not like it's been pinched in a shifting limb and warped or anything. I'll screw around with it some more this weekend and see if I can find a problem, I just wanted to see if anybody had any suggestions on a possible cause. I went back to just using my trusty old '51 when this one started cutting bananas; she still cuts sweet but is definitely slower through the bigger stuff. I've gotten spoiled with this hot rod I've been using.

 

Is the chain new? Do you have a new or different chain you can swap on to test?

 

Sounds to me like chain needs a file.

 

Same age as the bar. No spare, but like I said it's probably due for a sharpening.

I'm hoping that's all it needs, or to have the depth guides trimmed a bit. It's stopped throwing big chips and is spitting out finer sawdust, but I've never had one do this when it got dulled up. Usually they just convert to fine sawdust and start cutting harder.

We'll see; I'll have some time tomorrow to screw around with it.

 

Can be result of unequal sharpening left side to right side of chain

https://www.premiumsawchain.co.uk/pages/Chain_Pulling_To_One_Side/

 

I keep several back up chains, sharpened and ready.

 

Yep just like if you missharpen a kitchen knife.

 

Yeah, they can pull 'left' also.

 

Mystery solved. Clamped the saw in the vise this morning and took a close look at the chain. Not sure if I found a nail, some old fencing wire, or what in one of my logs, but I definitely found something solid while I was cutting. Must have just barely brushed it, because the teeth were all rounded over on the right hand edges, both the left- and right-facing chisels. So the teeth were taking a deeper rake on the left than the right with every pass. Fixed the angles with a flat file, sharpened the teeth up again, and reset the depth gauges. She cuts like a hot knife through warm butter again now.

Never seen anything like it, though. Been chasing chainsaws for almost 20 years and every other time I've knicked something in a log it's dulled the teeth all of the way across, never just on one side. Weirdest thing.

Brand new saw, bar, and chain roughly 1 cord of tree length cordwood ago. Haven't had a chance to collect a pile of spare parts yet

 

I have officially abandoned the world of wood heat...heading for pellets this winter. I have had a vermont castings encore blowing through 4 to 6 cords of wood per winter for the last 13+ years and I've had enough...We bought a pellet stove and uninstalled the wood stove this weekend, removed the 6 inch chimney and returned the roof to new condition so they can cut a fresh hole for the pellet stove and not have the gigantic chimney...We had some leaking around the flashing of the wood stove chimney that never seemed to resolve so they suggested this route...a fresh cut, fresh flashing...no leaking...we'll see. I'm interested in seeing what kind of BTU's vs time we get out of the pellet stove..
Bought a Ravelli RV100 Classic, made in Italy (ooh fancy)...

 

GASP!

Not sure that pellets are totally abandoning it, though. At least you're not burning natural gas that'll send your house into orbit
In my experience (which, admittedly, is fairly limited) pellet stoves are very efficient but some of the fans will drive you out of the room. The Thelin we have in the living room now is fairly quiet, but the El Cheapo from Home Depot we had in the cellar at the old house was loud enough that we could hear it upstairs when it was running. And some of the top-end stoves are almost silent when they're running at a low burn.
Good luck with the Ravioli!

PS- I'll give you a dollar for your chainsaw. $2 if it's a Husky

 

First of all my kid already calls it the "ravioli" and it just makes me crave italian food...Yeah, This stove is VERY quiet but keep in mind that for 13 years we have had a 3 speed standing fan behind the wood stove running all the time...It's so loud you almost tune it out until you turn it off for some reason and realize how loud the TV is...If the fan is an 8 for noise the ravelli was a 1 or 2 on high...

We only use the stove to heat 90% of the house. It's electric baseboard which costs about $3 an hour per room to run...What we are really looking forward to is getting home from work or waking up in the morning and finding the stove still lit and putting out heat. We would both work a full day and come home to a stove that has nearly burned out and the livingroom is 58F, you've got to make dinner, let the dog out, feed the cat, feed the kid, get whatever personal stuff done AND start the stove and keep it lit so that in 2hrs the livingroom can finally break 70F....With the pellet stove we can dump 50Lbs of pellets in it and it should run for 20 hrs on low...and then top it off and crank it when you get home...I am looking forward to not having to wake up at 2am to load up the stove...Every time I went to bed without putting 5 logs in that thing we woke up to a livingroom in the 50's...Plus all the burns and scars all over my hands from the "Oh shit that's hot" moments...The Vermont castings was sort of on it's last leg...and if you ask my wife it's a death trap...I believe it was installed in 1996...so It was 22 years old and one year the right hand door fell off...because the top pin had worked a groove in the opening in the face of the stove...So I cut a piece of a welders rod and used that to hold the door on...it worked great and was an inch deeper than the stock pin so the stripped groove wasn't a factor. The catalytic element was cracked and so fragile that you had to remove it like it was a house of cards...Every time I cleaned out the stove and removed the fireback to get all the ash out my wife would have a heart attack with concern that something wouldn't go back together and we wouldn't have heat.

I have a generator too in case the power goes out

 

I was going to add the required power to run the pellet stove.

 

^^^^^^^
I had a niece and nephew that had one.