Wood Heat Thread ~ post pics

I use the bar of my chainsaw.

 

Me too. 20 inch bar and I can judge 4 inches pretty well (so can my wife but she is still happy with it). Have bar hanging 4 inches past the last cut, then rotate and mark or cut.

 

Yup, just I said above. But, I was more 'wordy'.
Easy-peasy.

 

I just eyeball it

 

The oz doesn't even use his saw to cut with; he literally eyeballs it.

 

Fixed it for you.

 

Just like my last contractor.

 

18" bar, I just used a sharpie to mark 20" on the side of the saw.

 

Anyone used the store bought blocks? Found some at rural king last night called Gren Heat. After comparing price and amount it's about same price if not cheaper than firewood around here. I work 7 days a week nearly every week and don't have time or energy to cut and spilt firewood. Something like this would be great because of compact storage, and much cleaner than firewood.

I'm new to the whole fireplace thing as it last winter. Installed a free standing wood stove and love it.

Thoughts? Pros? Cons?

 

I used the big blocks one year when I was short on seasoned firewood. They came 3 to pack from Tractor Supply. As I recall they burned well if you mixed them in with actual firewood, but not so well if you tried to fill a firebox with just the blocks. They also expand as they burn, so if you've got too many in there they'll restrict their own air flow.
Another down side is that they burn completely down to powder ash, so there's no coals left to relight with after an overnight burn.

 

No experience with them. They look like they are supposed to be presto logs, except shaped as bricks. If you are looking for something easy, then get cords of firewood delivered, or get pallets of presto logs. I'd bet the pallet of presto logs are cheaper than the pallet of gren heat bricks.

 

Thanks I'll look into those

 

Ive used presto type logs before, and they can be tough to start on their own. These logs tend to burn pretty fast if you dont watch them, you will also need a dry covered place to store them, once they get wet their no good. I've since switched back to just plain old fir, hemlock, cedar, and its much easier to start, control, and re light the stove.

 

We had to extend the floor of the hearth to accommodate the new woodstove. I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and neaten up some sloppy work the last owners left. They also left some copper sheet, which I folded over until it was thick enough to have some schwupp* and then trimmed into pieces to hold the vertical pieces of Pennsylvania bluestone in place. I'm pretty pleased with the end result. I still need to do something around the floor edge but that won't involve hand formed copper bits.

Aside: it sure is nice to be able to take the Taco over a couple of hills and pick up stone like this.



* Pennsylvania Dutch for 'strength' or 'substance'

 

Wow! Looks great....attention to detail is amazing. Good job citizen!

 

I like the touch of the hand formed copper, but I can't tell what's happening in the picture. Maybe a further back shot would help my understanding? Is the large triangle piece going to be in the back of the stove?

 

So Washinton is working on the whole wood heat thing right now really well. Maybe Hurricane Irma can send some of her rain to help out up here before she bitchslaps Florida off the map

 

If I pull further back you'd see the edge of the stone where I just have some temporary pieces holding them in.

Our house is a Pennsylvania bank barn. The triangular shape of stones cover a large vertical post and two angled support beams. The stove will sit on the floor with a stovepipe chimney going straight up and out the roof. The rest of the post is insulated from chimney heat by a long piece of copper sheet that is set off from the post by ~2" to allow airflow. The copper pieces I made will tie in with that.

I'll post another picture when the stove is installed. And the floor edge is finished!

 

That makes more sense. Thanks. Looking forward to seeing the finished product!

 

So, the new stove is in and the wood trim is nearing completion. Pictures coming soon. In the meantime we've been on the hunt for a not-ugly stove top thermometer but coming up empty so far. What do you all use for temperature measurement?

While I was researching temperature measurement I ran across this. Top down fire building

Definitely going to give that a go in the new stove.