A couple chain saw repairs this morning

On starting saws:

I drop start mine. You push down the engine and pull the starter rope simultaneously. It works better than
trying to put your foot in the stirrup of the saw and pulling up. I hold the saw with my left hand and the
starter cord in my right hand.
 
cathead said:
On starting saws:

I drop start mine. You push down the engine and pull the starter rope simultaneously. It works better than
trying to put your foot in the stirrup of the saw and pulling up. I hold the saw with my left hand and the
starter cord in my right hand.
Click to expand...
That's how I've always done it, just never put the name "drop start" to it.
 
This morning I disassembled the bar tip and TIG welded on a little more length to the tips of the sprocket. Mind you
this is only an experiment and it was pretty crude. The sprocket seemed to be made of some hard steel. The ends
were ground by eye to what looked about right so I reassembled the bar and was surprised that how well it worked
without the chain rubbing on the bar tip. I test ran the saw and it seems to work fine so will give it a try today. I have
no idea if it will hold up or not, only time will tell I guess. If nothing else, I got to "dip" the tungsten a few times and
hopefully have learned something in the process. There are about 20 tiny rollers in that tip so a bit of a challenge to
put back together using some grease and sliding the parts in on a page from a MSC catalog.
 
Downunder Bob said:
Here in downunder land wedon't use cords for firewood, it usually sold by the Tonne aka 1000 Kg. Judging by the comments I guess 20 cords is quite a lot.

In our current house we generally use about 3 T in a cold winter an about 2 T in a mild winter.

I have been cutting firewood for about 40 years and so far have not had a serious injury, but a few close calls.

Our main firewood here is a variety of Eucalyptus trees, Red river gum, Blue gum, Sugar gum, Lemon scented gum, and Grey box, My favourite is red river gum. Almost all Eucalypts have a very high BTU, among the highest of all firewoods. So it comes down to availability. Red river gum and Blue gum are usually the two most common to be sold commercially, and usually run around $380/T near where I live but some other places can be more or less costly.

Most years I'm lucky enough to get my wood for free or much less than commercial rates, I just have to collect and cut it.
Click to expand...
A cord of wood is a stack 4' x 4' x 8' or 128 cu. ft. Ideally, it is 80% wood or better. A face cord is a 4' x 8' stack of whatever length you have, ideally 1`6" so there are three face cords to a cord. Important to know the difference. because some sellers say they are selling a cord when in fact, they are selling a face cord. Firewood isn't sold by weight because of variable water content. Green wood can have as much as 50% water. It's a double whammy because yo are not getting as much combustible wood and you have to boil off the water as well which drastically lowers the heat value.

An interesting factoid is that all woods have essentially the same heat value by weight. The better species for heating are just more dense. A preferred species here is oak with white oak being better. My favorite wood is hickory. Cured hickory burns cleanly with a temperature approach coal.

Costs for firewood have been rising due to rising cost for fossil fuels. The last time I looked they were in the $250 to $350 per cord range. Lately, we buy our wood from a neighbor as 8 -10' logs for $125/cord which I cut and my wife splits with the hydraulic splitter. I used to split all the wood by hand but I quit when my back went our. The wife tried the splitter and decided that she really likes it so she took over the splitting and stacking. She's afraid of the chain saw so she hasn't tried to take over that part....yet. I keep hoping. I think of it as survival training for when I'm no longer around. ;)

Our yearly heating costs run around $500 for firewood and $150 for propane plus the cost of running the chainsaw and wood splitter. This year will be considerably less because we cut a large number of trees around the buildings and while I would normally consider them trash wood for burning, as I said, thoroughly fried, I get the same heat value per lb. They burn quickly and have more ash but will do nicely during the warmer transition periods in November and March when we would normally burn propane.
 
It's true about dry wood all having the same caloric value, EXCEPT for softwood, conifers. Their resin content adds some fuel value. We get very little soft wood around here. We used to be able to buy coal locally but not anymore. My parents first house had a stoker fed coal furnace. Worked well. My grandmother's house had a furnace that took lump coal. Required more tending. My first house had a coal furnace that had been converted to oil. Terribly inefficient and expensive to run.
 
A chain saw tip:



Yesterday while testing the saw, I thought of a helpful tip for some of you. The log I was cutting was on the ground and
pretty dirty on the bottom. If you saw from the top first and then rotate the log so the dirt is towards you, the saw will not
be dragging the dirt through the wood and dulling the saw but rather cutting clean wood and exiting through the dirty side.
 
Larry$ said:
It's true about dry wood all having the same caloric value, EXCEPT for softwood, conifers. Their resin content adds some fuel value.
Click to expand...
My vague recollection is softwood is more problematic in terms of creosote and soot? Is that true? I know well seasoned wood and a reasonable hot fire is preferred.

I grew up in a house heated by wood only in Duluth, Mn. Cutting, splitting and stacking firewood was a family affair. We built round stacks, IIRC about 6 cords per year, almost all poplar and birch, but its been a few decades since I've messed with burning wood. I'm planning on putting a wood burning stove into the shop that's going up soon. I plan on having both mini-split heat pumps and gas heat, but my wife misses a fire.
 
I think you are correct about more build up from softwoods. I didn't have access to softwoods while heating on wood. However that did not keep me from having a chimney fire. Pretty terrifying! Like a jet engine roar in the chimney. Good reason to have an air tight stove so you can starve the chimney fire. Also a good reason to run a chimney brush down the thing at least once a year.
 
Larry$ said:
It's true about dry wood all having the same caloric value, EXCEPT for softwood, conifers. Their resin content adds some fuel value. We get very little soft wood around here.
Click to expand...
One would think so but according to the Utah State University Forestry Extension, the heat value per lb dry weight is exactly the same for white oak as that for for Ponderosa pine. Most of the North American wood species are around 7,000 btu/lb, Exceptions are: Pinyon @ 9.03 kBtu/lb., Quaking Aspen @ 8.43, Lodgepole pin @ 8.08, Beech @ 7.31, Engleman spruce @ 7.25, and hemlock @ 7.15 on the high side and Tamarack @ 6.55, and Eastern Red Cedar @ 6.31 kBtu/lb.
The Engineering Toolbox has similar data but their values are slightly lower at around 6.4 kBtu/lb.

Sources:

Wood - Combustion Heat Values

Combustion of wood and firewood heat values for species like Pine, Elm, Hickory and more.
www.engineeringtoolbox.com www.engineeringtoolbox.com
 
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