Free firewood ?

[Martin W]

Things might change drastically in the not too distant future. The EPA is considering new rules for wood fired heating systems. I didn’t read the entire article but they sound as draconian as the new rules for gas stoves, eater heaters, and other fossil fueled appliances

Never heard the term eater heater! Is that a salamander heater?

 

[projectnut]

Never heard the term eater heater! Is that a salamander heater?

Good old spell check. Changed it from water to eater. The aggravating part is that I proofread it before it was posted. When I read it again after posting the word was changed. I edited it and did a save only to now find it reverted back to eater. Sometimes I just love technology.

 

[finsruskw]

Wood is mostly FREE around here and folks have a hard time even getting rid of it that way.

 

[projectnut]

We're having several trees taken down at the family cottage in the next couple weeks. When the estimator came he wanted to know if we wanted to retain the wood. For a small additional charge, they would cut it to fireplace size and stack it wherever we wanted. If we didn't want the wood, there would be a small discount and they would take it with them. A big part of their business is supplying dried, seasoned, and split firewood to people in the central Wisconsin area.

We opted for the discount and hauling away the wood. Over the years we've had so many trees come down a substantial portion of the wood rots before it can be burned. Not that many years ago we hauled off nearly 5 cords of wood that was in terrible shape and doing nothing more than attracting varmints looking for a place to live.

 

[Martin W]

Good old spell check. Changed it from water to eater. The aggravating part is that I proofread it before it was posted. When I read it again after posting the word was changed. I edited it and did a save only to now find it reverted back to eater. Sometimes I just love technology.

I never even thought about spell check! I thought you had a funny name for a heater. Lol. I am going to steal that from you. My Salamander is now an eater heater because it eats propane like crazy!

 

[RaisedByWolves]

I hear ya!
I’ve been buying loads of logs the last few years. Half the work is already done. Fuel oil was $2 a litre last winter so wood in my boiler it is.
My goal is to build a firewood processor like Greg ( F350CA ) from this forum.
Martin

A box wedge splitter is another option and something I plan on doing before I or my splitter gets too old.

Drop a round in, cycle it and have it come out the end into a cart. Then just pull the cart to the woodshed snd stack.

 

[RaisedByWolves]

Things might change drastically in the not too distant future. The EPA is considering new rules for wood fired heating systems. I didn’t read the entire article but they sound as draconian as the new rules for gas stoves, eater heaters, and other fossil fueled appliances

The EPA can go !!!! In their hat.

Comes down to it I’ll only burn at night and couple my radon system exhaust to the chimney to blow it sky high.

Wood heat is carbon neutral and does not pollute anymore that letting the wood rot on the ground.

 

[rabler]

I have a little wood stove in my fairly big shop. Heating needs in SW Indiana are pretty minimal, but I like the shop warmed up to at least 50-60 degrees to work. My wife loves a fire in the winter so she'll come hang out in the shop, AND she splits ALL of the firewood "for exercise". I do have a tractor mount hydraulic log spliter, just needs to have the spool valve rebuilt, but I hate to deprive her of all that fun. I do have a NG "Mr. Heater" furnace in my shop, got it hung and chimney installed, but never got the gas line from the house hooked up after I cracked a rib in the attic putting in the class A chimney.

We have about 15 acres of hardwoods. The deadfall is enough to keep us supplied indefinitely, and plenty of that goes to waste, left to rot in the woods. Lots of huge oak and maple trees. Some walnut too, shame not to haul that to a sawmill for woodworking projects but I have plenty of seasoned walnut. Now if any of the decent sized cherry trees go over they will get turned into lumber, I like cherry for woodworking.

Last winter we mostly burned sassafras trees. Had to cut about 50 small diameter trees (10-12" at base) out of the backyard immediately behind the house. Laurel wilt, caused by a non-native beetle, wiped them out. Sassafras burns hot and fast, makes good kindling for starting a fire, but not a good heat source as it goes pretty quick. We've burned huge piles of it in bonfires, just too much to split and store. (Burning is recommended as a way to slow the spread of laurel wilt).

I enjoy small doses of cutting, splitting, hauling and stacking firewood. Did a LOT of it as a kid, having grown up in @cathead's part of the country with two woodstoves as the only source of heat for our house. With 6 brothers and sisters, stacking huge round piles of firewood was a family chore, usually fairly fun with all 9 of us working at it and went pretty fast. IIRC we went through about 5-6 piles a year, each pile about 8' diameter and 6' high. I'll let those so inclined to convert that to cords of firewood, mostly birch with a smattering of poplar as that was the respectable firewood that grew in St Louis county, Mn. I have resorted to a power sharpener to touch up chainsaw blades when a few licks with a file will no longer get things uniform and sharp. If you're burning ethanol fuel in a chainsaw without fuel stabilizer and manage to not gum up the carburetors, I want to know your secret. (Running the saws weekly doesn't count, I'm not that ambitious!) I do fine with the fuel stabilizers but that was a challenging lesson when ethanol first become commonplace.

 

[rabler]

The EPA can go !!!! In their hat.

Comes down to it I’ll only burn at night and couple my radon system exhaust to the chimney to blow it sky high.

Wood heat is carbon neutral and does not pollute anymore that letting the wood rot on the ground.

Around here it is getting hard to find a home insurance agency that will insure a house if there is anything woodburning on the property. That's more of an issue for us than the EPA.

 

[RJSakowski]

If you're burning ethanol fuel in a chainsaw without fuel stabilizer and manage to not gum up the carburetors, I want to know your secret. (Running the saws weekly doesn't count, I'm not that ambitious!) I do fine with the fuel stabilizers but that was a challenging lesson when ethanol first become commonplace.

I have run 10% ethanol gas in my Stihl MS290 for more than ten years with no problems with either starting or running. I run the saw for two days each Summer, cutting the year's supply of firewood and then only a couple of times during the year for yard work or windfall cleanup. I don't bother about running the saw dry or adding stabilizer.