How about wood stoves?

2393 Views 36 Replies 19 Participants Last post by flintknapper, Mar 15, 2008

10pointman

Discussion Starter · Feb 4, 2008

I have been burning a wood heater for 5 or 6 years.Its pretty good if you have your own land to cut wood.Buying wood would not be very economical.Does anybody else have one?

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BUCKSHOT_106

· #2 · Feb 4, 2008

Yes, my grandmother had wood heat in her house until the day she died, my dad and I still have a wood stove in our shop. We always bought a few ricks of wood from local people and when we would cut some trees or one would fall we would just cut it up and add to the wood pile.

10pointman

Discussion Starter · #3 · Feb 4, 2008

It only takes one time to figure out not to pack it completely full of wood,It gets so hot you have to open doors and windows.

Bruin

· #4 · Feb 4, 2008

Been there done that. There was a time (when I worked for the State), that I couldn't afford to pay the electric bill. So, I burned wood.
I liked the wood fire heat. Hated the cutting, stacking, and constant fetching more wood for the fire thingy! Also hated waking up cold because the fire had gone out!

If I can help it, I will never depend on wood for heat again. But who knows? I may have to depend on it again one day. But as long as the checkbook has a few extra dollars each month. I will be burning Electric heat!:thumb:

ronpip

· #5 · Feb 4, 2008

This is my third year heating only with wood. I have only turned my heat pump on to make sure it still works.

As far as buying wood not being economical I spend about $60 a month if I don't cut any myself. That is a heck of a lot cheaper than running the heat pump. having said that though I do try to cut most of what I burn off my property or some of my neighbors if they need one cut.

MallardMaster

· #6 · Feb 4, 2008

I burned wood for several years, then went to propane, which I like, but has gotten ridiculous $$. I'll be back on the tail end of the chainsaw before another year.

rjet

· #7 · Feb 4, 2008

Growing up we had a franklin stove that provided heat. Dad still uses it some and never seems to have a problem to cut enough wood for the winter. When that is all we used while I was growin up we used to cut the hell outta wood, but am sure now days it is a lot tougher to find places to cut.

10pointman

Discussion Starter · #8 · Feb 4, 2008

MallardMaster said:
I burned wood for several years, then went to propane, which I like, but has gotten ridiculous $$. I'll be back on the tail end of the chainsaw before another year.

I also burn some propane.The last time I bought 100 gal.,It was 300 dollars and some change. I try to burn more wood than propane.

sam

· #9 · Feb 4, 2008

Had wood central heat in my house for 20 years, till the house almost burned down from a hole in the flue in the attic, all elertic now. I have a wood stove in my shop though, the bad thing about a wood stove in a wood working shop is you never have any short pieces of lumber laying around when you need one. If I was going to buy wood I'd go with a pellet stove instead of a wood stove, the folks I know that have them love them. If I ever go back to wood heat it will be one of the units that sit outside and heat hot water for heat.

MallardMaster

· #10 · Feb 4, 2008

sam said:
Had wood central heat in my house for 20 years, till the house almost burned down from a hole in the flue in the attic, all elertic now. I have a wood stove in my shop though, the bad thing about a wood stove in a wood working shop is you never have any short pieces of lumber laying around when you need one. If I was going to buy wood I'd go with a pellet stove instead of a wood stove, the folks I know that have them love them. If I ever go back to wood heat it will be one of the units that sit outside and heat hot water for heat.

I've seen the ones that sit outside.....think they heat water for the house, too, don't they? I'd like to know how well they work. It'd be dandy to keep the smoke outta the house......and the ashes, etc..

sam

· #11 · Feb 4, 2008

MallardMaster said:
I've seen the ones that sit outside.....think they heat water for the house, too, don't they? I'd like to know how well they work. It'd be dandy to keep the smoke outta the house......and the ashes, etc..

Yep, they heat water for heating the house and for hot water too. There are a dozen or so around here and everyone really likes them. A neighbor of mine just put one in a few months ago, its about 100 feet from his house, he put up a large metal roof over it so that he can store his wood in the dry and fill the stove from under the shed.

clawmute

· #12 · Feb 4, 2008

3

Back To Wood Heat

We started back heating with wood in early December. LP gas is toooooo high! Built a splitter that fits on my backhoe and does a jim dandy job. Had some steel, and don't have $25 cash in it. Ie detaches so that my digger bucket can go back on. Good excercise! Spent all day Saturday cutting/splitting/hauling wood and all day Sunday on my roof repairing storm damage. Paralyzed from the neck down today! :thumb:

Gave $175 for this 450lb buck stove-not burnt out and in excellent condition - double walled with blower and solid brass fittings.

Got over 2 cords out of this BIG hickory this week end. It was all two of us could do to roll and lift an 18" long chunk onto the splitter, and this was the small end of the tree! It died and is about 30-34" DBH! Still have at least 3/4 cord to do on it. I may have to split the 18" long pieces since it will be a one man show getting them on the splitter.

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JR

· #13 · Feb 4, 2008

When I was a kid we burned wood. It used to drive me nuts when dad would makes us help him split wood, stack it, and fill up the wood box in the house. I would love to do that today though, at least one more time. That old wood stove gave off the best heat. Once the house would get warm it would stay warm. Since then I've never been just good and cozy warm like I was when I was young.

clawmute

· #14 · Feb 4, 2008

Wood pellet stoves work great, but you are always connected to the man. You are forced to buy a "value added fuel." Some pellet stoves are designed to burn multiple fuels.

You can still get wood cutting permits from the usfs. Usually they are in an area tha has been logged on a Forest service contract, but they leave a lot of wood behind.

flintknapper

· #15 · Feb 4, 2008

JR said:
When I was a kid we burned wood. It used to drive me nuts when dad would makes us help him split wood, stack it, and fill up the wood box in the house. I would love to do that today though, at least one more time. That old wood stove gave off the best heat. Once the house would get warm it would stay warm. Since then I've never been just good and cozy warm like I was when I was young.

-Nothing warms you like wood! Mr. Clawmute, is there a way you can tilt your splitter 90* and make it vertical? Its easier if you don't have to lift the logs onto the splitter. Ours is vertical, the base (stationary) end sits on the ground, we roll big logs to it then simply stand them up on the base plate. I try never to pick up a log until it's been "reduced" a time or two by splitting. Otherwise, that's one heck of a home-made splitter! :thumb:

clawmute

· #16 · Feb 4, 2008

flintknapper said:
-Nothing warms you like wood! Mr. Clawmute, is there a way you can tilt your splitter 90* and make it vertical? Its easier if you don't have to lift the logs onto the splitter. Ours is vertical, the base (stationary) end sits on the ground, we roll big logs to it then simply stand them up on the base plate. I try never to pick up a log until it's been "reduced" a time or two by splitting. Otherwise, that's one heck of a home-made splitter! :thumb:

Since it is boom mounted I can articulate the boom in a nearly vertical position, but much prefer the horizontal. I have a "sawtooth ramp" I mad that hooks to the side of the splitter so that you can just roll the big pieces up and a large sawtooth plate each side keeps them from rolling back down. It is not shown in photo, and I didn't think I would need it! I had forgotten how big that sucker was!

These pieces are way bigger than I usually split. I cut these 17" long and it was all the two of us could do to wrangle them. At least 200lbs each!

3 cords of hickory will come out of this huge tree.

flintknapper

· #17 · Feb 4, 2008

I hear you! A huge red oak died behind my mother's house, was about 40" in diameter at the very bottom. We about died trying to split that sucker. We had to cut the "cookies" really short, and use 7' long pry bars to maneuver them. We had the schplitter on the back of a 4-wheeler and moved it to the wood, not the other way around! I don't remember how much wood was harvested because we gave some away, but I ended up with about 2 cord, and my Paw in law about the same. I really don't want to fool with anything that big again!!

Hudge

· #18 · Feb 4, 2008

My inlaws just went to wood this fall. They buy a truck load from a saw mill for $15. They have gone through 5 truck loads already. The good thing is the wood is small and light. My father in-law is having health problems, so I may be cutting up some wood for them this summer.

soarkrebel

· #19 · Feb 4, 2008

I grew up with wood heat in my grandparents home. They raised me so it want just a weekend thing:thumb:

During the summer we would cut wood and split by hand. My grandpa used to say "thats like money in the bank" it didnt really hit me until I was older........no money given to the man for heat.

When my wife and I returned to Arkansas after I got out of the Army we lived in that old place. My wife was a city girl but she got country fried quick.
then we moved into a house with a big fireplace and I used to heat with it and cook with it.
I am telling you there ain't nothing like cooking a steak in your fireplace.
I built a grill that went inside it and MAN that was awesome. cooking while watching the TV in the living room.

I cut all my own wood ......never have bought any.

Now our current home has a gas fireplace(yuck) and I have been thinking of putting in a wood one.

But really I want to add on and extend my living room and have a big old fireplace built.

I know wood stove heaters are more efficient but we love the fire cooking and I don't mind cutting wood.

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clawmute

· #20 · Feb 4, 2008

flintknapper said:
I hear you! A huge red oak died behind my mother's house, was about 40" in diameter at the very bottom. We about died trying to split that sucker. We had to cut the "cookies" really short, and use 7' long pry bars to maneuver them. We had the schplitter on the back of a 4-wheeler and moved it to the wood, not the other way around! I don't remember how much wood was harvested because we gave some away, but I ended up with about 2 cord, and my Paw in law about the same. I really don't want to fool with anything that big again!!

Primer cord works good for splitting big logs! so does blackpowder if you don't nuke yourself, just drill a hole, pour in the powder and get some fuse - or use a battery and some wire -, then hide behind a big tree! :thumb: Used to blow out stumps w/dynamite but it's tough to get now - especially if you you look eastern and wear sunglasses. One fellow blew out a stump and it came down in his kitchen. :frown:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8EI7zWoM_Q0

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cQTEa1HAuAk&feature=related

Best one I ever shot out was a large oak stumps - it lifted off beautifully and arced in a gracefull curve over the tree tops. Last I ever saw of it, it was heading to the southwest (Houston we have liftoff!)! I think four sticks was most I ever had to use. You draw up if it doesn't go off and you have to go inspect it!

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