Author Topic: Woke up with wood  (Read 19964 times)

Offline B.D.F.

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4955
  • Country: 00
  • It's only really cold if you fall down in it.
    • C-14 farkles you almost cannot ride without.
Re: Woke up with wood
« Reply #20 on: February 05, 2015, 08:41:06 AM »
Well, I go with stainless steel for a couple of reasons. What you say about the light- off is true; they will light with a cardboard fire, seriously, in less than 30 seconds. They are also extremely thin so they allow much better gas flow through them than the ceramic ones. They tend to collect less ash. And best of all, they are immune to thermal shock and any reasonable overfiring; they will not crack, crumble or spall like the ceramic ones. They have no downside that I am aware of either- it is win/ win (other than they are a bit more expensive).

In fact, most new stoves come with a stainless steel combustor.

Brian

Hey Brian!

Question for you. My woodstove is due for a new catalytic combustor. I see that since the last time I replaced mine that there are two options, steel or ceramic. They claim that steel is more efficient, more durable, and light's off at a lower temp (100 degrees lower). The price difference is ~$70. What's your recommendation?

TIA
Homo Sapiens Sapiens and just a tad of Neanderthal but it usually does not show....  My Private mail is blocked; it is not you, it is me, just like that dating partner said all those years ago. Please send an e-mail if you want to contact me privately.

KiPass keeping you up at night? Fuel gauge warning burning your retinas? Get unlimited peace and harmony here: www.incontrolne.com

Offline Conrad

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5822
  • Country: us
Re: Woke up with wood
« Reply #21 on: February 05, 2015, 09:04:39 AM »
Well, I go with stainless steel for a couple of reasons. What you say about the light- off is true; they will light with a cardboard fire, seriously, in less than 30 seconds. They are also extremely thin so they allow much better gas flow through them than the ceramic ones. They tend to collect less ash. And best of all, they are immune to thermal shock and any reasonable overfiring; they will not crack, crumble or spall like the ceramic ones. They have no downside that I am aware of either- it is win/ win (other than they are a bit more expensive).

In fact, most new stoves come with a stainless steel combustor.

Brian


Thank you sir! I'll order the steel combustor. The ceramic combustor that I have now is still working but it's crumbling and it's just about at the end of it's life.
Northern Illinois   Silverdammit '08 C-14 ABS

"Don't bother me with facts, Son. I've already made up my mind." -Foghorn Leghorn

Offline Deziner

  • Arena
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 866
  • Country: us
  • Phoenix
Re: Woke up with wood
« Reply #22 on: February 05, 2015, 09:24:56 AM »
I just spent an hour on YouTube watching videos of the home-made log splitters. ISIS does NOT want to start a war with red-necks!
God does not subtract from a man's life the number of hours spent riding a motorcycle

2008 C14, Muzzy exhaust, PCV, heated grips, Sergeant seat, PR4 GTs, Donovan headlight mod, Ronnies highway pegs, Cox rad guard, "The Big Rack", Grip Puppies, XM, many more made by me parts to come.....

Offline stevewfl

  • Arena
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4268
  • Country: 00
Re: Woke up with wood
« Reply #23 on: February 05, 2015, 10:12:53 AM »
Sadly, we can rarely burn wood in San Francisco.
Not that our stupid fireplace is efficient at all.
I miss our wood stove from Oregon. :(

  I'm still able to use my Wood Stove here in the Sierra Foothills, but who knows for how long.
  I used to use an axe to split the wood but now I have a 27 ton Honda Powered splitter. It's such a wonderful machine !!!

What is stopping you guys from burning wood?
“The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” St. Augustine

Offline B.D.F.

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4955
  • Country: 00
  • It's only really cold if you fall down in it.
    • C-14 farkles you almost cannot ride without.
Re: Woke up with wood
« Reply #24 on: February 05, 2015, 10:23:55 AM »
I love home- made gadgets, and the more power they have and the fewer guards, the better (kidding, sort of). There is a video out there of an old man using a wheel splitter. While probably the most efficient splitter of all time, and certainly the fastest, it is a really scary video. A wheel splitter is a large, steel wheel, maybe 5 feet in diameter or more, with a wedge welded to the outside. There is a table that comes up against the wheel with a slot in it to allow the wedge to pass. The wheel is spun up by either an electric motor or gas engine, and..... and..... and a piece of wood is slid up against the wheel, the wedge comes around and viola! two pieces of wood. And if the operator is lucky, the wedge (or wheel) does not catch any hands, fingers or clothing and he / she can go on and split the wood again. Shivers me timbers every time I see that thing. Awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bVAAx3mMKY

And the guy has long sleeves, a long beard and his shirt tails flapping in the breeze just to tease the gods of fate.

I don't think he splits that wood to burn it, the real money is in the side- bets as to how many fingers (or limbs) he has left at the end of the day!

Brian

I just spent an hour on YouTube watching videos of the home-made log splitters. ISIS does NOT want to start a war with red-necks!
Homo Sapiens Sapiens and just a tad of Neanderthal but it usually does not show....  My Private mail is blocked; it is not you, it is me, just like that dating partner said all those years ago. Please send an e-mail if you want to contact me privately.

KiPass keeping you up at night? Fuel gauge warning burning your retinas? Get unlimited peace and harmony here: www.incontrolne.com

Offline B.D.F.

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4955
  • Country: 00
  • It's only really cold if you fall down in it.
    • C-14 farkles you almost cannot ride without.
Re: Woke up with wood
« Reply #25 on: February 05, 2015, 10:28:04 AM »
Because of the Yin / Yang of the universe. You know how there are issues with really zealous people on both sides (gun control, abortion, etc., etc. ad nauseum)? Well, one pair of those groups are the people who burn wood and the people who want to see all wood burning stopped because it causes pollution. Some localities, counties, states now have their own wood burning rules that are stricter than the federally mandated ones, and have specific requirements on woodstoves to be used in their area. Sort of like California vs. the 49 states with emissions. Some areas now have 'burning bans' where they tell the public the days they can burn wood and the days they cannot. And some areas have burned some or all types of woodburning altogether.

Brian

What is stopping you guys from burning wood?
Homo Sapiens Sapiens and just a tad of Neanderthal but it usually does not show....  My Private mail is blocked; it is not you, it is me, just like that dating partner said all those years ago. Please send an e-mail if you want to contact me privately.

KiPass keeping you up at night? Fuel gauge warning burning your retinas? Get unlimited peace and harmony here: www.incontrolne.com

Offline Nosmo

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 254
  • Country: us
  • "We're all in this together." - Red Green
Re: Woke up with wood
« Reply #26 on: February 05, 2015, 09:42:27 PM »
We have burn bans quite often here in the Nowthwe't, even though not all that close to urban centers.  The problem we have is that a lot of times when the weather is cold, there is no wind to move the air/smoke around.  We'll get stagnant air and the smoke just sits and gags you, so they ban fireplaces and sometimes even certified wood stoves unless it is your sole source of heat.  People are their own worst enemies, though, because a lot of them insist on burning green or not well-cured wood.
A life undreamed is a waste.  A dream unlived is a sin.

Offline MAN OF BLUES

  • Arena
  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 2898
  • Country: 00
  • WHISKEY.Tango.Foxtrot.
Re: Woke up with wood
« Reply #27 on: February 06, 2015, 12:10:58 PM »
Dontcha know wood burning creates global warming????? .... soo much for that theory..... global warming my arse.... single digits and 2 feet of snow here.... did I mention global warming...... ????? Mehhhhh

46 YEARS OF KAW.....  47 years of DEVO..

Offline Conrad

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5822
  • Country: us
Re: Woke up with wood
« Reply #28 on: February 06, 2015, 12:27:47 PM »
Dontcha know wood burning creates global warming????? .... soo much for that theory..... global warming my arse.... single digits and 2 feet of snow here.... did I mention global warming...... ????? Mehhhhh

Climate change man!

I for one am glad that this winter isn't like the last. At this time last year we had two weeks or so in a row where the temps struggled to reach a high of 5f and the nights saw 20 below zero or less and that's without the wind chill!   :_shudder_Emoticon
Northern Illinois   Silverdammit '08 C-14 ABS

"Don't bother me with facts, Son. I've already made up my mind." -Foghorn Leghorn

Offline Rembrant

  • Arena
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 466
  • Country: ca
Re: Woke up with wood
« Reply #29 on: February 06, 2015, 12:57:29 PM »
And if the operator is lucky, the wedge (or wheel) does not catch any hands, fingers or clothing and he / she can go on and split the wood again. Shivers me timbers every time I see that thing. Awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bVAAx3mMKY


Hey BDF, don't forget the other "Wheel Splitters" that were similarly unsafe...lol:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En47S7LM9zE

You have to watch all 2:40 to see where the operator forgot about the advantage of leverage in the equation...lol. Hydraulic splitters are for sissies anyway. (Says the guy who buys all his firewood pre-split now).

PS: My old man's wood-splitter is powered by a twin-cylinder horizontally opposed gas refer engine from an old milk truck. We used to be pretty fast (when I was a kid and was forced into childhood slave labor...lol). However, I once dropped a block into place just as he hit the forward lever. Now, my hand wasn't on the blade end of the block, but it was between the block and the pusher plate on the end o the hydraulic ram. It flattened the tips of three fingers, and they squirted the insides out like little fountains...LOL. Ahh, my childhood...lol, it all seemed so normal at the time. I hear they're talking about banning toboggans now....too dangerous...lol.

Rem
“If you're not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at forty you have no brain.” ~ Winston Churchill.

Offline B.D.F.

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4955
  • Country: 00
  • It's only really cold if you fall down in it.
    • C-14 farkles you almost cannot ride without.
Re: Woke up with wood
« Reply #30 on: February 06, 2015, 01:22:23 PM »
Yeah, I like that video too, especially the part where Bubba uses his leg to force the screw tip into the wood....

A screw type splitter can be very safe and extremely fast and efficient IMO though, with a little refinement and a little less truck. I am partial to this one myself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP5M6ErNWnc

But for quite a few years now I buy my wood already processed. There are so many firewood processing machines around now that I have not been able to find log- length wood cheap enough to make it worth bothering with; if a cord is $200, then they want $150 or so for the log- length wood which is 14' to 20' long, and up to 20" in diameter. Just way too much work in bucking and splitting a cord of wood for $50 IMO.

Funny thing but the odds of having an industrial (machinery based) accident go up like 10,000 times when TWO people are involved in operating the same machine, and it usually happens exactly like you describe with your father.

This one time, at band camp, a company I was working at was making a machine to put the ferrules on the end of wood handles to make file handles. The machine was not feeding correctly (in the process of R&D) and so the owner was tinkering with the insertion mechanism (Easy Boys!) with another guy cycling the machine when told to do so. It went something like this:

"Cycle it".
John single cycles the machine.
"Cycle it"
John single cycles the machine.
"Hold it"
John single cycles the machine, and it did a pretty good job of actually putting the ferrule on the end of the owner's index finger. And I have to say that that machine did its job putting the ferrule on much, much faster than the surgeon did taking it back off. And the installation was free too, unlike the removal.

Back to the wood: new stove doing very well, wood consumption seems to be down quite a bit. I am currently working on an automation system for the stove though 'cause everything works better with a little electro- mechanical help. And some things work a LOT better with a little electro- mechanical help. :-)

Brian

Hey BDF, don't forget the other "Wheel Splitters" that were similarly unsafe...lol:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En47S7LM9zE

You have to watch all 2:40 to see where the operator forgot about the advantage of leverage in the equation...lol. Hydraulic splitters are for sissies anyway. (Says the guy who buys all his firewood pre-split now).

PS: My old man's wood-splitter is powered by a twin-cylinder horizontally opposed gas refer engine from an old milk truck. We used to be pretty fast (when I was a kid and was forced into childhood slave labor...lol). However, I once dropped a block into place just as he hit the forward lever. Now, my hand wasn't on the blade end of the block, but it was between the block and the pusher plate on the end o the hydraulic ram. It flattened the tips of three fingers, and they squirted the insides out like little fountains...LOL. Ahh, my childhood...lol, it all seemed so normal at the time. I hear they're talking about banning toboggans now....too dangerous...lol.

Rem
Homo Sapiens Sapiens and just a tad of Neanderthal but it usually does not show....  My Private mail is blocked; it is not you, it is me, just like that dating partner said all those years ago. Please send an e-mail if you want to contact me privately.

KiPass keeping you up at night? Fuel gauge warning burning your retinas? Get unlimited peace and harmony here: www.incontrolne.com

Offline Conrad

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5822
  • Country: us
Re: Woke up with wood
« Reply #31 on: February 07, 2015, 05:11:54 AM »
Hey BDF, don't forget the other "Wheel Splitters" that were similarly unsafe...lol:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En47S7LM9zE

You have to watch all 2:40 to see where the operator forgot about the advantage of leverage in the equation...lol. Hydraulic splitters are for sissies anyway. (Says the guy who buys all his firewood pre-split now).

PS: My old man's wood-splitter is powered by a twin-cylinder horizontally opposed gas refer engine from an old milk truck. We used to be pretty fast (when I was a kid and was forced into childhood slave labor...lol). However, I once dropped a block into place just as he hit the forward lever. Now, my hand wasn't on the blade end of the block, but it was between the block and the pusher plate on the end o the hydraulic ram. It flattened the tips of three fingers, and they squirted the insides out like little fountains...LOL. Ahh, my childhood...lol, it all seemed so normal at the time. I hear they're talking about banning toboggans now....too dangerous...lol.

Rem

I guess you should have been moving a little faster eh?    ;)
Northern Illinois   Silverdammit '08 C-14 ABS

"Don't bother me with facts, Son. I've already made up my mind." -Foghorn Leghorn

Offline DeansZG

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 219
  • Country: us
Re: Woke up with wood
« Reply #32 on: February 07, 2015, 10:14:28 AM »
there's also this home made human powered wood splitter:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=111_1363524786&comments=1
'99 C10 "MissTriss" *sold*
'04 ZZR1200 "Sweet heart" *sold*
'81 GL1100 Interstate "Puttz"*sold*
'00 K12LT..."Battleship Galactica".....

Offline gPink

  • Arena
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5686
  • Country: cn
  • MMVIII C XIV
Re: Woke up with wood
« Reply #33 on: February 07, 2015, 10:17:44 AM »
Now that is a neat machine.

Offline B.D.F.

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4955
  • Country: 00
  • It's only really cold if you fall down in it.
    • C-14 farkles you almost cannot ride without.
Re: Woke up with wood
« Reply #34 on: February 07, 2015, 10:25:35 AM »
Now that is really slick!

And it reminds me of the drinking bird. Will it continue to bob up and down if you let it get its beak (wedge) wet in a bucket of water?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk71GY02diY

Brian

there's also this home made human powered wood splitter:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=111_1363524786&comments=1
Homo Sapiens Sapiens and just a tad of Neanderthal but it usually does not show....  My Private mail is blocked; it is not you, it is me, just like that dating partner said all those years ago. Please send an e-mail if you want to contact me privately.

KiPass keeping you up at night? Fuel gauge warning burning your retinas? Get unlimited peace and harmony here: www.incontrolne.com

Offline Conrad

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5822
  • Country: us
Re: Woke up with wood
« Reply #35 on: February 08, 2015, 06:22:48 AM »

Thank you sir! I'll order the steel combustor. The ceramic combustor that I have now is still working but it's crumbling and it's just about at the end of it's life.

It appears that my steel combustor has been lost in shipping. Oh bother.

It seems that the UPS software generated a tracking number that was two digits short and no one knows where my combustor is. The vender is sending out a new one today overnight. We'll see...
« Last Edit: February 11, 2015, 04:44:08 AM by Conrad »
Northern Illinois   Silverdammit '08 C-14 ABS

"Don't bother me with facts, Son. I've already made up my mind." -Foghorn Leghorn

Offline VirginiaJim

  • Administrator
  • Elite Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 11333
  • Country: england
  • I've forgotten more than I'll ever know...
    • Kawasaki 1400GTR
Re: Woke up with wood
« Reply #36 on: February 11, 2015, 05:55:35 AM »
Hopefully, the driver didn't do this...

http://youtu.be/4ekiVm7h0L4
"LOCTITE®"  The original thread locker...  #11  2020 Indian Roadmaster, ABS, Cruise control, heated grips and seats/w/AC 46 Monitoring with cutting edge technology U.N.I.T is Back! Member in good standing with the Knights of MEH.

Offline Conrad

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5822
  • Country: us
Re: Woke up with wood
« Reply #37 on: February 11, 2015, 08:37:45 AM »
I was wondering what that strange looking puddle outside the door was about...
Northern Illinois   Silverdammit '08 C-14 ABS

"Don't bother me with facts, Son. I've already made up my mind." -Foghorn Leghorn

Offline B.D.F.

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4955
  • Country: 00
  • It's only really cold if you fall down in it.
    • C-14 farkles you almost cannot ride without.
Re: Woke up with wood
« Reply #38 on: February 11, 2015, 08:49:00 AM »
Yep, that is odd. ??

I think you are going to like that new combustor. Besides being a SS foil type, it will be brand new and the difference between and old, tired combustor and a new one always surprises me.

Brian

It appears that my steel combustor has been lost in shipping. Oh bother.

It seems that the UPS software generated a tracking number that was two digits short and no one knows where my combustor is. The vender is sending out a new one today overnight. We'll see...
Homo Sapiens Sapiens and just a tad of Neanderthal but it usually does not show....  My Private mail is blocked; it is not you, it is me, just like that dating partner said all those years ago. Please send an e-mail if you want to contact me privately.

KiPass keeping you up at night? Fuel gauge warning burning your retinas? Get unlimited peace and harmony here: www.incontrolne.com

Offline Conrad

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5822
  • Country: us
Re: Woke up with wood
« Reply #39 on: February 11, 2015, 09:05:37 AM »
Yep, that is odd. ??

I think you are going to like that new combustor. Besides being a SS foil type, it will be brand new and the difference between and old, tired combustor and a new one always surprises me.

Brian

We have a cold front heading our way overnight and I was hoping that my new combustor was ready for a trial run. Down to 10 below Saturday night, I'll need all the heat I can get! 
Northern Illinois   Silverdammit '08 C-14 ABS

"Don't bother me with facts, Son. I've already made up my mind." -Foghorn Leghorn