New member from SW Pennsylvania

[muncybob]

Ahhh, another PA wood burner I can sense your anticipation and hope all goes well for you. That $650 price on a tri-ax load is a good one, around here they are $750+...but of course it probably won't be ready to burn this year.

 

[Stihlmike]

Wow thanks for the tip. Will contact them tonight. WIll be good to have that cut and split over the winter to dry for a year or two.

 

[Ashful]

Wow thanks for the tip. Will contact them tonight. WIll be good to have that cut and split over the winter to dry for a year or two.

Since this guy looks like a feller, and probably processes a few truck loads per week, ask him if you can get a load that's mostly ash. If he drops a load of oak in your lawn, you're screwed, as that won't be ready to burn for 2 - 3 years. Ash split today might be ready to burn before the end of this season, particularly if it was standing dead. Another choice for quicker seasoning is soft maple, but less likely to find that standing dead in western PA.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

This is the woodburner I obtained from my uncle. It is brand new. It is a U.S. Stove Company 2007B.

I uploaded a pdf of the layout that i came up with so far to get approved. I may extend the base a bit..

MIke beware of this stove,i had the very same stove as my first woodstove. it almost caused me to give up the idea for good.
IT used to be called the "King" ,look on this website under stove reviews on this model.
ITs NOT an EPA stove. Its simply a steel box with a hole in the top and a small baffle in the back. MIne was advertised with 104000 BTU output. While you will get heat it is short lived. I could never get mine to burn longer than 3 hours more often 2 . No way will you EVER get anything close to an overnight burn. IT eats wood like crazy and you will be refilling every 2-3 hours. Some users have installed a second damper in the flue pipe i order to slow the fire down but all that does is increase the risk of creosote in the flue pipe. I gave mine to my son for his garage, and bought a REAL wood stove

 

[Stihlmike]

not what i wanted to hear. Being that it was free, I will make due for now. I will be using it as a suplement heat source as well as my oil furnace. Definetly not good to hear and kind of bums, me out, but thanks for the heads up. Looks like I will need a bit more wood.

Looks like i will be setting an alarm and stocking it as well. I don't have the funds to get any upgraded stuff right now, but will look to do so in the future.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

not what i wanted to hear. Being that it was free, I will make due for now. I will be using it as a suplement heat source as well as my oil furnace. Definetly not good to hear and kind of bums, me out, but thanks for the heads up. Looks like I will need a bit more wood.
Looks like i will be setting an alarm and stocking it as well. I don't have the funds to get any upgraded stuff right now, but will look to do so in the future.

Not to worry,you can always use it as a supplement. One way is to do your burn get your house up top say 77-80 and if you place has any heat retention at all it can take quite a few hours to get back down to say 70. I do that in order to burn only 1 load a day in my harman instead of 2 ,1 load overnight and the house is good until the following evening unless its really cold and cloudy outside. And my house is only about 70 % insulated.

 

[Stihlmike]

not sure if you checked out my sketch or not but the ceilings in this house are very low. 6'-6" it should heat up really well and probably will have to crack a window. I was hoping to beable to get a long overnight burn or have it going during the day. All in all is should cut back on the oil bill no matter what.

My wife will be happy if i crank it up to 80 though. We keep our house set at 65 now and the upstairs stays around 70

 

[Seasoned Oak]

HOw many SF is the floor your heating and what is the room size?

 

[BrianK]

Wow thanks for the tip. Will contact them tonight. WIll be good to have that cut and split over the winter to dry for a year or two.

I've been keeping an eye on all the local firewood ads on Pennswoods and Craigslist. My youngest is going to be 17 next week, and when my kids are out of the house my scrounging days are done, because my back just can't take it. Then I'll be buying it. The triaxle load advertized there seems to be one of the best deals locally.

 

[MasterMech]

not what i wanted to hear. Being that it was free, I will make due for now. I will be using it as a suplement heat source as well as my oil furnace. Definetly not good to hear and kind of bums, me out, but thanks for the heads up. Looks like I will need a bit more wood.

Looks like i will be setting an alarm and stocking it as well. I don't have the funds to get any upgraded stuff right now, but will look to do so in the future.

Keep your eyes peeled, if there are deals to be had, particularly on Englander NC-30's, they will be posted here. Several members have obtained new stoves for under $700 IIRC. This usually happens in the early spring, the end of the burning season. Plenty of good used and nearly new stoves show up here in teh "For Sale/Wanted" forum too.

Probably could unload that US Stove on CL for a couple hundy real quick.

 

[Ashful]

Probably could unload that US Stove on CL for a couple hundy real quick.

...and then the buyer will come here to ask about his new stove. We are caught in a loop!

 

[PapaDave]

Wood burning Matrix.

 

[Pallet Pete]

Wood burning Matrix.

( As the hearth burns ) the new daytime soap opera brought to you by hearth.com

Pete

 

[PapaDave]

One wood burning life to live.
Dark wood Shadows.
Days of our Wood burning Lives.
Bold and Beautiful Firewood.
Young and Restless to get more firewood.
I'll stop now.
ETA: Days of Our Logs.

 

[Pallet Pete]

Guiding fire
A tree apart
All my wood piles
How to survive a tree falling
Return to Peyton place woods

Ok a little obscure lol
Pete

 

[Prof]

Hi Mike welcome to the forum. I'm from Lilly too! Small world. Send me a message if you need anything, I'd be happy to lend a hand where I can.

Dave

 

[Locust]

Welcome, StihlMike! You're right up the road a short ways from me......I'm north of Altoona! Welcome to the nuthouse, as we like to say!
Lots of advice to be given to a beginner, but Sav touched on some of that in his post already. Big thing is the sooner you get your wood cut, split and stacked (C/S/S, as we say), the better. Lots of us are over 3 or 4 years ahead on our wood supply.....it makes a HUGE difference when your burned seasoned wood...

Anyway, you'll learn a lot here, so enjoy your new addiction to woodburning!

I used to live in Ebensburg when I was going to Saint Francis University. Nice country.

 

[BrianK]

Hi Mike welcome to the forum. I'm from Lilly too! Small world. Send me a message if you need anything, I'd be happy to lend a hand where I can.

Dave

We need to have a central PA Hearth.com meet and greet.

Between you, Mike, Scotty, wood duck, PA Fire Bug and myself and probably others I can't recall at present we've got a pretty good representation here on the forum.

 

[MasterMech]

Get within 3-4 hours of me and I'd be very likely to show up. I'm less than an hour from the NY/PA line on I84.

 

[BrianK]

Get within 3-4 hours of me and I'd be very likely to show up. I'm less than an hour from the NY/PA line on I84.

We just passed through your area on Saturday. We vacationed in New Hampshire last week, travelled out via I84 through Connecticut (ugh) and returned Saturday via the Mass Turnpike (ugh) and visited a friend south of Albany for dinner, then took 87 South to 84, then back to route 80.

We had a nice but brief visit at Woodstock last Thursday morning. Figured if I was in NH I had to stop.

 

[MasterMech]

We just passed through your area on Saturday. We vacationed in New Hampshire last week, travelled out via I84 through Connecticut (ugh) and returned Saturday via the Mass Turnpike (ugh) and visited a friend south of Albany for dinner, then took 87 South to 84, then back to route 80.

We had a nice but brief visit at Woodstock last Thursday morning. Figured if I was in NH I had to stop.

You were within 15 minutes of me. Thought my spidey senses were tingling that day....

 

[Stihlmike]

It is cool that we are on a forum with people from all over the world and have a few of us that close together.

I am in a bit of a bad mood today though. My STIHL cut out on me last week. Not sure exactly what the issue was but only having it for 4 days, I took it back to the dealer on Thursday at lunch time. I told them I needed it by the weekend and figured since I had just bought it there they would bump me up the list.

I checked on Friday on my way home from work, and the hadn't even looked at it yet. That changed in a hurry though. I told them that if I did not hear any progress by Wednesday I wanted a new saw. I can not afford to be waiting on parts and such, and miss two weekends in a row of not getting out there and cutting.

The issue is a bit confusing to me. The saw ran fine, then it cut out suddenly. It will run, but when you hit the throttle it kills it. Also the primar ball is not able to get any gas into it when you press it, and you can hear air when you push the button.

I am normally a patient guy, but with the winter and archery season coming, I need to get as much wood as I can by the beginning of October. I was confident I could get it done, but every day that saw is sitting in the shop, I am loosing a few days of heat.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

Hello all. Just got my woodburner, and will be installing in the near future. Purchased a new STIHL saw as well. This is my rookie year and may need to rely on purchasing some wood for the winter. I hope to get a few chord cut but it is tough when my wood truck is a Dodge neon. Hope you enjoy these few pictures.

I will upload a few pictures of my install as well. I have everything drawn up in autocad and awaiting approval from my insurance company.

Any tips for a rookie will be appreciated.

Here are some tips

1) Your chances of buying ready-to-burn wood are almost zilch. Whether you cut your own wood or buy it, do so way before you plan on burning it

2) For the purposes of heating one's home the word(s) "season"/"seasoned" have no meaning with regard to your firewood. Also, because "seasoned" has no actual, quantifiable meaning. Wood may be "seasoned" and wet. Instead think of wood as "wet" or "dry."

3) Learn to file your chains. It will be difficult. You will do it wrong for a long time but eventually, with persistence you will get it right. You can attenuate the effect of an improperly filed chain by cutting only small wood.

4) When you finally get a wood hauler, get a 3/4 ton or 1 ton. People who buy 1/2 tons as wood haulers are communists.

 

[Ashful]

4) When you finally get a wood hauler, get a 3/4 ton or 1 ton. People who buy 1/2 tons as wood haulers are communists.

All great points, with the possible exception of item 4. A 1/2 ton truck is acceptable, if you couple it with a tandem-axle trailer.

 

[teutonicking]

Guiding fire
A tree apart
All my wood piles
How to survive a tree falling
Return to Peyton place woods

Ok a little obscure lol
Pete

Remember to always wear chaps to avoid going to the General Hospital.
Your stove will be your Guiding Light.