Fire starters

I have tried and tried again with different materials and never got more than 5 minutes ! Believe it or not the best was wax sawdust and egg carton they got 5 minutes. I packed them very very tightly in order to make them last. Now I cheat super cedars all the way.

Pete

tsquini said:

Today I made my own my fire starters. Paper egg carton, lint, wood chips, and wax. I compressed them as much as I could but they still don't last more than 4 min. But they do burn hot. Has anyone else made them? How did they turn out?

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Egg carton, wood pellets and wax. Mint! And why would you need a firestarter to burn for more than 5 minutes anyway?

Have all the stuff but haven't made them yet. Should try it tonight

I made some a few weeks ago since I had a lot of wood planer shavings and a box of wax from the scratch and dent from the supermarket. I used a junk pan on my electric outdoor grill and melted the wax in it and added the shavings. I fabbed up a pvc pipe plunger to pack the mix in to some paper towel tubes and left to cool outside overnight. The end shape was excellent as I cut little slices on my band saw. Each slice was the size of a 1/4 Supercedar. Did they work? Yes. Would I do it again? No. Supercedars work better hands down, they last longer and I have a mess to clean up still. Did I mention it was a PITA. It took too much time. I'll let Thomas' folks do the work for me. The ratio of wax and wood is better in the Supercedar. It was something I had to try. Supercedar needs to sell t-shirts, hats or mugs or something.

Yep... Just made some of my own. Just saw dust and wax. I used some egg cartons and the rest were Dixie Cups .

They work well, and the few minutes they do stay lit, is enough to start a fire. But running 24/7 the fire rarely goes out.
So I just throw one right in front of doghouse air on reloads with little coals left.

Will I do it again, Nah. I tried because it was simple and cheap. But Super Cedars are the Chit!!

I just made another batch.
They work well and last about 10 minutes or so. Doesn't take more than a few minutes of my time.
Egg carton, sawdust/shavings, wax. Done.
How hard is that. It's not. Really.

I've been using newspapers and some thinly split pine slats from some crates. Might have try the egg cartons. The pine burns very hot but it is a very dirty fire

tsquini said:

Good question, I don't know. I have never used super cedars. How long does that last for? I have used compressed wax and sawdust one from lowes, they last 10 min.

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SC's can last up to 20-30 minutes

I do the lint/egg carton thing and find them to be very effective. It only takes a couple minutes to have a blazing fire, so I wouldn't worry about getting more than 5 minutes. I might time mine out of curiosity, but in my experience they burn long enough. Plus, I like having the satisfaction of using materials that would otherwise be thrown away. Wax is the only thing that is scarce at times, but with a couple small kids, I rarely run out of broken crayons these days. Before that, one yardsale and I would have all the wax I need for a year for around a buck.

After experimenting a few years with different home-made firestarters, this is what I found is best so far.
Egg cartons cut in half, waxy 1/2 gallon milk cartons cut in half (lengthways), or any open face container about the size of a half of egg carton.
I lay a used piece of dryer sheet in container, then throw in a few pieces of lint, then a mixture of sawdust, woodchips, lawn debris, broken up twigs I saved from fall cleanup, the mess I sweep up every day around my indoor wood cart, stuff from my Shop-vac in my wood shop (including cat hair from that damn cat). And all this stuff is free and is being recyled.

I cleaned up the pine needles from around my Christmas tree this year, and they went into my mixture container. I'm going to remove the needles from the old tree setting outside and they are going in my mixture pail.
NO WAX - not needed. And I don't compress anything. Looser the better.
Right now I have 32 containers setting on a shelf near my firewood. It takes about 20-30 seconds to make up a "kit".

Then I put 2 sheets of newspaper in cold stove, lay container among paper, put a few pieces of kindling on top of container, then a couple splits (actually I use slab wood), light the paper, walk away, and about 10 minutes later my blower fan comes on blowing nice hot air. So far this heating season, it's been 100%.

I burn wood 24/7 so sometimes let fire go out when house is too warm or have to start fire in morning, so sometimes use 2 or 3 starter kits a day.

Sorry for lengthy post, but this simple method/system really works for me.

I'm a total convert to Super Cedars, thanks to all the high recommendations on this forum. It ain't worth the time, and/or any cost savings to use anything but SCs. Got them two weeks after becoming a wood burner and won't ever go back to newspaper. I'd rather split more wood than try to make my own starters, either.

PapaDave said:

I just made another batch. They work well and last about 10 minutes or so. Doesn't take more than a few minutes of my time. Egg carton, sawdust/shavings, wax. Done. How hard is that. It's not. Really.

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Same here. I burned one in the open & it lasted at least 10 minutes. Not to bad to make, either - I've done far worse to save a few $$.

If you run out of your regular Fire Starters.
I made an improvement to my in a jam Home Made Fire Starter.
I now roll 2 paper towels around a pipe to make it hollow. Burns much faster as it gets more air now.
I use Bounty paper towels as its a more absorbent paper towel works better for this application.
After you make this dip it in lamp oil.
(Dont tell the wife where her papers towels went)
Worlds Cheapest ,Easiest made, Fastest Starting and Hottest burning, Fire Starter Guaranteed or your money back.

More Pics all with the actual time stamps on them.

Notice the pic showing the firebrick with the ITC-100 coating, its nice and white after burning all winter so far.

The stove top temp gets hot quick as the wood is stacked up close to the burn tubes.

Man, you guys seem to go thru alot of trouble to make them.....! Super Cedars are cheap, easy, clean and work amazingly good. I now break them into qtr's, so 1 super cedar makes 4 fires. It's just so easy....

The SC 30 pack is approx $30 +/-, and i quarter them anyway - so it costs me 25cents to light a fire when i need to light a fire. I don't have enough spare time on the farm to worry about getting cheaper than that

tsquini said:

Today I made my own my fire starters. Paper egg carton, lint, wood chips, and wax. I compressed them as much as I could but they still don't last more than 4 min. But they do burn hot. Has anyone else made them? How did they turn out?

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I picked up the 3 ounce Dixie cups at the dollar store and emptied the paper shredder at my office. We tightly packed the cups half full with the shredded paper. I bought a bunch of old candles from Goodwill, melted them with a double boiler, and put about 1.5 ounces of wax in each cup. These things are ridiculously easy to light and burn about 8-10 minutes. No problems getting the fire started and dirt cheap. My son took them on his winter Boy Scout camp out this weekend and they were a big hit.

Machria said:

Man, you guys seem to go thru alot of trouble to make them

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Nah, no trouble at all. On a trip out to the shop, I take an empty carton with me. No trouble.
Fill the carton with sawdust. Maybe 30 seconds. No trouble.
Take it back to the house with me. Minor trouble if I get stupid and dump sawdust (hasn't happened yet).
Wax in a double boiler and walk away for a few. No trouble.
Pour melted wax into egg carton filled with sawdust. Maybe a minute. No trouble.
Done.
If this whole process takes 10 minutes of my time, I'd be very shocked.
I'm retired, I have a whole 10 minutes to spare once every couple months.

I can make one of mine in less then 15 seconds.

For you wax dippers you could use a modified version of mine and dip it in wax, I have no patents on it.

1/4 of a super cedar is all I use anymore.

Here is the true world's cheapest, easiest made fire starters.



It's hard to beat free . . . other than a walk through the back yard in the Fall collecting pine cones. Now if only I could figure out a way to sell them.

For the record . . . I still use Super Cedars . . . and newspaper and kindling . . . I like starting my fires in a variety of ways . . . variety being the spice of life and all that.