Buck stove shot gun control

[Woody Stover]

do a single trench in the middle in the ashes from front to back, that would allow the air to get to the bottom on the wood in the back.

I just tried that and it worked well. My fire box has alot of flame in it.

Ah, yes, the "tunnel of love." Pat. Pend.

 

[Crank shaft]

The thing that I foundreally weird is that after it was hot and I refueled it the flames were like the were floating on the top of the fire box and the catalyst temp was at 1500 degrees. I noticed the maple I put in had bark on it and it seemed to be causing this... IU s it normal to have the flames float on the top of the fire box?

 

[mellow]

Yep, ghost flames, that's the smoke hitting the cat and igniting.

 

[Crank shaft]

Should I be alarmed? I'm afraid to go to bed with it doing that

 

[begreen]

It's pretty normal in cat and non-cat stoves. For now, do your loads in the daytime or at least several hours before you go to bed so that you can get used to the stove's behavior and have better peace of mind.

 

[mellow]

Perfectly normal. That is what a cat does in the beginning stages of a load, a lot of offgassing going on (maybe to much). If your cat runs too hot (1700+ in my book) then you might want to cut the air back a bit more.

If your burns are not lasting that long then try cutting back the air sooner and see if that helps lower the temps on the cat, might be eating up the wood too quick during the warm up.

 

[mellow]

Btw, you do have a Condar catalytic probe on the front above the door next to the bypass right?

 

[Crank shaft]

Thank you mellow, I guess my biggest fear is going to bed and cat temp going up to high! Thank you be green. I will give it a shot.

 

[Crank shaft]

I do and cat temp is almost at 1500, how would I cool it down a touch?

 

[mellow]

Decrease the primary air, if your wood is off gasing to much for that to help you might need to open the bypass a smidge as well as closing down the air till the temps come back down.

 

[Crank shaft]

Got it! Thank you! 1 more question, should I shut all of the air down when I go to bed?

 

[Crank shaft]

I just called Buck and they said close all of the airways down before bed .do you guys do that?

 

[Woody Stover]

normal to have the flames float on the top of the fire box?

Yeah, it happens when conditions in the fire box and the air setting are right. Love the floating ghost flames!

 

[Crank shaft]

They looked super cool. Just didn't know if it's normal.

 

[Woody Stover]

Thank you mellow, I guess my biggest fear is going to bed and cat temp going up to high!

I had the 91 cat go high on me a few times. How much wood is gassing in the box will depend on what species of wood (soft woods like soft Maple will gas faster than dense woods like Oak or Hickory. It also depends how you load the stove. To control the gassing in the Buck, I loaded after pulling the coals into the middle, running N-S, and putting some small splits of softer wood on the coals. The rest of the box was loaded with bigger splits with no coals under them. Loading this way, it's mainly the center that gets burning first, limiting the gassing. Then the burn slowly works its way out to the sides, resulting is a controlled release of gasses.
Like begreen said, start your overnight load early, which will give you a chance to observe how the stove reacts to different woods, loading patterns, and air settings. You can also rig a marker for your cat probe so that you will know what it did after you sacked out. I just made one out of tin foil, but I'm sure you can come up with something better than that.

 

[Crank shaft]

Sweet, thank you x I will practice this and CV that gauge is sweet, thank you!

 

[Woody Stover]

that gauge is sweet

Actually, the point of the needle ends up behind where the tin foil is, so on that load the cat got to maybe 1600. Still a little higher than I like to see. Of course, there is a +/- on the accuracy of these probes. A digital probe should be better in that regard.

 

[coltfever]

Your doing just fine Mike. Enjoy your your flame show. It just last for a short time and then your only looking at red coals.

 

[Crank shaft]

Not to sure on how to use the quotes yet, but I'll learn. Thank you! And I now have a better understanding on how this thing works. Thanks everyone!

 

[Woody Stover]

Not to sure on how to use the quotes yet

If you read a post and want to quote it, in the lower right corner of that post you will see a reply button. Click that, and the post will be quoted in the reply box at the bottom of that page. You can then hold down a left-click and highlight parts of the post you want to delete, leaving only the part of the post that you want to reply to.

 

[Woody Stover]

My son has the model 80

Did you get a chance yet to go over to your son's and get to the bottom of the air routing? Do the two side controls do the same thing, just feeding the air wash from different points? While you're at it, rip out the cat shield and see if there's an air channel across the top of the fire box, in back of the cat, like in the 91. Heck, it's warm down there, he doesn't need to run the stove yet. I was thinking maybe the right control feeds the air wash, left control feeds the air channel. Or I could be out in left field....

 

[Crank shaft]

If you read a post and want to quote it, in the lower right corner of that post you will see a reply button. Click that, and the post will be quoted in the reply box at the bottom of that page. You can then hold down a left-click and highlight parts of the post you want to delete, leaving only the part of the post that you want to reply to.

Test: is this how ?

 

[Woody Stover]

Test: is this how ?

Yes...yes it is.

 

[Crank shaft]

Yes...yes it is.

Got it, thank you!

 

[Crank shaft]

If you read a post and want to quote it, in the lower right corner of that post you will see a reply button. Click that, and the post will be quoted in the reply box at the bottom of that page. You can then hold down a left-click and highlight parts of the post you want to delete, leaving only the part of the post that you want to reply to.

Thank you!