To All the Hearth Nerds....

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Who. are you calling a Nerd???

:p

You're getting excellent advice on this thread.

Welcome to the Forums !
 
Who. are you calling a Nerd???

:p

You're getting excellent advice on this thread.

Welcome to the Forums !

A nerd is a good thing. I'm becoming a chainsaw nerd and just found out I'm lucky to be alive. I've done some stupid things with a chainsaw.

Thanks. I have a lot more reading to do.
 
Yup, you think burning the wood is fun! Wait till you start cutting and splitting. Its a whole nother rush. Cutting, hauling, splitting, stacking, admiring, straightening, stareing, gazing, perfecting, more straiting, and covering of or at the stacks of labor. Its all about 2 stroke smoke and hoarding as much a you can get your hands on!
I started cutting this March and ended up with 11 cords (w/ help from my wife and parents) for myself plus about 1.5 cords I left at each of the 2 places I cut on for shares. Some came from Craigslist, some came from friends, and the latest score of 3+ cords of oak came from word of mouth. With about a dozen and a half trees still standing out there. For a grand Total of 14 cords give or take and I only worked about 2 months of weekends until it got too warm to work that hard, and 2 weekends this fall before the snow flew. Good luck, Have fun and keep an eye and ear out for chainsaws running, and Craigslist ads!
 
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Yup, you think burning the wood is fun! Wait till you start cutting and splitting. Its a whole nother rush. Cutting, hauling, splitting, stacking, admiring, straightening, stareing, gazing, perfecting, more straiting, and covering of or at the stacks of labor. Its all about 2 stroke smoke and hoarding as much a you can get your hands on!
I started cutting this March and ended up with 11 cords (w/ help from my wife and parents) for myself plus about 1.5 cords I left at each of the 2 places I cut on for shares. Some came from Craigslist, some came from friends, and the latest score of 3+ cords of oak came from word of mouth. With about a dozen and a half trees still standing out there. For a grand Total of 14 cords give or take and I only worked about 2 months of weekends until it got too warm to work that hard, and 2 weekends this fall before the snow flew. Good luck, Have fun and keep an eye and ear out for chainsaws running, and Craigslist ads!

14 freaking cords!! Holy crap. I wish I had a measly 4. I've started cutting and splitting a little at the in-laws. Totally hooked. Stacked some of them in my yard and catch myself admiring it everyday lol.

I need to get with the program to catch up with you. You've had snow already?
 
Got another question. Probably better to make a new thread but don't want to clutter it up with questions that have probably been answered ad nauseam.

I fabricated a two piece block off plate by the damper then used high temp silicone to seal it. Now I have a stupid question. For those that clean their flues multiple times a year, do you guys rip off the block off plate each time? If I did that, I'll have to keep buying the high temp silicone and resealing.

Next year I'm going to rip out the damper frame and fabricate a one piece block off plate. In the mean time, assuming I find the courage and a tall enough ladder to clean the flue myself, how will I be able to get to the deposits that will presumably land on the smoke shelf? Even if I made a clean out point, I feel like I would still need to stick a vacuum attachment up there.
 
Do you have a liner for the chimney? If so whatever is up there falls into the stove and you just scoop it out. I did mine for the first time and it was really rather easy to do, as long as you don't fall! But from your last post it almost sounds like you don't have a liner in there.
 
Do you have a liner for the chimney? If so whatever is up there falls into the stove and you just scoop it out. I did mine for the first time and it was really rather easy to do, as long as you don't fall! But from your last post it almost sounds like you don't have a liner in there.

Nope I don't. That's coming next year too. Starting to feel like I'm not really prepared to burn wood this year.
 
Eeek.. DO NOT BURN without a liner. Period. I was about to comment and ask about your liner as it sounds like you have draft issues. The block off plate is for your liner to come through the damper area and block out the fireplace.

What is the tell regarding draft issues?
 
It should look something like this with a liner, that is why you are confused:

lower-block-plate-7-jpg.100153
 
It should look something like this with a liner, that is why you are confused:

I have something like that, just not nearly as pretty. I just don't have the liner. You don't seal around the block of plate's sides?
 
These two can also be related to burning wet wood but also happen with a lack of draft. Do you get wood smoke coming out the door when you open it?

Not that I can see. I've been opening the door a lot too, can't seem to just let the fire be. I always think I can get the logs to burn faster if I mess with them. Possibly a wet wood thing as I assume really dry wood would have little to no issues.
 
Block off plate is of no use without the liner, you are actually hurting your draft even more.

Wouldn't the block off plate help force the flue to draw from the insert? If not, I'm totally confused about how this wood burning thing works. Thought I had a good general idea before today.
 
So you slid the insert into the fireplace with nothing connecting to the exhaust on it and made a block off plate with im guessing a 6" hole in the middle of your damper?

No, that would be kind of stupid I think. I have a pic on page 1. You can see the outlet pipe going up and into the block off plate. Sorry, kind of a bad pic. Took it last night.
 
Also, the insert isn't fully in the firebox. The back of it is probably 6" or so from the bricks.
 
Only pic I see on page 1 is of the insert. So you have a positive connection, 6" stainless steel flex pipe through the block off plate to the first tile of the chimney?

Jeez, you got me all nervous now lol. You can't see the pipe from the back of the insert going into the block off plate?

It's not flex pipe. Not sure what you call it but it's pipe with an adjustable angle thingy. Sorry, I'm probably screwing up every single wood burning term there is.
 
Is your stove stubbed with a pipe from the stove to just above the damper? If so, that is legal but often a poor setup for draft and lousy for cleaning because the insert needs to be pulled each time to clean.

I lightened up your picture. It looks like you are using regular galvanized duct pipe. That is not permitted for fireplace installations and should be replaced.

stubby.jpg
 
Is your stove stubbed with a pipe from the stove to just above the damper? If so, that is legal but often a poor setup for draft and lousy for cleaning because the insert needs to be pulled each time to clean.

Yes it is. That's what I was wondering about. Father in-law installed it. I can actually get to the damper area and everything with the insert in place.
 
added comment above plus lightened the picture
 
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