wood chips

[allhandsworking]

Has anyone burned wood chips with success in a wood stove? I have an unlimited supply and Wonder if anyone has any advice? I tried posting this before but i don't think it went threw.

 

[Corey]

Not in any great quantity, but when I have burned a couple of buckets left over from splitting, they seemed to do OK in small quantities spread out on an existing bed of coals, but a large heap tends to smolder and smoke some. They seemed to work a little better feeding air from the bottom through the ashpan door. Almost like burning coal...bottom feed air then shake the grate to remove ash. They also tend to burn up relatively fast, so you'd probably be stoking the stove every hour or less to get any kind of decent heat output and I don't think you'd have any hope of an overnight fire with them.

My .02 - they would be nice for some supplimentary heat, but I think you'll get tired of stoking the stove every hour for the entire burning season. An auto feed would be neat - like a pellet stove - but i don't think chips have the size consistency of pellets, so there would probably be lots of jambs and feeding issues.

 

[allhandsworking]

Thanks for the reply. I will tinker with this over the winter. Maybe ill have the next hottest invention. I was thinking that I could make a Hopper with steal mesh or compress the chips? I think someone already did this though. (wood pellets)

 

[firefighterjake]

I would think they would be more trouble than they're worth . . . as mentioned it would take a lot of time to constantly feed the fire and if you add too much it would most likely suffocate the fire and cause it to smolder and smoke rather than produce meaningful heat. On the flip side, the chips would probably make excellent tinder to start the fire.

 

[Highbeam]

The trouble is finsing dry wood chips. If you can dry them then there are devices that can burn them. Every wood chipper in the country would be cranking out chips for the stove if green chips burned for beans in a stove. Back in the day, there were sawdust burners that used a hopper.

I too have an unlimited supply of chips that end up making mulch.

 

[The Dali Lima]

What about putting them in paper bags for easy loading?

 

[elmoleaf]

Call me crazy, but what about a wire mesh basket you can put in the firebox? It would hold the chips in a small volume and perhaps make them easier to burn than a loose pile?

 

[kenny chaos]

Does this give you any ideas? http://www.echotech.org/technical/technotes/Briquete.pdf

 

[jebatty]

As further development of the press described above, many of us wood burners have log splitters. Seems that the splitter would be ideal to provide force for the press.

I generate a fair quantity of wood planer shavings which are dry, but not enough to try to sell as animal bedding, mulch, etc. in a commercial sense. I use a few generous handfuls on top of the kindling to start my wood gasification boiler. The draft fan provides plenty of air to burn the shavings, and the fire takes right off. They don't burn very well without the added air from the draft fan.

 

[woodconvert]

author="Highbeam" date="1223491296"]The trouble is finding dry wood chips. If you can dry them then there are devices that can burn them.

All the available chips around here are wet. I tried some awhile back but it took for EVAR to stack the stuff and it would blow over too easy. BUT, you can get a lot of stacks into confined areas...which is nice.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I usually add them to my kindling as initial wood chips to start from the paper fire, but I really like the briquette idea... especially with the use of the splitter's hydraulic ram.

 

[egghead2004]

In my old stove, I could shovel in about 1/2 cubic foot at a time over hot coals and open up the vents. The temp would drop quickly, but within 10 minutes it was back over 450. This actually worked pretty well on those 40-50 degree days when you need heat, but not a lot of it. I had 2 dump truck loads of oak and maple chips from a chipper. I don't bother anymore with the Oslo, it is smaller and not as shovel in friendly as my old beast.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I'm going to try making some of the briquettes. I gathered the pipe and plunger last night. As the leaves drop I am going to gather them and try out making a few briquettes. I wish I had sawdust still. I guess there is a bit under the table saw, etc. Next year I'll cut over a tarp so I have some to try compressing.

Matt

 

[fabguy01]

i usualy load my owb half full of cord wood then pitchfork about 10" or so of chips then finish loading with cord wood then try to fill the air spaces with chips.I have done it that way for the past 8 years with good luck



nate

 

[jebatty]

Gave a quick try of the pipe and plunger method using dry planer shavings, 3" plastic pipe, and oak plunger pushed by my log splitter. I tried the shavings both dry and wet. They did not hold together well either way, although I drove the log splitter to its max pressure.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I grabbed some pine needles, some maple whirley things and paper from the shredder bin. I used the 5 ton splitter to ram it into a cast iron 1 1/2" ID nipple about 18" long. All it did was pack the stuff into the nipple. I don't know if it's holding together or not because it's now stuck in the pipe. The stuff at the bottom still looks like pine needles mixed with old bills and maple whirleys.

Matt