Pine over flame! Wood burning is not a procrastinators sport

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Stevenmverrill

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Jan 5, 2016
52
Frederick md
so I am having trouble with being able to load my stove, burning mostly pine. (is that normal?)

I failed epicly at cutting up standing dead trees on my property last year, and am burning mostly all (very dry) pine from work, due to procrastination.

so my truble/question:
What is too hot? I have a Lazer thermometer, and read steel gets weak around 800f, so I try to keep the stove hot spots at 700f or less.

I can not load the stove (even full choke) and keep it that low. it runs up to the upper 700's fast! is that ok?

it's a 13mfd epa stove the pipe can get to the upper 500's when the stove is in the upper 700's.

see pic. all the way choked the secondary burn is hot! (rope seals and all are good, and tight)

the good news is: I can go to sleep at 9pm, and not touch it till 4 pm and have coals to work with.

but, it gets could enugh over night, to leave me regretting setting it at full choke before bed.
 

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Cannot find any info on your stove. Can you give better description and include how it's setup (e.g how long chimney)? Touching 800 or even a bit more now and then isn't the worst thing in the world but running into the upper 700's on a regular basis is a bit too much for my taste. Can you try shutting down the air earlier to control the burn? If you have a very long chimney that's causing overdraft a damper should help. Using larger splits can help too since a stove full of kindling, especially small dry pine will burn hot.
 
You need to go into a wood lot and cut a bunch of small, dead trees, standing or fallen, with no bark on them. That should be around 20% moisture, so will burn OK but slower than Pine.
 
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until you can get other types of wood, don't load it so full, you'll have much better control of your temps.
 
jatoxico said:
Cannot find any info on your stove. Can you give better description and include how it's setup (e.g how long chimney)? Touching 800 or even a bit more now and then isn't the worst thing in the world but running into the upper 700's on a regular basis is a bit too much for my taste. Can you try shutting down the air earlier to control the burn? If you have a very long chimney that's causing overdraft a damper should help. Using larger splits can help too since a stove full of kindling, especially small dry pine will burn hot.
Click to expand...


Thanks, good info.
It's a ussc 90,000 btu I believe. it has 3 oval intakes over the door with a sliding Plate for air control, that seams to operate properly.

18 ft of 6" for draft

adding a flue could be a good solution.
 
Yikes, my normal burn is about 350 - 400, every once in awhile it gets up to 550 and i panic.
At 700 i'd be freaking out and probably throwing water on it.
 
Woody Stover said:
You need to go into a wood lot and cut a bunch of small, dead trees, standing or fallen, with no bark on them. That should be around 20% moisture, so will burn OK but slower than Pine.
Click to expand...


Hum. thanks got plenty of them but figured I should not use till next year.

guess it's more so the big ones that take forever to dry out?
 
18 inches above the stove on the pipe. Guess i assumed thats what you were referring to for temps.
not sure what temp my stove top gets as i don't measure that
 
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jatoxico said:
If you have a very long chimney that's causing overdraft a damper should help. Using larger splits can help too since a stove full of kindling, especially small dry pine will burn hot.
Click to expand...
Stevenmverrill said:
ussc 90,000 btu I believe. it has 3 oval intakes over the door with a sliding Plate for air control, that seams to operate properly. 18 ft of 6" for draft, adding a flue could be a good solution.
Click to expand...
A pipe damper on 18' has got to help to some degree. Drill a couple holes in the pipe for the damper shaft, close enough to the flue collar so that you can reach in there with one hand and hold the damper plate while you thread the rod through (sometimes easier if you have two people for this job.)
upload_2016-12-6_11-28-36.jpeg


Woody Stover said:
cut a bunch of small, dead trees, standing or fallen, with no bark on them. That should be around 20% moisture, so will burn OK but slower than Pine.
Click to expand...
Stevenmverrill said:
got plenty of them but figured I should not use till next year. guess it's more so the big ones that take forever to dry out?
Click to expand...
Yes, the key is small trees with no bark, maybe 6" in diameter....8" max. It will take you a while, but you can stack enough wood to get you through if you keep at it. You can get a cheap Harbor Freight moisture meter for like $15. Split the wood and jam the pins in on the freshly-exposed surface...anything in the low 20s should burn OK. Cold wood will give a false low reading...better to have the wood at least 50* when testing. Actually, you can usually tell by the weight of the rounds you cut if they are pretty dry. This will vary by wood specie, though. Also, if you split a round and put it to your cheek, the cooler it feels, the wetter it is.
 
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We burn mostly pine, it is a learned experience. You can also try cutting off some of the air from the intake if it's getting into an overfire situation. I have a couple wadded up pieces of aluminum foil for that purpose, just in case it tries to get away from me. Be sure you let it burn down enough-hot reloads with pine can be an experience. This year we've been doing mostly maple and lath from a reno project. The lath is a whole new animal compared to pine-my goodness does that stuff get going FAST.
 
KindredSpiritzz said:
Yikes, my normal burn is about 350 - 400, every once in awhile it gets up to 550 and i panic.
At 700 i'd be freaking out and probably throwing water on it.
Click to expand...
If I cut my 30 back at 300-350 I don't get a good secondary burn. I don't cut the air back till 400-450...sometimes 500.

No worries. Just don't walk away.
 
It's going to vary from stove to stove and from installation to installation and with various species and drynesses of wood. Temperature is a good guide in some cases, but in others, not as much. The T6's firebox gets hot quicker than the massive top. I often start lowering teh air supply when the top approaches 250F, but there is a roiling fire inside the firebox. With an insert sometimes your eyes are the best guide, especially with an insert that is hard to place a thermometer on.
 
Woody Stover said:
A pipe damper on 18' has got to help to some degree. Drill a couple holes in the pipe for the damper shaft, close enough to the flue collar so that you can reach in there with one hand and hold the damper plate while you thread the rod through (sometimes easier if you have two people for this job.)
View attachment 189565

Yes, the key is small trees with no bark, maybe 6" in diameter....8" max. It will take you a while, but you can stack enough wood to get you through if you keep at it. You can get a cheap Harbor Freight moisture meter for like $15. Split the wood and jam the pins in on the freshly-exposed surface...anything in the low 20s should burn OK. Cold wood will give a false low reading...better to have the wood at least 50* when testing. Actually, you can usually tell by the weight of the rounds you cut if they are pretty dry. This will vary by wood specie, though. Also, if you split a round and put it to your cheek, the cooler it feels, the wetter it is.
Click to expand...


A cash of good info you are! thanks,
 
so I found a surplus of 10-14" read oak that fell across an erosion ditch, and has been there long enough to have no bark. also the parts of the tree that are on the ground have rotten. the wood has tons of checking, and was easy to split, I just loaded the stove, and the secondarys took off quickly, and is burning strong at 1/4 air.

the ditch is at the back of my property, and the trees are technically my neighbors, but since he dose not burn wood and what I'm taking is on my side I think it's ok? (would it be good etiquette to ask before I take the rest of it, or is it a no-brainer since the wood is on my side?)

I'll bring a moisture meter home tomorrow to double check but pretty sure this stuff is good to go!

sorry forgot to take pics when I was in the woods.

thoughts?
 

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Stevenmverrill said:
so I found a surplus of 10-14" read oak that fell across an erosion ditch, and has been there long enough to have no bark. also the parts of the tree that are on the ground have rotten. the wood has tons of checking, and was easy to split, I just loaded the stove, and the secondarys took off quickly, and is burning strong at 1/4 air.
Click to expand...
It's taking a chance on something that big, especially Oak. But hey, sometimes you get lucky! >> If it lies out there long enough and is suspended off the ground, anything will dry after many years. It sounds like that stuff still had some rotting sapwood on it, though, so probably not lying there real long. Sometimes, if they are standing dead for several years, they will get a good head start on drying. You can sometimes tell about how dry it is when cutting....there will be a drier look to the sawed ends. If it was checked on the end of the saw cuts, that's gotta be pretty dry. And of course, the heft of the rounds, which you will get a feel for (but sometimes the sapwood will be wet, which makes 'em a bit heavier.)
No bubbling out the ends of the splits after they roasted for a while?
the ditch is at the back of my property, and the trees are technically my neighbors, but since he dose not burn wood and what I'm taking is on my side I think it's ok? (would it be good etiquette to ask before I take the rest of it, or is it a no-brainer since the wood is on my side?)
Click to expand...
I think the wood is technically yours if it falls on your property, but I would talk to the guy anyway. Get the word out to as many people as you can that you burn wood, maybe they will let you know when they are having a tree taken down, or when something dead falls and they want it gone. Don't commit to anything if they call you, just tell them you will look at it. You might just end up taking some of it. As you get ahead on your stacks, you will get picky and not take any marginal punk wood or low-output stuff.
sorry forgot to take pics when I was in the woods.
Click to expand...
That's OK, rookie mistake, but I trust it won't happen again. ;)
 
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Woody Stover said:
It's taking a chance on something that big, especially Oak. But hey, sometimes you get lucky! >> If it lies out there long enough and is suspended off the ground, anything will dry after many years. It sounds like that stuff still had some rotting sapwood on it, though, so probably not lying there real long. Sometimes, if they are standing dead for several years, they will get a good head start on drying. You can sometimes tell about how dry it is when cutting....there will be a drier look to the sawed ends. If it was checked on the end of the saw cuts, that's gotta be pretty dry. And of course, the heft of the rounds, which you will get a feel for (but sometimes the sapwood will be wet, which makes 'em a bit heavier.)
No bubbling out the ends of the splits after they roasted for a while?
I think the wood is technically yours if it falls on your property, but I would talk to the guy anyway. Get the word out to as many people as you can that you burn wood, maybe they will let you know when they are having a tree taken down, or when something dead falls and they want it gone. Don't commit to anything if they call you, just tell them you will look at it. You might just end up taking some of it. As you get ahead on your stacks, you will get picky and not take any marginal punk wood or low-output stuff.
That's OK, rookie mistake, but I trust it won't happen again. ;)
Click to expand...

won't happen again...

picked out a less then favorable peice...

 
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Stevenmverrill said:
picked out a less then favorable peice...
Click to expand...
In those bigger trees, the smaller stuff from the top of the tree will probably be a bit drier than wood from the lower trunk.
 
About 18 months ago I pulled down a red oak that was hung up in my dad's woods since 2012. It was suspended off the ground. Pulled it down with a backhoe and some strategic cutting. Bucked it into rounds and split it within a day or two. Water was coming out of the wood near the wedge when I split it! The tree was 75% bark free as well.
 
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Stevenmverrill said:
won't happen again...

picked out a less then favorable peice...

Click to expand...


If that stove video is you, I would check the gasket around the door. It does not look like it is attached the way it ought to be. If it isn't attached right, your stove is going to suck a lot more air, burn hot, and be hard to control.
Just a thought...
 
Leave the oak splits beside the woodstove for a couple of days. That should bring the remaining moisture down.
 
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Not like 2x4, ext. we call them 'stays' it's pallet wood, but not nailed together. it's pretty much whatever oak, cherry, pine, scraps the mill has. they get strapped under loads of hardwood flooring so we can load/unload it with a fork lift. some are treated, but I can tell the ones that are treated.

so a friend is coming to help fall some big dead standing Locust, cut it up, and split the net. (he loves Locust says it burns hot and slow) will be working on that till my County's 10 o'clock curfew for making noise.

then he has alot of big (tree trunk)dry peice of oak, so I will help split that and we will split the net. of that.

win win.

the start of the operation at my place:
 

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