Mill Ends?

I am moving to Oregon and have an offer on a house. As part of this I am looking forward to setting up a new stove. The downside to Oregon is that they don't seem to have any almond wood which my fuel of choice.

I do see a lot of ads for "mill ends" which are the trim pieces for making 2x4s and other finished wood. These are kiln dried and of lengths between 2 inches and maybe 10 inches. These are not PT.

Does anyone have experience with this type of fuel? Either as the main fuel or in addition to fir which seems to be the most available type of split wood? As an example I see ads for "2 cords" for $180. Not sure if these are stacked cords or is sold by weight.

I was thinking a larger capacity stove full of mill ends would burn very clean but of course no coals.

Any ideas? I have not bought a stove yet though the new house will be about 2700 square feet.

begreen said:

You will probably want to mix the mill ends in with other fuel. A full charge of relatively thin, kiln-dried wood has the potential to overfire the stove.

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I ad thought about that but was considering whether reducing the air flow could produce satisfactory results. Seems like kiln dried scrap will be very clean burning.

begreen said:

Reducing the airflow will bring about stronger secondary burn and a hotter burn in a modern EPA stove (the only type permitted in OR). If the mill ends are square edged then you might be able to pack some lower layers with them so that there is hardly any air gaps between them. Then to a top down start. This is a similar procedure as when burning BioBricks.

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Thank you

happycamper said:

i use to burn oak scrap wood
but i no longer get it for free

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Scrap can be difficult because it is inconsistent. The mill ends should be clean and same dimensions.

I'm aware that "cord" is a volume measurement but as they must be difficult to stack thought a weight measurement might substitute.

billb3 said:

I've burned oak slabs from a custom/built to spec skid manufacturer.
They were bark on. Bark might burn OK BTU-wise but it can be a ton of ash especially if the slabs are thin.
I was getting a mix of thick ones and thin ones in the beginning and being oak it wasn't too bad, they seasoned pretty quick.
But then I started getting all thin ones - more bark than wood so quit that. Plus I was getting more wood elsewhere.

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I see ads for slabs where they have ripped beams and have the bark with some wood left. Really cheap ($30 cord) but it seems a hassle.