Going broke heating with wood. :)

[mking7]

With the weather in the upper 70's I'm burning none of the wood I've been scrounging. Since starting to heat with wood (this is my 3rd 'winter') I've purchased a new saw, a splitter and countless pieces of PPE and other 'aids'.

I got tired of looking at my stacks after seeing how pretty some of you guys stack yours and I had some 2" sch40 pipe laying around so I built a rack. 21' long, 4' tall. Well I liked the look of it so I decided to build a few more. I use 3 sticks of pipe to build one rack at $125. This attempt to save a few bucks has evolved into a hobby which is always bad for the checkbook.

If the winters continue to be this mild the good news is I'm 6yrs ahead on wood!

Did I mention it's in the 70's here right now?

 

[Jags]

Pics of the racks or it didn't happen.

 

[velvetfoot]

Did I mention it's in the 70's here right now?

yeah, yeah, yeah

 

[wkpoor]

Guess I question why you are so interested in wood heat if you live in TX? I'm on a garden forum and from what I read on there, winters are brief and mild down there.

 

[begreen]

They see quite a temp swing in the winter. From day temp of 60 to night temp of 32. Tomorrow's high in El Paso will be 50F with a low of 27F. I would have a fire going under those conditions unless the house was set up for solar heating. (81F predicted next week for Feb 5!)

 

[mking7]

Guess I question why you are so interested in wood heat if you live in TX? I'm on a garden forum and from what I read on there, winters are brief and mild down there.

I've always burned wood, but in a fireplace. We bought this house and inherited a stove. We initially planned to rip it out and put in fireplace but that soon changed when we used the stove a few times (and when we had to fill the propane tank...).

Winters in Texas? Really depends where you are. Texas has probably the most varied climates of any state. The folks in the Amarillo and the panhandle would say their winters are anything but mild. When I lived in Houston the winters were super mild. Where I live now it can go either way. The first winter in the new house we had snow several times and 14* temps a few times. Certainly my winters are mild compared to most here but it's still winter and propane is $2.50 a gallon.

But the point of my post was more or less to say this was becoming a hobby more than anything for me and a justification to buy new equipment.

During that first winter when it was quite cold for us I burned through the entire propane tank in 5 weeks. And at the time it cost over $500 to fill it. This winter, not so much.

 

[mking7]

Pics of the racks or it didn't happen.

Okay but nothing special, just some racks....(and my helper)

(broken image removed)

(broken image removed)

 

[Jags]

Nice. And good on ya for getting the kido out there working, too. (in a few years, you are gonna have to start working on the mean, crazy look for the boys that are gonna be showing up at your door.). I scared two into never showing up again. One was a pot head hippie with no job and the other was simply a waste of oxygen, brain dead, chapstick eat'in, lazy dumbazz.

 

[mking7]

She's a pretty good hand.

 

[Blue2ndaries]

Nice racks and stacks!

 

[PapaDave]

Nice. And good on ya for getting the kido out there working, too. (in a few years, you are gonna have to start working on the mean, crazy look for the boys that are gonna be showing up at your door.). I scared two into never showing up again. One was a pot head hippie with no job and the other was simply a waste of oxygen, brain dead, chapstick eat'in, lazy dumbazz.

BIL and SIL used to ask (read this as meaning...grilled) their daughters dates for their age, license, intentions....all kinds of questions. Before they even got in the door.
If they even blinked the wrong way, the door got slammed in their face. Very funny stuff.

mking7, I originally read this to mean you were using sched. 40 PVC pipe. Reading is fun-damental. Doh.

 

[mking7]

mking7, I originally read this to mean you were using sched. 40 PVC pipe. Reading is fun-damental. Doh.​

I tried that but I could never get a good ground to weld it together.

 

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Yes indeedy. Wood burning can definitely turn into a hobby if you're not carefull. And if it does turn into a hobby then just figure it as a smart-man's hobby. There's lots of other hobbies out there that don't even have the pretense of saving you money. How much money do you save by buying video games? Or golf green fees? Or radio control airplanes? Or hockey?

Fortunately once the necessary gear is bought your expenditures should slow down. I should check our finance records just to see what we've "spent" on saving money over the years.

 

[Slow1]

Nice racks there! I bet those could last through WW3 You could probably sell them but the shipping would be a killer as they must weigh a ton!

Oh - and tell your helper that she is supporting the right school - GigEM!

 

[mking7]

Nice racks there! I bet those could last through WW3 You could probably sell them but the shipping would be a killer as they must weigh a ton!

Oh - and tell your helper that she is supporting the right school - GigEM!

Ya, they're not light. And the plan was to have something that looked decent and that I'd never need to replace. The first one was just because I had a few extra sticks of pipe...if I had priced them out ahead of time I'd have probably found something at least a little bit more cost effective for materials. But oh well. I'll build one every once in a while till I get at least 6 of them out there and for me that will represent being several years ahead. As mentioned above, our winter isn't that bad normally.

 

[Corey]

Dear god - please get that helper a hair tie and welding hat before bad things happen to those curly locks! A leather jacket or apron probably wouldn't hurt, either.

 

[charly]

Great looking racks,,, build them once! Only thing I would have done different,,added some legs to keep the bottom row off the ground,, air circulation and no damp ground close to the wood,, other wise you and your helper did a great job...I think that's a great education for your kids,, having them do some hands on..it's something they will never forget and opens their minds up too...better then video games,,, gives them a taste of the real world. Then they get to look at what they did afterwards,,, builds character!

 

[mking7]

Dear god - please get that helper a hair tie and welding hat before bad things happen to those curly locks! A leather jacket or apron probably wouldn't hurt, either.

I was wondering how long it would take for someone to say something like this...took longer than I thought.

 

[Bub381]

Well ladies and gents,i'm starting to wonder who actually built these

 

[BobUrban]

She is safe - that is just a plas cutter.

 

[mking7]

She is safe - that is just a plas cutter.

And she's wearing #5 shade safety glasses for the record.

 

[mking7]

Only thing I would have done different,,added some legs to keep the bottom row off the ground,, air circulation and no damp ground close to the wood,,​

Man, it was all I could do to lift/slide these into the trailer as they are to get them from the shop to the stacking area.

You're right, would probably help with the snakes too. But apparently it never rains at my house so damp ground isn't a concern.

 

[wkpoor]

They see quite a temp swing in the winter. From day temp of 60 to night temp of 32. Tomorrow's high in El Paso will be 50F with a low of 27F. I would have a fire going under those conditions unless the house was set up for solar heating. (81F predicted next week for Feb 5!)

We had a discussion about the lows and highs in the south vs the north on the garden forum. Yes I know they can have some chilly nights but down there the highs last much longer during the day and the lows are typical more brief. More like Oct in the north. Thats why they are already planting their gardens down there. Just seems to me it wouldn't be worth the bother. However I'm guessing homes are not insulated like ours are. If it were sunny and 60 here that kind of solar gain would carry me through a night below freezing even in a house like mine.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

For sure Texas can be a lot different in different areas. I well remember going somewhere around Waco and enjoying 60's and 70's in January. Then that changed to 30's for the highs. We headed west. Enjoyed 80's in Big Bend NP for a week. Then it turned really cold again. Going north it just got colder. Headed west then to AZ.

 

[pen]

Nice Rack King!



pen