PE Summit Owners...Max log length... modifications?

[woodchuk]

Hello all.

Need to purchase a new insert very soon to replace an old CA288 Federal Airtight(20yrs).

Would REALLY like to do the PE Summit Insert, but the 6+ Cords of wood sitting outside are 18" to 22" splits mixed.

Is it possible in the Summit to do a diagonal log?

What is the absolute Max. length you are squeezing into the Summit?

How about a Modification of the firebrick(cut a notch out of the brick) to temporarily
allow me to fit longer logs? Could replace the notch by rotating the bricks and putting the notch behind.


Notch example in pic below. The thumbnail isn't displaying properly, must view the full size.

Thanks.

 

[Shane]

I don't own a PE but you won't want to make your bricks thinner. Your best bet is to go through the pain of cutting the wood down and using the ends as firestarter or something.

 

[Hogwildz]

Hello all.

Need to purchase a new insert very soon to replace an old CA288 Federal Airtight(20yrs).

Would REALLY like to do the PE Summit Insert, but the 6+ Cords of wood sitting outside are 18" to 22" splits mixed.

18" log are fine, but remember, anything right near the glass will cause it to get dirty fast. I cut mine about 16" and then the glass stays clean. Remember, you'll want to be loading front to back for optimal burn time.
I had same length of wood problem and just cut them down to size. Kept the cut offs for fire starters and filling in small gaps here & there.
You can do diagonal, but when loading to the gills for a long nights burn, diagonal is not the best for space usage.


Is it possible in the Summit to do a diagonal log?

What is the absolute Max. length you are squeezing into the Summit?
I can't remember, there were a few that I did put in diagonally during the day when not packing her full.


How about a Modification of the firebrick(cut a notch out of the brick) to temporarily
allow me to fit longer logs? Could replace the notch by rotating the bricks and putting the notch behind.

I wouldn't suggest this, you are just asking for trouble & possibly voiding your warranty.
A couple inches more wood is not worth the hassle.


Notch example in pic below. The thumbnail isn't displaying properly, must view the full size.

Thanks.

 

[littlesmokey]

Years ago I had the same problem. New stove was two inches shallower than old one. So I bought an old "craftsman radial saw" placed it next to the wood pile, installed a stop block to set the butt of the split against and cut away. Some pieces had to be flipped go cut all the way through. I covered it with a tarp and moved it occasionally to the end of the stack. On really tough stuff I "climb cut" that's pulling the blade all the way out first and putting the wood behind, a little tricky, but stopped the out of control kick backs. After two years I took the powerwasher to it and sold it for what I paid for it. Seemed a lot better than trying to do the job with a chainsaw.

 

[BrotherBart]

My 30-NC is essentially the same firebox size as the mighty Summit. 20 X 20. Rated 3.5 cf vs-a-vs the Summit at 3.0 cf but loaded per manufacturer's directions on both stoves, not above the top of the firebrick, they hold exactly the same amount and sizes of wood.

That said, I can get 22" wood in diagonally. Problem is you are only going to do it with one split which is OK on a hot bed of coals for a continuation fire when you are going to be around to reload every hour or so, but useless for anything else. Also if you cut your wood to 19", which will fit fine for a firebox fill, you are going to be giving away some heat. The burn at the front of a full firebox of 19" wood goes right straight up and over the baffle and out the flue. There isn't enough room for the airwash to take the gases back over the top of the wood for a secondary burn. It runs into the ends of the splits almost immediately right in front of the glass an heads straight up. If the box isn't packed tight it can blow the gases back between the splits and get good secondary that way when the gases hit the back of the stove and come back over the top of the wood.

16" is great. It gives you a ton of loading options. For a long burn you can load a couple of splits side to side one on top of the other in the back and a couple of rows of front to back in front of them and either stove will burn forever when damped down with a good bed of coals under it. Or raked to the front like a lot of people do.

I was in the same boat as you last winter. I had six and a half cords of wood cut for a stove that held 24" splits and had to replace it in November. Ended up having to go out every day and cut the ends off of a days supply of wood. Major PITA and ain't happening again. This year everything was bucked at 16" to 17"

 

[Gooserider]

I just went through the same ordeal - I had about 3 cords bucked to 20-24" for the old smoke dragon, and then Elk told me about the donor stove - I needed to recut the works to about 18" (The Encore will take up to 20" but I'm advised it works better w/ 18")

I tried the radial arm saw approach, and found it was slow and a bit "exciting" - a lot of my wood was to high to get a single pass cut, and I had trouble making the cuts line up if trying to double cut. Plus it was a pain cutting one split at a time.

I ended up using some of my surplus pallets and a sheet of throw-away ply (part of a box) scrounged along with the pallets to make a frame about 3' high and the width of my chainsaw bar, and about 18" deep. I would stuff the splits into the frame until it was full, then use the chainsaw to cut the ends off flush with the frame. This was MUCH faster and gave me 3 cords of OK length splits, about a half cord box (made from more pallets and scrap ply) of "chunks" and a huge pile of sawdust. I plan to keep the frame around for a while as it is still handy for any of the new wood I cut that fails my QA test for being over length.

Essentially I just moved the wood from one section of the woodshed to another as I got it cut down, which also gave me a chance to add cut up pallets (again cut to size with the chainsaw) to the floor so as to make the floor support spacing appropriate for 5 rows of 18" splits instead of 4 rows of 24".

It did delay my cutting and splitting some though, I wanted to be just about done by now, but instead I've only got the new shed about 3/4 full and the old one is empty. I still need to split about 3 cords of wood to fill the sheds up for the next season, though I hopefully won't need as much because the new stove will be more efficient...

Gooserider

 

[littlesmokey]

OK, here's the ultimate answer. Sits in the corner of the shop. I use it when I get wood deliveries to make bowl blanks. If a radial saw scares you don't think about this. I use a swing saw with a 12-16 inch blade. I'll but a stop block for length of cut and can do a unit in twelve hours. That's a thousand board feet. It's not firewood, but same principle. A 16 will cut a respectable 7 inch split.

Even with a radial saw, the key is take the flatest end and put it against the stop, so if you have to rotate it, the cuts will line up or come close. I have had to knock some loose, but not too often.

Best thing is, when you are done with the long cut stacks, you won't have to do it again.

I am more comfortable doing the cuts with a circular blade than a chain, but each has it's merits and if you are comfortable with one over the other, go with that.

 

[begreen]

I bought a cord of wood from the boy scouts a couple years ago to help them meet their goals. Not the best wood I've ever bought and about 1/4 or the cord was over length. I was ready to reject it, but the scoutmaster had a chopsaw on his truck and between his saw and mine, we managed to get it down to size in an hour. Agreed PITA, but doable.

 

[Bill]

I've got the opposite problem, I went from a small stove to a bigger one and I have a cord of the smaller stuff. Maybe we should trade. The good news is I wont have to cut it, but it will not load the stove up like the new wood I split for next year. I was thinking of putting some small stuff on top of a few bigger splits, until the shorties are gone.

 

[Gooserider]

Well a 16" chop saw probably would take care of my splits, but I don't own one... A big chop saw would probably have cost me more to purchase than it would have to have pitched the overlength into the bushes and purchased from scratch, but... I did own the 10" radial arm saw, but I found that with the setup I had (which might not have been the best I'll admit) I was doing lots of double cuts or worse, and getting either a nasty kickback or jamming the blade (or both) at least a 3rd of the time. Because I couldn't get a reliable cut, I didn't feel safe using the saw, especially after I threw a couple of splits 20 feet down the driveway :bug:

The chainsaw did more splits at a time, and I felt gave me much better control over the cutting. I did learn that I needed to pack my "cutting rack" full in order to keep the stuff I was working on from kicking around with the saw chain, but as long as I did that it was no harder than cutting a big round in the first place.

Gooserider

 

[woodchuk]

Thanks for all the suggestions. It's looking like squeezing another year out of the old Cast Iron Federal may be the easiest
course of action to burn all the long wood.

Some repairs are necessary(like flattening a warped damper.)

Will start anew in the Spring stacking 16" to 18" splits. Boy, they will look unusually short.

 

[begreen]

I'm guessing you'll burn a third or more wood with the old stove, so no less work if you include toting, loading, etc. I'd go for the new stove and nibble down the long ones. It's only for one season.

 

[Gooserider]

One thing I did find that makes going to shorter wood nice is that the splitting effort drops considerably - an 18" round may only be 2/3 the lenth of a 24" round, but it's less than 50% of the effort to split. That doesn't help with the overlength stuff you've already split, but it will make you glad you did the switch in the future.

I would also agree with the suggestions that you do the swap and recut now, rather than going for the extra season. One way to look at it is that you'll probably burn the same number of recut splits in the new stove as you would have long ones in the old stove, so that means you get the left over chunks as a free load of extra fuel...

Gooserider

 

[BrotherBart]

Well I have to be the odd man out on this one. Recutting that six cords last year was an absolute pain in the butt. And in the first year burning a new stove you are not going to get the best wood economy anyway while you get used to the new burning patterns

If that DW has another season in it I say light'er up and use it this coming winter and the time you would have used whacking that wood down to size to get your new stove and get it ready for the next year. That is if you can smack that damper enough so that the stove/cat is going to work through this season.