For the last 6 months I have been collecting free fire wood from a company that makes "Trusses" for new construction of homes! Everyday there is a new pile of free firewood.

They have 12 to 18 inch pieces of 2X4, 2x6 and 2x8ths. Just the right size for a wood stove! These companies are located all over the USA. Simply look them up in your yellow pages under "Trusses" and call them and ask if they have free firewood available. Good luck to all in preparing to keep warm next winter!

-- freddie (freddie@thefreeloader.com), May 05, 1999

Answers

Freddie, I have always heard that the sap in pine would create creosote when burned, and coat the chimney flue, and eventually cause a fire in the flue. Does anyone else have experience with this? I know for sure that small amounts do not matter, but how about long term?

-- KoFE (your@town.USA), May 05, 1999.

The wood is most probably pine, and due to excessive soot, can result in chimney fires, from what I hear.

-- Only you can prevent house fires (smokey@the.bear), May 05, 1999.

My brother in law lives very close to this "truss" factory and has been burning this wood in his woodstove for over 10 years. He cleans his chimney every fall and has no problems using this free wood!

-- freddie (freddie@thefreeloader.com), May 05, 1999.

Yep, all you have to do is clean your chimney often, and you can burn just about anything. We also burn newspapers rolled tightly into a log. Works fine!

Jolly

-- Jollyprez (jolly@prez.com), May 05, 1999.

We use a small amount of newspapaer and some pine to get it going before putting down the hardwood. A good cleaning is a must every year. We also put cleaner chems in the fire maybe once every couple of weeks - it's supposed to make whatever creosote you do get looser and subsequently easier to remove when you do the annual cleaning.

Jollyprez: Do you tie the newspaper with wire or something after you make the log?

-- Rob Michaels (sonofdust@com.net), May 05, 1999.

I bought a chain saw when i moved to a small city last December, before I knew about Y2K. The city has a yard in which they pile the nuisance trees they have removed from properties. They pile fairly neatly and logs are easy to sort and remove. They have about forty cords (4'x4'x8') just laying there. I have taken 14 face cords of birch, oak, aspen, elm, and other hard woods; I haven't taken any pine. Some of it has been dead for years and is ready for burning. I'm told that green wood should cure at least 6 months.

Check with your city for their cuttings. If people do not take it, the city has to pay for disposal.

-- John Littmann (JTL9700@JUNO.COM), May 05, 1999.

Lumber used to make trusses is typicaly Douglas Fir; not as good for heating as hardwoods like Oak or Madrone, but a lot less resinous than Pine. Still, it does burn hot and therefore makes great kindling !

-- Yan (no@no.no), May 06, 1999.

The softer woods are fine for a fire in a wood stove. That is all we burn, as no one is cutting down hardwood trees around HERE. The secret to not having a creosote problem is 1)Don't damper the fire down so much thatit's barely burning, go outside and see how much smoke is coming out, if its really smoky, you need to let more oxygen into the fire. and 2)use "seasoned" wood, not green wood.Get your wood NOW, and let it bake dry this summer for use this winter.

nobody

-- nobody (nobody@nowhere.com), May 06, 1999.

I have also found that steel yards have plenty of oak 4x4's that they are glad to get rid of. They have to use oak on the rail cars because it's the only wod strong enough to support the load.

-- hoke the smoke (tom@worldnut.com), May 06, 1999.

Geez,I'll try this...my regular wood delivery guy can only get me half a pickup load next week,(maybe)because he is over 200(yes,200) orders behind...all these people calling for y2k wood,he says,some of them up to an hour away...ack! this sounds easier than waiting for him to get to me...Cynthia

-- Cynthia Yanicko (yanicko@infonline.net), May 06, 1999.

Easy way to clean a chimney. Get some chain, old tire chains are excellent. Toss a couple into a gunny sack, tie gunny sack with a rope and drop the chains down the chimney. Just run it up and down the chimney until no more soot is falling into the stove. If you are having to burn soft or green wood, you need to do this more than once a year. About every 3 months is best. If you are just setting up a wood stove and have no experience with one, buy the insulated pipe rather than regular stove pipe. Have at least a 7 inch diameter pipe and the fewer bends in pipe, the better. I pipe coming out of the top of the stove and going straight up is the best way of keeping your chimney clean. Make sure you burn a hot fire in it at least once a day if you are using 24 hours a day.

Gotta peevee? A Stihl? A splitting maul?? Chain oil?

-- Taz (Tassie @aol.com), May 06, 1999.

Come to think of it, if you're splitting wood with a maul, safety glasses can prevent a really unpleasant experience.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), May 06, 1999.

For us folks that rent (as well as) and therefore can' t install a wood stove (sure miss my old Earth Stove), I've been spraying the old cortex with a extra dose of imagination. I'm pretty close to partially solving the problem ... I think. (we're also all electric)

It involves and outdoor (backyard) enclosure in which one could stoke a coal or two. Since most of us use washers and dryers, the conduit to transfer the heat is already plumbed into the house. A little reverse engineering here. The dryer vent always exhausts to the outside. The main thing is to make sure to change the vent pipe to a metal one (readily available in most hardware stores) if it is not already metal. Using a rather clever chamber, inline with the chimney pipe, you can increase the heat transfer tremendously. Forcing the hot air into the Casa can be accomplished in a number of ways. I'm thinking of using a small 12v fan, unless the kids are acting up and then we'll use the backup bellows method.

The project has a number of collateral bene's. By using a splash pan inside the box, one can easily pipe old used oil into the firebox and receive all the profits that go along with that. Also, when the solar dehydrator LINK is in the assist mode, I can easily pipe a little hot air to it as well . Gee, just realized it sounds like a good project for pollys, just in case they're runnin a little low.

The absolute neatest thing about it is the heat chamber, I'm working on a drawing of it, since a thousand words aren't enough to draw a clear picture. Sound familiar here? I hope to have one available for you in the next day or two.

P.S. I checked the dehydrator yesterday afternoon, Outside ambient temp in the shade = 67 F Inside the dehydrator 115 F

This, mind you, on a sporadically (very) sunny NW day. Going to get a hot plate from Goodwill today, can't waste time waiting anymore. I don't expect to use the hot plate much, but I need a little more consistency. carpe diem

Think Robin GI's?

-- spun@lright (mikeymac@uswest.net), May 06, 1999.