more fireplace fun

[comfortablynumb]

I had an idea... another one...

I sit here in the cold in the winter, tending the fire anyway so.. I wonder, what else burns well besides the wood proper?

so of course... I tinker.. thats what I do.

if you use a piece of expanded steel, or some tight woven hardware cloth, (expanded steel sheet burnes better) and make a nice little long tray.

in this smal parlor stove, I started my idea with a bale of pine shavings. I know pine=creasote but not that much, just set up a hot wood fire every morning and burn the pipe out..
anyhow, with a little ash shovel pile the shavings up in the mesh and set it on fire... amzingly, pine shavings burn really hot.. not for long, about every 3-5 min you need to toss a few scoops on the wire to keep it burning, BUT, if you do like me and you have a SMALL room that doesnt need much to heat it up... this is pretty cool. I get up and tinker with a fire to heat the main room up and it takes me a while, this way, scoop scoop a little lighter fluid a match and poof... Ive got heat. I usuallly let a small fire in the morning burn out in 10 min because it gets to warm in here so... this is great. a huge bale of shavings cost me 4 bucks, I use it for horse bedding. ive been buring the same bale for 2 days and its stil almost all there....it make a good fast hot fire for a cold moringin warm up, and after a bit you can take the mesh out, and kindling will blaze up in the hot ash... for a more long lasting fire. one bale should last me for more than a weeks quickie morning warm ups.

mmm what else?

pellets... pellet stove pellets these are really nifty. fire it up the same way with pellets instead of shavings... it will burn for 30 min beffore it needs another few scoops. pellets aint just for pellet stoves.. granted they burn low and slow BUT... when they stop burning you have COALS... and a a few scoops more on top blaze upin a few seconds. close the doors, close down the draft, and it burns nice and slow, and keeps the stove case almost hot, and radiates nice slow heat. the pipe doesnt get very hot so... once a day a really hot blaze for cleaning is needed I'm sure. the dont seem to burn with any smoke at all.

but with the pellets... if your sick, or ya got wet wood and nothing else, or yor just to ---- tired to go carry and you just need the chill off the room for the eve the pellets are a nice alterinitive to have on hand.

pellets cost a lot.. now they are going for 3.99 a bag, but in the fall when everyone has em on sale, you can get a 40 pound bag for 2 bucks... so a dozen bags stored up o the porch... a nice warm net if you need them.

of course neither of these compares to a real kindling and log fire but.. sometimes ya just dont need all that heat... ya just need the chill off and a little warm radiation in the room for comfort.

a nice little thing to know... shavings and pellets...

I bet sawdust would work too... I dont have any fine saw dust but i'll find some!


they do make smaller stoves than parlor stoves, called '4 oclock stoves" they were made to put in each bedroom of ahome to warm the room for a short small burn and then burn down and out... pellets ina small 4 oclock stove, in a bedroom would be a great little thing to have.
they dont pop or spark... they dont smoke...

sure.. id buy a pellet stove... but he cost over 1300 bucks.
I only need 10 minute fires...

[silentcrow]

Have you ever looked into those paper log rollers that Lehman's sells? I've thought about getting one for future use...seems like it might be a handy item to have around.

[JAK]

You can buy feed corn at about the same BTU/$ as cordwood in convenient 50 pound bags. Some people use these in pellet stoves. I am going to try them with your idea and with some cordwood in my fireplace.

5-10 cents/lb is a good price for any dry biomass.
5 cents a pound for something like corn or wood.
10 cents a pound for something like oil or wax.

I was once able to get a few boxes of 100% beeswax Orthodox Candles at Marden's at 10 cents a pound.

[uncle Will in In.]

NUMB, While you are sitting in front of the fireplace contemplating the meaning of life, you could keep the fire going by whittling and putting the offall into the cute little flame.

[Shepherd]

Thanks for the tips! Does anyone here use feed corn?

[foxtrapper]

Coal. Haven't done it, but often thought that with a stout grate I could add a little coal to the wood fire and keep it going through the night with much less care. I've also heard of using it in a coffee can on the grate. I'll probably do some experimenting with it this year.

Newspaper. Way back in the day, the rage was to roll up newspapers and wire them together to make logs. I've yet to speak to a person who actually did this, but I've thought about trying it. If it works, raiding the recycling center for stacks of old newspapers could give a free source of semi-convenient fuel. Old phone books could be nice as well. I have done those. Lots of ash as I recall, and I don't think it actually burned that well.

Cooking grease. No, not as a fuel, though I've done that. But as a free and easy fire starter. Sure, build the fire right for starting, but if you keep a can by the stove to pour off grease into, you can stick the kindling pieces in it as you build. Makes fire starting really easy and quick.

Motor oil. Shades of the old Mother Earth News waste oil furnace. I've wondered about using a small can that I set on the wood fire and let it burn. It worked ok with cooking grease. Might work ok with motor oil. If so, again, raiding the recycling center gets you free fuel.

[moodcouple]

I had a newspaper roller back in the '70's. As I recall, after the outside layer burned off, the rolls just sat there and smoldered until they fell apart. Did not put out much heat. We had some kind of chemical pellets we would roll in them which were supposed to make them burn in different colors. To the best of my (failing) memory, they didn't work too well.

[Tracy Rimmer]

We had one of those newspaper rollers when I was a kid. Sitting in the middle of 100 acres of bush, and we've got a newspaper roller ro make logs for the fire... right.

I remember it was copper -- real pretty sitting in the corner of the living room. And like most pretty things, it collected dust and was pretty much useless when you actually tried to use it.

Tracy

[bgak47]

Newspaper logs didn't burn worth a poop by themselves, & when added to a wood fire they made way too much ash. I have used a LOT of newspaper to start fires, & that is what they are good for.

[Countrybumpkin]

Foxtrapper-I've been known to put large coffee cans of used motor oil in the wood furnace...burns hot, and lasts for awhile! A bear to get back out of the furnace unless you get some long handles pliers to dig it out with, but the can lasts a good long time, and, inmy opinion, a good way to recycle what one has! I know the enviromental people here is gonna complain about this, but it works, it helps heat the house, and I hate to give those 'poor ol' oil companies a lick more of my $$ than I have to!

[kitaye]

I've been wondering if corn cobs would make a good filler fuel. Anyone know?
Also, out east here they use sawdust on a regular basis as a fuel - or at least so I have been told by people at work.

[coydog]

Corncobs are a good fuel

[edcopp]

Corncobs are great for starting fires, as are pine cones.

Sawdust is a very good fuel depending on what kind of sawdust it is. I use hardwood sawdust, and skoop some into the top of my woodburner. About 4 five gallon buckets will pretty well keep the stove going all day.

I once heard of an old timer who cut up tires and tubes in pieces and tossed them into the stove. It was said that he only did this at night. I don't think that I want to go there

[comfortablynumb]

where I get hay I used to get feedbags full of corncobs to burn, if you can get cobs, they burn as good as wood...

newspaper logs suck.

my next idea is to find pelleted newsprint (used for livestock beding), Ive seen it but now oc course cant find it.

none of this stuff is as cheap or as good or as pleantyfull as collecting wood and dedfall branches but alternitives are always good to know.

coal dust brns good too. but coal dust is DANGEROUS. a cloud of tossed dust if its fine can POOF like liquid fuel when it hits flame.
"rice" coal sometimes you can get free, find someone who hauld coal, when they clean the truck bed out, ita lla compactd rice coal &dust. My dad (may he burn in hell but he has to die first) used to have a triaxle dump and hauled coal... we had tons of rice&dust piles around and guys would come and haul it away in Pu trucks with great joy, I never did understand untill i got a wood stove... I wish those piles were still here!

speaking of coal, its still the best fuel next to wood if its clean.