I like that handle with a board method Stinny, seems like it would certainly move along fairly quickly. What's your preference for cutting up limbs? Do you trim them flush with the main trunk and then chunk them up separate? I've always started by trimming off all the stuff that's too small to keep and then start on the small end of the whole thing, that's still up off the ground anyway, and work back to the main trunk. Of course I almost always chunk them where they fall as well.
I usually cut down to 2". Because I slide logs out on snow, I trim the branches nice and clean to the main trunk. I'll then trim all branches down to decent small poles to haul out in a bundle. Here's a bundle of poles ready to haul out...
So I finally broke down and did it last weekend, since I literally ran out of anything short enough to fit in the Answer. What you're seeing in the picture, besides my messy shop, is a re-purposed Monkey-Wards radial arm saw in the middle with a c-clamp stop on the rail set at 17", the theoretical maximum that will fit in the stove. On the far left is a previous loaded bin of all lengths. Next to that and directly to the left of the saw is the bin for newly cut 17" pieces and the bin to the right of the saw is for off-cuts. The pieces on the floor are the ones too large to be cut on the radial arm. I'm cooking up a jig to mount my electric chainsaw on a pivot so I can hold the piece in a v-shaped saw buck while it's being cut. The only saving grace of the situation is that I was able to do the task indoors and there was already quite a few pieces that were short enough but just needed to be sorted through.
I've been really surprised at how close most of the pieces are so far. My eye must not be off that far off, or it's off a long ways for the big stove? Either way I think I'm going to shoot for picking up an NC-30 when they go on sale and cutting everything to 20" after that! That would be a sweet deal.
If you're really going to get a 30, 20" is too long. The firebox is 20x20", but you'll have a heck of a time getting splits that size in there. Mine are all 16", and I think I may start cutting at 17-18" for the future, except the 30 may end up somewhere else. Decisions, decisions.
Ahhh, thanks for the advice papadave! I was just going by what they have in the specs. I think they say for my Answer that it'll take 16" pieces but 17" will fit through the door and 17.5" can be squeezed in there if the ends are good and square. What do you think about 18" then? That's about 4" smaller than the max for my Daka and 2" smaller than the firebox on the 30.
That's basically what I do. I cut to 18" and use a 72" long 1 x 2 treated piece of wood that I marked every 18" with orange spray paint, and big thick stick of yellow chalk I got at a hobby store. I simply lay the measuring stick down onto the round, and put a chalk mark on the round next to each orange marking on the measure stick. Then I slid the stick down and mark the next 4 spots... Crank up the saw, and cut on each yellow chalk mark without having to measure or think about it... goes really fast and easy. I get much better consistent lengths this way also. And, chalk is just sooooo much better than spray paint, getting messy, clogged, frozen tip.....
18 would work, but the front lip is just about 3". You know, I just remeasured and the 20" is to the lip, then there's another 3" of lip, although when I put the tape all the way to the back, I came up with 22.5. Must be the tape shrinking from the heat. Anyway, if you take the bricks out, the internals are just a little more than 3.5 cu. ft., but I don't recommend running the stove w/o the bricks. So, the usable space is still just around 2.75. ETA: Forgot to add a pic......
I don't have a picture but it was pretty simple. I took a 1x2 piece of solid aluminum stock and put it under the cylinder rod so as the ram retracted the piece of aluminum would wedge between the cylinder and the back of the wedge kicking off the auto retract. I just used some bailing wire to hold it in place. It worked really well.
On putting wood in the stove, it will usually burn better if you leave a couple inches on the ends rather than jamming it in. That is not to say it won't work but it is not the best. Even if you leave 1" on each end it will work better as the air needs to move in the firebox too.
