Sunday Update and Some Random Thoughts

Hey all - I spent about 3 hours doing firewood related activites yesterday and thought I'd share a few observations.

#1 - the Pickaroon I recently restored was AWESOME. Huge back saver. While it didn't necessarily speed things up, it greatly enhanced the ergonomics of processing firewood. For both splitting and stacking, "gaffing" pieces of wood was a lot easier. I actually want to get/make a 2nd one that is more of a hatchet size now. Definitely realized that you need to be super careful with how you're swinging it and always calculating where an overswing goes is paramount to not "gaffing" your own leg or foot. And no, I didn't do that.

#2 - Sadly, I realized yesterday that my X27 is completely outclassed by the Isocore maul. I got the maul this summer and the X27 has done nothing but collect dust and feels ineffective and insubstantial compared to it. If you are Isocore maul curious and like your X27, you'll love the maul provided you can swing that much weight.

#3 - I have that strange feeling of "being done". Since we got snow today, I hurried up and finished processing all the remaining unprocessed wood on my property. Everything's split, stacked, and covered now. Feels good but I've already been putting feelers out with some buddies who work at tree service companies to see if a load could fall off the truck into my back yard this spring. They said it's likely

#4 - Boxelder maple stinks. I'll never go after it again. It's terrible to split, and when it dries it feels like balsa. Burns fast and makes lots of ash, as bad as poplar.

#5 - While looking for a replacement blower for my stove, I stumbled across these "self powered" fans that you sit on top of your fireplace. Has anyone tried them? They use a Peltier element which generates electricity from the heat of your stove. Wondering if anyone has any thoughts. I'm very interested and that could help push the air from inside my fireplace box out of the cavity better...

#6 - I've started learning how to sharpen chains. My first attempt resulted in a chain that cut what I'd consider 75% as good as new with the downside that it had a little "wobble" to it. Undoubtedly due to inconsistency in how I filed the teeth. I'm using the Granberg jig and I'm sure I'll get the hang of it.

#7 - I have a Husky 372XP on my Christmas list. I really hope Santa is good to me this year!

That's about it.

Garry

 

You'll love the 372XP. I have 2 and a 346XP. That 372 cuts wood like a hot knife in butter. I use it when working on my log piles with a 24" bar.

I restored a pickaroon this year as well and it is my go-to tool for picking up rounds for the splitter. Another useful tool is a pulp hook; shorter, but it is awesome as well for picking up rounds that are too big to pick up one-handed with the pickeroon.

 

Yea
Good tools make firewood processing even more fun.
My tool have evolved over the years
From wheelbarrow, axe & bow saw
to a ATV, couple chain saws & hydraulic splitter

"Keep em sharp"

PS: never done with firewood, CSS, to burning & hauling ashes.
even watching it season is part of the process

 

Looks like everything is falling together great for you Garry, you are a man with a plan.

 

Garry if your looking for a new blower motor for your stove consider a D.C moter. Many ceiling fan motors are now 12v D.C. You could run you stove blower for a week for less electric than you'd use in a day with an A.C. motor. I'm seriously considering changing mine when the burn season is over.

Your Fiskers Isocore maul intrigues me. I split by hand with an X-27 but if the isocore 8 pounder is better, maybe I should add it to my Santa list before it's too late!

 

I got a Vulcan stove fan for Sinterklaas, a Dutch Children's celebration related to your Santa but then on the 4th of December. It's pretty cool since it works on a Sterling engine and is supposed to be more powerfull and reliable than a Peltier based fan. But be warned that it does not compare (by far) in power to a plug-in electrical fan although it should be better than Peltier and is not so sensitive to overheating. It's mostly nice to see and a great conversation piece.

 

Hey DutchFire, hoe kom je aan je hout? Ik probeer her altijd gratis te pakken te krijgen, maar dat is in Haarlem best lastig.

 

Makes a ton of sense, I was just "fan curious" haha. I have a 60" ceiling fan right over the stove and hopefully fixing the blower I'm sure things will be just fine. Even as it is, maintaining >70 degrees throughout the main part of the house on a "30% air" level burn.

 

Our back rooms get a bit colder but we also keep the doors closed all night. We had such good luck with the woodstove though that we had the hydronic heat rezoned and put the bedrooms on their own zone so we can make sure our kids are warm, mostly. Works out nice because when the boiler kicks on, the rooms heat up really fast and it does not have to run too much.

Definitely cut gas use down by 75% since moving to the fireplace. Our household energy bill runs about $100/month even in the middle of winter. Actually goes up in summer due to A/C. Been investing in efficiency enhancements each year. Two years ago we blew another R-30 into our attic for a total of R-60 up there, and this year I went nuts when I painted the house and caulked and air sealed every tiny crack and crevice I could find in the building (and found a TON) around the sill plates. Shocking how many big holes there were down there. Also the corners of the logs weren't in good shape and had a lot of infiltration there. This winter I'm caulking the insides of all the logs, and "chinking" them so there's no gaps between the logs whatsoever. It never ends!

Garry

 

once you get the true hang of how to set up this jig always use the same number of file passes per tooth.
The best thing to do is buy more loops of chain as $ permits and swap them out as soon as you begin to think they aren't cutting like new. From personal experience if I stick to this method each tooth only needs ~3 passes to return to excellent cutting, when you let one go to long way more material needs to filed.
Congrats on getting it all done

 

Yes I've started sharpening my own chains also - it takes awhile to get right but I feel like I've got it now pretty good. I try to sharpen after each time using the saw, a couple of passes on each tooth. I like the fact that they stay sharp and that I don't have to rely on someone else's schedule to have sharp chains.

 

Can you provide some more info on D.C. motor replacement? I've got a Lopi Freedom Bay that came with the house we bought about 4 years ago. There are two squirrel cage fans on either side of a blower "insert" thing that fits under the stove. I replaced the rheostat switch just a few weeks ago that seemed to have gone out, so I'm guessing the stove is fairly old. The amount of noise that this blower makes when on full speed sounds like a jet engine at idle so I can olny imagine how much power it takes to run them! I'd love to upgrade to something more efficient. Is it something you can buy and swap out? Is there some kind of transformer required? There's plenty of room in the assembly if needed and I could take pictures of what I have now, but I'd like to research it a bit more if you know of some websites that sell them. Thanks - RC

 

At this point no, not really. I'm just beginning to look into it. I've e-mailed a couple stove manufacturers but havent heard back yet.

It shouldn'd be quantum physics or anything. 110 into a converter and 12 volt D.C. out. Maybe an automotive blower, maybe something from a supplier like Granger.

My guess is the stove makers will, if they don't already, have them soon.

My idea is a motor that is switchable between 110 in and 12 V in. That way I could connect a couple of deep cycle batteries and a small solar panel and be almost self sufficient.

I'm a bit of a Walter Mitty, maybe some of our FHC family members who actually know how to build things could chime in and co.e up with a workable model.

 

I do 90% of my cutting in the winter. No bugs, no mud, and no sweating my axe off. Winter is a beautiful time to be in the woods!

 

Good point! If I get some more wood, I'll be back out there.

 

If you adjust that File-n-joint fully, you can't make an inconsistent chain. With the filing depth set properly you can just keep stroking the file until it quits cutting then move on to the next tooth. It works far better than counting strokes to get a consistent cut. On the first tooth just file until you are happy with how much you have removed and then run that depth adjustment up against the guide bar so that all other cutters will be the same finished length.

 

I did that but I didn't tighten the screw that holds the jig on the saw well enough and it got loose so I think that little bit of variation had an effect. I just watched a youtube video where a guy recommended putting a divot in the bar and adding some additional screws to jig to make a harder connection. Again, I'm just a novice though and I'll keep at it, also the chain was pretty trashed from a full season of use so I didn't have a good starting point.