Finally got my first wood stove, and it's my dream stove!

Agreed 100% and an excellent read!!

 

In my estimation you have scored the best deal of any deal I have ever made on any item. You will love this stove.

 

That's a lot of work. Nice job and a great sense of accomplishment.

 

Read through that whole thing yesterday. Great read and definitely something worth saving. Has me thinking about the location I was going to put my woodpile when I start it!

Thanks to everyone for being so nice and inclusive. I've been reading through these forums for the last several days and feel like I have already learned so much.

Thanks everyone!

 

I think you may have the record for best deal on a stove. Will the door and ash pan operate sitting further back?

 

There is enough room on the side to fully open the door, I know that for sure. It's going to be tight for the ash pan, but I think it will still work. That's our biggest concern with our hopeful configuration. Hoping that even moving back a bit, the ash pan will still be just in front of the side of the wall of the hearth. In the end, if we have to rear vent, we have to rear vent.

 

Congrats on the new wood stove paintblljnkie ... and thanks for taking me back to the days setting up our old farm for wood heat... it is an exciting time! Have a ball...

 

What can I say but "You dirty dog." LOL. I looked on Craigslist and all I saw was horribly rusted out stoves from 50 years ago.

 

If not, maybe you have access to a woodlot? If so, look for small trees (<8") with all the bark fallen off. More than likely, that stuff is ready to go in the stove now.

 

A woodlot as in - an area with a lot of trees? Or would this be somewhere that people specifically dump tree trimmings/cut down trees.

 

You can get wood for later from a trimming/tree dump, as it probably won't be dry. If you have a buddy with a woods on the property, and a saw, and a truck to haul it to your house, you could get small dead trees with the bark off, and you would have some pretty dry. The woodlot may have to be five or ten acres for you to find enough wood to get an ample amount. If you don't have enough for all season, you could hope to score some semi-dry fuel from your FIL's wood guy and mix drier wood in if it's not quite ready. Yes, I realize this scenario is probably a long shot that most folks won't be able to do, but I thought I'd mention it anyway. It's saved me in the past. Heck, I once found a down Cherry log in the woods, about 12". All the sapwood was gone and it was ready to burn. Cherry heartwood is rot-resistant..who knows how long that baby was lying out there?

 

Yes, I have cut small dead oaks here that when split test just a bit high on the moisture meter. Split and stacked criss-crossed for good air flow I had it ready to burn in a month's time. Of course down here on the NC boarder I don't do a lot of burning in October. This year October was hot but turned cold this past week to where I needed a small fire to chase the chills away.

 

Gotcha.

I actually have plenty of land to pull wood from, it's just getting to it that is the issue. Most of my woods are thick with thorns and poison ivy during the summer. I had planned to trek into the woods and mark the dead trees during the summer so that I could cut them down during the winter but I never got around to it.

Now that I have a wood stove though, I hope to have more motivation to be a little more proactive

 

Trick is to wear long trousers, boots, long sleeve shirt, gloves. You won't break out right away; you go home, pull off all the clothes that may have contacted the poison ivy (here it is poison oak; three leaves leave it be) and throw them in the wash. Rub yourself down with vinegar, arms, legs, feet, hands, etc. Then wash with cold water and lots of soap, repeat. I haven't had a bad case of poison oak rash in years.

 

paintblljnkie nice score! Perseverance pays off, so does a bit of luck. But when it happens, it's a great feeling.


I can tell you'll like it here at FHC.

There's a few of us that have scored a deal like this. I paid the same $300 for my barely used insert with the SS liner and all that was needed to install it. You have to live a deal that's worth 10x what you've paid for it.

 

My stove is situated so the door will open 90 degrees and give me room to load. The top of the stove can open for maintenance and the lid will rest against the stone if I don’t want to remove it completely. The ash pan has plenty of room to be removed. I do have a small fan situated behind the stove to circulate air. My configuration didn’t allow for the top exit pipe. I have the rear exit going into a T then connected to the lined chimney. I did add the ash lip option, it’s a simple bolt on option that can be removed if I move the stove to a different location. The ash lip reduced my clearance requirements for the front. Obviously the dog still approves.

 

Wow, that is a really nice installation. My plan is to put some type of stone behind the stove and I would like a mantel; I figured if it is made from fireproof materials I can have a mantel even with my stove pipe and I could go double wall pipe at some time.

 

I've done that a little. The issue is that when its 100+ degrees with 80 or 90% humidity, I'm liable to pass out from heatstroke before I get to the trees