The TinyWoodStove is not as expensive as I thought. Their smallest is only $200 more than a comparable Cubic Mini. Check out their line up at the link. Their Dwarf Life 3kw stove is only $625.
This is very interesting. That size of stove is quite common in the UK with our climate and with many people having one as a feature rather than a main heat source. My own stove will take logs up to 11” diagonally but I find it works better with slightly shorter but chunky logs loaded N-S. I can just about manage an overnight fire now without the glass getting too dirty, in fact I picked up some tips from a TinyWoodStove video on YouTube.
Nice video. I do have some compressed sawdust fire logs I picked up at Rural King. They burn very hot but they do NOT burn longer than my ash logs in my mini wood stove and they seem to leave a lot of ashes. It’s easier to restart the fire on a hot bed of ash log ashes than what’s left following burning a compressed log.
I agree. I have tried a few different types of manufactured logs, some of which were made of rice husks. They all burned nice and hot but left too much ash, hardly any coals and they’d didn’t burn any longer than the hardwoods I have access to.
I think where they shine is in areas out west where they only have soft wood (species of pine) to burn. Back east where we have oak, locust, hard maple, cherry and ash etc available they don’t compare as well.
I found an old gas powered log splitter two weeks ago on Facebook Marketplace. He said it runs good and he was only asking what I had paid for a used electric log splitter a couple weeks before that. I went out, checked it out, he got it started (after multiple pulls as it had been sitting 3 years) and I brought it home. So I resold the electric log splitter. Unfortunately the original old 8hp Briggs engine was very difficult to pull and very difficult to get started, requiring numerous pulls to do so. Frankly, I no longer have the stamina and strength to keep pulling it till it starts. So I found a used Predator (Harbor Freight) 212cc 6.5hp engine for $75 on Facebook Marketplace off a broken wood chipper, and set about replacing the Briggs with this Predator motor. First thing I discovered is that the hydraulic pump mount bolt pattern doesn’t fit the smaller Predator engine. So I researched hydraulic pump mounts for log splitters and found one in stock at Tractor Supply. I brought it home only to realize the bolt pattern fits the Predator engine perfectly but the shaft length of the hydraulic pump and the Predator engine were too long combined to fit into this hydraulic pump mount. Fortunately the Predator engine came off a chipper spreader and part of the chipper assembly included a four inch aluminum mount that offset the chipper assembly away from the bolt face around the engine shaft. I was able to cut off the right thickness of this mount with a cutting wheel on an angle grinder, combined that with the new hydraulic pump mount, and it assembled perfectly. It’s the red piece next to the motor behind the black hydraulic pump mount in this video. I had to mount the engine a little “crooked” on the engine mount because the low pressure return hose was too short otherwise. I did put a new better spark plug in the engine, added 2 gallons of hydraulic fluid to the hydraulic reservoir, and it started right up and split the biggest knotty oak logs I could get my hands on here. There’s something very satisfying with never having swapped engines on a piece of equipment, managing to fabricate part of the pump mount with a simple angle grinder, then have everything work together as it was intended when you pull the rope on the engine. And I only spent a third what a used gas engine log splitter would have normally cost.
Thanks Maina! I had a set back last month, had an “acute gangrenous gall bladder” removed by laparoscopy and then two days later the site started leaking bile fluid into my abdominal cavity. I was readmitted for an ECRP to stop the leak. Worst 8 days of pain I’ve ever experienced. I’m obviously back on my feet now but I wanna as a sick puppy last month!
Feel for you on the gall bladder issue. Almost lost my dad to that last year about right now. First Doc said he had a stroke. Good lord what a scary time. Nothing to mess with. Best of luck in your future days BrianK! Enjoy every day of health everyone.
Oh man I can’t like that! I’ve had a few gallbladder attacks thanks to Lupus and that was painful enough. Visceral pain is wicked. Glad you pulled through okay. Hopefully you won’t have a reoccurrence.
I found out two weeks ago my cardiac function is severely depressed due to previous heart attacks and ischemia. My left ventricular ejection fraction is only 18. Normal is 50-60. Anything lower than 40 is risk for congestive heart failure. Plus based on my first echo, they said I had a thrombus (blood clot) in my left ventricle. Needless to say, they didn’t want me doing anything. So, how does one cut firewood when their heart trouble is severely limiting their ability to run a chainsaw? (Which, frankly, is something my cardiologist had warned me to forego due to my severely depressed cardiac output.) I got this brilliant idea recently that I could cut logs/limbs up to 6” or 7” diameter with a 12” miter saw, without lifting and manipulating a chainsaw, so for several weeks I’ve been searching Facebook Marketplace for a cheap beat up 12” miter saw. I couldn’t find anything locally, or inexpensive enough, after several weeks of searching. But my cardiologist called me back yesterday to tell me my repeat echocardiogram, with contrast this time, showed no signs of a thrombus (blood clot) in my left ventricle, and I could stop the Lovenox blood thinner injections. Thank you Lord! I asked him what I AM allowed to do now. He said anything to tolerance that doesn’t exert my heart, even riding my e bike, but to stop if any shortness of breath or fatigue occurs. Hankering to get back to doing something constructive, yesterday I finally found a decent saw for my needs: a 12” Ridgid miter saw, pretty well used and abused but cheap, and only 10 miles south of me. Plus he was selling it together with a big miter box stand with adjustable infeed and outfeed attachments. This was important as I needed to support the logs I’m cutting. I picked it up, brought it home, and tried it out. One thing I read about cutting branches with a miter saw is to be very wary of kickback of the branches being cut, so I attached a 5” tall piece of lumber to the clamp that came with the saw that was intended to hold lumber in place while cutting. So far everything is working as envisioned. I’ve filled the wheelbarrow with 6” “logs” for my mini wood stove. Time for a rest. It’s a relief to figure out how to continue cutting firewood using a saw and technique my body can still tolerate. Those pieces of firewood for my little stove ain’t gonna cut themselves, and winter is almost here.
BrianK, nice job on the splitter motor swap! And glad you figured out a way to process wood for your mini stove. I have used my miter saw for cutting firewood size splits into hunks for smoking. I have had several occurrences with bad kick back, one time i almost got nailed bad. Im not sure if its the odd shape of the wood, or the hardness of the species (oak, pecan, cherry) and a fairly aggressive toothed blade. But the kickback you read about is very real, good that you could rig up a safety.
Take your sweet time with each cut. Ive had the same kick back/binding blade experience cutting over length splits on a similar saw setup. Good to hear your making headway on your supply.
A bit of a warning for anyone using these small / tiny wood stoves: Occasionally I burn compressed sawdust fire logs with my cut firewood, and I’ve had good results with them. They burn hot, quick, so if I need to heat up the trailer quick I use one or two. But I had been away for a long weekend and had the propane furnace thermostat set at 50•, so I needed a good bit of heat quick. I put a whole load of compressed logs - four - in the stove, got it going and watched it for 20 minutes, then stepped away from the stove for a half hour. The logs were not touching the glass but they must have expanded and/or shifted because they broke my door glass: Up till now I have had no problem burning these but I must have used too many on this one load. A regular size stove wouldn’t have as much risk from these compressed sawdust logs, as there’s more space to expand. But these small stoves have less space and therefore seem to be more at risk with these logs. I put a call in and sent an email to Cubic Mini to order replacement door glass ASAP.
I talked to them this morning and they’re putting a new door glass insert in the mail today. Good customer service.
Wow, sounds like you are having your fair share of problems, your positive attitude is obvious, hope it all works out.
