2017-18 Blaze King Performance Thread PART 3 (Everything BK)

[AlbergSteve]

finally a couple of mandatory days off from fire season. playing hard this summer - we're having quite the fire season in ontario so far. managed to time it right and got the chimney sweep here on my day off to get me all dialled in for this coming stove season - wanted someone with stove experience to "read my chimney" so to speak. all fine ash, no hard creo at all he said - could have kept burning no problem. a couple of dust pans worth of fine ash was all that came out. put a new cat gasket on, and all ready for the fall! I had him look at the bypass plate tension, to see if he thought it needed to be tightened. interestingly, we discovered that the plate puts more tension on a piece of paper if it's not cam-d down until it clicks into place. it seems that with it closed but not clicked, there's more resistance on the paper than once it clicks all the way down. i think partly because the bar rolls back when you click it in? he suggested that i not click it down, since that seems to create the best seal. however, I'm leary of doing this. anyone have any thoughts about this? perhaps could this mean that the bypass tension is too tight? or just keep rocking it the way it is?

either way, i'm starting to look forward to the wind-down of forest fire season, and the wind-up of wood stove season. getting things all tuned up has got my toes wiggling. glad i got all my wood into the driveway before things took off at work - otherwise i'd a been scrambling for 20-21's wood in the fall...

hope you all are enjoying your summer, and i'd be curious to know your thoughts on the bypass tension.

Hear ya about the fire season, BC's got over 450 fires right now with 3 started on the island in the last 4 days. One just started today about 3km from where I work. Stupid humans.

I don't throw the bypass lever all the way for the same reason, more pressure if it's just snug. Seems to work for me.

 

[Poindexter]

ummmm, Ahem. tap. tap. tap.

I carried my snowshoes from summer storage in the tool shed back out to my truck this afternoon. 18/19 BK thread should be spooling up in 2-3 weeks.

FWIW my delphinium and fireweed are suggesting one (typical) date for my first frost, but my raspberries are marching to a different drum beat and are acting like the date will be much earlier. I got nothing for winter severity predictions, judging by the way the plants and animals are acting up here it could be anything.

 

[BKVP]

ummmm, Ahem. tap. tap. tap.

I carried my snowshoes from summer storage in the tool shed back out to my truck this afternoon. 18/19 BK thread should be spooling up in 2-3 weeks.

FWIW my delphinium and fireweed are suggesting one (typical) date for my first frost, but my raspberries are marching to a different drum beat and are acting like the date will be much earlier. I got nothing for winter severity predictions, judging by the way the plants and animals are acting up here it could be anything.

I'm not bothered in the least that you did not come visit with me at your dealer two weekends ago!

 

[Poindexter]

I'm not bothered in the least that you did not come visit with me at your dealer two weekends ago!

I have been trying to stay away from this website while overwrought so as not to be banned or otherwise censured. Had no idea you were in town. Hope you had a great trip, I was, I think, taking my visiting nephew caribou spotting two weeks ago.

 

[Highbeam]

We’re almost there. About a month away from first fire in the pnw.

Just yesterday I swept both chimneys. The princess bricks are really spalling in the floor which I find odd since they always have an ash bed over them. Two layers of floor bricks so I’m not too worried about it.

Wood is in the shed for 2019-2020, this year’s wood is top covered. I just couldn’t bring myself to unstack that 5 cords just to move it into the woodshed.

All that’s left is to refill my kindling hoop. Perfect fall job.

 

[kennyp2339]

Im ordering new gaskets for the door and baffle plate, the door gasket is going on season 5 I think? so its time, last year I put in a new cat, august is here and usually the first fire is at the end of October here, the first rainy 50 deg day actually, also have to get a new crock pot for chili season.

 

[Tar12]

Nothing left to do here...the Princess is ready to roll....3 years ahead and working on year 4....I have had a extremely long run of good luck with collecting Oak....thats all I have on the place at this point...got a call Friday morning wanting to know if I was interested in a Oak? All I had to do was show up and they cut and loaded it up into my dump trailer so I split up a nice Red Oak this weekend that my tree service buddy turned me on to....has me scheduled for another one next Saturday....I will be there bright and early!

 

[Highbeam]

I would much rather cut my own rounds to the length I want but free is free.

 

[Ashful]

We’re almost there. About a month away from first fire in the pnw.

Just yesterday I swept both chimneys.

Where did this summer go? We have had so much rain this summer, especially weekends, that few of us out here have met our quota on summertime activities. I’m in the middle of buying another sailboat, hoping to get at least two more solid months of sailing in, if the rain ever stops.

I still haven’t cleaned the mess of wood chaff around my two stoves from spring, and actually still have a few splits sitting next to each stove, let alone even thinking about chimney cleaning. So, while you guys are prep’ing for fall, I’m still hoping for a little summer, without rain!

 

[BKVP]

We are no where near using heat on this side of the state! The entire next week will be over 100F! So while some folks (think Highbeam) may be nearing the match lighting moment, we are still baking here!

 

[kennyp2339]

@Highbeam just wants to move that free standing wood out of the way to neaten the area up.

 

[begreen]

We are no where near using heat on this side of the state! The entire next week will be over 100F! So while some folks (think Highbeam) may be nearing the match lighting moment, we are still baking here!

And we most likely will not be lighting up until sometime in October at the earliest.

 

[Highbeam]

We are no where near using heat on this side of the state! The entire next week will be over 100F! So while some folks (think Highbeam) may be nearing the match lighting moment, we are still baking here!

We were at 48 this morning, could see my breath. Still supposed to be 95 tomorrow but mid September is when we start needing some heat. We don’t use a furnace so when it cools off, the fire provides heat. Shoulder season fires, not full loads!

Kids go back to school in just a couple of weeks!

 

[Highbeam]

@Highbeam just wants to move that free standing wood out of the way to neaten the area up.

The current pallet area will be a raspberry “grove” and I would like to prep the area this year. Yes, a little bit of an organizational freak too!

 

[AlbergSteve]

Where did this summer go? We have had so much rain this summer, especially weekends, that few of us out here have met our quota on summertime activities. I’m in the middle of buying another sailboat, hoping to get at least two more solid months of sailing in, if the rain ever stops.

I still haven’t cleaned the mess of wood chaff around my two stoves from spring, and actually still have a few splits sitting next to each stove, let alone even thinking about chimney cleaning. So, while you guys are prep’ing for fall, I’m still hoping for a little summer, without rain!

We would gladly take some of that rain out here on the West Coast. It's been so dry this year that standing green doug fir that I CSS'd in February is all under 16% MC, and some at 13-14%. And none of it in direct sunlight! Great for drying wood but hard on the gardens and surrounding forest.

 

[kennyp2339]

We have had so much rain this summer

Its been crazy over here to, no flooding thankfully but we've been getting soaked, the dehumidifier is doing double time this summer, the crazy / worst thing is that if it isn't raining out then its sunny with temps in the mid / upper 80's with high humidity, and it doesn't look like its going to end anytime soon.

 

[Ashful]

Pouring now, another one of those two inches in ten minutes things. Rained all morning here, another 2.5 inches. We normally average 1” per week in spring, and almost zero rain in July, but we’ve probably averaged 5 inches per week this summer.

 

[begreen]

Pouring now, another one of those two inches in ten minutes things.

That's like 3 times what we have seen in over 3 months.

 

[begreen]

We would gladly take some of that rain out here on the West Coast. It's been so dry this year that standing green doug fir that I CSS'd in February is all under 16% MC, and some at 13-14%. And none of it in direct sunlight! Great for drying wood but hard on the gardens and surrounding forest.
View attachment 228765

That's my experience also. I no longer worry about staying years ahead with these dry summers. The hardwood still gets two years, but doug fir dries quickly once split and stacked.

 

[Ashful]

That's like 3 times what we have seen in over 3 months.

Geez. It's half of what we saw today. And yesterday. And Saturday. And Friday.

I have literally NEVER seen rain like we have had this summer, and I've been living within a few miles of this very spot for 45 years. I guess you're worse off than us, but this water is really wreaking havoc on everyone whose living relies on working outdoors. Construction has been at a snails pace, this summer. I've seen poor excavators re-dig the same sonotube holes three times, as they fill with water and collapse before the inspectors show up, and projects halted by basement digs turning into swimming pools. Folks in tropical climes know how to deal with this sort of rain, but people here are just not prepared for it.

 

[AlbergSteve]

Geez. It's half of what we saw today. And yesterday. And Saturday. And Friday.

I have literally NEVER seen rain like we have had this summer, and I've been living within a few miles of this very spot for 45 years. I guess you're worse off than us, but this water is really wreaking havoc on everyone whose living relies on working outdoors. Construction has been at a snails pace, this summer. I've seen poor excavators re-dig the same sonotube holes three times, as they fill with water and collapse before the inspectors show up, and projects halted by basement digs turning into swimming pools. Folks in tropical climes know how to deal with this sort of rain, but people here are just not prepared for it.

Things are upside down! Our 30 year average for 01 May to 31 August is about 6 inches. So far this year for the same period we're at 1.25 inches.

 

[AlbergSteve]

That's my experience also. I no longer worry about staying years ahead with these dry summers. The hardwood still gets two years, but doug fir dries quickly once split and stacked.

I thought for sure I was going to have to leave this wood for next year - imagine my surprise when I was measuring under 20% in mid July! I've got a couple of cords of maple that I'll probably leave 'til next year. Now I've got to find/build cover for about 10 cords of dry wood...

 

[Ashful]

The topic on the morning shows this morning was yesterday’s rain and the rivers flooding. They said we have had only one 3 day window this entire summer without rain. I’m used to seeing basically no rain from July 4 thru mid- or late-August.

 

[MissMac]

Hear ya about the fire season, BC's got over 450 fires right now with 3 started on the island in the last 4 days. One just started today about 3km from where I work. Stupid humans.

I don't throw the bypass lever all the way for the same reason, more pressure if it's just snug. Seems to work for me.

no issues not engaging the cam for the click? I would think it would take one heck of a fire-nado for the fire to push open the bypass plate. just don't want to accidentally over-fire the stove by not having that "safety" click in place?

 

[AlbergSteve]

no issues not engaging the cam for the click? I would think it would take one heck of a fire-nado for the fire to push open the bypass plate. just don't want to accidentally over-fire the stove by not having that "safety" click in place?

I've done it both ways, really didn't seem to matter. The thermostat is your safety...