Burning lumber?

[kevinmoelk]

This is probably a bad question. But I'm wondering if scraps of lumber can be used as kindling. Of course, no plywood or anything pressure treated or painted. I'm talking about ends of 2x4s and cedar trim, etc.

Any thoughts?

 

[wg_bent]

Yes. Thread over!

 

[elkimmeg]

As a carpenter full time I used scraps for 30 years and bleieve one can burn up to 15% pine / spruce 2/4 along with seasoned hard wood monitor your Therometer

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

No. Thats the simple answer, unless you want to take a chance on runing your stove.
Yes, if you do like elk says and use a little with the regular wood.
I say leave it for kindling.

 

[DiscoInferno]

I use oak pallets (2x4's and thinner slats) sometimes to start fires; gets the stove up to temperature real quick. As in, "don't walk away from the stove or the thermometer will shoot for 800" quick. Full damper down and secondary burn in 5-10 minutes, although it takes longer to get the firebrick up to temperature (thermostatic control on my blower takes ~30 minutes to kick in). Given how fast it burns, I can only imagine what would happen if I fully loaded the box with pallet wood after getting it up to temp...

 

[Elderthewelder]

I cut up skids at work, use the thinner slats for kindling , once I get the stove up to temp I burn the 4x4's from them, have heated my house all night with 4x4's quite often, I damper way down and they last quite awhile

 

[jtcedinburgh]

I've been using the occasional bit of lumber - anything from hardwood flooring to floor joists - cut into manageable chunks. Reason being that I had the chance of a load of it which would otherwise have ended up in a skip.

I've not noticed it behaving significantly differently to logs, other than the fact that the joists take a bit to get going.

I'm not entirely sure what the big deal is here - I've tried this on many occasons now and the fire never seems to 'take off' and if anything flue temperatures appear a little lower than if I used a similar volume of hardwood logs...

Am I missing something?

 

[DiscoInferno]

Usually lumber is kiln-dried, and has a lot less water than air-dried firewood. It's often thinner as well. Since water and reduced surface area serve to regulate burn speed and temperature, lumber tends to burn quite hot if the air is open enough. If I burn logs at full air (which is manufacturer-approved) I'll get the temperature up to 650-700 F eventually, but not much more. Put in pallet wood at full air, and it will hit 800 and beyond. I'm not sure why you haven't seen similar; maybe your pieces are large enough, or not as dry that it's not an issue.

 

[PAJerry]

My load of 'slab wood' has a lot of end cuts of rough lumber - mostly 2x6 on up. It is all hardwood and burns just fine in my stove. Lasts a good long time too.