Why I buck it 14.75!

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thewoodlands

Minister of Fire
Hearth Supporter
Aug 25, 2009
17,292
In The Woods
For those who think I'm crazy bucking our wood 14.75 inches it gives us room from the glass plus it sits on top of the air intake. The pictures are from last night for the overnight burn with the dead standing maple I cut a while back.

Shut it down about 600 degrees and it went up to 675 and held, in the a.m. the upstairs was 73 and downstairs was still reading 75. Had it 81 downstairs before I called it a night, the wife did a great job burning yesterday.

Picture 1798 is the stove top temp (just under 400) when I did the reload.

zap
 

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I never thought of loading that way. I like it. I might start cutting smaller
 
Occo370 said:
I never thought of loading that way. I like it. I might start cutting smaller

Occo370, the idea for cutting it shorter was from another Lopi Liberty owner here. I don't remember who but they talked about how under 15 would work even better so I tried it and liked it.



zap
 
I'm with you Zap. I just cut all my stuff that was too long to fit NS. So much easier to load and burns great.
 
SolarAndWood said:
I'm with you Zap. I just cut all my stuff that was too long to fit NS. So much easier to load and burns great.

What does the Blaze King take for length north/south?


zap
 
18 leaves a couple inches to the glass. If it isn't over 20, I wouldn't cut it down. I haven't bothered with anything that fit in the 24" splitter but I think I've decided the longer stuff isn't worth the hassle.
 
Holy crap Zap,

600 °F ??? I get nervous when my stove gets close to 500! Is there something I'm missing or am I just a nervous Nelly? Is that a normal running temp?
 
WoodPorn said:
Holy crap Zap,

600 °F ??? I get nervous when my stove gets close to 500! Is there something I'm missing or am I just a nervous Nelly? Is that a normal running temp?

High burn for the Lopi Liberty is between 600-800, over 800 is considered a overfire.



zap
 
My wood sizes are all over the place. I like short ones that I can fit north/south because they don't roll toward the glass. I load my bottom ones east west and the top with n/s.
 
i love to load my stove N/S, but the splits would be too small to stack and would wear out my chainsaws. SO much easier to load that way, no reaching into the back of the stove.
 
Danno77 said:
i love to load my stove N/S, but the splits would be too small to stack and would wear out my chainsaws. SO much easier to load that way, no reaching into the back of the stove.

Danno77, what is the size it would take north/south? The sugar maple we have was cut before we decided on purchasing the wood stove so I still take off about 3 inches so we can load north/south.



zap
 
WoodPorn said:
Holy crap Zap,

600 °F ??? I get nervous when my stove gets close to 500! Is there something I'm missing or am I just a nervous Nelly? Is that a normal running temp?

Just try and keep an Isle Royale under 500. I dare ya :)
 
I have learned by experience ( and by being stubborn ) that the extra work to cut my fuel at N/S length (14" works for me) is WELL WORTH it. Fits much better, burns well, lasts longer, no down side. NICE JOB! :cheese:
 
zapny said:
Danno77 said:
i love to load my stove N/S, but the splits would be too small to stack and would wear out my chainsaws. SO much easier to load that way, no reaching into the back of the stove.

Danno77, what is the size it would take north/south? The sugar maple we have was cut before we decided on purchasing the wood stove so I still take off about 3 inches so we can load north/south.

zap
12" works, but i like a little space, so something like 10.5-11 works better. I was cutting some long splits last year that were about 20 inches in half and that was awesome for burning like that.
 
Danno77 said:
zapny said:
Danno77 said:
i love to load my stove N/S, but the splits would be too small to stack and would wear out my chainsaws. SO much easier to load that way, no reaching into the back of the stove.

Danno77, what is the size it would take north/south? The sugar maple we have was cut before we decided on purchasing the wood stove so I still take off about 3 inches so we can load north/south.

zap
12" works, but i like a little space, so something like 10.5-11 works better. I was cutting some long splits last year that were about 20 inches in half and that was awesome for burning like that.

If I have time this weekend I'm taking some 18 inch sugar maple down to just under 15 for the overnight burns.


zap
 
SolarAndWood said:
I'm with you Zap. I just cut all my stuff that was too long to fit NS. So much easier to load and burns great.

Solar if you load n/s what type of burn times can you expect with some good hardwood?



zap
 
zapny said:
For those who think I'm crazy bucking our wood 14.75 inches it gives us room from the glass plus it sits on top of the air intake. The pictures are from last night for the overnight burn with the dead standing maple I cut a while back.

Shut it down about 600 degrees and it went up to 675 and held, in the a.m. the upstairs was 73 and downstairs was still reading 75. Had it 81 downstairs before I called it a night, the wife did a great job burning yesterday.

Picture 1798 is the stove top temp (just under 400) when I did the reload.

zap
Zap you are Bucking crazy! I would never cut my wood shorter than 14.95". :ahhh:

;-) Seriously, my stove box is square, so the splits fit the same both ways and will fit 18" splits, but I usually try to cut them 16" to leave room for the same reasons, Also if I try to cut closer to 18" I inevitably screw up once in a while and end up with pieces that are too big and don't fit. If I aim for 16" they always fit.
 
zapny said:
SolarAndWood said:
I'm with you Zap. I just cut all my stuff that was too long to fit NS. So much easier to load and burns great.

Solar if you load n/s what type of burn times can you expect with some good hardwood?



zap

With something in the Sugar Maple class, I get 36 hours at low burn and 12 if I am running it wide open. I don't use the good stuff this time of year and get 24 hours with the lesser stuff or chunks and uglies.
 
zapny said:
WoodPorn said:
Holy crap Zap,

600 °F ??? I get nervous when my stove gets close to 500! Is there something I'm missing or am I just a nervous Nelly? Is that a normal running temp?

High burn for the Lopi Liberty is between 600-800, over 800 is considered a overfire.



zap

Anyone know what high burn / overfire temps are for a Quad 3100i ??
 
WoodPorn said:
zapny said:
WoodPorn said:
Holy crap Zap,

600 °F ??? I get nervous when my stove gets close to 500! Is there something I'm missing or am I just a nervous Nelly? Is that a normal running temp?

High burn for the Lopi Liberty is between 600-800, over 800 is considered a overfire.



zap

Anyone know what high burn / overfire temps are for a Quad 3100i ??

On the steel stoves, Quad likes to stay south of 700 according to an email (that I didn't save) that I received from them.

Edit: I reviewed my emails (sent folder). This is what they had to say:

"this unit should operate at temperatures between 300 and 600 degrees. These are approximate numbers so the unit might get hotter on occasion. "
 
I have been using the bar on my "16 inch" chainsaw as a way to approximately eyeball 16 inches length for my firewood. I recently measured and the darn thing is really more like 14.75 inches from the front of the heat shield(?) on the saw to the tip of the bar. I guess I have been cutting to 14.75 inches without realizing it. That is 14.75 plus or minus 3 or 4 inches. Maybe I need to try loading N/S.
 
Zap - we cannot see the file name picture numbers that you refer too...just an FYI.

I will load some N/S on teh bottom row but E/W on the top.
 
CTwoodburner said:
Zap - we cannot see the file name picture numbers that you refer too...just an FYI.

I will load some N/S on teh bottom row but E/W on the top.
if you hover your mouse over the picture it shows the file name. it's the last picture, btw.
 
Jags said:
WoodPorn said:
zapny said:
WoodPorn said:
Holy crap Zap,

600 °F ??? I get nervous when my stove gets close to 500! Is there something I'm missing or am I just a nervous Nelly? Is that a normal running temp?

High burn for the Lopi Liberty is between 600-800, over 800 is considered a overfire.



zap

Anyone know what high burn / overfire temps are for a Quad 3100i ??

On the steel stoves, Quad likes to stay south of 700 according to an email (that I didn't save) that I received from them.

Edit: I reviewed my emails (sent folder). This is what they had to say:

"this unit should operate at temperatures between 300 and 600 degrees. These are approximate numbers so the unit might get hotter on occasion. "

Thanks Jags<
I generally stay around 350-450 good to know I've got some reserves!
 
I have a unique cutting strategy.

I cut all my wood at 21 or so (box is 22.375 long). Anything that is just a few inches over that gets cut in half for anything in the range of 12-14.5 inches (firebox is 13.5-15 inches deep depending on if its on the floor of the firebox or not). Anything longer than that, but too short to get 2 full 21 inch pieces gets cut into one short and one long.

<12" = chunk


12-15" = NS piece
15-21" = EW piece
21-30" = 2 NS pieces
30-36" = 1 NS piece and 1 EW piece
36-42" = 2 EW pieces

I buck everything at 21" until I get to the end and I'm left with a piece that fits in one of the brackets above. Using this bracket reduces the pieces that fall into the category of <12" (chunks category).

So most of my wood endd up being east-west wood. I do this because I waste less fuel, oil, time, maintenance, and wood by making fewer cuts. The stacks are also much more stable this way. But I still have some north-south wood to do good, overnight fires etc.
 
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