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OT: Burning your scrap

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OT: Burning your scrap

#1

OT: Burning your scrap

Mike Schwing from Maryland

>We don't have a lot of fires here at the Schwing household. In fact, a cord of wood might last me 4 years. I have 3 or 4 nice fires every year, max.

But the weather has been so bad the past 3 or 4 weeks that the trips I normally make with a wheelbarrow to my scrap pile have stopped. Each week I take my offcuts - stuff left over after cutting round blanks out of fresh cut lumber - down the scrap pile a few hundred yards away. I wound up with probably 4 or 5 large garbage cans full of offcuts. I started burning them yesterday morning in the fireplace. We had a fire going from 0630 am till we went to bed, and all morning today. They entire scraps pile is gone. GONE! All burned up! No big deal I'm just amazed at how fast I went through wood, and just sitting it in the basement for a week or so dried it out enough to burn pretty easily.

I burned all cherry, ash, and apple. Smelled pretty nice.

Thats probably no news to a lot of you but I was astonished. My wheelbarrow will be so upset with me.

Re: OT: Burning your scrap

#2

Steven Antonucci

Re: OT: Burning your scrap

steve antonucci

>Been doing it for years...

Once the fire gets rolling, you can even burn the shavings from the shop floor. They dry in about a day or two, and once the garden is full, what else can you do with them?

Steve

Re: OT: Burning your scrap

#3

Mike...yer lucky...

BubbaBob

>...my house is totally heated with wood in the wood stove...8 to 10 cords a year. Wish I could do all my heating with scraps...would save a ton of money.

BubbaBob

Re: OT: Burning your scrap

#4

Re: OT: Burning your scrap

Mark Kauder, Phenix City, AL

>Mike,

I do the same. I put my scraps (lots of little ones from segmented bowls, etc) in 5-6 plastic trash cans out back of the shop, and then burn them in the fireplace.

Problem this year, our winters has been so mild, I have only gone through one of the cans. Have to get moving or I will not have any empty ones for this years scraps.

Cold and rainy today, good night for a fire.

Mark

Re: OT: Burning your scrap

#5

Steven Antonucci

NJ is having the same problem

steve antonucci

>Yep. Can't tell you how warm and toast we've had it this year. Why today it was 15!

Oh wait, that wasn't Celcius...

Oh crap, I guess it has been cold. What was I thinking? Time to go turn some firewood...

Steve

Re: OT: Burning your scrap

#6

I refuse to mow the lawn in January

Stuart Johnson

>I save up my hardwood scraps for the smoker. That Cherry and Apple you are burning in the fireplace would be great for a Turkey. We haven't used our fireplace in over eight years. All that is in it are six Birch logs 3-1/2" x 19" my wife bought from some decoration outfit for $50. You guys have your snow and the mess that comes with it and down here my backyard needs mowing.

Re: OT: Burning your scrap

#7

Re: I refuse to mow the lawn in January

John Lucas

>Ditto on the yard mowing. I love warm weather in the winter but I refuse to mow the lawn. That would be an hour and half that I could be turning.

Re: OT: Burning your scrap

#8

There goes the neighborhood.....

TDaniel

>

Re: OT: Burning your scrap

#9

Brad Vietje

Re: I refuse to mow the lawn in January

Brad Vietje

>Oh Sure -- Real funny guys ! I'd LOVE to mow the lawn in January ! I'd love to SEE the lawn between late October and early April !

Problem is, at 20-something below zero, the mower is a little hard starting... then of course, there's all that snow and ice to get in the way and clog up the mowing deck. Come to think of it, I'd love to till the garden, too, but I'm not sure I could even drive a spike into the frozen dirt. I burn my scraps to keep WARM !!!

On a slightly more serious note, you can lay in a bed of shavings 2-3" thick in the bottom of the woodstove, leaving a few holes if your stove vents from the bottom, and build a hearty fire on top of the shavings. They'll burn up nicely, and help form a nice bed of coals.

Staying toasty with the BTU method (Burn Those Uglies),

Brad Vietje,

Thetford, VT

It ain't lookin' quite like this today ... (Black Locust with Maples in background)


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