How long is the wood you use?

[Highpoint]

After 14 years I finally upgraded to a continuous flow. It's a 2 x 6 Small Brothers and it was a ton of learning and fun, but now it time to fire up the saw for the next seasons. The real question is how long do you, or would you, recommend cutting the firewood? The wood we used this year was cut just as I do for the house, 18" but the firebox is 24" long in the evap.

For next year I plan on upping from the little 51 CFM AUF blower to almost 300CFM and may even attempt AOF. Would that change your answer? It seemed kind of handy to be able to stack the fire as needed to change the boil this season but that is because we got an uneven boil across the syrup pan and the middle two sections wanted to boil over all the time. Hence the reasoning for more forced air; spread out the heat and even up the boil. What do you think? What do you do and why? How long should the wood be? If I get AOF should I split it thicker?



1999 Steamer tray over some bricks.
2001 3X4 home made SS batch pan.
2002 added float feed from sap tank.
2013 40 taps, 22gal, all on the same pan, best year yet never burnt or spilled a drop.
2014 85 taps, 2x6 Small Brothers, 33gal, sugar shack in progress, learning a whole new game.

[Bucket Head]

Don't cut the wood any longer than the firebox is wide. You want to fire the arch so the wood "criss crosses" the layer beneath it. Put some in lengthwise, than across those side to side. The air can get to all the wood better, creating a hotter fire. As for splitting, don't make the pieces bigger than your wrist. Smaller pieces ignite and burn quicker, also creating a hotter fire.

Steve

[ennismaple]

With the AUF and AOF in our Force 5 you don't criss-cross the wood at all.

We cut our wood to 44" length.

[wiam]

2x2 front pan. I cut my wood 18". This keeps it away from the back pan and away from the door. I do not criss cross my wood. I get stack temps over 1400. Don't think playing with wood will help.

[jmayerl]

Were same as ennis. With aof and auf I chuck my firebox full and don't worry about again for 45 mins. Box temps are 2000F+ and stack is 800

[Russell Lampron]

I also have a 2x6 and cut my wood to 16" lengths. I have tried cutting it to 2' lengths but like the smaller wood better. It is easier to fire the evaporator with the shorter wood and I get 3 pieces out of a 4' stick. I have a blower with air under fire and don't see a need to cross my wood. I just open the doors, stuff as much wood as I can in the firebox and slam the doors shut. The faster I can fire the easier it is to maintain the gradient and keep the syrup flowing out of the draw off.

[brookledge]

I cut mine 2ft i could go bigger but that is the length of my splitter
i think you need to see what your limits are and cut accordingly
When I'm cutting slab wood i usually go 25 or 26 since logs are always cut longer than the finish length
Keith

[maple flats]

My box is 32" deep, but I like mine 21" long. I could use 24" and have it work in the splitter, but I don't. I do throw a few pieces crosswise in behind the main stack. I keep my wood about 5-6" in from the door and I don't criss cross, with the AOF I find it needs no extra help. I add every 9 minutes. Since I added AOF, I've tried intervals up to 20 minutes but find I get the best, most uniform boil at 9 minutes.

[lpakiz]

The grates on my firebox are 39 inches long, plus there is another foot behind that for combustion gases to mix. I cut the wood at 20-21 inches, pile it just inside the door and we like it like that. It boils all the way to the stack, except a bit light in the front compartment of the cross-flow pan.

[Highpoint]

Wow, lots of variations in technique. From what I read it seems that most of you cut from 6 to 10" shorter than the length of the box. I started cutting to about 22" but I might change that now that I see I don't need to. Criss crossing was something we tried but backed out of. The box is tapered smaller at the grates and the side walls slope out to the bottom of the pan. Without measuring I'd guess its 14" at the grate. That makes criss crossing more of a zig zag and time consuming.

Thanks for the responses. Any more would be great. I plan to hit 300 taps next year so I'll need to get my act together on running the crazy thing, and the first lesson learned this year was ... fire, fire, fire, it's all in the fuel and constancy of the fire.

[collinsmapleman2012]

It depends on your fire box.. Mine is a different story, I was putting 8 foot 2x4s in no problem. But with that I need the extra heat since the evaporator was designed as a high efficiency oil arch. I just need to intensify the heAt. I agree with crossing the wood, helps a lot in heat, but blowers are nicer. I jerry rigged one quick this year to build more heat and it's amazing the difference it makes. Going to try and make some auf and aof next year. I need more heat, it's utilizing all of it. Stack only gets to a couple hundred degrees. Oh and if you have a choice, mix your wood hard and soft so that you have both quick and lasting heat to keep draws more consistent. The last 2x6 I ran we had 2 ft wood and it was a bit much. I think the 16 inch wood is spot on one of the biggest things is you need to get to know your rig. And consistency in firing is key!!!

[ennismaple]

From what I read it seems that most of you cut from 6 to 10" shorter than the length of the box.

That's about right. We're supposed to leave the wood a foot from the door to allow the AUF to get to the sticks and there's probably a little better than that behind the sticks when they are loaded.

[Burnt sap]

Good advice. Just remember to cut back the air flow when you stoke'er or you won't have to shave for a while.:lol:

[Russell Lampron]

Good advice. Just remember to cut back the air flow when you stoke'er or you won't have to shave for a while.:lol:

I've got my blower dialed in so that I can fire without turning it off. It helps that my stack is 17' tall too. Once the evaporator is up to temp the draft from the stack pulls the flames back in when the doors are opened and I have enough blower too. The arch front is cherry red when the blower is on.

[ennismaple]

I've got my blower dialed in so that I can fire without turning it off. It helps that my stack is 17' tall too. Once the evaporator is up to temp the draft from the stack pulls the flames back in when the doors are opened and I have enough blower too. The arch front is cherry red when the blower is on.

You can't get close enough to fire our Force 5 with the door open and the primary air running. We have to turn it down, load up, and turn the air back up to about 4 (out of 7) after the door is closed. Any higher on the primary air and the stack temp climbs over 800F and we throw smoke and sparks - meaning lost BTU's. You can put your hand on the front door while we're firing at full steam because the primary air is forced through it to warm the air.