Got wood?

[Turtlecreek]

A friend of mine is building a sizable house and has pledged all of the cut offs for my evaporator. It will be all kiln dried pine and there is like 2 pickup loads there.

So to the question are cut offs good to burn and how efficent are they. Bear in mind I only have 50 taps and a half pint.

If this doesn't work out there is a saw mill down the street that deals on maple and will sell me slabs for 10 bucks a pallet. I may buy them for a backup.

[C.Wilcox]

I assume you mean 2X material cut offs? If so, they burn fantastic provided they're not soaking wet. Get them as soon as you can and get them covered so they're good and dry for next spring. They'll burn real hot and real fast without a lot of coal build up.

[3rdgen.maple]

Heck yeah if its wood burn it... If its free wood burn it with a smile.........

[Turtlecreek]

That is what I assumed. It is mostly 2x material with a bit of osb/plywood thrown in for good measure. I tore off my gazebo roof this summer all old cedar shakes and replacced it with like material so I got that to burn also. I don't think I'll need to cut much wood this year!

[Dennis H.]

It's all BTU's!!:D

[red maples]

if it's made of wood. with no paint, and no PT it gets burned!!!!! And Free is even better!!! I used up all the 2x trimmings when I built my sugarhouse. I only needed 88" pieces but the 96" was cheaper so I bought those trimmed off the excess and the rest was sugaring wood!!! but $10 a pallets for slabs espeically hardwood also very good!!! I would buy those up too!!! there is a guy in the next town selling split pine for $50 a pallet!!! I don't know who would by that especially with all the pine that has come down in the storms the 2 years!!!

[brookledge]

I have burned scrap wood like that before. What I would recomend you do is build a storage bin or make a place where you can shovel the scraps in with a coal shovel. When you open the arch door you want to get the pieces in quick. Tossing them in by hand will take too long. And when shoveling it, it is quicker. The key thing to shoveling is having a solid floor or wood under the cut-offs so your shovel can get under the pieces with out digging in.
Keith

[red maples]

for the smaller scaps use paper shopping bags. fill them up ahead of time and throw them in. I use pine cones for fire starters and hang them in onion bags. when they are good and dried I fill paper bags up about 1/2 way and they burn hot and hard!!!

[Brent]

They'll burn hot. If it's pine it will have more BTU's per lb than hardwood - per lb not cu ft.

I would strart my fires with hardwood and get everything good and hot before I started burning the pine cuttings. The pine smoke on the cold pans will leave a lot of deposits.

[Turtlecreek]

I think I got all of the wood at my house now! I have 4 bins full they are 4'x4'x4', and I still have some plywood and some longer pieces I need to make a bit shorter. I think this will hold me for a while. Its been muddy at the building site so it has taken me a while to get it all. The builder said that if he know I wanted this stuff before he would have given it to me from the other houses he is building instead of landfilling it or just burning it at the site.

If this works out I may be done futting wood and just using other peoples trash! I hope it all works sout since its like I'm putting all my eggs in one basket here, judging by the comments I should be good, lets hope so!

[mike z]

Does this hold true for basswood too. I had to cut a couple very large, hollow, leaning over my proposed new evaporator site, basswood trees down. Should I burn them in the evaporator? They are laying right next to it.
Thanks - MZ

[red maples]

if it is not painted or chemically treated it gets burned!!!!

[Brent]

Basswood has slightly less BTU per cord than pine.

Roughly speaking you'll need twice as much pine or basswood as hard maple to get the same heat on a volume (cords) basis. Interstingly, they are about the same yield per lb .... but of coarse they weigh half as much as maple.

[brookledge]

Turtlecreek
When I have burned cutoffs the biggest issue was to not overload the fire box which would tend to smother the fire a little since some of the pieces where small. But if you are getting your scraps from a rough framing job the pieces aere likely larger than if it was from a finish work job.
And as I said previously I found shoveling them in was the fastest way for me to do it. But again that depends on the size of them.
Keith

[nas]

I would not use OSB or plywood or anything else with glue in it myself. I don't know what kind of chemicals are used in the glue.

Nick

[brookledge]

I can understand concerns over burning wood with glue in it and such but it comes in no contact with the syrup. If that was the case you couldn't burn heating oil since it is a hazarduss material
Keith

[maple flats]

Burn the basswood. Cut and split it ahead to dry, basswood holds a fair amount of moisture. When dry it will burn fast, but you just need to refuel at the right interval. As for the plywood and OSB, I would shy away. All other untreated wood would get burned. I have a sawmill and about 1/4-1/3 of what I burn is slab, mostly softwood. The rest is a whole range of hardwoods, including oak, hard and soft maple, ash, cherry, basswood, elm, birch, beech and a few others. They all burn.

[ennismaple]

I can understand concerns over burning wood with glue in it and such but it comes in no contact with the syrup. If that was the case you couldn't burn heating oil since it is a hazarduss material
Keith

I've heard that burning pressure treat or plywood will pit the underside of your pans, eventually causing pinhole leaks as if it had been hit with a 12ga shotgun. I was told the chemicals create an acidic gas that corrodes even stainless steel.

[red maples]

If I have a small scrap of plywood that get mixed in with my clean wood scraps no biggie but generally I don't like to burn anything with glue, paint, PT or anything unaturally treated.

[DrTimPerkins]

I don't like to burn anything with glue, paint, PT or anything unaturally treated.

And most likely this is the law for everyone as well. Burning these materials releases a variety of toxins....same thing goes for tubing....don't burn it.

As someone already said, residues from burning these materials can build up under pans, react with the water in the air over the summer, and cause corrosion and pitting.

[brookledge]

I never burn pressure treated wood but have burned scrap plywood without any noticable effects. However it has not been a lot. I also don't burn old tubing in the evaporator but I do wonder how much different the gases are from plastic compared to burning heating oil. And what about those that have toyed with burning used motor oil?
Keith