You bet. I don't use it that often. And not out of a drip torch.
Slash fire methods
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You bet. I don't use it that often. And not out of a drip torch.
You'd never use a mix that hot for a burnout operation, at least not on purpose. It'd spit all over the place. Burning piles in the rain is a different game. You've got to get enough heat in there to boil off all of the water so the fuel is available to burn. Alumagel, diesel, whatever works. Once the pile is going it's on its own but it's tough to get them started. I've seen the aforementioned torching torch happen. Super experienced DNR guy just left the nozzle end dripping into one side of the pile while he walked around to the other side to do something else. Of course, it was dropping fire the whole time, and built up a pretty good amount of heat, which of course boiled the fuel in the can, which of course pressurized it so that it was blowing out the fuel faster, which eventually overtook the can's ability to move the fuel at the same time as it got hot enough to get weak. Eventually the can split along one of the seams on the bottom and that was that. No more pressure from inside the can, it ran out of fuel, and the pile burned as planned. We recovered the slag of the destroyed torch as soon as it was cool enough to get that close to the pile.
ChoppyChoppy
Tree Freak
Can't wait till its dry? Like on one timber sale, we have to go burn this winter, it's 3-4 year old brush.
Maybe it was 3 to 2 that was used when most of the crew had singed eyebrows? I seem to remember that there was some polluted helicopter fuel mixed in just to get rid of it. That caused lots of spurting-- no longer dripping drip torches and made things fun.
I do recall back in the days of old growth landing piles, our fire guy pumping all the diesel out of the tank that was on his pickup, coming back and dumping more on the pile and repeating that for a few days. That was a green pile during the winter. I also helped him dump buckets of alumagel into a similar pile. He always got the piles to burn, it just took a lot of "resources" to do so.
I do recall back in the days of old growth landing piles, our fire guy pumping all the diesel out of the tank that was on his pickup, coming back and dumping more on the pile and repeating that for a few days. That was a green pile during the winter. I also helped him dump buckets of alumagel into a similar pile. He always got the piles to burn, it just took a lot of "resources" to do so.
ChoppyChoppy
Tree Freak
Jeez! The pile I burned a few weeks ago just took an old tire and abouta Fallon of diesel/oil engine oil!
When you live in a rain forest, playing with matches won't do it.
I've been covering the piles with a big tarp while I'm not there, gets at least the core a little drier... I can't burn a big pile so whats been working pretty good is get a big pile of coals going then plop a bucket or 3 of wet junk on top, repeat every 20 minutes or so.
Its a land clearing for a new home, soon as I'm gone the builders are going to move in and start on the house etc, can't wait until july.
Also we generally can't burn during the summers here on account of the burn bans and the never ending threat of wild fire. Its a rain forest yes, but during the summer it gets really dry at times, rain forest=thick ass brush, thick ass brush plus 2 weeks of no rain=dry thick ass brush, dry thick ass brush+brush ape+matches+wind=very bad day
Another way to cover a pile that is going to sit through a rain storm or two is to cover the pile with craft paper. when you are ready to burn just pull off the paper and shove it under the pile and light it off. The very thin plastic painters tarps work well too and are cheap, less than a dollar for a big tarp. They are fragile too.
I prefer straight diesel or blivets on piles but I've never burned under your conditions.
No, don't use old tires. Ever. If you do I will not visit your dumb ass in jail.
I prefer straight diesel or blivets on piles but I've never burned under your conditions.
No, don't use old tires. Ever. If you do I will not visit your dumb ass in jail.
ChoppyChoppy
Tree Freak
Gotcha. On those small jobs we use a fecon grinder. The bigger jobs (several hundred acres) get burned.
Big difference in this type of weed burner over the tomato can style ....... iirc 100K btu / 40K.
It'll get a pre-heat into the metal too.
.
roofing felt / tar paper 15 or 30 lb. For a cover in the bottom half of the pile as well as a few feet wadded up to get the damper ones going...
Dog food sacks opened up....
lumber wrappers from the lumber yards, they going into the dumpster anyway. Wore out plastic tarps...
Whatever keep the wet off. ;-)
roofing paper, known as tar paper... is a lot like tires, so I'm not sure I could get away with torching them here. Nor am I willing to try.
One thing I forgot to mention is that a tiger torch is also your friend here. They attach to a propane (it's a propane accessory, Hank) tank and do like 500,000 BTU over about a 3" diameter circle. They work really well as an igniter.
You could always remove the tar paper before torching the pile.
I've wondered about how legal it is to burn the plastic sheeting. It's what the sacred timber sale contract specified to use. A couple of operators burned their slash instead of going to the expense of using the plastic.
Woos31
Addicted to ArboristSite
Anybody ever stuff a handful of flares in the middle of a pile to aid in keeping flame going and get heat buildup for the material to dry and ignite? Say 4-5 of the big half hour burn flares and the leaf blower? I never have tried it but always wondered if it would work, although less exciting to flammable liquid and fuel mixtures. DON'T use foam...............you thought a tire smoked a lot .............I threw a large piece of foam that we had on a queen size bed right before dark the other night..............HOLY CRAP! Burns really good and fast but it looked like I dumped a drum of oil in it.
flares not a bad idea.
I try and keep as much plastic out of the fire as possible, I don't like plastic much to begin with and burning it is always a little sketchy.
I try and keep as much plastic out of the fire as possible, I don't like plastic much to begin with and burning it is always a little sketchy.
Flares are fusees and I use one to get things going. Way back in time, we carried a pack full of fusees and seal a meal alumigel (napalm). You dropped the baggie of alumigel into the seasoned (not green) pile and lit it with the fusee. And on to the next.
1270d
ArboristSite Guru
Skidder tires will keep it going for a while but are a little smokey. Have a bunch of leftovers to bury later as well..
I lit a pile last year with unleaded and the whole pile jumped a bit upon ignition. Have also dissolved styrofoam into gas to light a trash burner. It worked very well, and my eyebrows and the front part of my hair looked normal within a month.
I lit a pile last year with unleaded and the whole pile jumped a bit upon ignition. Have also dissolved styrofoam into gas to light a trash burner. It worked very well, and my eyebrows and the front part of my hair looked normal within a month.
Odog
ArboristSite Operative
Try 5 gallons of methanol, that seems like pretty flammable stuff....
