using OSB or plywood for kindling

Has anyone had experience using OSB or plywood for kindling? My concern would be with the glue. Is it harmful to burn or does it make to much creosote?

Thank you.

I work at an OSB mill and we send all our dust to an outfit that makes wood pellets. That dust has wax and resin in it just like the board.

When we press the board at the end of the cycle the press goes in to degas mode. Lots of vapor is released at that cycle as steam out of the board. We're not required to wear a respirator unless we're at the top of the press. Then there's smoke from the board when the press opens. Air samples have been taken for 15 years and is within the safety guidlines. I'd have no problem burning the board(scraps) we make if I needed to. The wood you already use is toxic when it comes out as smoke. Just don't stick your nose in the pipe and take a deep breath.:greenchainsaw:

I made the mistake of burning OSB once....never again.

I had occasionally thrown a small piece of OSB into the OWB while loading up 2x4 building scraps from our house construction and never noticed any problem. Then when I got to the OSB roofing on the porch we had a whole bunch of OSB scraps left over from cutting the triangular pieces where the sections met in the valley and peaks. I cut them into pieces that would fit into the OSB.....and when the sun went down and it got cool I lit the OWB. The amount of black smoke that poured out of the chimney was incredible - you would have thought I was burning a tire and it completely blocked out the moon with all the smoke. Thank goodness it wasn't daylight and I don't live anywhere that someone could see it or I am sure they would have called the Fire Department thinking my house was on fire.

I will never burn OSB again.

It could be worse. You could try to cut up, split, and burn discarded telephone poles and railroad ties.

Funny you mention that Wood Doc.

Drove past the neighbor's the other day and noticed his pickup backed up to the back door with what looked like a load of perfectly round wood on it. Next day, same thing. 3rd day I had to stop and see what he had. I couldn't believe what I saw. He is cutting up all the broken-off electric poles from this winter's ice storms and burning them in his wood stove. He is burning these poles in a woodstove inside his house!

When I went to the basement to give the stove its three AM feeding a couple weeks ago I stripped the leaves off some tobacco plants. So there I sat with a pile of five foot long tobacco stalks in front of me wondering what to do with them. Needless to say my chimney had a bit of a pool roomish smell to it that night.

Outlander said:

Funny you mention that Wood Doc.

Drove past the neighbor's the other day and noticed his pickup backed up to the back door with what looked like a load of perfectly round wood on it. Next day, same thing. 3rd day I had to stop and see what he had. I couldn't believe what I saw. He is cutting up all the broken-off electric poles from this winter's ice storms and burning them in his wood stove. He is burning these poles in a woodstove inside his house!

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That's insane. Instant creosote for the chminey, not to mention the potential smell. Glad I wasn't around to breathe the fumes.

If I recall right, the railroads would soak oak ties in liquid creosote for a week or so. Telephone poles are usually fir or pine, soaked about the same length of time then air dried for awhile. Heck, even cutting them with a chain saw will gum up the bar and chain links. Last time I did that I had to soak the bar and the chain in straight gas for awhile to clean them. Never again.

SOME telephone poles are ok to burn, I see alot around here that are nontreated cedar on the top, only treated at the bottom 5' or so. I have never burned any but I have seen some that have been cut up on a sawmill and it was great looking stuff.

If it's like particle board yeah I've burned it in a stove. Never used it for kindling cause we never run out of splitter trash. Never smelled any glue and can't believe creosote could be a problem...you almost have to go out of your way to sandwich the pieces together or they burn too fast.

I wouldn't want to use it exclusively. OSB seems to leave lots of ash. I use it occasionally mixed in with other construction cut offs and splitter trash. I have burned a fair amount of it outside and don't notice much smell or smoke compared to other stuff. I don't burn other trash, treated wood, or any plastic. A little OSB or plywood doesn't bother me though.

The preprimed outdoor OSB siding is some pretty weird stuff. I was burning it in an outdoor fire ring after completing a shed. It just wouldn't burn, so I kept adding pieces to the fire. Apparently the resin that makes that stuff is different from regular OSB because suddenly it LIT and my little 3' fire was dhooting flames 15' in the air and singing tree branches. The finish never burned, it left sheets of it mixed in with the ashes. I won't be burning any of it in my stove inside.

Thanks for all the responses.

deutzman said:

I work at an OSB mill and we send all our dust to an outfit that makes wood pellets. That dust has wax and resin in it just like the board.

When we press the board at the end of the cycle the press goes in to degas mode. Lots of vapor is released at that cycle as steam out of the board. We're not required to wear a respirator unless we're at the top of the press. Then there's smoke from the board when the press opens. Air samples have been taken for 15 years and is within the safety guidlines. I'd have no problem burning the board(scraps) we make if I needed to. The wood you already use is toxic when it comes out as smoke. Just don't stick your nose in the pipe and take a deep breath.:greenchainsaw:

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but duetz--this is exactly the opposite of what treeco says--and you only work in the factory--right where its made--i mean--what would you know--compared to the great treeco??????

can't you guys keep this crap in the political forum? Please

TreeCo said:

Hey Olyman you sound like you'd enjoy a good asbestos cigar! Google 'Blue Sky Mine'. The factory says it's safe as mother's milk.


Here's the msds: http://thepenrodcompany.com/pdfs/safetyguidelines/phenol.pdf


The exposures talked about are for the dust and out gassed products. Burning would take these exposures to a much higher level.


Burn it if you want ........


.....and be sure to take a good whiff

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All the OSB mills I know of use the waste bark to generate heat for drying of the flakes. Most use a cell for each dryer. They run tons and tons of waste wood through this system. (It's a big wood stove with 4 cells about 3 stories high,about 35 ft. wide and about 80 long.) When we have a hydraulic leak/spill it's reported, we use saw dust to dry it up and burn the dust with the oil in it. Overspray buildup from edge seal is mixed in waste wood and burned. If we have what's known as precure loads (that means it missed the cook time and some is like an oatmeal cookie) that can't be sold as shop grade and up we grind it up with a tub grinder and burn it in the heat generator. All this is approved by law/rules. All this said the heat and fumes go through RTO's but the abort stack damper can also open when this is burning and it goes in to the air just like your wood stove. It doesn't happen often but it does happen. If a high high combustion chamber alarm is made the abort stack opens. It has to or the system could explode or melt something down.

I wouldn't burn straight OSB for a long period of time but I would have no problem burning a few scraps of it. Again I wouldn't stick my nose in the smoke to see what it smells like. I don't do that with wood smoke either.

All wood mills have fires at one time or the other. Big fires not only burn the product ,it can burn belts and other materials as well. When we have a fire if we all took the time to put on a SCBA we wouldn't have a mill to work at. Fire in a wood mill has to be jumped on as fast as possible. If it's getting out of hand we have some folks suit up while we hold the fire with the hoses. Believe me nothing smells like resin burning. Anyone that's worked in a wood mill has breathed some of that. Exposure and PPM is what's looked at for safety. We follow the rules and no one has been hurt. If the dark smoke gets to head level it's time to get out and we all know that.

There have been changes in the input product over the years and lots of those changes have been made for safety for the workers and the home owner. Todays OSB isn't like the early days. That's why OSB ran over plywood.

I wasn't trying to get an argument started,I just stated what I know. And I only wrote about OSB.

I made the mistake of using some stained Pine as kindling for a few burns about 8 years ago. BUT, it was stained. DON'T burn wood that was stained. The stain goes no farther than sticking to your pipe walls.

Little osb ain't gunna hurt at all,and it ain't nuthin a nice chimney fire won't bet rid of. I burn little slices for starter but wouldn't burn too much at once. The fire can get very hot very fast, but a little at a time is ok.

I'd hate to guess how many truck loads of OSB, plywood, and similar construction debris I've burned. I love the stuff for kindling and such. There may be a drawback if you stuck your head in the smoke for a while and just sucked it in but nobody is gonna do that.
Cut it up and burn it dude. Just be careful with the amount of heat that stuff throws. It'll burn REALLY REALLY hot with a lot of flame!

yep, I was just using it for a starter. I like how easy it takes off.