burning lumber

[husky455rancher]

well in an effort to stretch my piddly ass woodpile i got tons of pallets from work. mostly all of it is pine the pallets were heavy duty all the bases were made of 4x4's. so i put the sides on the truck and even after they were all cut up to stove size the truck was totally full.


so i guess what im gettin at should i treat this wood like its seasoned pine or green pine? i dont wanna burn the house down would it make more sense to mix the lumber with oak or maple or just burn it straight? thanks, Mike

 

[woodbooga]

I've never burnt pallets. I handled thousands of them when I was working my way through college.

The lumber I've burnt has been mostly for kindling, though when I got caught a little short on firewood one year, construction demo from the town burnpile helped bridge the gap.

The larger pieces (2 2x4s nailed together) got burnt along with all the hardwood. The smaller pieces kindled the blaze.

In addition, if you're needing to burn some of your hardwood a little less than seasoned, the hot quick fire from a 2x4 will help prevent smouldering.

PS - Depending on how you dispose of your ashes, you might want to invest in a magnet. I fertilize the lawn with the wood ash. And like walking barefoot in the summer. In the interest of not getting a case of lockjaw, I make sure the ashes are nail free.

 

[husky455rancher]

thats what i was thinking too. that the lumber would help the less than seasoned wood burn a little better. i got lumber all over the friggin cellar now lmao!

 

[Slick]

I've been loading my owb that way....dry seasoned stuff on the bottom (could be lumber)...top is not so ready to burn greenish stuff...you do what you gotta do and I don't want to get to the point of just green stuff left

 

[mimilkman1]

I would mix it in. It will help dry out your not so seasoned stuff dry and burn a little better. If you burn the lumber straight, it will go hot and fast and you would have to load more often. You gotta do whatever it takes to stay warm. Keep an eye on your chimney though, you don't want any chimney fires. Just my .02 FWIW.

Kyle

 

[atvdave]

Many people say they use them from what I have read. I do use them for kindling though.

One word of caution... They burn much hotter & faster than a reg wood split, so don't over heat your stove. A good mix of pallets and wood should be OK like others have said, just watch the heat.

 

[Swamp Yankee]

h455r

Is any of the big ash you cut still in the pile? Is any of it still available to be cut? You can burn ash with very little seasoning.

If the ash is still around and you want help this weekend let me know. I'm pretty much shutdown until the ice melts.

Let me know.

Take Care

 

[streeter]

I have to burn some from time to time. The thin stuff, handle like kindling. The main rails burn better, some of the main rails (the heavy stuff) burns very long and nice. The new pallets burnfast and hot, the older pallets( the heavy monsters) those are some nice loongg buring peices of wood.

 

[A. Stanton]

I've been burning em in my fire pit. They go quick. My guess is that they are seasoned and made mainly of pine. Some of the darker ones may have been soaked with diesel. They burn like torches. So be careful of those. I would just put the clean looking ones in my stove.

 

[IdahoPanhandle]

I snag every hardwood pallet at work that I see come through the yard.

Oak pallets are a GREAT way to stretch the woodpile a bit:greenchainsaw:


Similarly though, it is quite depressing to see some of the amazingly clean oak they use for pallets. Some of it is NICE

 

[husky455rancher]

ok ill prolly just mix it up with the stuff i have.

swamp, i do have some ash left but its totally buried. its gonna stay there till the snow melts. as far as the rest of that perticular ash i honestly dont know if its still availible. everytime i call the guy i get straight to voicemail. ill just have to drive down sometime and go see. tomorrow i think im goin to hubbardston, but if i dont maybe ill take a run to see if the ash is there.

 

[carvinmark]

I snag every hardwood pallet at work that I see come through the yard.

Oak pallets are a GREAT way to stretch the woodpile a bit:greenchainsaw:


Similarly though, it is quite depressing to see some of the amazingly clean oak they use for pallets. Some of it is NICE

Wish I could get some oak pallets, seems like all I can find is pine or basswood. I do use the basswood for carving tho.

 

[Ductape]

A few of you may call me a primadonna................

But my FIL used to offer me all the free oak pallets i wanted. Electrical transformers were shipped to his work on them. I've used a bunch to stack my firewood on, but i always felt it was just too much work to break them all down to bother with for firewood. No doubt i would have taken them if i had an OWB that they fit into though. Too much work, too many nails for my woodstove though.

 

[husky455rancher]

ductape your a primadonna....lol in all seriousness theyre not really that much work. i think theyre worth the effort if you need the wood. but i wouldnt try to heat for a year with them thats for sure.

 

[ray benson]

I had access to oak pallets for several years. Cut them at home with a circular saw. Just had to watch out for nails. They burned real hot.Nice source of wood.

 

[XJWoody]

Back in highschool, I worked for a guy who's dad had a large metal fab shop... and thus a limitless supply of free pallets. I'd get loads of the oak ones and we ripped them up with a little Homie...

The main beams burnt just like seasoned splitwood (maybe a bit faster) and the slats made good kindling.

The nails in the ashes were a PIA, and a pickup load of pallets certainly didn't equal a load of tree wood... but the price was right & they were close by. Super easy to process, but didn't have the nice HGTV "woodpile" look.

The last time we ran an insert, we got big stacks of oak "slabs" (sawmill remnants) for IIRC $35/load (a banded stack maybe 4' tall, 5-6'w and varying 8-12' lengths... again, pretty easy to process, looked a bit better than a pile of pallet wood, and no nails. They burn fast & hot as well... but cheap.

If it came to that again, I'd burn either in a heartbeat.

This reminds me, I need to scrounge a bunch of solid pallets, got some split wood I need to get off the ground for next year.

 

[mtfallsmikey]

I cut them up, use them for when I clean out the ashes/coals/clinkers, put paper underneath, light 'em up, then throw splits on top...

 

[Scootermsp]

Cut pallets this weekend

I was out this weekend and cut about 20 pallets into thirds for the OWB on Saturday. I have a friend who does landscaping and gets all of his pavers on Oak pallets. He delivers them to my house, he's more than happy to get rid of them for free. Unfortunately as pointed out above, they don't lend themselves to that quaint HGTV woodpile "look". Starting on Saturday I've been burning mostly pallets...saving cordwood....making the eyesore disappear...free heat. I will say they work best when mixed in. When the coals are low throw a couple (2/3 of a pallet) pieces in then put your cordwood in top....that thing gets up to temp faster than you can believe....I would be VERY careful with a woodstove Husky455Rancher, this stuff burns HOT! Mix it in to extend your current supply, and whatever you do, Don't get lost in Hubbardston!

 

[sdt7618]

a little off topic, but currently have a site where all the finishes are ash, skirtings, facing etc.. so during lunch time when all the workies are eating you'll find me raiding the mitre saw piles. Mostly about 8-10 inchs long. burns fast and hot but is prolonging the last of my wood pile.