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I appreciate the response. It makes sense but has me wondering what the purpose of the flue damper is then. Since I don't have any intake air control other than tin foil, it is difficult to maintain the ideal intake volume consistently. It blows my mind that any wood stove manufacturer would...

@SS396driver cool! I've considered doing something like that and have the tools to fabricate. Could just be like adding a slide channel just under and above the ports then using a piece or two of thick scrap sheet metal with a handle to slide in and cover the ports. Probably one from each side...

Wood stove exhaust damper/flue use, am I doing it right? My flue method: exhaust damper fully open when starting a fire and until I have a decent bed of coals, then fully closed. Open it whenever I add wood so I don't get smoke in the house. If there is still a decent bed of coals I generally...

I know this is a dead thread but just wanted to give a ~one year update. I was much better at preparing for the winter this year and have a lot more seasoned and seasoning wood. I may sound like a bit of an idiot here but oh well... I now think my prior draft issues must have been mostly...

Mine's not as glamorous as new equipment but my plan for 2020 is to just improve my firewood stockpiling situation. Every year I find myself chasing the weather to collect, split and stack. I'm very fortunate to have ~40 acres of forest for nearly limitless dead wood but I usually wait too...

I was gifted a fiskars splitting axe (don't think it's the x27) and loved it right away. Been splitting wood with a 6lb maul, wedge and axe since I was a kid. Now I just use the splitting axe and sometimes the maul to break up bigger rounds. The splitting axe is just straight up less work and...

Thanks for all the support everyone. It really has been helpful. I still think, for my case, the draft issue is the design of the weird diffuser/secondary burn plate in the stove because I burned a tiny fire in it without the plate and it drafted beautifully... but the flames went right up the...

For me, paper grocery bags seem to work really well for firestarting vs. newspaper. Another good reason not to use plastic bags.

Yep, the suggestions have all been helpful. Thank you all! I'll have to work on getting ahead of the wood pile... I'm doing better this year than the last 3. But in my defense, the locust I primarily burn is very dry and leaves nice white fine ash on the inside of the stove, not soot like wet...

Here's a little update on the situation: I haven't done any permanent modifications but did clean out the flue & elbows, flipped the upside-down riser pipe, added a spring to the flue damper to keep it from flopping loosely like it had been and the real improvement has come from slowing down...

@Del_ Does Pawlonia burn well? I figure not but have some bigger ones I'm felling. It's so soft. Cut through a 14" trunk with a machete in about 10 minutes just for "fun". Huge growth rings. That tree was only about 10 years old.

That makes perfect sense to me. @Mad Professor , that looks like a great stove! Thanks for introducing it to me.

Thanks for all the ideas and the warning. I've experienced a chimney fire. It was scary. Fortunately I could shut that wood stove's intake down. Would hate to have one here. I cleaned out the indoor piping and the elbow up the chimney earlier today. There was an 8"x8"x2" baking pan's worth of...

BTW, in the past, opening a door has done nothing to improve the billowing smoke. Drilling holes in the baffle is an interesting idea. I may do that. And maybe try to un-warp it a bit while I'm at it.

I agree wholeheartedly. When I've got small pieces of good wood in there, the entire firebox is plasma flame and "closing" the flue damper does very little to slow it down. So the only consistent way to control the fire temp is with perfectly sized pieces of wood (of course that is difficult...

@woodfarmer and @sb47 , Thanks for your attention and support. This stove doesn't have pipes with holes for secondary burn. Instead it is this weird baffle thing: Installed, it looks like this: It is warped so I put a scrap piece of stainless pipe on the left side to lift it to...

Thank you for your insight! I'll flip it in the morning when I open it up to clean.

@JeffHK454 It was pretty unstoppable and one of my favorite machines. Every single other piece of equipment we had got stuck at some point (didn't have a track-based machine) but never once the Steiner. The axles are permanently locked since it articulates and doesn't need a differential...

@nettle oh man! That's crazy. I'm glad your friend is ok in the long run. Sounds horrible though. Sometimes I'll remember that this thing could dismember and/or kill me in an instant. It's so easy to get comfortable and loose after that first cut with a sharp chain and good saw. I'll notice that...

I stand corrected. Ya'll are in the Midwest, I'm in the Appalachians. It looks like the Black Locust that we find long-dead here. I don't think we have Red Elm, just American/White Elm and maybe Slippery Elm. The American Elm has a distinct reddish center and swamp-like smell. The Black Locust...