Back-Savers for Outdoor Furnace's

[DR POWER]

A lot of our customers are burning wood in outdoor furnaces and are having a hard time loading their chunks. We'd like to develop a solution to help them save their backs. Anybody willing to share a rigged-up solution to save your back while loading wood?

 

[memory]

I will be keeping an eye on this thread.

We have thought about setting something up where you set up a log on rollers of some type and cut a big chunk off into the stove.

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

This one's pretty slick:

CENTRAL BOILER OUTDOOR WOOD FURNACE HYDRAULIC LOG LIFTER - YouTube

In the 8 years I've had mine I've learned that cutting wood for ease of handling is something to consider. If it for longer term storage I cut 22 to 24. If it's going directly to the boiler house I'll cut longer. On central boilers, if you cut real long you waste more heat value(to me) because you're in back of the low baffle.

My stove is inside and a simple cart works best for me. I've extended the sides up and can get a 1/4 of a cord on it when filling the house up for the years supply. Made the extensions removable so when loading the stove they are not in the way.

I've been known to throw some biggins' in

 

[russhd1997]

This one's pretty slick:

CENTRAL BOILER OUTDOOR WOOD FURNACE HYDRAULIC LOG LIFTER - YouTube

In the 8 years I've had mine I've learned that cutting wood for ease of handling is something to consider. If it for longer term storage I cut 22 to 24. If it's going directly to the boiler house I'll cut longer. On central boilers, if you cut real long you waste more heat value(to me) because you're in back of the low baffle.

My stove is inside and a simple cart works best for me. I've extended the sides up and can get a 1/4 of a cord on it when filling the house up for the years supply. Made the extensions removable so when loading the stove they are not in the way.

I've been known to throw some biggins' in

I split mine small enough so that it is easy to lift in. I don't like having all of the hair burned off of my face and getting a face full of smoke. I have also found that by stacking the furnace full of smaller pieces of wood the cycle time is faster.

 

[Somesawguy]

Get a pulp hook if you are using bigger pieces. They are a huge back saver.

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

I split mine small enough so that it is easy to lift in. I don't like having all of the hair burned off of my face and getting a face full of smoke. I have also found that by stacking the furnace full of smaller pieces of wood the cycle time is faster.

Normally the same here as we cut years ahead and Dad needs them normal size. You learn pretty much how to load so when you go to fill you don't have a roaring fire to burn your hair and such. Just vary the amount with outside temp changes. A lot or times when it's real cold I'll do 2 lighter loads a day as opposed to stuffing it full. Just like everything else, you have to find what works best for you.

A lot of people say they'd never put a boiler in a building but I love mine that way. Wood stays dry and I stay dry while loading. Smoke is VERY minimal if you get the loading thing down. Not that hard to do.

 

[russhd1997]

Normally the same here as we cut years ahead and Dad needs them normal size. You learn pretty much how to load so when you go to fill you don't have a roaring fire to burn your hair and such. Just vary the amount with outside temp changes. A lot or times when it's real cold I'll do 2 lighter loads a day as opposed to stuffing it full. Just like everything else, you have to find what works best for you.

A lot of people say they'd never put a boiler in a building but I love mine that way. Wood stays dry and I stay dry while loading. Smoke is VERY minimal if you get the loading thing down. Not that hard to do.

I fill mine when I leave for work in the morning and when I get home at night. Sometimes there's flames and other times there's smoke. If I am lucky I can catch it when the flames and smoke are minimal. In the summer I can usually fill it without much of either and I only fill it every 2 days. I go through a lot of wood in a year but that's heat and hot water for 2 houses.

 

[Steve NW WI]

A lot of our customers are burning wood in outdoor furnaces and are having a hard time loading their chunks. We'd like to develop a solution to help them save their backs. Anybody willing to share a rigged-up solution to save your back while loading wood?

That depends entirely on the pay and benefits of a job at DR in the R & D department.

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

That depends entirely on the pay and benefits of a job at DR in the R & D department.

The opening may be from the guy who released this one:


DR® Power Equipment - Tree Chopper - Cut 300 trees per hour with the Tree Chopper

I'd honestly be interested in hearing from the OP about the thought process on this. All I see is bent metal/frames, people going over the handlebars and lawsuits.

 

[greendohn]

A pal of mine has talked about a lift and roller table kind of deal. Seems you'd have to move it out of the way to service/clean your OWB, which could be a pain in the arse, if you ask me.

I usually cut with guys running wood stoves and/or inserts and have found it's just as easy for every one if I cut my wood "standard" size/length(18"-20"). Granted I don't split mine as small as they do. My 1st year of running the OWB, I peeled the hide/smashed my finger pretty good wrestling a monster chunk thru the door. After hopping around and flapping my hand in the air like a wild man, I decided smaller wood burns just fine.

 

[leon]

firewood and OWB

A lot of our customers are burning wood in outdoor furnaces and are having a hard time loading their chunks. We'd like to develop a solution to help them save their backs. Anybody willing to share a rigged-up solution to save your back while loading wood?

Since your simply trolling for ideas:


Large chunks require much more combustion air to burn and periods
of shut down do not solve the issue as the fire only smolders


The easiest solution to a chunk problem is to make them smaller
as they will burn more efficiently anyway.

Why not simply build a swing away worm gear driven six way splitter head
that will feed the split wood directly into the boiler and be done with it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



But I do not see that happening with these extremely inefficient
wood boilers and the amount of wood smoke/energy
they lose from extremely poor combustion efficiency.



I think DR would be better off building and commercialising an
improved wood and coal outdoor boiler with good shaker grates
and a coal stoker option with an auger underfed burn pot for anthracite coal
which would also be the route of the combustion air. These underfed retort pots
are still made by combustion engineering or were anyway

The Van Wert folks did this for years until their business failed due
to the poor economy in the early 1980's.

This boiler would be made of boiler plate steel and have a complete fire brick lined
burn chamber with an afterburner chamber(for wood burning) made of
full fire brick and a 2,000 gallon water supply at a minimum as it would
win a lot of buyers and be a huge seller because wood smoke would no
longer be a concern and would pass all the EPA standards 10 forever
without blinking an eye.

BUT you will never stop people from burning green wood or tires in them.

 

[ccarpen4753]

That depends entirely on the pay and benefits of a job at DR in the R & D department.

My first thought: Hey what do you guys use that we can mass produce, patent, and make alot of money. Seriously,come on we arent that simple minded. Might be harsh, but I found it very unprofessional. Unless they are willing to reimburse the originator for using their idea.

 

[leon]

OWB loading

My first thought: Hey what do you guys use that we can mass produce, patent, and make alot of money. Seriously,come on we arent that simple minded. Might be harsh, but I found it very unprofessional. Unless they are willing to reimburse the originator for using their idea.

OH WELL, I guess I am going to have puppies then.:eek2:otstir:

 

[zogger]

There's no easy way to do this because of the design of the boilers. You got a door and a box. Gravity works. the farther away you try to stick this huge chunk of wood, the harder it is to handle.

If they were designed to be chute fed, it would be easier. The big industrial boiler at one shop I worked at used a chute and conveyor system, taking advantage of gravity, all the wood fell down into the boiler, it wasn't shoved in sideways.

I don't have an OWB, but if I did and wanted to burn big uglies, stuff hard to split or weird o shaped, etc, I would rig a tripod support then a long lever on that with tongs on the other end. Swing it over and tong up the chunk, swing it over and into the opening as far as it will swing in (you are using leverage so this is big, see?), lower it a little to release pressure on the tongs, then push it the rest of the way in.

Or like that there. You are basically trying to come up with a combo forklift for picking it up then something that will move the piece forward into the boiler then withdraw that piece after your cargo delivery, whatever that piece is that is moving it. Rather complex to be made cheaply I would think.

If you can make a hydraulic lift table, which is also portable, meaning it will roll in front of the door then away or when it is not being used, this could be easier to do. You have to be able to move it in place and away easy though, it can't just be heavy and live in front of the door all the time. A lift table is rather straight forward in design, that shouldn't be hard. Roll/flop the big chunk in, lift it up, stop it at the correct height, then perhaps a light forward rolling table, enough to get it in there and then just manhandle push it in. You *could* add a second pusher from hydraulics, now you have doubled the complexity and expense. Have to make it so the big chunk can't fall the wrong way and squish your customer...

Red neckerson fastest and easiest, perhaps, an engine hoist type arrangement, or like those pickup lift arms you can buy already, and a kid's slide aimed at the door. Chunk goes up, then ya slide 'er in.

Of course, being a nerd, I would much rather have something like this..suitable for loading wood boilers and other interesting pursuits

 

[DSS]

If I'm having a hard time lifting a chunk of wood, I cut the damn thing in half.

But I'm not an engineer.

 

[Blazin]

I split mine small enough so that it is easy to lift in. I don't like having all of the hair burned off of my face and getting a face full of smoke. I have also found that by stacking the furnace full of smaller pieces of wood the cycle time is faster.

If I'm having a hard time lifting a chunk of wood, I cut the damn thing in half.

But I'm not an engineer.

+1

Kinda hard to get any more wood in the stove when you plug the doorway with a ginormous round, not to mention shoving wood under the baffle in the back so the heat goes right up the stack I cut 24" wood and have a mixed pile of size to stack the firebox tight (one row in the front) when it's below zero.