No, your "advice" shows you've never been in the business
Brush and debris pile burning in cold weather?
- Thread starter Joseph Acquisto
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Bill G
ArboristSite King
Good for you.
Like I said no one here submits a resume'. If you do not agree with someone that is great. It does not make them wrong. You have no idea my knowledge base nor do I of yours or anyone else's.
No, based on your responses, we have a pretty good idea of your knowledge base. Like Zin said, you've given us 29,000+ opportunities to assess it...
I decided to put in an Omnivore Composter instead of an incinerator and buck the way things are done. I managed a pair of barns before building mine and hated fiddling with the incinerators so I spent $32k on a composter instead of $7k on an incinerator and don’t regret it one bit.
Y’all are all kinds of snippy and get hurt butts way too easily. Opinions are opinions. You don’t need to agree with them and instead of attacking the person with the opinion why not attack the opinion ? Attacking the person makes you all look foolish …… I believe the saying is “don’t hate the player, hate the game”. I also tell my kiddos that if you’re getting picked on to kill them with kindness. The bully will move on and leave you alone. By engaging all you’re doing is fueling the fire and it’ll keep smoldering forever.
Burning tires is not ideal or even legal in most cases. Speeding is also illegal, so is rolling though a stop sign and checking your phone while driving. Not advocating any of those things but lots of everyday stuff is “illegal” so it’s up to you to decide what your comfort level is with those things.
Back to the OP if they’ve even decided to stick around after all this drama ….. For us burning in -25f weather or burning when it’s 85f outside the process all depends on if the pile is wet or dry and mostly brush or mostly big stuff. Be a Boy Scout and use a single match and a newspaper if you can but if you can’t use whatever you are comfortable with to get it going and keep it contained.
I prefer a mix of stale gas, fresh diesel, used motor oil, a leaf blower and a long piece of 4” stove pipe to get it going and keep it hot.
Makes sense, the cost of fuel to run an incinerator mounts up over time and provides no beneficial value except for potash.
Had a friend down the road call me about digging a hole because of a chicken die-off, we are talking about like 10,000. State regulators told him it was OK to bury them but has to install a pipe to vent off methane gas. I dug slip trenches 15 feet deep 30 feet long and he would put pipes in to vent before I covered them up. It was one hell of a chicken grave yard.
Joseph Acquisto
ArboristSite Operative
Still hanging around. All I need for that setup is the stove pipe. And hope that old leaf blower will fire up. IIRC it needs 40:1. Maybe 32:1. Aint that special.
Gonna be one wet pile by the time the weather lets up. Was not expecting the forecast to turn out so wet next few weeks.
It also works with a piece of PVC pipe, but you need to stay a little further away, or the end towards the fire gets a little melty lol
Bill G
ArboristSite King
Do not worry about the original oil mix ratio for your blower. If you are using quality oil at 50:1 for your saws it will be fine in the blower.
On a side note I did not realize you folks were that wet. I thought the NE was getting hit with heavy snow. We are expecting 13" or more here by mid-day Tuesday and 40mph+ wind. Our temps are expected to drop well below 0F over the next few days. If you can find a good dry bale of straw and soak that with used oil. It will help a lot.
Just had a little blow around here last night, 45 mph sustained, 75 mph gust, don't know about rain but was a lot of it. Must have been some trees down because lost power about 2:00 am and woke me up when the genset kicked on.
best thing I found to get brushpiles burning is old tires!!!!!!!!!!! LOL! --- HOWEVER the next thing is a 500,00 btu lp torch! Dont take long with it to get a raging fire going. Lp is cheeeeper than diesel fuel or gas!
Bill G
ArboristSite King
Glad to see someone else from Illinois here. On this great site if you mention using a tire in a dozer pile or brush pile you set off a firestorm of inaccurate information. I wonder sometimes if some of them ever made it out of the city.
Joseph Acquisto
ArboristSite Operative
I am soooo depressed. I have tried 3 time in the last 2 months to get that #$%#$ pile burning. It has been pretty wet here in the NE but last several days have been warm, dry and breezy. So tried again.
The pile is almost all White Pine, branches and small bits to start with.
Got a 4" metal duct pointed into the pile, a 32cc leaf blower going full blast into it, and some old oil soaked shop rags to light it off. Got my MAPP torch and lit it off, got the blower going, and WOO HOO, what a blaze.
For about 5 minutes. As it began to die down I could get areas going good by moving the air stream, but, each gave out. I shut the blower off and it died out almost immediately.
Area Burn Ban starts on March 15, so, I guess that's it for now.
The pile is almost all White Pine, branches and small bits to start with.
Got a 4" metal duct pointed into the pile, a 32cc leaf blower going full blast into it, and some old oil soaked shop rags to light it off. Got my MAPP torch and lit it off, got the blower going, and WOO HOO, what a blaze.
For about 5 minutes. As it began to die down I could get areas going good by moving the air stream, but, each gave out. I shut the blower off and it died out almost immediately.
Area Burn Ban starts on March 15, so, I guess that's it for now.
Good Luck in the fall when you are allowed to burn again. Let your pile dry out over the summer, then just before it rains cover it with plastic. Fuel Moisture, arrangement and continuity all play a part in getting a pile going. I would guess you burned off the needles, and the woody parts of the stems were still too wet to take off on their own. As soon as your light flashy fuels were gone you didn't have enough heat to keep it going. Make a couple of cardboard logs and shove them into the middle. Get those started and all will be good. In November...
GenXer
Addicted to ArboristSite
You won't lite wet wood that way. As I said before, bring out some dry wood and start a small fire in a corner. Keep adding to the small fire as it builds itself up. It will dry the wet wood as you go.
The biggest thing is you need something dry to start it with.
Seems like your pile just isn't tight enough. Did you cut it down at all?
gotta chop it down small and pack it tight then it will burn wet or dry!
I have been burning mostly green white pine brush just lately. Keep it parallel , tight, have a dry spot to start it and feed the hot spot with some 4 inch + rounds and add to it or push it together with a loader until you can see the fire is big and hot enough to finish burning all.
I like letting it sun dry several days , then cover a portion with a tarp so I can light it there when the ground is wet. Usually i use some old gas mixed with oil and some dry leaves and or cardboard mixed in the dry wood. Sometimes it doesn't need the fuel-oil mix.
I like letting it sun dry several days , then cover a portion with a tarp so I can light it there when the ground is wet. Usually i use some old gas mixed with oil and some dry leaves and or cardboard mixed in the dry wood. Sometimes it doesn't need the fuel-oil mix.
Rain, shine snow or sleet, I roast my brush piles wet or dry. Just takes a bit of accelerant and patience and NO TIRES either. Tires here go to get recycled and chipped for asphalt binder.
Besides, brush piles are a good way to dispose of used motor oil.
Besides, brush piles are a good way to dispose of used motor oil.
