Wood Burning Cookers

[jacko1066]

Sorry to hijack Elen, but chaps how longer burn do you get if you fill your woodgas up with pellets?
Does it say on the litter bags if its wood based/is there a minimum amount if wood in them I should be looking for?
And how do you go about lighting it? Can I just light a magic biscuit and then gradually add the pellets until full? or put the biscuit on the floor underneath the full woodgas stove?

Cheers
Steve

 

[ex-member BareThrills]

about an hour from a fill. Any kitty litter thats wood will do you. i use magic biscuits on top or some fatwood. some soak a few pellets in meths and add to the top or just poor on meths / paraffin.

 

[Hammock Hamster]

Sorry to hijack Elen, but chaps how longer burn do you get if you fill your woodgas up with pellets?
Does it say on the litter bags if its wood based/is there a minimum amount if wood in them I should be looking for?
And how do you go about lighting it? Can I just light a magic biscuit and then gradually add the pellets until full? or put the biscuit on the floor underneath the full woodgas stove?

Cheers
Steve

On average I get about 45-55 minutes out of a three quarter fill, not tried relighting the charcoal yet but it supposedly gives another 30 mins burn time.
The pellets are standard wood cat litter I think they're mostly the same but I've not tried the ones advertised as lightweight or paperweight as I expect they will burn too quickly.

To light it i would fill to just below the gas jet holes and break up your preferred fire lighter and insert evenly over the top. Hexi blocks are good or BBQ fire lighters but the pellets take a bit to get going.

 

[Nohoval_Turrets]

or just poor on meths / paraffin

Maybe it's just the brand I was using, but when I tried this approach with meths, the liquid caused the pellets on top to expand and turn into powdery sawdust, which prevented the pellets underneath from burning. It amazed me how only a tiny bit of meths could have such a dramatic effect - the whole top layer of pellets was destroyed to some depth, and the air couldn't get through. I could only get it to work with dry firelighters - inner tube, bbq wax paper etc.

 

[petrochemicals]

I was looking for an easy portable way of making them. Would a machette and some thin twigs chopped be as good ?
I ask primarily as playing with my brazier burner in the back garden I saw that a hand full of wood as the fire was dying, lasted almost as long as the huge stack that started the blaze. As the fire was stifled through being compacted the fuel burns slow, not wildly, but I think it was enough to use as a cooker. I think it would be improved by some sort of cone funnel at the top . Pellets would make a woodburner very worthwhile, and very lightweight !

Also -

I have seen Uncle Ray do some firecraft, it may be on YouTube . Some tribes carry part burned wood from their last fire as the charred ends are easy to reignite, far easier than virgin wood .

 

[ex-member BareThrills]

Maybe it's just the brand I was using, but when I tried this approach with meths, the liquid caused the pellets on top to expand and turn into powdery sawdust, which prevented the pellets underneath from burning. It amazed me how only a tiny bit of meths could have such a dramatic effect - the whole top layer of pellets was destroyed to some depth, and the air couldn't get through. I could only get it to work with dry firelighters - inner tube, bbq wax paper etc.

ive seen that with soft wood kitty litter pellets but the hard wood biomass fuel i use doesnt degrade

 

[shaggystu]

I was looking for an easy portable way of making them. Would a machette and some thin twigs chopped be as good ?.....

If the twigs that you are using are of a suitable thickness and they're properly dry (as they should be), then you should just be able to snap them between your fingers. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that if you can't snap them easily in your hands then they're probably not suitable for use in woodgas/hobo/honey/bushbuddy syle stoves at all.

HTH

Stuart.

 

[ged]

I was looking for an easy portable way of making them. Would a machette and some thin twigs chopped be as good ?
I ask primarily as playing with my brazier burner in the back garden I saw that a hand full of wood as the fire was dying, lasted almost as long as the huge stack that started the blaze. As the fire was stifled through being compacted the fuel burns slow, not wildly, but I think it was enough to use as a cooker. I think it would be improved by some sort of cone funnel at the top . Pellets would make a woodburner very worthwhile, and very lightweight !

Also -

I have seen Uncle Ray do some firecraft, it may be on YouTube . Some tribes carry part burned wood from their last fire as the charred ends are easy to reignite, far easier than virgin wood .

You don't need the machete, thin twigs will break quite easily in your fingers if they're dry. If they aren't dry you don't really want to be burning them. Experiment, you'll soon get the feel for what's good and what isn't. Look for fallen wood caught in places off the ground where it's dryest, under hedges, hanging in trees, that sort of thing. Yes, partly burnt wood is easy to light, but we don't need to go back to the stone age unless we want to. Charcoal is messy stuff and dry wood is easy to light too. I carry a little bottle of meths for the more difficult times, and it doubles as a solvent, a hand cleanser and an antiseptic. There are lots of other tings that people carry to help starting a fire.

 

[ged]

You don't need the machete, thin twigs will break quite easily in your fingers if they're dry. ...

If the twigs that you are using are of a suitable thickness and they're properly dry (as they should be), then you should just be able to snap them between your fingers. ...

I can't believe we posted those two posts at exactly the same time!!

 

[shaggystu]

I can't believe we posted those two posts at exactly the same time!!

.....and fools seldom differ

 

[petrochemicals]

mmm ,,,,,

I don't think you could make pellets, a half inch stick does not snap into a half inch all that easy.

Maybe something along the lines of these, but not these, ?

www.cef.co.uk/catalogue/categories/13874-pvc-pipe-channel-cutter

 

[rik_uk3]

If it gets down to cutting up bits of wood you might as well just take a stove with you and stop faffing about says he who takes a sack of coal with him on trips

 

[Nohoval_Turrets]

ive seen that with soft wood kitty litter pellets but the hard wood biomass fuel i use doesnt degrade

Figures. I was using kitty litter. And I don't get anywhere near the 1.5 hour burn time that they mention - more like 40 minutes. So there's pellets and there's pellets.