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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 20/10/12 02:35, Crispin
Pemberton-Pigott wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:1822410053-1350696935-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-1227639130-@b13.c10.bise6.blackberry"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Dear Darren
Good to hear your project lives. Are you really going to stack the fuel across like that? It should work really well if the orientation can be maintained.
</pre>
</blockquote>
I have had a chance to try this now.<br>
<br>
I cut lots of ash (fraxinus excelsior) branches into approx 9cm long
sticks, up to about 3cm diameter, and stacked them up in the hopper
- I cut the branches from a tree about a month ago and they have
been sitting in the woods since then.<br>
<br>
I decided to use ash as it has a low water content and can be burnt
when freshly cut, although much better when properly seasoned.<br>
<br>
In the combustion chamber I stacked up some well seasoned and dry
pine getting progressively smaller and topped off with some
newspaper which was soaked in some vegetable oil I spilt the day
before (I dumped my heavy mechanics tool bag on a full 1 litre
bottle of rapeseed oil - which emptied instantly all over the floor
of my truck. I use it to lubricate the chain on my chainsaw)<br>
<br>
I lit the paper and watched... as the pine burnt away the fire
started to die. As the ash had been out in the rain I decided to
throw more pine into the combustion chamber to heat things up/dry
things out a bit more. I had to do this a lot of times before I
could see down in the hopper that the fire had spread onto that side
of the grate.<br>
<br>
After I noticed this I fell asleep on my sofa, so warm and cosy....<br>
<br>
When I woke it was cold.... I looked in the hopper and all the
sticks were gone :)<br>
<br>
The next two nights I tried again but the fire would not really
spread through into the bottom of the hopper, despite last night
adding some lengths of split pine mixed in with the ash sticks at
the bottom of the hopper. One night it was getting there but didn't
appear to quite catch.<br>
<br>
Tonight I built a fire with longer pine pieces stacked the same way
as the bars of the grate.<br>
<br>
On top of that I added some cut willow sticks that had been hanging
dead in the woods for 2 years, mixed with some split pine Then on
top some of the ash sticks<br>
<br>
All burnt well. I refuelled with ash and this all burnt as well.<br>
<br>
To make the hopper thinner I placed a few engineering bricks to
either side of the grate, not ideal as there are big gaps which
could potentially induce the sticks to twist and stick rather than
feed in a fairly orderly fashion (I have yet to fill the hopper
right to the top, although I did have quite a load in there at one
point). The sticks do appear to feed reasonably well.<br>
<br>
Interestingly only tonight did I see the hopper fill with smoke, but
the smoke was not as thick as when I was running pine squares or ash
woodchip at the beginning of the year . Other nights it was
completely clear of smoke.<br>
<br>
I'm thinking that the water content of the freshly cut sticks is a
bit high until the heat has really built up in the stove.<br>
<br>
A picture of after the first night. A few sticks didn't burn as
they stacked up on the hopper slope, rather than sliding down onto
the grate and into the fire (this was repeated with the burn
tonight)<br>
<br>
<img src="cid:part1.07050200.06050207@vegburner.co.uk" alt=""><br>
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