How to get firewood into a basement?

[George E. Cawthon]

I agree, this thread is a little surreal. Do the the kids, the dog, the cat, and guests get locked in every time the temp drops to 32 or 0 or -20? I suppose some people stay home from work too, just so the door doesn't get opened? Crazy.

Two armloads of wood should be sufficient per day unless it is well below 0 or somebody is heating their house to 80 degrees or they are heating way more than 2000 square feet.

I don't agree that the temperature of the wood makes much difference. An armload of wood near a wood stove will be up to room temperature in 5-10 minutes and a log thrown in a stove will go from

-20 degrees to 70 degrees before you can recite the pledge of allegiance. In fact some of the bark or the stringy parts will have already caught fire in that time period. It is a non-issue. What is an issue is having a bunch of wood piled around your living room.

It sounds to me like a lot of people are giving advice that have never heated with a wood stove. The biggest issue will be what does the wife want or more exactly what does she NOT want.

[George E. Cawthon]

You are the dopey one. How can you burn 8 cords every few weeks? That's enough to heat a good sized house in an northern climate for a whole winter. Gees, get real. 3 cords would usually do me even when it got to -20. North and at higher elevation they use more, but not even 8 cords.

[ameijers]

Pot Kettle Black. The rest of us understood what he meant- 8 cords for all winter, bringing in 1 cord at a time, 1 cord every few weeks.

aem sends...

[George E. Cawthon]

Read it again. Not what he wrote. He said, "I'm saying I might have to load a cord 8 times into the basement, every few weeks."

I'm not a mind reader just read what he said. May not be what he meant, but that is up to him, not me to determine.

[George E. Cawthon]

I'm in and out of the house several times a day, take a walk around outside for exercise, maybe walk to a grocery store and carry the stuff back. Drive the car out of the garage to go shopping, that' about 2 tons of metal. The stuff gets cold, I get cold, all get heated up by the energy in my house, whether it is in the living room or the garage.

Warming firewood is trivial compared to all the rest. I waste more energy and cost by running a small rock tumbler.

[George E. Cawthon]

Well that makes sense, dumb me! He loads a (1) cord eight times. I guess he could load the same cord eight times, meaning that he moved the same cord into the basement eight times. But if he does that, doesn't he have to move it out to again move it back in? loads it into? eight times? Seems like he would have to load (move) the same cord 24 times, 8 into the basement and 8 out of the basement and then 8 more into the basement. I don't see why he would move it into the basement just to move it back out and then again move it into the basement.

You mean I got it wrong? or did he mean he was moving a cord into the basement and after a few weeks he would move another cord into the basement. He would do this with eight cords. Let's see, a few weeks means 3 or 4 weeks, so lets split it and make it 4 x 3 weeks and 4 times 4 weeks. That's 28 weeks. Where the hell does this guy live that winter is 28 weeks long?

[George E. Cawthon]

2 tons per cord is a pretty standard estimate. Soft woods are around 30 pounds/ cubic foot and hard woods are around 40 pound/cubic foot.

So 30 x 128 = 3840, and 40 x 128 = 5120 and you have variables of water content and air space. Air space is likely to range from 10 to 20 percent and so is water.

4000 pounds (2 tons) per cord is a reasonable estimate.

[George E. Cawthon]

No, it is not complicated. You could have simply said that you intended to burn 8 cords during the winter season and to move it into the basement as needed. I was pushing you to clarify if you would really stack 8 cords in your basement since 8 cords would fill a 10 x 17 room stacked 6 feet high.

It really doesn't matter, the real point is that 8 cords is way to much. Furnaces, because of the way they are operated tend to be use more wood than a regular stoves but 8 cords is still a high estimate.

Now for the saw question. The blade doesn't need to be messed with very often. You ought to be sharpening your chain at least every cord (assume

16" long blocks), possibly more depending on the type of wood. You may want to lightly draw file the blade every 3-4 cords just to make sure that sharp edges are not developing and to keep the top and bottom flat. With good oiling, keeping the blade out of the dirt, a sharp chain, and reasonable tension, the blade shouldn't need attention more than every 5-6 cords and probably would need replacement for 40 cords or more. You will run through 3-4 chains before you need to replace the blade.

Cutting in a curve may indicate a blade wearing on one side but most likely is cause by incorrect sharpening (teeth sharper on one side).

[Harry K]

Give it up George. You were wrong to start with. It was perfectly clear to anyone who can read English. You have now compounded it by picking some numbers to justify an unwarrantable conculusion. FEW = 2 or more. 16 weeks or even 24 is not an unreasonable period. By the way. When discussing a chainsaw it is a BAR not a blade.

Harry K

[tnom]

Yes you did., but that's understandable. You're George.