Mik the Miller

If you are looing for a cast iron box with a fire in it check out clearview stoves For a more technical stove a brick lined, steel, firebox is the way to go. The difference (I have owned both) is like a Land Rover verses an Audi TT. My current fire is a Stovax, it has a similar 'issue' with ash falling out to @roys Flavel, Stovax don't care either. Both were likely designed by some aerodynamisist stting in an office who still lives with mommy in her gas centrally heated Wimpy box. The Stovax has a cast iron door and they supply a loose top (ie it lifts of ...) in cast iron. It's a good stove and chucks out a fair amount of heat quickly, certainly faster than the old Clearview did. The stove does cool quicker but then it's less only half the mass.

No need to apologise, we are learning ... I was trying to simplify ... there are 3 ways the air gets into a wood stove (not counting opening the door). Pa - Primary Air from the bottom of the stove in the case of a multifuel, under the grate. Aa - Airwash, often directly above the top of the door/glass Sa - Secondary or Tertiary or Cleanburn air which arrives preheated, through small hoiles in the back of the stove 1/2 way up the firebox. Typically you have active control over the Pa and Aa whilst the Sa is pre-set (although it can be varied when the stove is cold). @Jimmy101 it looks like your Sa isn't letting any air in at all. You do need some and then you can close the Pa and Aa down fully. In that state you will see the air 'burning' above the logs, If the stove isn't hot enough (it is in your vids) you would see black fingers in the flames above the logs as the cold air punches through the flames. You are very close. Crack the Sa open a little (25%) and then you can control the fire (once its going up to temp and the Pa shut) with the Aa open 5 to 10% If the flames are raging above the logs then shut the Sa to 10% If the fire dies off to nothing (with Pa and Aa shut) then open Sa to 50% It's a balancing act - you're close

Well that clears that up then

That looks ace .... is that a lump of granit on the top ?

Got mine sorted now - there is a vid of it running 'here'

I think we need to get some of the terms agreed here. The Primary air (Pa) comes in underneath the grate (on a multifuel). The Airwash (Aa) comes from the top (often through the door frame) and washes down the glass. The Secondary (or Tertiary or Cleanburn) air (Sa) comes in behind the back air brick and enters though some holes which are around 2/3rds of the way up the back brick. This air enters via a closed section that often runs down the outside back of the stove and is therefore heated prior to entering the firebox. The Cleanburn/Tertiary/Secondary (Sa) air is not often controllable when the fire is burning. Its via a fixed aperture that can be varied by a flap that is bolted in position. Some stoves have separate Pa and Aa controlls, mine has a single 'lever' that when fully open allows air in via the Pa and Aa vents. Pull it to the next notch and it shuts the Pa fully, Aa is fully open, pull it again and it closed the Aa and the Pa. The Sa is always letting in air. My Sa is possibly a bit wide as the gasses are quite turbulent. To get the fire to burn as per the video, I almost close the Aa (leave the Aa slightly open and have the Pa shut). The fire has been on for a while (20 mins ish) to get to this happy state with the Pa shut and the Aa open, then I start to nudge the Aa shut and watch the gasses ignite and the logs go from yellow flames to a red glow. It happens slowly though. Like a turning a big boat. Once its in the right position it stays like that for a while. Dry Oak or Beech last longer than S Birch or Chestnut and longer than Pine or Larch. When I add more wood I need to open up the Aa (as the freshly introduced wood cools the internals of the stove) and after a few minutes nudge it closed so that the Sa takes over (becoming the dominant). Wet wood kills it and it takes longer to get to the happy state. Oak takes longer than Pine. The stove has to be hot for it all to work. Mine is a nominal 7.5KW and to get up to this output takes around 20 mins of intense burning with the Aa fully open. @Ratmanhas mentioned the DEFRA smoke control kit. This 'setting' always lets Pa in, it won't let you shut it down, however, this kit is normally a plate that can be removed. My stove (as an example) came with this plate (called the 'Smoke Control Facility') in a bag with instruction that it "must be fitted to meet the requirements of a smoke control area". If the 'kit' was fitted I wouldn't be able to get the stove to burn as in the video, the Pa and Aa would overide the Sa. Hope that makes sense ?

Here's my new fire going strong, not flat out but burning well. You can see the logs and the yellow flames and then above the tertiary air burning the gasses. Initially I had the secondary/tertiary air vent fully open but hacve found that with it closed down to about 1/2 and with a little primary/airwash I can find it's efficent/happy spot. I am still learning and may close the tertiary air down a little more to get a more 'lazy' effect. 20201126_203320.mp4

I like detail like that .... Each stove has a personality which needs to be understood to get it to burn happy. Wood fires burn from the top down, they (as @openspaceman said) don't need air coming from underneath. Once the firebox is hot enough you just need to trickle in enough oxygen/air to ignite the gasses and keep the temp up. The body of the stove passes this heat to the room so you only need to maintain the inside heat to allow this convection to take place. Roaring fires and lots of yellow flame isn't what a stove is about. After a while you should be able to maintain this state for an hour or so without adding more fuel, its a balancing act. Some stoves are more tempremental than others but it's most rewarding when you find that sweet spot.

The tertiary air should be adjustable (?) on my Stovax it's a simple sliding plate that block off the rear inlet. Push it right in and it's shut, pull it out a few mm and there is a small gap which grows to around 100mm long by 15mm high. It sound like you have a really good draw from your flue so you probably only need it to be open by a very small amount. If you take the top baffle out and then the side/rear firebrick you should see the hole ? If you have too much draught a draught stabiliser may be needed. instruction manual

22 .... i'd melt I have the central heating (oil) keeping the house @ 14 degrees from around 06:00 to midnight and light the stove in the afternoon/evening which gets the house up around 17/18' depending on whats temp it is outside. Shut the doors and the living room get up to 26 in about 20 mins. at which point i'm opening all the doors again tout-suite. With no stove i've got the heating up at 16 in the evening but I cringe when I think of howmuch the oil the boiler is drinking ... A Brynje string vest is what you need, you'll save a fortune

On the Stovax the 'smokless zone' control is part of the primary air feed on the bottom. Essentially it stops the slider from closing fully so there is always air getting in below and to the sides of the fuel. There is a small stainless plate supplied with a flat edge that replaces the one (already fitted) that has a notch, fit that and it will always get air underneath. The hole on the back allows air into a sealed void behind the rear firebrick and enters the firebox through a row of holes 1/2 way up the firebox. This supplies jets of (hot) oxygen which ignite the gasses above the logs. When you shut the primary supply down you stop the supply from below and it only come in through the jets. I haven't fired this one up yet and it will take me a while to figure out what it likes and how it burns.

Cast top is part of the stove ... "oops sorry" said the seller "we forgot to send it". Just cleaned the chimmney today so will be ready to fit the 90 T and pipe up into the chimmney void and commission in the next day or so. If I could just order a few more days mild weather please ....

Sorry for the lack of responses, there was a routing issue somewhere and I couldn't get to the site, still I got the new stove on Sat and spent the day (trying) to build it. I was quite surprised at the quality and the thickness (or lack of) the steel. 'Must be bolted to the hearth' is says, thats odd I thought, but the door is heavy and when fully open the stove is easily tipped .... i'm tempted to hand something on the back rather than drill the slate. The tertiary air comes from a hole in the back controlled by a plate that slides across and is held in place with an M8 stud and 2 nuts. Being a multi-fuel you would need to close this down when not on wood or if you needed to do an overnight, which, with a hot stove, would be very difficult to do. Bit of bad design there Stovax. The top is really thin too (2.5mm) and apparently there is a cast top but this could be an extra (???) cos it wasn't with the stove.

Yes, Stoves are (not) us should be avoided at all costs, I bough the same stove from a dealer in Wales, who didn't avoid the truth and will be delivering on Moday/Tuesday. The stove i've just sold was a fire, on a grate, in a cast iron box called the Woodmaster 2 from Countrykiln < linky > which was crude but effective. On full chatt it melts the snow off next doors roof and has probably contributed to global warming. I reminds me of my old Herald Vitesse which had a go pedal and a slow down pedal, with not much in between. I've come across several more modern stoves, lined, with tertiary air and responsive air controls that work and have marvelled at thier controllability, thier economy (wood in heat out) and the lack of ash. I've had a few stoves over the years and they have all been pretty similar, a fire in a box. I've never had one with secondary air or lined but I have friends who do and recently stayed in a small cottage near Inverness that has a Parkray Aspect 6 and was well impressed. So I have settled on the latest Stovax Vogue Medium < linky >. It'll tick over nicely around 5 or 6kw and I can up the anti to get circa 11kw for when I really need to open all the windows and sit around in my Bermudas'.

I have an Oil boiler which heats the water and warms the radiators and had a 15KW stove in the living room which on full chatt heats the whole house nicely. I say 'had' as I sold it on Monday having ordered a new more modern stove from 'Stoves are Us' last week on a '7 to 10 day delivery'. Which (it transpires) was foolish .... Having not heard anything I called 'Stoves are Us' (to chivvy them along) only to get an eMail last night stating that they "can't deliver until mid December and actually couldn't guarentee a delivery before Xmas ...." Stoves are Not Us" seems more appropriate then ? "I'll have my money back please" I requested, feeling somewhat peeved that they sold me something that they didn't have, "No" they replied "it will take us 14 days to refund you"..... They were quick to take it (under false pretences IMO) but are now hanging on to it like Trump to the White House. What a Cunch of Bunts. The bloke I spoke to on the phone seemed to think it was perfectly OK for them not to deliver until after Xmas and that it was wrong of me to expect them to give me my money back. Anyway, I have one coming from a more honest company next week which when fitted will be my main source of heat

My pennies worth is that when you are milling your main consideration is power/weight, when you are logging/felling it's weight/power. I'd reccommend a Motorsäge 660 or the newer 661

Yes. Triangular gussets to support the rear pin carrier to the bed.

Graft it across to some root stock ... apple tree grafting

?

Thats gorgeous that be ?

Shouldn't be that hard, Oil (your raw material) is currently around $25 a barrel whereas 2 years ago it was almost 3 times that and 5 years ago 4 times .... basically the price has been dropping since 2008 when it was way over $100. Duty is £0.5795 per litre (which should, IMO, not be applicable). Have you a comparison of your prices from 2010 until today ?

Sorry I read that as 3% on 3 cans or more not 5% - my apologies. Genreally though my point was that it is difficult to qualify (in my opinion/circumstance) paying (almost) three times the price of petrol. In my opinion Alkalyte is overpriced here in the UK, not becasue of the retailers (you in this instance Mr GardenKit) but because the distributors are agreesively marking it up. I do agree that if petrol were sold in 5L cans it would be more than it is, hwever you are forced to buy your Alkalyte in this packaging as there is no alternative and you need a licence to hold more than 10L in plastic cans ...

From his previous post 1 x 5L can = 18.98 54 cans = £1024.92 Less 3% for more than 3 cans = £994.18 270 liters @ £3.68/L (£3.07 + vat) = 314.53% more than Tescos finest (£1.17 here) To be fair you would need to add 5liters of 2 stroke (£16) so it's 'give or take a baw hair', three times more expensive. And you can't buy 270 liters of petrol at a petrol station, nor can you store more than 30L at home, (20L in steel and 10L in plastic cans) but you can store up to 275L of 'fuel' at your premises as long as ... " You notify your local Petroleum Enforcement Authority in writing, giving your name and address as the occupier of the storage place or the address where the petrol is stored. "

Well I beg to differ. I noticed my little saws were getting hard to start and eventually I couldn't get my 170 going, then my 240 then the 360 started playing up, the 660 and the 880 were fine however. I put the little one up on the shelf and after some messing about (and the fact the i'd run out of Alkylate) i filled the 240 with std fuel/oil mix - bit of adjustment of the needles (which i'd been twiddling with) she ran fine. The 360 was filled with Tescos finest and she was much better. I pulled the 170 down and used std fuel and into life she sprang. The fuel still burns, I used the last few liters to light a fire and it went satifyingly WOOF! The Aspen was at least 2 years old (nearer 3, maybe older) but the smaller saws didn't like it at all. I'd bought 50 liters (to get the price down) but it does go-off and because the price is so high (3 times that of petrol) and I use so little I find it uneconimic to buy more. But it does go stale ...... granted, a lot slower than petrol.

If the crank is damaged then replacement would be the only answer. I'd be tempted to buy a used one off eBay (there are several for sale) and you'd have a fist full of spares ... Just out of interest - how did the crank get damaged ??