Log Fires - the future?

[iNf]

Just joined the club

 

[reb78]

cant you just buy the whole container including the plastic internals and just cut the top off and remove the internals

though the internals can still be used

though i will admit getting hold of just the cage is ackward even up here its normally the full lot or struggle to find

It adds about £30 on if they're complete from the ads I see Gaz. Looking at around 30-40.plus for the cage alone and 70 plus most of the time if I include the plastic scrap I dont want as well. Individually they do come up cheaper from time to time but once traveling and time is taken into account it's not worth faffing around.

 

[jmp49]

Yeah, I've moved from a loose heap to crates made from pallets and also ibcs. Just cart them around with forks on a tractor. Saves quite a bit of handling. But I'd still like to get them out easier and have considered trying to modify an ibc to be doored. But they're an efficient design that doesn't look like it's got a lot of spare strength to take any easy modifications.

If you leave the lowermost segment in, they're not too floppy and still do the job fine but obviously theyre not going to be as strong for stacking. You can bolt the top bars back on to reinforce them after cutting if you want too but I dont bother as its never been a issue. Once its filled the bulk of the weight is going straight down rather than sidewards mostly, the cage is just there to stop it sliding sidewards and falling rather than supporting the full weight. I dont even bother with a door, its never slid out the opening.
When I put one ibc by the house door, on that especially without the door cutout I'm leaning in rolling round my overlarge stomach for the lowermost logs and its awkward and makes things much more difficult. For that I have a top made from a old pallet skinned with osb wrapped with black pallet wrap to keep it dry and we wrap the ibc cage with pallet wrap too, which looks quite tidy and fairly weatherproof. The lid frame just drops around the ibc in situ, and the lid is hinged at the rear making it easy to grab a few logs, but also it self closes and doesnt move because of the weight of the pallet wood.

One of the wood places I use sometimes sells big bags of wood, and he lines a ibc cage with a empty bag and just fills the bag then forks it out the cage to load it for people.
If I run low on cages, I just keep one to load with same and end up with a stack of big bags all containing a m3 of split wood each.

Ive got to take a sawzall to 2 empty ibc's this week because I bought more pallet racking and once again the uprights are too long to load onto my master pickup same as last time. But I've reused the cages I cut about last time for wood already.
One day I'm going to make a actual H frame for the cab instead...

 

[Erie Fred]

If you leave the lowermost segment in, they're not too floppy and still do the job fine but obviously theyre not going to be as strong for stacking. You can bolt the top bars back on to reinforce them after cutting if you want too but I dont bother as its never been a issue. Once its filled the bulk of the weight is going straight down rather than sidewards mostly, the cage is just there to stop it sliding sidewards and falling rather than supporting the full weight. I dont even bother with a door, its never slid out the opening.
When I put one ibc by the house door, on that especially without the door cutout I'm leaning in rolling round my overlarge stomach for the lowermost logs and its awkward and makes things much more difficult. For that I have a top made from a old pallet skinned with osb wrapped with black pallet wrap to keep it dry and we wrap the ibc cage with pallet wrap too, which looks quite tidy and fairly weatherproof. The lid frame just drops around the ibc in situ, and the lid is hinged at the rear making it easy to grab a few logs, but also it self closes and doesnt move because of the weight of the pallet wood.

One of the wood places I use sometimes sells big bags of wood, and he lines a ibc cage with a empty bag and just fills the bag then forks it out the cage to load it for people.
If I run low on cages, I just keep one to load with same and end up with a stack of big bags all containing a m3 of split wood each.

Ive got to take a sawzall to 2 empty ibc's this week because I bought more pallet racking and once again the uprights are too long to load onto my master pickup same as last time. But I've reused the cages I cut about last time for wood already.
One day I'm going to make a actual H frame for the cab instead...
View attachment 515553

Sounds like you need a ladder rack....

https://www.harborfreight.com/800-lb-capacity-full-size-truck-rack-64793.html

 

[jmp49]

There's nowhere solid to mount one, the sides all fold down to leave a flat bed (aka a plateau here), normally they have a H post just behind the cab somewhere, but it came with a aftermarket tubular frame and pvc tilt to turn it into a weird quirky soft bodied van but that mostly lives on the racking in the barn as it gets in the way of loading same as any van body does. That frame drops into mounts in the deck and a permanent H bar or supports for a rack would interfere with, so I'd have to make something bespoke that probably used the sockets the tilt frame fits into and easily removable between use as I use it as a flat deck to collect longer logs loose, & its on my round-tuit list but for now way down.

I'm ok with using ibc crates like this for now, I posted the pic as practical evidence that cut about ibc cages dont fall apart with a few sections removed if your sensible about it.

 

[Welderpaul]

Are the little fans that sit ontop of a log burner any good?

I bought one of these and it's doing the job of spreading the heat nicely

 

[pedrobedro]

I bought one of these and it's doing the job of spreading the heat nicely

WE got one from Aldi for about £12 and it does a sterling job. It takes about 20 minutes to get up to temp then the fan kicks in and spreads the heat nicely.

 

[Erie Fred]

There's nowhere solid to mount one, the sides all fold down to leave a flat bed (aka a plateau here), normally they have a H post just behind the cab somewhere, but it came with a aftermarket tubular frame and pvc tilt to turn it into a weird quirky soft bodied van but that mostly lives on the racking in the barn as it gets in the way of loading same as any van body does. That frame drops into mounts in the deck and a permanent H bar or supports for a rack would interfere with, so I'd have to make something bespoke that probably used the sockets the tilt frame fits into and easily removable between use as I use it as a flat deck to collect longer logs loose, & its on my round-tuit list but for now way down.

I'm ok with using ibc crates like this for now, I posted the pic as practical evidence that cut about ibc cages dont fall apart with a few sections removed if your sensible about it.

You mount the post's on the floor of the bed.
Or, mount the uprights into sockets welded onto the sides, hitch pins
to quickly remove the rack for other usage (like when folding the sides down)

 

[doubleboost]

I had one but the wife has acute hearing and could not stand the noise it made .
After a moaning session I put it in the fire no noise now .
It went off with a big "puff" noise , in hindsight probably not a good idea to burn it .
But very satisfying