Wood heat without a chainsaw...

[Day Brown]

Or, as more likely the case if TSHTF- no gas for it. You cant fuel it
with ethanol; you'd need a 4 cycle engine with a real crankcase of oil.

Anyway, I was born on MN farm in 1939, and remember doing firewood
before I'd ever seen a chain saw. We put up 5 cords of wood to heat a
1200 ft house; or more specifically, the kitchen, livingroom, & dining
room. No bathroom. that was an outhouse, Cold bedrooms, but featherbeds
with thick quilts was actually better for the sinuses.

It took 4 men trading off on a two man saw with the others limbing with
axes while us kids dragged off brush and used hatchets on small stuff.

20 minutes to go thru a 16" (40cm) trunk, the men trading off soon as
their arm muscles tired with the two slinging axes. Then two horses to
drag the 12-16ft (3,5-5 meter) log back up to the house.

Pine would prolly take only 1/2 the time, and hard white oak 1/2 again
as much, but our woodlot was mostly elm, poplar, maple...

They'd lift the log onto a saw horse and cut it standing up. Faster, say
15 minute/cut. This left all the sawdust there by the woodpile to be
used later as mulch for the garden.

It took most of the 5 weeks between the wheat/oats harvest and the field
corn in October.

You begin to understand why they wanted large families; they often had
uncles, aunts, and/or grandparents also living in the house. Crowded by
modern standards, but otherwise, you'd spend all your time just trying
to cut the firewood you'd need, and still freeze or starve that winter.

Later on, we got an engine driven buzz saw. 24" blade, like a table saw,
but the table was 8 foot square. Stout enough to roll logs around on. It
was still a bitch cutting the trees down and limbing, and we still had
to split the log sections.

But alternative energy mite provide woodgas and/or ethanol to run a 5hp
horizontal shaft engine with a flat belt to power a saw blade. Which'd
still take a few minutes man-handling the logs around into position for
each cut. But oxen or horses would still be nice to get the wood up to
the house.

 

[Nick Hull]

Or, as more likely the case if TSHTF- no gas for it. You cant fuel it
with ethanol; you'd need a 4 cycle engine with a real crankcase of oil.

Any reason you can't mix oil with ethanol? Or maybe butanol? I;'d bet
someone could even inject oil into a smoke generator and run it on wood
smoke at hald the hp

 

[AJH]

Any reason you can't mix oil with ethanol?

Castrol R is/was castor oil based and was used mixed with methanol
fuel in motor bikes.

AJH

 

[Arnold Walker]

Any reason you can't mix oil with ethanol? Or maybe butanol? I;'d bet
someone could even inject oil into a smoke generator and run it on wood
smoke at hald the hp

Veg based oils seemed to work better in a two cycle alcohol fueler than
mineral.
That changed with syth.. oil .

 

[Day Brown]

Of recent years I use less than a gallon of 2-stroke mix to cut (to
initial 18") the
cord plus I use to heat about 1300 sq ft house in SW CT. Maybe a couple
of
gallons to haul lumber home in 30 mpg p/u. Then split by hand, and buzz
in
half on old portable table-saw, with vac attached to collect dust for
mulch.

A cord ends up as lots of what some would call fragments, but they're
well-suited to Morso stove's efficient (and clean) operation. And they
dry
quickly. (No, feeding is not that frequent- couple sticks per hour.)

Bottom-line: alternative energy is not an absolute thing. Leveraging a
small
amount of conventional energy supply into efficient use of local
alternative
energy resource is a very good thing. And great exercise. IMHO, it's
the
creativity in finding viable alternatives that's crucial.

If it came down to it, methanol is an excellent fuel. Bit lower
vapor-pressure
than gasoline, but ether might help. Carbs might need minor alteration
to
jetting and non-metallic stuff. Indy-cars run pretty well on pure
methanol.

But isnt Indy 4 cycle engines?
But whether methanol, ethanol, or whatever, fuel supplies will be very
short in most areas. And even if you could fuel a chainsaw, repairing it
yourself will be a bitch.

One more useful option is an *electric* chainsaw. I've used one for a
few years, and its gonzo easier to deal with. If you can run a 4 cycle
engine on ethanol, woodgas, or whatever, and power an alternator, or
even use batteries with a *big* inverter, then you can cut wood nearly
as fast as most other small chainsaws. Lots safer too. less maintenance.

 

[Arnold Walker]

But isnt Indy 4 cycle engines?
But whether methanol, ethanol, or whatever, fuel supplies will be very
short in most areas. And even if you could fuel a chainsaw, repairing it
yourself will be a bitch.

One more useful option is an *electric* chainsaw. I've used one for a few
years, and its gonzo easier to deal with. If you can run a 4 cycle engine
on ethanol, woodgas, or whatever, and power an alternator, or even use
batteries with a *big* inverter, then you can cut wood nearly as fast as
most other small chainsaws. Lots safer too. less maintenance.

Use one on my steam tractor along with an electric wood chipper......the
tractor is
working(generating electricity) even when it is not dragging the
trailer.(Got that
idea from Bristish showman engines.........it would drag a carnival ride
down the road to the next town.
Then run electric power for the lighting and rides when the fair opened.)

 

[Day Brown]

Use one on my steam tractor along with an electric wood chipper......the
tractor is
working(generating electricity) even when it is not dragging the
trailer.(Got that
idea from Bristish showman engines.........it would drag a carnival ride
down the road to the next town.
Then run electric power for the lighting and rides when the fair opened.)

Kewl. Altho- I read of a steam tractor exploding a few years ago. Killed
5. I dunno that modern maintenance has retained all the wisdom of
earlier generations on handling steam.

 

[Day Brown]

What is the big distiction between 2-strokes and 4-strokes? What do you
see as being a show-stopper with a 2-stroke that is not with a
4-stroke?

4 strokes have a crankcase of oil to lube the rings & bearings. 2
strokes need the fuel to be mixed with oil to do that. Oil dont mix so
well with alternative fuels.

Not likely to need 25 gals for a fill-up, so supply rates are
non-issue.

If you have any fuel at all, you will have lots of other uses for it.

I don't understand your plaint about repairing a chainsaw. Are we
thinking
"Mad Max" or some other apocalyptic scenario? If so, forget having
electric power distribution working.

YMMV. When empires collapse. Like when people realized that Rome was
going to hell in a basket, a lot of them moved to Constantinople. No one
foresaw the collapse of the USSR. The effect varied enormously depending
on where you lived.

The NW coast Blue states, already integrated with the global market, got
reorganized quickly and saw their economies take off now that they didnt
have the taxes to support an obsolete military/industrial complex.

but the breadbasket Red States were plagued with racist demagogues, and
despite having petroleum, warred over who got the money. During which,
nobody got any.

And whereas the Northern Blue states had scattered lakes and forests
that didnt have the kind of large contiguous tracts of land that factory
farms wanted, and therefore vastly more small farmers, they were much
more adaptable to new conditions, and quickly ramped up food production.

But the Southern factory farms were totally dependent on a complex
infrastructure of equipment parts, fuels, & chemicals. they had famine.

Chainsaw ignition, carbs, and fuel pumps need new parts. Electric motors
only wear out brushes, which can be carved out of the carbon rods in
dead flashlite batteries. they also have problems with sprockets like
gas saws, chains wearing out, and bars. But you'd know about those
problems before you got to the woodlot.

I dont expect any area to go back to the stone age, but the warzones we
have seen in recent years suggest that parts will be hard to come by. A
lot of the regions that still have an economy will have high prices on
obscure, but necessary, items like chainsaw parts. Then too, you wont be
hopping in the SUV to drive to town every time you need something.

 

[Arnold Walker]

Kewl. Altho- I read of a steam tractor exploding a few years ago. Killed
5. I dunno that modern maintenance has retained all the wisdom of earlier
generations on handling steam.

More than a few of us,in the steam community, followed that story.
Maintenance was the leading cause.....just like the electric waterheater
that killed three people in Oregon about the same time.(stuck thermostat
and corroded safety valve on the waterheater).
Because of that accident,more of us are looking at that steam ???? before
it gets off the trailer at the shows.