Starting your fire

[CanuckJim]

Re: Starting your fire

Maver, Dbeg,

I'm posting two pics here that might help. The photo of the fire shows what I call the "plasma" stage. When it was taken, the oven floor was at 900 F. I wanted a long burn for multiple bakes in my high mass oven. The one of the chimney was taken while this fire was burning. As you can see, there is no smoke at all, only clear gasses escaping. I was hoping to capture that wavy heat effect, but the camera just wouldn't see it.

The wood I used during the burn was hard maple and white birch, well seasoned. I always split larger diameter logs to speed up curing and for better ignition.

Hope that helps some.

Jim

[james]

Re: Starting your fire

Way to go Jim,

Very nice photos. What does "plasma" come from? It sounds like that perfect oven, where you put on one piece of wood, and it immediately combusts into a wonderful flame, with no hint of taking any heat out of the oven while it heats up.

Does anybody have a good photo of the wavy lines that come out of the chimney?

I joke that I can manage my oven from the kitchen, a couple hundred feet away, just by watching what was coming out of the chimney.

James

[CanuckJim]

Re: Starting your fire

James,

It's kind of a joke of mine. When I say plasma, what I really mean is that when the fire is really, really right, the air seems on fire. Think Star Trek: "Spock, what is it?" "Fascinating, Jim. The Tricorder says it's pure energy, but it's intelligent. Look out, Bones, it's already eaten Ensign Smathers!!"

When the oven is firing like this, it takes about a nanosecond for the next piece of wood to start burning. My feeling is, after reading posts from beginners in this area, that there's a reluctance to build Bob Musa's "monster fire." A MONSTAH is just what it takes: well seasoned, hard, of the right diameter.

This is a tough thing to describe and easier to show, hence the pics.

Jim

[Archena]

Re: Starting your fire

Eh, that's not much of a fire - it only ate one red shirt!


























Trekkies (or Trekkers) Unite!

[RTflorida]

Re: Starting your fire

Jim,

Having been a bit of a pyromaniac all my life, building a monster fire is about as cool as it gets. I'm not ahamed to admit that I am fascinated watching it.
Your right, the air seems to be on fire, wood instantly ignites.
I'm still a rookie at this and have errored on the side of dangerous. Twice I have built fires that had flames rolling out the oven entry as well as up the chimney. I've lost my left eyebrow twice in a month as well as my left temple (only once)
The past 2 weeks I have scaled it back a bit - nice, big, flames roling down the sides, contained fires (no more flames shooting out at me or up the chimney). My oven burns white in about minutes.

RT

[RTflorida]

Re: Starting your fire

should have ended:

My oven burns white in about 50 minutes

[CanuckJim]

Re: Starting your fire

RT,

I guess we all have to get used to this. After years and years of building fires in fireplaces and woodstoves to generate heat for the interior of buildings, it took a while to get my head around building fires meant for spontaneous combustion. Once you get there, you'll never go back. The brighter the fire, the more flame you have, the better off you are.

Jim

[Archena]

Re: Starting your fire

Psst!!!!

You can use the Edit button to fix your post - near as I can tell it's not set to a time limit.

It's at the bottom of your post (you can only see it on your own post - hence using my sig for the example). Just click it and it'll let you back into the reply screen so you can make changes.

[dbegler]

Re: Starting your fire

Excellent advice from the Firing Squad. I'll report my progress after the next few fires. Thanks!

[maver]

Re: Starting your fire

RT - nothing wrong with a bit of flame licking up the chimney, and if you don't lose at least one eyebrow a year you're not having nearly enough fun.

[RTflorida]

Re: Starting your fire

Maver,

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't concerned (I have a garden hose 20' away if needed). I'm simply going to tone it down a notch from the flames of hell level that I was at.
My wife on the other hand.....came out, saw the missing eyebrow and singed hair and then looked at the oven (flames rolling out) and actually thought I had accelerated (gas, kerosene) the process and things had gotten out of hand.....something about burning down the neighborhood. I laughed, thinking I was now a battle scared veteran .....she still isn't amused.

[Archena]

Re: Starting your fire

You guys are gonna end up on Mythbusters if you're not careful!

"Next on Mythbusters: Can a man really incinerate half the neighborhood with a pizza oven..."

[RTflorida]

Re: Starting your fire

You know, that is one of my favorite shows. Not much better that re-enacting my youth in a 'controled' environment and getting paid and famous to do it. Dream job!!! Combine that with Dirty Jobs and you have a carreer

[jengineer]

Re: Starting your fire

The proper accelerator is liquid oxygen.

Boy scouts indeed

[RTflorida]

Re: Starting your fire

good to know, if I DO decide to burn up the neighborhood