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Old 12-02-2021, 06:24 PM   #1
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Wood for Cubic Mini wood stove?

Hey everybody - I installed my Cubic Mini wood stove (Grizzly) a few months ago and am absolutely loving the heat is bringing to the bus. The past few weeks have been below freezing up in NH and it has gotten me through every night nice and comfortable.

I am curious to where you other mini wood stove owners get your wood supply from. Obviously your standard size firewood isn't going to fit in there. So what is your process to getting good, long burning wood that fits inside the stove?

Personally, I have been using a Silky hand saw to cut the pieces to size. I also picked up some hickory wood chunks from Home Depot (they come in about 4 inch pieces). Those have been burning pretty well too. Interested to see if anyone has come up with a go-to wood process!

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Old 12-03-2021, 02:11 AM   #2
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Will it run off pellets once you get it going?

Can it also burn coal?
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Old 12-03-2021, 06:57 AM   #3
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We cut firewood to size, locust hickory or oak worked best. We'd also bought a giant bag of hickory chunks which worked well. What worked best for us though was compressed hardwood chips, which came in brick form from Tractor Supply. Other ranch stores sell it too...one brand came in round "logs" but mostly it comes in rectangular bricks that we cut in half to a 4x4 chunk. They have a pretty good burn time, so we did 1/2 and 1/2 with hardwood and compressed wood. You need to make sure there's no wax in the logs though, just compressed chips.
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Old 12-03-2021, 07:43 AM   #4
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We cut firewood to size, locust hickory or oak worked best. We'd also bought a giant bag of hickory chunks which worked well. What worked best for us though was compressed hardwood chips, which came in brick form from Tractor Supply. Other ranch stores sell it too...one brand came in round "logs" but mostly it comes in rectangular bricks that we cut in half to a 4x4 chunk. They have a pretty good burn time, so we did 1/2 and 1/2 with hardwood and compressed wood. You need to make sure there's no wax in the logs though, just compressed chips.
You'll build up creosote with any of the compressed or wood dust junk in my experience. I heat my home with wood and prefer running only hardwood.

Any hardwood will do really. Right now I've got a mix of red oak, ash and maple with some locust mixed in. The key is making sure it's properly dry and running it hot enough so you don't build up creosote.

My advice to the OP is just get ahold of dry hardwood, even in full size firewood form. If you have available underbody storage you can always dry it there. Get yourself a quality hatchet or forest axe with a wood handle, you'll kill your arm/shoulder with a metal handle. Straighter grain wood will split better, for example oak is stringy and a pain to split, but ash and maple split great and easy. You can split dry wood with a good hatchet and a hard surface fairly easy, a hammer or another piece of wood can help a bit.

I would also suggest to save yourself the labor of manual sawing and buy a small electric chainsaw, I'd personally buy something with a 6" or 8" blade. Make quick work of it.

My plan on our bus is to bring with my Stihl arborist chainsaw, hatchet and forest axe, and not buying small chunks of wood or anything like that. It's usually pretty easy in my experience to find free or cheap firewood.
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Old 12-03-2021, 08:01 AM   #5
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We didn't notice any more creosote with the compressed sawdust bricks, but we pretty regularly swept the chimney...doing it every month religiously. We only use hardwood in our home, but with this small of a stove the compressed hardwood bricks have a longer burn time for some reason. I think it bears repeating, though, that you should inspect and sweep the chimney on a regular schedule.
We also had a small electric chainsaw that was a godsend when boondocking. It was SO useful. Between the chainsaw, a boys axe and a Sven saw we had our bases covered. The reason we started with the compressed wood was that the only available free wood was pine and cottonwood, as we were in Nevada at the time. The gas station firewood was all spruce/pine/fir too, but we could get hickory chunks at Walmart in the grilling section.
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Old 12-03-2021, 08:32 AM   #6
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Whatever wood you choose, I recommend picking up a baby-sized splitting maul. I got a 3 lb, 16" maul a few years ago and use the crap out of it. Way better than a hatchet IMO. It's great for splitting of course, but it has also become my go-to hammer since it always seems to be in the right place at the right time.
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Old 12-03-2021, 08:43 AM   #7
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https://www.skoolie.net/forums/f51/wood-stove-project-37827-post457146.html
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Old 12-03-2021, 09:28 AM   #8
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Originally Posted by Drew Bru View Post
We didn't notice any more creosote with the compressed sawdust bricks, but we pretty regularly swept the chimney...doing it every month religiously. We only use hardwood in our home, but with this small of a stove the compressed hardwood bricks have a longer burn time for some reason. I think it bears repeating, though, that you should inspect and sweep the chimney on a regular schedule.
We also had a small electric chainsaw that was a godsend when boondocking. It was SO useful. Between the chainsaw, a boys axe and a Sven saw we had our bases covered. The reason we started with the compressed wood was that the only available free wood was pine and cottonwood, as we were in Nevada at the time. The gas station firewood was all spruce/pine/fir too, but we could get hickory chunks at Walmart in the grilling section.
Ya that all definitely makes sense then. I'll definitely look into the compressed hardwood bricks then as a solid backup. I'd say having such a small chimney would not be hard to keep clean and stay on top of.

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Whatever wood you choose, I recommend picking up a baby-sized splitting maul. I got a 3 lb, 16" maul a few years ago and use the crap out of it. Way better than a hatchet IMO. It's great for splitting of course, but it has also become my go-to hammer since it always seems to be in the right place at the right time.
Attachment 62698
Definitely better than a hatchet, also depends on the grind on the hatchet, but there's not much weight to a hatchet. I guess I was suggesting a hatchet because it's multi purpose and most people don't know how to use mauls. Also lighter and less space to take up.
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Old 12-03-2021, 09:37 AM   #9
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Definitely better than a hatchet, also depends on the grind on the hatchet, but there's not much weight to a hatchet. I guess I was suggesting a hatchet because it's multi purpose and most people don't know how to use mauls. Also lighter and less space to take up.
Sorry, I didn't mean to sound disparaging to hatchets. I think many people prefer them for the reasons you mentioned. I find the extra couple pounds for a one-handed maul is worth it because it splits small wood easily and replaces the sizeable hammer that I used to tote around for driving stakes.
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Old 12-03-2021, 10:05 AM   #10
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Sorry, I didn't mean to sound disparaging to hatchets. I think many people prefer them for the reasons you mentioned. I find the extra couple pounds for a one-handed maul is worth it because it splits small wood easily and replaces the sizeable hammer that I used to tote around for driving stakes.
No offense taken. I love processing wood, so I might be buying myself that shorty maul now. Would be great for starting wedges. I already have 3 different full size mauls now, expensive light swedish forged maul, my old school american profile wood handle maul, and cheapo beato "i don't care about this thing" fiberglass handle useless grind maul.
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