Cool way to remove a stump from the inside out. Stump burning. How long does it take?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ส.ค. 2024
- I had a very large stump that I needed removed for cheep. I tried burning it from the outside but after a full day, I found it was going to take way too long and too much tending to keep it burning. I decided to try something new and let it burn from the inside.
How long will it take to burn?
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So what we have here is a grown man playing with fire, what a fantastic way for any man to spend a day.👍🏴
Power tools, fire and beer. Great day and nothing could possibly go wrong. Be safe.
@@riderescue A bit late for the be safe for me, severe industrial accident that very nearly lost me a leg in Denmark 3 odd year ago. Up and walking now and still playing with men toys including my 121 cc Stihl. I could look at fire all day and night, lose myself in the flames.
@@johnkidd797 WOW. Sorry to hear you got attached by a chainsaw. I was stupid to not wear my safety gear for this one and I always wear it. Thanks for the safety note.
@@riderescue It wasn't a chainsaw, I've never had a problem with them. It was over a ton of wind turbine base bolts, crushed me against a huge diesel tank. It was a mess but I'm still alive and I can walk again. I can still use my excavator and my Alaskan mill. I regularly burn stuff in my 55 gallon and I had a big payout as I was blameless in the accident so I can sit at home watching stump videos and land cruiser Amazon stuff. Grab life with both hands every day as the universe has given us a gift being able to live on this amazing planet.👍🏴
Lesson from your first attempts to burn the stump: Piling a bonfire on top of a stump does very little good to burn out a stump. Lesson here, you should have made the side chimneys on 3 or 4 sides, in a radial pattern. Your method showed that the chimney method works great for the sides it is on. Turn your stump into a "Swedish candle", with air channels going down deep into and under the stump. Probably not necessary to cut out the square chunks, as that wood would burn out first once you get chimneying going on. Just more vertical and down trending saw holes, and/or drill holes, aiming for deep under the centre of the stump.
Correct. Drill one down and several across. I'll do that one next.
Trees are quite fire resistant since they evolved to deal with forest fires, the outsides will get charred but the cores and root will be perfectly fine so this method defeats it.
@@SilvaDreams Burning them makes stumps even more resistant to rot and decay. Stumps just suck to get rid of. Rent a stump grinder and save loads of time and money.
I started a similar project, instead using a 1 1/2' spade bit on a drill to make my air holes.
I never let it burn overnight, and it became my fire pit project for almost 1 1/2 years before it was all burned out of the ground. At first, I burned a 'basin' in the top, being careful to keep the sides intact. I found that all I needed to do was get a fire going on the inside... then the inside would become the fuel, and I only burned the trunk itself. As things went along, I dug/burned out all the roots as well. I had ORIGINALLY intended on filling the hole back in... But it's now my fire pit and will likely remain so.
I'm a pyro... I didn't want to do it quick, I wanted to extend the 'reason' for having a fire. :D
Your not a pyro if you enjoy sitting around a camp fire every night
- a volunteer firefighter
@@Ronaldrygun Not enough to bother YOU guys :D But enough to enjoy watching how a fire works. (WAY Better than TV)
Yah, it really wasn't about the stump. If the stump was the issue I would have started up the backhoe. And, I have had over 250,000 people watch my fire video. Cheers to you volunteer! I volunteer myself.
@Tom Justice; I would have been concerned about encountering stones. Granted I would have used a throw away bit. Did you bore down more than 12 inches? Was it oak? Pine?
@@franciscoosuna259 It was a Fruit tree (I think, died and cut down before I moved in). I drilled about 2 feet in, but the stump was about 1.5' above the ground, so only went below the dirt level by 6" or so.
The leaf blower was a great idea. There is another video on TH-cam where a gentleman used his wifes cooking oil that was used up. He drilled a large hole with a drill from the top down. I would estimate a foot or so down. (2 inche diameter hole approx) he just poured and poured over a few weeks the used oil his wife gave him. He let it soak into the wood. Finally he set it on fire.... The stump burned very very well. (his neighbors all thought he had a huge BBQ going and French fry cookout). It worked!
I have a video on my channel using a metal pipe and a shop vac to force air in
Fun! As a safety tip though, if you absolutely have to use gasoline, put the sawdust you made In the hole and put gas on that instead. It will soak in better, be less explosive, and the gas will last longer (more like a candle).
Disclaimer: I am not condoning the use of gasoline to start fires, please don't, it's wildly unsafe.
Thanks for the info!
I had this problem a couple of decades ago. The tree was about 10' away from my house. I couldn't burn the stump. So I dug under it. Found the big roots and cut them as far down as I could. Those roots bring water up. It's amazing how much water they can bring up. At that point the stump was suspended in the air by the other roots. I set a fire under it and just kept adding wood. It took about 36 hours to burn it completely away.
I need to try that on one of my huge stumps that the backhoe can't even get out.
What was circumference? Im thinking of doing one about 3 ft wide
@@154g It might have been about that size. I'm fairly sure it was wider than 2 ft. That was about 25 years ago.
Oh wow. The earthwork must have taken just as long.
Cool way for sure.... but for the amount of time you spent cutting up the stump you could have cut the stump off at the ground...
Yes, you are right. Not worth the time it takes. My hope was that it would eventually burn down smooth with the ground but it didn't. And it is really hard to cut a stump this large smooth with the ground. I ended up digging up the roots with a backhoe to smooth out the area.
10 min with a backhoe and it would have been done.
@@joepassanisi1463 depends on the size of the stump and backhoe. The hoe im using isn't big enough, so i will be using the rocket stove method before finishing with the hoe. Fingers crossed! It's a 4 foot diameter oak 🤦♂️
Or could have just rented a stump grinder and gotten it done in under an hour and backfill the hole
@@coreywigal5435 to easy,🤣
Nice Video
A safer way is to use a Large auger bit and extensions
I used a large drill to power the auger bit
I had a 3' dia White Oak stump
I drilled 5 - 2 9/16" holes down into the stump to ground level
I also drilled 1 hole in from the side for air
I used a 10' chunk of 2" steel pipe pressed into the air hole and duct taped a leaf blower to the pipe
It still took 2 days to burn
But it burned most of the roots out also
Thanks for the note. I want to try doing one similar to what you are describing. Cheers!
If you've got a shop vac, you can set it to blow into the side hole continuously for an afternoon, and the stump will be gone. Use a section of steel or pvc 2-4" pipe 3 ft long to keep the vacuum hose from burning/melting.
A hair dryer with the heating element off works best.
Allow the ashes to cover the top of the fire.
Great tip. I had all of that stuff in the shed and never thought to set it up.
@@punkinhaidmartin _"A hair dryer..."_
I don't think that supplies 1/4 the amount of air to the fire as a shop vac. Look at the difference in the motors.
@@xenaguy01 too much air blows the ash away.
You just need enough air.
A 4" biscuit fan is about all you need.
It allows a blanket of ash to form, and the air you push through the coals stays hot until it finds fuel.
I did lots of experiments back before TH-cam was a thing.
@@punkinhaidmartin _"It allows a blanket of ash to form, and the air you push through the coals stays hot until it finds fuel."_
We'll agree to disagree then. I've never ever burned out a tree stump, but have made a hell of a lot of campfires, and wood stove fires, and fireplace fires. And I've always found that unless your fire is just barely beginning to burn, it can use all the air it can get, and the more air it gets, the hotter and faster it burns. As far as I can tell, the only thing a blanket of ash does is keep air away from the fire, and let it burn cooler.
Why do you think "banking" a wood or coal fire with ash for the night is a thing? Because it slows down the fire, and lets it continue to burn longer, but cooler. This saves fuel, as it burns slower, and creates less heat, which is not needed when everyone is in bed under the covers.
You are on the right track. I burned a difficult stump out a few years ago. Drlll a hole down the middle and one from the side at the bottom. start a charcoal fire at the top and get a $4 hair dryer from the thrift store to feed fresh air from the side. after the charcoal is going well start to add some coal eventually using all coal. put a piece of scrap metal over the fire to hold the heat in the stump. the fire will follow the fresh air and make short work of the stump. drink several beers while observing the burn.
Perfect. I gotta try that for the next stump. Thanks
For anyone afraid of fire there’s always dynamite for those stubborn stumps.
Di No Might!
P=plenty
Tannerite would be fun too!
Hold ma beer! Watch iss!
@@jasonsams4258 I used all of my Tannerite on a Jetta.
I did the same thing with a stump in the back yard of my home. I used charcoal and kerosene which does not have the risk of explosion that gasoline has. The burn took a couple of days, like in the video. Cutting slots or drilling ventilation holes prior to starting the fire is a good point. Encase the stump in a large metal drum or surround it with rocks or bricks to keep in the heat so that it burns faster.
The stump I have to do is too big for the drum idea.
@@amerritt261 Use rocks or bricks and cut slots across the surface of the stump with a circular saw - use a chain saw to get really deep into the wood, then pour on the kerosene ( use charcoal barbecue lighting fluid ) , step back after making sure nothing that you do not want burned is nearby and set it on fire.
Reflecting all the heat back to the stump. useful tip
Heat doesn’t really reflect like light so that would be difficult to execute
I loved the video my dad used an old shell of a lg antique furnace and burned out three lg stumps he also picked up pieces of tires on the highway and it made a hot fire 🔥 he even had a chimney on it Can’t do that in the city anymore Great video 🔥👍🔥
That is awesome story of your dads.
Seriously dangerous use of a chainsaw. If you're gonna make a plunge cut, then do it safely. Never push the the end of the bar straight into the tree, well, unless you like kickback and a trip to the hospital. Start your cut with the bar at about 45 degrees to initiate for about the first inch or so, and then rotate the bar in line with your intended plunge cut. Also, wear safety equipement, Boots, trousers, gloves and helmet with ear muffs, or don't, and pay the price. Any fool can buy a chainsaw, but it takes a team of highly skilled medics to put that fool back together!
That's what the lock is for, roll the wrist no problems.
@@wepntech Doesn't that just stop the chain? You would still get kickback right?
@@Tadders yes but without the blade moving that motion tends to stop(motocross bikers use a similar effect to it for controlling the massive jumps they do), and the blade does most of its work while spinnning at speed, no movement of the chain = no cutting action. plus the rolling wrist, pressing the lock, also presses against the kickback direction, further reducing the risk of it hitting you... unless you are sticking your face right into the chain as you cut some how not that big a problem. mostly an issue when you have to do cut where your hand grip is not on the part behind the chain lock/break. then some of risk remains, but now the motion is horizontal mostly moving away from you.
All excellent tips. I have hundreds of trees to clear so I did invest in all of the expert safety gear for chainsaws and I read up on all the safety training. Lucky that I never got hurt. Cheers.
A newer chainsaw will brake but I never depend on it.
Glad you aren't in a dry area doing this, cause if you were all those embers your blowing all over the place would start a huge wildfire
Get a 4” stove pipe section about 8’ long and use it on the air intake side then use your leaf blower to blow air into the 4” pipe. It keeps you away from the heat and burns the stump out really fast. I use a 16” culvert pipe to supply air into my brush piles and they burn 10x faster.
Looks like a pretty efficient way to get rid of an unwanted stump. Plus you can spend the whole afternoon in the yard and not do any of the chores your wife had lined up for you! Lol
Or old down spout.....
This what I was thinking. Keep the leaf blower on constantly, using a non-flammable tube of some sort (would a clay pipe work?) so you don't have to stand right next to the stump.
I have done this with diesel fuel and a huge auger bit, cut the first year and drill holes and fill every time you think about it the first year, once its good and soaked light her up, it will smolder for a couple days but burns down to the roots
Finally an expert this is the way i cleared about 150 acres of land (not forest ) with a total of about 95 grown trees down in South America first season cut and burn second season was pouring diesel a few gallons at a time over a couple of weeks ( remember capillary tubes ? )
sow when the dry season came all the stumps had been fed a good diet of diesel so just before the rainy season they were lit up and yes they smoldered for a couple of weeks BUT
they disappeared completely How completely you may ask? So when the tractors began plowing the fields GUESS were they got stuck ? yup the roots also extended outwards and also had disappeared leaving voids all around the stump Thank you my friend
You can get the same effect with vegetable oil and avoid the long term toxicity of diesel oil. Maybe use some diesel or kero to get it started, but definitely not gallons of the stuff.
Great tip. I'll try it.
Good job for a calm fall day
Interesting setup. I think I would have used diesel to start it with though. Bit safer to work with.
I do agree.
This is exactly what my neighbor did; he must have watched this video too.
Thanks!
Always dig away as mush soil as you can and the let it dry out a couple of weeks, and of course cut it as low as you can first.
Yep. I wish I would have dug around it. The moist soil got in the way.
Great job with the chain saw! I used an auger bit to drill holes then poured oil/ gas mixture in them for several days. Lit it off with a drum covering the stump to maintain heat and safety. Burned to the ground within a day which was okay in my case.
Great idea. I'll have to try that.
Yes, I noticed that; making air holes at the bottom, and starting the fire there, with a clear chamber for it to move up the inside. More air holes should make it burn faster. I like it! Nice use of blower as a bellows!
Love the "how to turn a tree stump into a rocket stove" theme, I have to agree with the others regarding fuel; kerosene, diesel or paraffin.
I did similar with a smaller stump, though I bored the holes with an auger and used candle wax mixed in with sawdust, topped with kindling and so on as a starter fuel source... whatever works best for you, though as you yourself noted, petrol/gasoline is a BAD idea!
I agree. I typically use diesel. I was out so I used what I had.
I recall camping with my boss and his family in Alaska way back, we were all Petroleum engineers so ought to have had a clue about petrol vapours. He wasn't satisfied with how fast the campfire was lighting, so he got out the white gas camp stove fuel(aka naptha, even more volatile than gasoline). Both I and his wife(also a Pet engineer) told him to be careful lighting that large vapour soaked area. He didn't really need those eyelashes, bangs and arm hair anyway. Both he and his wife were Area Engineers, with about 8 or 10 grunt engineers like me under him. Even 10 feet away, his wife and I caught a little singeing too. A nice fireball. The campfire lit okay.
@@chuckgoecke 🤣🤣🤣
Basically, what Mother Nature is saying, “Not so fast, buddy boy! It took me decades to grow this tree. I’m not giving up without a fight!” :-))
Yep, she may have allowed that tree to die but not just go up in smoke overnight.
That would be an awesome stove for a camp!!
I think so too! The plan is to build a fire bit and stove in this very spot. I have close to 100 cords of wood that could feed the fire for a hundred years. Very sad all the bark beetle devastation in the forests of the Rocky Mountains.
I`ve found that by boring multiple holes around the wood base of the stump particularly on the windward side for air flow and using a diesel/ old used oil mix to start the burn . Once the top opens to much I try to trap that heat to the center by partially blocking the chimney effect . This has forced the burn into the roots . As a heat cap in the past I`ve used rain soaked chipboard or corrugated iron sheet. Your idea is a good one .
Great job. Patience def needed.
Seen the volcano method used before on other channels. Seems like the “best” way other than a stump grinder.
Like you say, you now have a ready made firepit; large root system will eventually be “toast” after bunch of fires…
It was a fun test. The fire pit is great area is perfect. Hundreds more stumps to get rid of.
Better you than me 😆…
you could have dug some of the dirt away from the big roots then start the fire in the those areas to get it burning below ground. drilling holes with a big auger bit in to the base would also work, safer than the chain saw. Why not cut the stump lower to the ground to start with?
I want to try another one and dig the dirt away. As for cutting it low to the ground, this stump was about 4 feet round at the dirt. I tried cutting one that big and it was really hard on the saw with not having a long chain and bar. It kept getting really hot.
@@riderescue I just love how everybody says "you could have done this". I've done all these tricks (cut, shovel, burn, dig) and same results. But the good thing is you were outside enjoying nature. Looks like you cleaned a bunch of under growth as well to keep that fire going.
I did that, but the unseen clay stuck to the bottom of the roots was my bane. I'd burn and burn and find it never caught the root above because it was shielded w/ clay. Tricky.
For the inner pyro in all of us.
Yep, there was something very satisfying about that hot fame shooting to the sky. And that ROAR of power... !!
Works well. Looks awesome.
That looked like a lot of fun. I enjoyed watching that. Great video.
Thanks for watching
My great uncle in Kentucky tried this one time and thought he was really smart but then the fire kept burning the roots and there was a big old tap root that led down to a coal seam and the coal seam caught on fire and half the county had to evacuate and that seam is still on fire today. So yeah. Be careful. Always have a fire extinguisher handy that is rated for coal seams.
i call bs
@@doctormcboy5009 not much gets by you!
@@mckenziekeith7434 word
One of the best videos on the subject.
Thanks. Glad you liked it.
I have burnt several stumps completely gone. I always dig around base and drill holes in stump soak stump in kerosine. Remove scrape away char between lightings. Takes several days but it always works. Never tried the Volcano
That looked fun I never tried it that way Thanks for sharing this great video
Thanks for watching!
We did something similar only we covered it first in clay about 4" deep leaving just an air hole in the front and top with a stove pipe out the top. It was hot enough in there to forge high grade steel. Left us a nice kiln when the stump was gone.
Great tip! That will hold the heat especially up here in the cold.
Hot enough to forge steel with a stump? Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuullshit.
@@bobbygetsbanned6049 steel was traditionally forged with a wood fueled fire
@@bobbygetsbanned6049 You can get ~1400C from an enclosed wood fire with added air. The wood turns itself into charcoal if the fire is not oxygen rich.
You only need to add about 100C to the max open air wood burning temperature to get to forging temperature.
Even the middle of a huge bonfire pile can get hot enough to forge steel (although obviously it's completely unpractical).
@@coast2coast00 Key words being added air. Not in a confined clay oven with a small air intake and exit.
The risk of forest fire is very high when burning stumps. The roots will smolder for even weeks allowing ember to start a fire in the duff layer when the root surface. I recommend grinding or digging and cutting the root ball.
YES! Do not burn and let the stump smolder if there is any risk of blowing embers past the control area. No problem here with extreme cold and rain / snow condition. Always use forest fire safety.
See Calf Canyon fire. That fire smoldered for months through multiple winter storms before it turned into a devastating forest fire.
From start to finish absolutely perfect. You da man!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks I found that really relaxing to watch, on a cold wet Winters day here in the UK. In fact I had to turn our heating down !
Haha. Glad I can help heat your place in the UK and also glad to hear you found it relaxing. Cheers!
Kero would have been a better starter fluid. Another way to make this work better is to put a 55 gallon drum over it (cut off the ends to make it a tube = chimney). It will contain the fire better, keep it hotter, and burn outside in. I use a leaf blower to help with burning the leaves every fall as well. Less ash, less time, less smoke.
Great tips. I want to try the chimney method.
@@riderescue only way a stump will burn is rot and that a long long time wait. Best way way is spend $1000 huh? Take care!
A day spent playing with fire isn't a day wasted.🤪👍🤣😉
If you let that stump season for three of four years, the fire would have burned through the roots. It have seen it happen on a tree that had been cut off at ground level five years earlier about five feet from my fire pit. Sparkes from my fire pit lit the stump. It burned and left holes in the dirt exactly the shape of the roots. Really cool looking. You could probably also burn the roots on a one- or two-year-old stump if you kept a blower on it.
Ive been burning out stumps for over 20 years on my hobby farm in the Missouri Ozarks. I have done pretty much the same thing you did except for a few things. First, i bore holes at 4-6 points on the radius of the stump with a long bit extender for a forstner or auger bit at least 3/4 - 1” diameter. I also start about 6-9” above ground level with these holes and aim at a common point well below ground level and aimed toward a common center point. I fill the holes up with used motor or hydraulic oil and give it several hours to soak in. Then its easy and safe to torch it off. Ill come back 8-12 hours later with a good strong leaf blower and blow off the burned charred wood and heat things up. Ill return and do the leaf blower number the next morning and by the end of day 2 there’s nothing but a hole in the ground. Sometimes if the stump is very large (over 3’) it might take a third day of burning but most stumps 2’ or smaller are history after one day. That chimney effect works very well. Thanks for your good video.
I have lots of stumps too. Thanks for the comments and tips, I'll try them out.
That blower made all differnce. Next time you leave stump, cut it a little higher and you got a cook stove!
Good call!
The rocket method is awesome, works very well, I used it on a madrone stump a couple weeks ago. If you want it hotter than the bowels of hell use the thickest bark you can find, I had a bed of coals 3' w, 2' thick and almost 2' deep, so hot I couldn't get within 10' of it
I did that in a dip. The heat reflected off the sides and the heat was incredible. Cheers!
I like how everyone’s an expert.
TH-cam algorithm has spoken.
Obligatory comment.
Part of the almost half a million people, who watched a stump burn.
Why did I click on it?
Not sure, but it was mesmerizing.
Pretty crazy how this one took off. Thank you TH-cam algorithm and thank you for the comment. Cheers!
Right at 6:25, my immediate thought was "Damn, that's an EXCELLENT temporary forge." Just set the leaf blower or an air mover and set you anvil and grindstone next to it for the day.
David that is how copper working was done long ago just no leaf blower just the poor dude sitting there fanning it with a some dried hide then later a bellow then stone forges came into play
Yep. That's how my grandpa did it but he used coal.
They sell a chemical stump remover at the hardware store, used it a few times, it's like a can 4x6" some kind of phospher compound I think. Boar holes top down, aim for a big root, did 5 of 6 holes, dump stuff in holes and I think we watered it in. Let it sit and soak for the rest of the winter in this case. Prime the holes with #2 diesel put a torch to it, burned for a day. The chemical is absorbed into the wood and it burns like a 4th of July punk! It's cheap ez to use, I used a 18x1" power auger. Just the wait time for it to permeate the wood but when it was done the root were gone also,like 6" below grade. Just my 2 cents. )
Great tips. Thanks
Was it Potassium nitrate? Turn the stump into nitrocellulose (gun cotton). LOL!
@@mr.shannon6137 Now that would be entertaining, if you lived to appreciate it, lol.
I know one chemical they use is sodium metabisulfite, sold as Stump Out. Also useful for gold refining, as it turns out.
Tough old stump! Thanks for taking us along!
Glad you liked it. Cheers!
so if you are doing this check to make sure that you make the horizontal air hole on the side that the prevailing wind comes from the wind shadow here is pulling air down the stack instead of drawing air up.
True. Wind direction may make a difference. A wind screen could help as well.
@@riderescue yeah a diverter would definitely help you here that said i bet the leaf blower was more fun lol
Any secondary fires because of embers being blown all over the place?
No chance at this time of year. Way too cold, way too wet. But mid summer? No fires allowed.
All you need to do is put old sheet of tin on top of fire to force it to burn down into stump it gets hotter an will burn all of it then use ash on you garden wouldn't the heat from fire cause it to suck air in from out side stump ?like
A fireplace does? But you're still doing cool job
Since this takes so long, a better control with tin ring and cover would retain the heat and sparks. Holes in the bottom of the tin ring would let in air. This was a good test with nothing but one hole.
Stumps are a challenge. The worst are the fresh cut ones. I've got several measuring approx 40 to 50 inches in diameter. Some big gnarly stumps have dirt/metal embedded in them and chainsaw chains (including carbide) are nearly worthless. I have one on our property that has dulled 3 standard chains and one solid carbide chain. I'll get it eventually but then I've got more to do. Nice video, I enjoy seeing how others do it.
Yah, I have a backhoe and these large stumps are hard to get out no matter what I try. This one was about 36" diameter and about three years dead. Like you said, chainsaw just finds the rocks and dense wood. Backhoe will eventually get them out but what do you do with a stump larger than the bed of a truck? Burning is a good option but that can be dangerous if not careful. Glad you enjoyed the video. Good luck with your stumps. I got about 100 more to go...
@@riderescue Another thing I do is cut the roots with a reciprocating saw fixed with a 12" carbide blade and then pull the stump with an electric wench enhanced with snatch blocks. I just power a 4500 lb pull wench with a deep cycle battery. One day I pulled a 26-30" diameter tree out of the pond via electric wench. It's amazing what they can do if you have a good anchor point.
@@dalehammond1749 WOW! That is awesome. Great idea to use a portable winch and reciprocating saw. Thanks
@@riderescue You're welcome. In fact, I'll be pulling a dozen smaller stumps this way soon (using a winch, not wench lol). Stumps under 12" I pull roots and all. The big monsters can be pulled this way too but due to my wife's planted stuff I can't tear up the whole garden.
@@dalehammond1749 LOL. Maybe you need more than one German Wench. One to bring the beer and one to dig them out.
When you thought the fire was out the next day, all you had to do was hit it with the leaf blower to get it flaming again. I had a stump burn a few years ago, but it was against the HOA rules, so I had to be a little more cautious about smoke. If you notice when you used the blower, it became wonderfully smokeless. But I could not let it burn unattended, so I had to put it out for the night. I thought a couple squirts of water would do it, but it took 4 hours of hosing and testing with the blower to get it really out.
I prefer explosives, but to each his own
As a bush firefighter, this makes me facepalm hard. Those roots can continue smouldering for weeks underground and then end up causing other bush fires.
Plus this is stupid on a lot of fronts
While I understand you, this is clearly private property that is being partially cleared (trees lying everywhere waiting to be burned) and it's riiiight next to a stream. If there was ever a place to burn a stump this is the place
I do get your concern. No problem up hear at 8000 feet and rain and snow overnight. No chance of out of control fire with freezing temps at night and rain and snow all night. I also soak the stump with water.
As a bush fighter you should know not every where in the country is prone to wild fires. Obviously he wouldn't video himself doing this while in a place like Colorado or California....
As an “expert” in something tenuously related to what you’re doing and as someone who has no respect for individual liberty or creativity I’m going to criticize your activities and insist that somehow you’re endangering us all by doing it yourself.
greetings sir; a little forced air to get it started then leave alone. constant blowing does away with the heat needed to maintain the burn. do not get impatient.....................g
Patients and maybe a tin wall around the thing to hold the heat.
Man...great video! So satisfying to watch!
Glad you enjoyed it!
That’s a lot of work. Just dig all the dirt around the roots and get air flow under the stump. Lay a bed of charcoal on the ground under it . Should do the trick.
I will have to try that. I have many more stumps to go.
Or, rent a stump chipper, and fix it in 15min?
Allot of good ideas, didn't get thru all, but looks like a rocket stove that could have used a few more intake holes around the base.
Great point! A couple more horizontal holes would have been worth the time.
@@riderescue My thoughts exactly!
Especially on the wind side
nice
Thanks
That's a great way to start a long lasting treacherous ground fire that could travel several yards underground in the root system before working its way up to the surface when nobody's around to stop it. Ground fires have been responsible for suddenly occurring forest fires.
True in some areas but not here in this spot. This is on a large dirt mound that has rivers and streams all around it. It also has a high water table that is only about 6 feet down. And, there are no trees within 30 yards of this burn. Thank you for the great reminder though. Roots are known for underground burns popping up.
I had a tree that died on my property about 15 years ago. It was about 2' diameter x 30' tall. I let it sit for about 3 years. As it dried out, the major branches fell off, and I kept picking them up and burning them on my burn pile. Finally the tree lost all of its branches, and I was left with a stump that was 2' diameter x 15' tall. Over the years, the stump had gotten infested by ants, which I could tell by the hundreds of small diameter bore holes all over it. Finally, I decided it was time to get rid of it.
I doused the outside of the stump with diesel fuel all around the base to a height of about 3 feet, and let it soak for about an hour. Then I built a small pile of kindling and lit it. Since I used diesel, the fire did not flare up crazy, and it took about 10-15 minutes to get the whole base of the stump afire. Then the ants started swarming out of the tree like there was no tomorrow. Since the whole thing had basically been turned into swiss cheese by ant bores, air was able to penetrate the stump everywhere. There was not much indication of fire from the outside, just steady smoke coming from the ant bores, and also going up the chimney as it formed from the internal fire.
I lit the tree at about 4pm, and monitored it through the night about every hour. The stump finally fell at midnight, and I drove my truck to the back of my property to put lights on it, and manipulated the remains of the stump to form a good fire pile. It took until the next afternoon, with some occasional tending, until the fire burned out. Everything had burned down to fine, white ash. I was left with perfectly smooth ground where the stump had been, and was able to run over it with my mower without hitting any protrusions.
You're fortunate that the ants bore holes allowed air and heat to penetrate the stump so well. Thanks for sharing your story.
@@riderescue I think letting it sit for 3 years let the wood completely dry out and gave the ants time to invade. If the tree had been on a visible part of my property, I would have taken it out earlier. But as it was, procrastination paid off!
@@andyharman3022 So the moral of the story is - buy a few grammes of ants from amazon and let them reside in the tree for a few months before torching it!
Also a cool way to start a root system fire that spreads underground to other tree's, dead roots etc. and pops to the surface in the form of a forest fire if done properly.
Nice comment from someone who has no idea. It doesn’t spread that way, but keep up the liberal logic🙄
Maybe it's possible but the ground is way to damp and cold up here. No other roots near by with this one either.
If you had put some charcoal inside the hole you made it would catch easier and burn long enough to ensure it caught. I burned one out using charcoal but I didn’t open it up in the middle like that. I just dug around it some and filled the ring with 2 bags of charcoal. It burned for a few days underground, but it all burned out, and it made a LOT less mess.
I didn't think of that. I have some coal too...
Love these types of videos. Thank you for making yourself available and sharing your wisdom on the u-tube channel. Sure glad you came across my u-tube screen. ❤️🥒
Glad you like them!
creates a fire tornado. very cool.
does the fire spread when the roots smolder underground?
@@soxfan it can so you have to be careful
Just goes to show, it's fun to play with fire.
Easy chair and gold brew...
I've always used a 3/4 x16 hole saw to drill a bunch of holes then soaked with salt water let dry then make sure holes are clear and soak with waste oil lights easy and will burn all the way to the roots.
We placed many salt like blocks on top of a stump for about 20 years. The stump was saturated with salt and it was still there. It's almost like it preserved the stump. Maybe drilling holes in it is what it needed. I recently dug up up that stump.
Yes and just salt water it's just going to kill it and dry it out just did Three stumps today.
I like it, going to give it a try on some stumps around my home
Force air down and get the entrance to start on fire then back the other way. The key is to heat the air right from the start!
Great tip. Thanks
Stump grinder: 10 minute job.
Burning it DIY: 10 hours of pyromaniac fun.
Stump grinder. Boring... Pyro fun. Priceless!
You just made a rocket stove. Congrats. Very useful for survival in a Stuff Hits the Fan Scenario?
Cut fire wood for years and heated my house with it. A wood furnace in the basement with blower and shroud into furnace duct.
work. I always cut stumps at ground level. They are the densest wood in the whole tree. Really good firewood...
This looked similar to something I did way back in the late 1980's (I'm old). I cut an apple tree flush to the ground, poured gas on it and lit it. Every year for the past two decades it produced apples. I don't get any thanks thanks to deer and birds.
So, 90% of the above ground portion of the stump could have been removed in 10 min with that chainsaw...
Nope. This one was way too big. I tried to cut one similar in size and I kept getting the chain way to hot and gave up. I have cut smaller ones though.
Did that once and all the roots that was close to the ground up to 20 feet away kept startin grass fires, I was so relieved when it finally rained lol
😂🤣😂
I have heard those underground fires. Nothing in this area past this tree. Great reminder
That was awesome, thanks for sharing. Nice piece of ground too
Glad you liked it. We are clearing more ground for play and covered fire pit.
1 sawcut and 20 minutes with a rented stump grinder. No forest fires. Roots ground and gone. No gasoline accidents. No brushfires or burning ordinance problems. Silly. Play stupid games. Win stupid prizes 🙄
I get it. I'd do the same thing if I only had 1 or 2 stumps. I have over 100 dead trees and stumps. This was one way that proved to not work very well. I ended up buying a backhoe. I have removed many small stumps and about a dozen large stumps, like this one in this video. Now the problem is getting rid of the large stumps. I paid a guy to haul the first batch off in a dump truck. The cost is crazy expensive to remove over 100 dead trees (due to bark beetle) and try to restore the land so that we can replant.
@@riderescue I have ground 43 stumps in 1 day with the smallest Rayco grinder. A larger machine would get it done. Free up your time. You can’t get it back. Best to you sir.👋
Not a single smore was injured during the making of this video
Thanks for this video. I tried this once years ago and it didn't burn very well. After watching the video I didn't make the air shaft at the bottom as you did. Fun too see this done again and too know why mine didn't burn so well. 😄👍❤️🤪🥒
Not sure that smokey the bear would endorse that method.
Smokey Bear is why were have such bad fires out west.
Old Smokey hates it. But forest service has to clean up with controlled burns. Some times the control gets out of control but I will never burn when there is any possibility of getting out of control.
Sad but true. Careful forest management is done in many ways.
@@riderescue That is an EXCELENT point. I completely agree with you on the controlled burns and insane US policy on not managing forests like they do in Europe. They either clear cut or do nothing. Could not agree with your comment more.
Pro tip: get some disks that would elevate a pot or pan just enough above the stump to let the flames still come up. You now have a rocket stove while you are waiting for the work to be done for you and a source of heat at that
Don't underrate the value of those initial slash burns on top of the stump. They seem to have little effect on the size of it at first, but they are nevertheless doing a lot of work to transform the wood into something like charcoal that will help to sustain a burn on its own.
Much depends, of course, on the condition of the stump. If it's already well decayed, it will smoulder but diminish quickly, and it may sustain its own burn if it's reasonably dry.
If it's newly cut and still green, you'll seem to make no progress at all, no matter what you do. And even for a couple of years after you fell a live tree, the stump is not entirely dead, so it will resist burning likewise. But even so, burning slash over it is a good way to stop that residual metabolism and thereby speed up the decay process.
I often wait a year for the slash to season, letting it lie where it fell rather than piling it, so that it has a chance to dry out. Then I move it onto the stump and burn it all up. That's two chores in one. Then I let the stump rest for a couple more years. This seasoning after scorching seems to reduce the eventual burn time significantly.
After that, all the usual techniques apply. If you can make a blast furnace out of it, that's ideal. Charcoal helps produce the kind of slow sustained oxidation that is most effective otherwise. You can also bore auger holes and fill them with a mixture of nitrate and sawdust or sugar. Exercise restraint here. The idea is to cause a slow sustained flare rather than an explosion.
It's all a matter of scale. A friend of mine as a young engineer was given the task of burning a slash pile in Alberta. It was an absolutely enormous mass, at least a hundred metres high. Nobody could make a dent in it. They tried burning tires, spraying it with fuel oil, packing the side of it with road flares. It would only smoulder a bit and then go out.
But, being an engineer, my friend did the math and figured out the necessary volumes of air and accelerant for this scale of combustion. He had rails laid into the pile, and on them then ran a power-driven carriage with a ducted flame thrower mounted on it. Critically, it was supplied with air by several large industrial blowers. I don't recall what the accelerant was, or how it was sprayed, but basically he had built a kind of giant oxyacetyline cutting torch that automatically moved itself through the slash pile.
Helps a lot to kill the stump before trying to burn it. Stumps don't die when the tree is cut down, they can keep taking up water for quite awhile. If you have the time to age the stump, put roundup on it when it's freshly cut, that way it dies and will dry out a lot easier.
cutting it like you would cut a cake. That way you don't have to do those plunge cuts to create the initial air channel. This also draws air in no matter which way the wind blows. For a not a fast method if you are in a fire risk area, is to drill a series of holes vertically down into the stump, then fill those holes with a paste made with that deer cocaine stuff they sell at hunting stores before deer season. The stuff soaks into the stump saturating it with minerals that deer find tasty. Deer will literally eat the wood. It takes a year or so, but no risk of starting fires.
Now this is one I have never heard of. We have many deer around here and deer cocaine sounds like a great way to watch the process. Thanks for the tip.
I have done many trees this way, I did a bigger Gumtree than that stump, but now it's burnt you have to give the roots time to dry out takes a while to get rid of the stump, but when it's dry and hot enough it will burn in to the ground, bigger using a chainsaw, time is all you need
Got a couple pesky stumps left in the front yard that have had Dozens of small fires set on them, going to try this
Be careful and good luck burning it away.
Last time I needed to burn a stump out, I used some cement blocks I had laying around to build a box around it, and then used the output of a shopvac from underneath to create a sort of blast furnace. Took a couple hours a few ounces of lighter fluid(Just to get it going at the beginning) but it was effective.
Great idea to use some concrete or blocks to hold the heat in and contain the fire. Thank you
@@riderescue Not really - cement blocks are pores and hood moisture - An explode shatter when out in fire. That’s why fireplaces are made with Firebrick & not housing brick. An why fireplaces are Never built using cement blocks. Can use cement blocks in a wide circle around what’s being burnt to contain spreading Only.
@@diddleysquat3166 That is a really good point. Never thought of the moisture and heat breaking the concrete. That is why fire pits are almost always metal. Thanks for the note.
I have found that if I put an old sheet of roofing corrugated iron on top of the burning stump, this causes more heat to be reflected back to the stump and assists with burning it down.
This is how some caveman discovered furnaces. That's literally what he's built here and I can tell he had no idea.
Good looking charcoal 🙏🏻👍🏻
An electric blower works better. Get a 6ft to 8 ft piece of scrap cast iron drain pipe from your local scrap yard. Cram it in the hole and stick your blower on the other end. That way you don't have to get too close and your blower won't be damaged. Turn it on and that stump will be gone in a few hours. Make sure you have a water hose handy. Because that stump will look like a Pittsburg steel mill blast furnace.
The main thing is that if you don't use a pipe like your saying and get back away from the fire using a blower and you breath in a lot of that super hot air in, it can make you a sick and hurt your lungs . So I tell people to always use a pipe long enough to get you back away from the fire when using a blower, cause it will make you sick if your not careful .
Even if it's a smaller fire and you stay to close for to long a time, moving in close, then backing up and then moving back in and then back away, with a blower. That super hot air made by the blower, making the fire burn so hot, will get you . So always be careful and take care of yourself when using a blower burning stuff .
Just wanted to let people be aware of this, and stay safe .
As always, Jeffrey !!!
Dude looks like Charlies uncle on it's always sunny. Uncle Jack? Is that you?
Nope, not uncle Jack.
An old fashioned fan works great .
"Don't try this at home" that's why I'm watching this! Hahaha
I can’t look away. I’m trying….but…I….can’t. Oh terrific- I’m late for work. (Worth it)
Sorry to make you late for work. I hope you felt like it was worth though. Your comment make me and my wire laugh out loud. Thank you!
Why not dig out the dirt from around the root base exposing bare ground putting big rocks, filling in with smaller rocks and make into a fire-pit. This will make a fire barrier to block the spread of fire from around surrounding grass and groundcover from igniting.
Bore several large holes into the roots and cross- cut chainsaw lines like pie slices and fill in with leaves, twigs, etc. put a grill over the stump and pour motor oil in the stump and light the stump.
Meanwhile, get your hamburgers, hotdogs and other picnic foodstuffs ready while the fire burns for awhile.
Then ring the dinnerbell😅👍
Many years ago I had a property wit some old stumps and roots and so soaked them first with kerosene before setting light to them. All that was left were holes in the ground which I filled with soil.,
Some areas work very well this way. Some areas need extreme care. Thanks for sharing.