Never heard of anyone using a log splitter. There was a time a few years back there were folk importing pellet mills from china and trying to sell them to make a buck. I had already geared up to import my own along with a hammer mill then found out that they make a crappy pellet (too loose) so abandoned the whole project. I was planning on using field waste, like corn stalks and bedding hay, whatever was cheap. I turns out a good mill will set you back a bunch of bucks, unless something has changed in the last few years. If you give it a try, let us known what happens.

Just got off the phone with LMF and was told that if I want to burn strait wood pellets that I need to buy a kit for the furnace. $450 for an accessory just seems like a lot. If I am going to mess with the extra handling of the stupid pellets I sure don't feel good about loosing any savings I may gain for the next few years just to pay for the luxury. Anyone burning pellets in one of these bottom feeders without corntrols and the such?

I think it's funny. The whole country in the crapper for years, we oust the Rep that helped put us there and put in a Dem to fix it. The Dem gets handed the biggest pile of crap the world has ever seen, and because he can't fix it overnight (how can he not fix this? He's had 2 years to fix 10 years worth of crap) we say the Dems are bums, kick em out and put in Reps. That will fix it! Now a Rep steps up and says "I'm gona fix it right now" and everyone is yelling "not so fast, let's give this some time".
We need to get rid of both the Dems and the Reps and put folks in there that put us first and not their party supporters.

Mark, could you send some pics of the gravity box and auger? If I can get my hands on a car trailer it may be worth a drive down. I'm about 40 miles north of LaCrosse WI so it would certainly be an all day event.

thdrduck@hotmail.com

Thanks
Scott

For some corn that might work well. I've had some this year, and depending on the weather, has clumped really bad leaving lots of ash. There has been times I have turned on the "start" when it's piled up.
It hasn't been something that happens all the time so I don't know if it would use up all the fuel in the pot and go out if it were to run for 5 min after every cycle?? If you can get a timer cheap enough, worth a try? Let me know what happens.

Sting, where are you at? If you are looking to get rid of your "Space Shuttle" I may be interested. I just spent the better part of 2 days digging out my gravity box so I could get it refilled. I burn up about 300 bushels and would like to get it all at once.

I found that if I just sit for an hour and count the kernels that drop then multiply times 24 (figuring that there are 657,832.9 kernels per bushel) divid that by the 2% average of broken grains minus the .7%of unaccounted for "fines" then measure the average distance from the top of the burn pot to the top of the flame, drink another beer, then use my Dopenganger chart to figure drop in temp from inside of my window glass to the outside of the window glass (you must adjust for outlets and light switches located on exterior walls)then look at the thermometer in the center of my house, I can determine to within + or - 2 deg F what the temp is in my house. Then have another beer. Happy New Year

Hunters, I don't know what you are burning. I run a LDJ 100,000 btu forced air unit. It uses a 2 rpm bin gear motor and a 4 rpm burn pot motor. At Surplus the numbers are 5-1740 for the 4.4 rpm and 5-1737 for the 2 rpm.

I got a replacement from a dealer. He told me he had two different kinds, one was bigger and seemed heavy duty for about the same price. I got the big one in more ways then one. Thing sounded like it was full of gravel and just hurt listening to it. Would have taken it back but not worth the 2 hour drive. I ordered one from Surplus Center for about $20 and it works wonderful. Got a spare for the bin also because they both move a lot over the years. Figure mine moved over 115,000 pounds before giving problems. Seems like an awful lot for such a small motor.

Never happened before! I got the Jeep stuck in the driveway. Kid dug it out and moved it. No point in even trying to clear this until the wind stops. We have over a foot of new here and the wind must be steady at 30 with gusts way over that. 3 - 4 foot drifts around the house... a real old fashion Wisconsin Winter storm. Hope the Ol WD starts tomorrow and can move without chains.

The problem with the ethanol is that it disolves deposits that gas alone won't. Not an issue in newer motors, but in the older ones it can be a big issue. An easy way to start to address it is to put an inline filter as close to the carb as you can to catch the most of it. Way easier to blow out or change a filter then to clean a carb. My 60 Belair and 52 AC tractor have been the worst. It took a year to get the fuel system clean in the tractor. Word of advice... be careful with the Seafoam because it breaks all that stuff loose at once. Put that in an old car and you may be pulling the tank. Tall, got to love the ol macs. I use 2 1010s from the 70s.
Stabil is great stuff.

These things take awhile to get burning. When you first start it the fire will only be on top of the pile. As more corn is fed through the bottom the fire will get pushed up and over the top of the fire pot and go out. To really get one of these burning you need to leave it in the "start" mode for a few hours to keep the hair dryer running. Then you use the thermostat to turn the fuel feed on and off as needed. Turn the t-stat up until the fire is at the top edge of the burn pot, then turn the t-stat down but leave the switch on "start". Check it every 10-15 minutes and when the fire gets down to the bottom set of air holes turn the t-stat up again until the fire gets back up to the top, then off again. Do this two or three times, then when the fire gets down about 2-3 inches from the top, turn the switch to "run" and set your t-stat so it is not calling for heat (it will be in idle mode). Let it idle for 1/2 hour or so and gradually turn your t-stat up to where you want it. These things do better maintaining a temp then if you turn it down at night then up in the morning. I hope this helps, and you should only need to do this a few times a season.
I have heard of someone installing a switch in the thermostat feed down at the furnace so they didn't need to keep running back and forth to the thermostat.

Didn't see your post, just put one in the general area. Having same problem this year. Very expensive, clean, dry corn and it hates it. Last year the stuff I burned was so bad they didn't want to take it to the bins and it worked fine. This year I empty the ash pan almost every day instead of just once a week. Just can't seem to get it dialed in for this stuff. Expect to have it figured out as the last bushel goes in sometime in April.

Has anyone had their draft just stop for some unknown reason? The LMF went out last evening (burn pot full + of corn) and I could not keep it going. Re lit it twice and ended up getting up every hour through the night and flipping the start switch on for about half hour to hour to keep it going (long night). Have a breeze this morning and all seems fine again. Although, she has never made as much ash as she is making this year. Doesn't seem to care for grade #1 $5.50 corn, she's kind of a cheap date... likes it a little trashy.

I don't know where you are located, but I have a cast iron parlor stove sitting in my shop that I don't need. Would let it go cheap. It needs a grate but other then that it is in really nice shape. I'm in west central Wisconsin north of LaCrosse.