Party Cracker

In one of Paul's recent podcasts, I think it was Alexandra mentioning that one of her 'bootlings' found the use of the kindling crackers was 'more fun than a birthday' or something similar. Sounds like a great marketing line if there's ever a need to push the kindling crackers, but seems like they sell themselves at this point?

What I need is advice on mounting mine. I used the biggest (lag) bolts I had in my garage with washers that fit the cracker feet, but they are working themselves free pretty quickly in the cold when smashing the big knotty hardwood into the blade. I'm guessing I need to buy a special type of screw to work in the endwood of a stump in frigid conditions? Is this where the "timberlok" (RSS?) screws I've heard of are needed?

Interesting problem. If you're mounting to a hardwood stump, the lag bolts might be cracking the wood slightly so they won't hold. Drilling pilot holes before screwing in the lags might be helpful.

If you have a way to warm the stump above freezing, putting some wood glue (or gorilla glue) in the pilot holes might help keep the lags in place.

The other option is to have a welder knock together a stout frame that you can bolt the cracker on to. Then you can add lots of extra lags to attach the frame to the stump.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Interesting problem. If you're mounting to a hardwood stump, the lag bolts might be cracking the wood slightly so they won't hold. Drilling pilot holes before screwing in the lags might be helpful.

I did have it in a maple stump last year, but it was barely big enough and eventually blew holes out the side of the stump. I think the larger stump I have now was from a Doug Fir haul...

You might also try 12" twist nails. If you slip a couple of washers over top and toe them in (toward the centre) at a bit of an angle, they may hold better than lags. Note the only way to remove them will be to bash the stump to pieces.