best way to burn a stump
 

any suggestions? i live in georgia so weather can be a factor. i have a good size stump in my front yard.

Suburban or rural?

Okay, now I have to see your solutions to both of these scenarios.

Soak it w/ diesel, light it, add charcoal to the top, add more charcoal as necessary to keep it burning

Suburban seek out legal powertools and or chemical solutions from your local home improvement store/warehouse/HOA.

Rural mix some ground up rust and powdered aluminum, place mixture into baggies, stick a ribbon of magnesium in the top, take a blowtorch to the tip of said ribbon until it catches. Do not expose skin to, or look directly at the reaction or you'll risk recieving significant UV burns.

Or less thoroughly but more combustibly just get the right materials and blow it straight back to god.

Thermite is the correct answer if you don't want to wait around for an hour or two while it burns.

You could go old-school hillbilly on it. Put 4 drops of gasoline in a 1 gallon glass jar and seal tightly. While you're waiting for the gas to evaporate dig a hole next to the stump and slightly under it. Put the bottle there. Back up at least 50' and shoot the bottle with your .22.

Hillbillies aren't necessarily smart.

suburban, i tried the diesel fuel but it didnt burn long enough. maybe i didnt use enough diesel fuel.


what do you mean charcoal? put it on top of it?

Or effective. You've been reading TAC again, haven't you? People have been killed reading that garbage, y'know.

I wish. I actually know someone who did this and then managed to later breed. We're hoping those genes are recessive.

Doesn't diesel need to be compressed to burn in the first place? I thought that stuff wasn't even flammable under normal circumstances.

Just thermite it, fuels and whatnot will only take a lot longer and be a lot less effective. Thermite, for all it's impressiveness, is actually really safe to work with and should even be legal (general rule of thumb is if you can fire a gun there you can probably burn thermite legally). It's not an explosion, just a really really hot burning. Think of it like porta-lava.

[QUOTE=Shadowex3;2869955]Doesn't diesel need to be compressed to burn in the first place? I thought that stuff wasn't even flammable under normal circumstances.

diesel fuel will burn after it gets hot enough.

---------- Post added at 07:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:48 AM ----------

thermite??? what is it and where can i get it?

Diesel is basically the same as kerosene or the #2 fuel oil used in oil burning furnaces. It burns easily enough.

Lindy

I wasn't joking earlier when I said rust and aluminum powder. Thermite is a mixture of roughly 8 grams of iron oxide to 3 grams of powdered aluminum. Break open an etch-a-sketch or two (wear a mask) for the aluminum and go to a paint store for the iron oxide. You'll need a ribbon of magnesium to ignite it, and you start the magnesium with a blowtorch (just hooking one of those torch heads to a portable grill's propane tank works).

After that just leg it and don't look at the reaction, it puts out a LOT of ultraviolet light and unlike naked girls that stuff WILL make you go blind in very short order.

Shadow, maybe I'm in the minority here, but personally I think that giving someone the recipe for thermite but not making sure that they learn how to properly use it is a little...reckless. You wouldn't hand a gun and a box of bullets to someone who'd never shot before and say "here - knock yourself out!"

Just sayin'....

Stumps will eventually rot, and then you can just take an axe to it. If you can't wait, call a stump removal service. If you're in Georgia, they are easy to find. The whacko ideas around here are going to get you hospitalized.

Jazz it's thermite. It's not like hollywood where you get big firey explosions and danger. It's not an explosive, it's a very stable and predictable chemical reaction that just burns really hot and will tend to go straight down.

If he uses a decent sized ribbon for a timer and just lets it burn itself out without trying to look right at the reaction he'll be safer than if he was trying to burn it out with gas or diesel.

And that's sort of my point, shadow. What exactly constitutes a "decent sized ribbon"? How long and how wide?

I know what thermite is. I've seen it used before. But you haven't given him any instructions beyond "don't look at it". Maybe including something on "and here's what to do if it gets out of control" is in order.

I have no idea how to remove a stump other than to do so with an axe, but I'm curious as to what method you'll choose.

Whatever you choose, Ralphie, would you mind posting a video? I think that could be fun.

And you think he'll be able to deal with a burning stump that's soaked through with diesel or gas? Thermite is, if nothing else, relatively predictable in it's reaction. I'd be less worried about a quarter pound of it getting out of control than what's basically a giant wood wicked diesel candle.

If either one gets out of control he's basically out of his league unless he's got a backhoe of sand to dump on them or his personal non-water firetruck. If you're that concerned we may as well all just agree that he should just drill the bejeezus out of it on all sides, soak it in high nitrogen fertilizer, cover it in organic mulch, stick a tarp over it and let nature eat it to death.

[edit]

Also how big a stump are we talking about? If it's large enough carving it into like a throne or something and give it a nice weatherproof coating would be awesome >P

Shadow, you'll notice that I didn't recommend burning it out either. My only suggestion was obviously tongue-in-cheek.

But my real one is to call a tree company to come grind it out. Usually costs about $100.

when i decide i will let you know. if it's something interesting i'll video it.

---------- Post added at 06:49 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:48 AM ----------

But my real one is to call a tree company to come grind it out. Usually costs about $100.[/QUOTE]

they price me $300.00 for the first one and $50.00 for each there after

Ralphie, try another company. Better yet, find a friend with access to a stump grinder.

i dont know about the states, but in australia theres a lot of companies that hire out construction and handy man machinery by the day. (usually most of their machines are booked out on weekends).

if you have any idea about machines, there's no reason why you cant do this yourself. you're probably much smarter than the dude you were going hire and pay 300 dollars to for a job that should take an hour.

would probably you cost you much less too.