How to hollow a stump quickly…chemicals, drills, saws?
kyrral
| Posted in General Discussion on
My mighty oak fell do to wet, heavy winter. As an experiment I would like to try and plant a blanket flower in the center (drip feed and see if roots would take hold in the wood). I used a skill saw to cut a bunch of parallel line. They are impossible to chip out (it could be the tree is still alive at the base). Are there any chemicals I could pour into cracks that would expand and break the wood apart? Anything goes.
Replies
Start a fire in the middle with a torch. Once it gets going turn off the acetylene and feed it oxygen. It will be hollow in a flash. Be careful. Have a fire extinguisher.
The only part of any tree that is alive is just under the bark, and the leaves.
You also can make a charcoal fire and point your leaf blower at it
(not too close if you like the shape of the nozzle on your leaf blower.)
If you have a 4.5" angle grinder, they make a chainsaw toothed blade sometimes used for carving wood statues and other rough crafting work. That could work to remove the wood you want out without destroying the rest of the stump which it sounds like you want to keep.
The other thing you can do is make more cuts with that skill saw.
eventually you will have a hole
I do want to keep a planter. I tried lighter fluid. Didn't work well. just ordered the chainsaw blade for 4.5" grinderl
If I was forced to hollow it out I'd chainsaw it [boring cuts] and then burn it out. But I'd not recommend that to anyone 'cause that's a great way to have a kick back. That can be fatal and stuff.
My preference with stumps is just to mostly let nature take it's course. Has worked so far.
That kick back issue is why I'd try the angle grinder w/ chain saw style blade. I thought the OP wanted to preserve some of the stump to use as a planter. If so, carving out the center would seem like a more controlled option vs fire.
Nice thoughts that I hadn't considered. I am going to start with lighter fluid, a charcoal starter, and a big water filled HD orange bucket and see what happens.
Famous last words: "watch this".
I have a cheapie Harbor Freight 4' grinder. Can I remove the blade guard and use the 4.5 chainsaw blade?
I hope you have a lot of lighter fluid and charcoal. The last oak stump I tried to burn out had been cut for 2 years. I used 60 pounds of charcoal and a gallon of diesel fuel burning it. I drilled 12 one inch holes 4 or 5 inches deep. A year later I tried again but gave up quickly and let it rot.
We burned out a big one at my son's house last summer and fall. Yes, it took us 6 months of almost every weekend burning plus a tractor and mini skid steer one weekend. In the process, we burned several cords of other wood on top of it to get it burned down.
In other words, forget burning. Use the tip of your chainsaw amd itll take you about 15 minutes.
as mentioned in other posting, burning is difficult way to go, mostly because the stump will still have moisture in it and it's tough to burn wet wood,
having said that, any time you try using fire to get something like this done, you put yourself, your property, and whatever's around you at risk - "playing" with various accelerants like lighter fluid, diesel fuel, etc is dangerous and if it goes bad, it will be quickly
the chainsaw wheel on a grinder is probably the best bet, just have some protection from the chips and no loose clothing that can get caught in the wheel
good luck