After finishing the latest work on the Dodge I turned my attention back to the fuel shed, especially since I got a new box of brads for the nailer as well as more reciprocating saw blades. I did have to cut up some more pallets for the necessary pickets to clad the back of the fuel shed. I did move four pallets earlier in the week so I didn't even have to waste time moving pallets so I went straight to cutting them up. I went ahead and continued to nail boards to the back of the shed until I made it to the top, covering up another third of the back of the shed. By the time I had to stop I managed to make it up a third of that portion of the wall. I had to trim some excess from some of the boards that were already nailed up on the ends along with the new boards I nailed up. Hopefully the next time I get back to work on the shed I'll finish with the pickets and can move on to finishing the plumbing on the drums.
Another little side project that I finally started working on was making fire starters. I'd been saving dryer lint for quite some time and was initially using it as is for starting fires in the wood stove, really novelty purposes using ferrocerium firestarters like the Blastmatch. I then thought of an idea where I can use some of the bulk paraffin candle wax I had stored in the storage trailer. I would take toilet paper/paper towel tubes, cut them into shorter pieces then stuff them with dryer lint and pour melted wax onto the lint, letting it soak in and harden up, making nice little firestarter blocks that should burn a long time between having the lint, cardboard tube and wax available as fuel.
Using a hot plate and an old cast iron pot, I melted wax (not the right way according to most, no double boiler here) and poured the wax into the short tubes stuffed full of lint which were resting on a large piece of cardboard. I had to do several pourings to allow enough wax to soak into the lint. This whole job was pretty messy and sorta wasteful since a lot of wax was spilled while trying to pour it out of the pot. I could've done it neater if I had a pot or beaker or something with a pour spout to direct the liquid out better. Maybe I can find something to dedicate to this duty later on. When the spilled wax dried up I just peeled it up from the cardboard and put it back into the pot to be remelted. In the end not too much wax was really wasted and I did manage to make several little firestarter blocks for use this winter in the wood stove. I still have plenty of dryer lint and blocks of wax, I just need more toilet paper tubes. When completed I'll be storing these things in cardboard boxes, most likely kept in the storage trailer along with other prepper/survival stuff in my continuous effort to keep things neat and organized.
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