My homemade firestarters (DIY)

[HotSun]

As if I don't have enough going on in my life, I decided to make these last night:


I have plenty of sawdust, candles that haven't been used in over a decade, and lots of little paper cups. When smoking low and slow, I wanted an easier way to start charcoal.

1. Put 1 tablespoon of sawdust in the cup
2. Lit the candle and dripped wax until the sawdust was mostly soaked
3. Let it cool
4. Stacked them up for storage

Making these was very relaxing, waiting for the wax to drip into the cups. I'll just make these in the future as a zen exercise. If I really want to get serious, I'll get out the double-boiler/bain marie and crank them out in volume.

I tried one this morning and it burned for about 8 minutes, with almost no smoke once the paper burned. It should work for my purposes. I will use egg cartons in the future, but I had already stomped on my last one. I will give these a try in my Solo Stove, maybe this weekend.

[holehogg]

Cool. Do you have a wick of any type in them?

[HotSun]

The paper is the wick. I just light the edge and it burns down to ignite the paraffin/wood mix. I've never made these before, just following some ideas I found on the interwebs.

[WayneT]

Ingenious!

[HawkerXP]

Thanks, fer sharing!

[bmillin]

I did something similar with wood chips & coils of cardboard in paper egg crates. Melted parrain in a double boiler and poured it in. Works great for the wood stove and the chimney.

[tstalafuse]

That sounds cool and relaxing, but I am way too lazy (emphasis on lazy). A couple of paper towels soaked in veggie oil is faster and more my speed.

[HotSun]

Haha, I'm too lazy to grab the veggie oil and paper towels. I'm too cheap to buy little tumbleweed starters, or whatever the kids are using these days.

[Bbqmikeg]

Just thinking, how about using pellets if sawdust isn’t available?
I bet you could melt a whole candle at once if you got the kind in glass and boiled it.

[bmillin]

Not a bad idea, did not think of that. I'll give it a try next time.

[RolfTaylor]

Yeah, that's what she alluded to. You use a double boiler. I have used a coffee can sitting in an electric frying pan filled with water years ago.

[HotSun]

Just thinking, how about using pellets if sawdust isn’t available?
I bet you could melt a whole candle at once if you got the kind in glass and boiled it.

Well, Bbqmikeg , I have a long answer to this question. Here is how I get my sawdust. I switched my cat's litter to pine pellets I get from Tractor Supply (horse bedding, but works great as litter and is hella cheap) last year, but I like to have some sawdust around for absorbing things. I just get some pellets wet, which breaks them down to dust. Long story short, I have a big bag of sawdust, which is really just de-pelletized wood pellets, so I am using pellets in a way.

I also have some hardwood pellets designed for pellet stoves (but no other use for them), which I will probably use for making these. Maybe I will just try pouring wax on some and see what happens. It's all flammable, so it probably does not matter.

I do have some candles in glass, but I have a lot of old tapers I should get rid of first.

[Allon]

Just don't burn yourself out of a hobby...

[Alan Brice]

Melt brand firestarters! If I remem correctly,
150 for $15. Work great. Pre cut packed in cellophane.

[HotSun]

You're taking all the fun out of DIY'ing haha.

[DTro]

I have made these before using dryer lint and wax. You can shape the lint into a wick. I melt old candles in a pot and pour the wax into the small ketchup cups you get at a fast food restaurant. Throw a couple match heads in each cup for an extra boost.

[HotSun]

DTro , I was thinking of doing this method, but I don't like our lint because of the polyester and nylon from our clothes. I've also seen lint and petroleum jelly firestarters. That's the beauty of making these, lots of options for materials.

[texastweeter]

You can also use cardboard egg cartons with each section cut out. Some people use dryer lint instead of sawdust. Paraffin wax is cheap too.

[HotSun]

texastweeter , that will be the next batch, since I had already tossed my last egg carton. The paper in the carton burns a little faster and easier than the cups, though I have about a 1000 of these little cups. I like DTro 's idea of the little paper condiment cups, too.

[Spinaker]

I found a great hack the other day. I threw together a new work bench for my storage garage/shop using scrap wood I had laying around. I needed to flatten the bench top. Most of the wood was left over from a bigger project. Warped, twisted and wonky boards. My Dad gave me my grandpa's old Stanley planer! That baby was still razor sharp. It was so satisfying making those curls.

They also double as great fire starters for my BGE. I just scooped them up, made them into a ball and lit them up. Easy peasy! I think I will store a bunch of them in an old coffee can.

[Dan Deter]

I make the same starters using sawdust from my shop, which I always have tons of. I need to make some more but just haven't found the time to do it recently. If you don't have candles around then Gulf Wax works as well. I cut up some brown paper lunch bags to cover them and act as a wick.

[Michael_in_TX]

Snazzy! Look how wide those curls are.

On the subject of fire starters.....I always giggle watching really old BBQ YouTube videos when the host instructs the viewer to "crumble up some newspaper" and stick it under the charcoal chimney and light it.

I don't think I have seen a print paper in over a year.

[Michael_in_TX]

Johnny Booth That's genius! We too spend a large chunk of our income at Chewys (22 cats), so I also have no shortage of that brown paper! I may never need to buy firestarters again!

[HotSun]

Johnny Booth , great minds think alike! We get a lot of that brown paper in some of the shipments we receive, which I always reserve for lighting my chimney starter.

[RolfTaylor]

Funny you say that. At our summer camp usually folks buy on or both local papers to keep up with the local news while there. But one of the two papers just doesn't burn well. Every summer I have to figure out which one works!

[Prof Bunky]

I use a blowtorch.

[Finster]

show off 😉

[Spinaker]

I will do that too. the TS8000 with MAPP great! However, I kinda like the single little flame that grows as these burn. IDK why, but it is satisfying.