Build Yourself A Stump Burner

Build Yourself A Stump Burner WOODLOT EQUIPMENT Stump Cutters 4-5-35 "We just throw in a match. Three or four days later, the stump is gone," explains Donald Tellers, Minnesota farmer who devised one of the slickest stump removers you ever saw. Because of killer elm and oak tree diseases now criss-crossing the country, many farmers have more than the usual number of stumps around, and Tellers is no exception. The remains of giant elms, especially, dot the rolling farmland surrounding his farm near Chaska. Tellers used a rusted 300-gal. storage tank as the main chamber of his home-built stump burner. He attached a chimney stack to one end, cut off the other and cut a stoker hole in the side. He sets the rough-looking stove over the top of a stump and throws in a few wads of paper to get the stump started burning, or smoldering. According to Tellers, he doesn't have to add fuel to the fire to keep it going. Although it burns slow, he says it eventually burns right down below ground level into the roots. "The key to it is the stack and the space left at the bottom of the burner, which provide a steady burning draft. Old timers used to place barrels over stumps but they never worked as good as this," explains Tellers. He has no commercial plans for his stump burner, other than to build a bigger one for the biggest stumps, and then to finish clearing his farm.

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