DIY Fire Starters

Greetings All! Last week I made some fire starters with some everyday household supplies. I got the idea from Mrs. Cav, as we were always saving dryer lint for these creations.

 

They are so simple, and EFFECTIVE. I will prove it with pictures of a fire that they helped start :)

 

Materials:

 

1. Cardboard Egg Carton

2. Dryer Lint

3. Melted Wax

 

 

C eats an egg sandwich for breakfast daily, so I have tons of egg cartons lying around that I've been stockpiling.

 

The dryer lint was another story. I had to recruit for this. I have dibs on everyone's lint (Wow! that sounded gross). Featherweight, G-Ma and even some co-workers have generously agreed to save their lint for me.

 

As far as the melted wax goes, I have tons of old tea lights and votives that were given to me that I will never EVER burn. I just had to remove the wick and pop them in the percolator.  A few Christmases ago, I made homemade soy candles for gifts. They were wonderful and burnt great. I didn't really want the hassle of working with a double boiler so I scored an old school percolatorfrom Goodwill. It works great because you sit it right on the burner, and it melts the wax, but you can pour directly from it as well. Easy-Peasy.

 

 

Anywho, I finally had enough lint saved to start my first small batch of fire starters.

 

Step 1- Fill the egg cartons with dryer lint

Step 2 - Melt your wax down

 

Step 3 - Pour the melted wax directly on to the dryer lint.

 

 

I don't really know the proper amount of wax to pour on, but I don't think you have to soak the lint. Just enough to cover it. When I was done, I just let the remaining wax solidify in the percolator again. I'll just add more wax pieces to it when I make my next batch.

 

So now it was time to put these babies to the test:

 

Prep your fire for ignition. a/k/a make your teepee or however it is you like to start a fire.

 

Break off one of the fire starters from the carton. Light it on fire and place it in a good spot in your fire ring. We put it right under the wood and amongst some newspaper.

 

They work so well because they burn for a long time. Long enough to catch the other stuff around them on fire.

 

So save your supplies and make some starters. You wouldn't want to miss out on summer bonfire season would you???

 

This is our good-burn fire ring. Those flames ignighted just a few short minutes after putting a lit fire starter under all of that wood.

 

And this is the fire-pit that was used to essentially burn up the entire wooden framed mobile home

(other than scrap of course)

RobSr. and C prepping it for the fire starters

Haha...the finishing touches

 

Fire Starters: ENGAGE

The previous owners had a split-rail fence installed in the woods. Most of it was broken on the ground. We used the wood for this massive fire.

Me and Featherweight found this piece of plywood in the shed as a "workbench". And by "work" I mean covered with garbage.

Burn Baby, Burn

And more finishing touches...

Look how big the fire is burning compared to C!

 

I have to say, we only used 3 fire starters in here. Obviously don't try a fire this large in your home, or without the supervision of an experience fire-burner, like RobSr.  :)

 

What are you waiting for? Go eat some eggs, dry some clothes and highjack everyone's candle scraps so that you can have big bonfires too!