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do-it-yourself outdoor wood burning stove

You obviously aren't an information slut like me. (I would say whore, but people pay them!).

Part of the fun of projects like that are learning exactly how they work.

In all honesty, it's cheaper and easier to outsource my whole business....but then what would I do?

-jacob
 
I had a 300 gallon air tank for a while. I think it would have made a great wood stove. Cut a door in it and put a pipe on top and you could pretty much thow in whatever size wood you wanted to. I saw one like it at a where house onece. It was huge and they really kept the place warm with it.

Large wood is easy to get. Everyone wants the small pieces. Might even get people to pay to take away the big stuff. Now I wish I had kept that air tank.
 
I hate pallets! They are a real PIA to cut up and they burn about as fast as paper. I would burn them if I had a giant stove and didn't have to cut them though. They are good for burning on the beach too. I have a bunch that the bisiness next door cut up and gave me. I use the cut pieces to get my bigger & wet logs started.
 
I built a boiler for my home 25 years ago and it is still working great. When I built it, I probably put $200.00 in it and that includes the circulating pump that was designed to be used with a solar system. I got it from Granger for about $60.00 and it runs continuously all winter. I think it is 60 watts. The boiler is tied into my oil furnace with 1.25" black iron pipe. The boiler is made from 3/8" plate and the heat exchanger is 2X4" rectangular tubing with 1/4" wall. It does not have any fire brick and you can put your hand on the sides when it is heating. The door is 3/8" plate welded together with a few pieces welded to the front to keep it from warping. It will take a 36" log 8" in diameter with no problem. Once it gets going good and has a bed of coals, I can put in an unsplit 6" GREEN log cut the same day and it will burn fine. I load it about every 10 hours or so depending on what kind of wood I am burning and how cold it is. I did not burn a drop of oil the first five years I had it but it is plumbed in parallel to my oil furnace so I can run the oil the boiler or both at the same time with no need for fancy controls. Since I am doing some traveling now, I burn some oil but my wife can load it fine when I am gone ( not the big stuff of course) so we still use only about 300 gallons of oil a year. It has paid for itself about 500 times over since I built it. It ain't pretty but it sure heats my house which is over 100 years old and is not very well insulated because it is a cypress log cabin. If anyone wants any help with building one, let me know.
 
crossthread,

can you by any chance get a picture of it? either digital or film...if film, i'll pay postage and developing costs and such (or just send the film)

-jacob
 
Snowman said "You obviously aren't an information slut like me. (I would say whore, but people pay them!)."
You get a
because that was the coolest quote of the week. I got to write that down.
chris
 
I bought some plans from an outfit on the internet to build a burner for waste oil that is supposed to be smoke free, uses an air jet to vaporize the oil and siphon it out of a jet.
Got 2 55gal oil drums and a kit to make a stove from them. Plan to line the lower drum with fire bricks and use the kit to stack the drums. I've saved up quite a bit of waste oil, approx 100gals. Got to get busy soon and put it all together.
BTW, this is for the shop, plans say not for residential use, as it requires someone to monitor it's operation at all times.
 
It would be awsome if crossthread and snowman could post those picks. I plan on making an outdoor furnace for my house next year. I can't imagine that they are that difficult to build.
Thanks for any info.
 
I am also going to post Dave's email, as it's full of useful information.

I told you this thing was not pretty but it has been the ugly goose that laid the golden egg. It has saved me many thousands of dollars over the last twenty five years, it has required no maintenance except to replace the flue pipe every two years for about eight dollars. I don't know exactly how many cords of wood I burn a winter because I never have it stacked up. I gather wood as I go. I can tell you that when it is really cold I burn about a level pickup truck full a week. The log that you see in the firebox is left over from last winter and that is about the size I shove in there except for when my wife has to load it and then I will quarter stuff like this. That strange looking thing on top is an old kitchen stove vent that sucks any smoke outside when I open the door. If you have a bright fire going then there is really no smoke as it goes up the chimney pretty quickly. The only thing cast iron is the air gate that I salvaged from an old cook stove. I think a plain steel one would work just fine or some of those kinds you see on wood
stoves. They stay shut most of the time anyway because my door gaskets leak just enough to keep the fire going about right day and night. The door
has never warped and shuts well. There is a lower door under the water pipes for cleaning out the ashes which I do about once a month. Since there is no grate (the fire is right on top of the water pipes) I like to keep a fair amount of ashes in the bottom to keep the coals going especially if I
am burning green wood which I do a lot. Creosote buildup is never a problem and I check the flue quite often. I do not burn any pine and I will let it get real hot from time to time to cook off any buildup in the flue. I do go on the roof every fall and check the chimney for buildup but it has never been a problem. The wood furnace and the oil furnace share the same chimney. When I first installed it I was concerned with if there is a possibility of the thing blowing up. I have a pressure/temperature safety relief valve on the
oil furnace and the wood stove. I built the heat exchanger with the inlet at the bottom and the outlet at the top to create natural convection in
case of a power failure and it actually heats the house pretty good with no power on the circulator, but it does much better with it on. The circulator runs all winter. With this setup I can run the wood furnace, the oil furnace or both with no controls at all. If you can't get to loading wood then the oil furnace takes over when the thermostat call for heat in the house. If I am
burning wood then the oil furnace rarely if ever comes on. If you have a ready supply of wood then this is the way to go. I have tried regular wood
stoves, solar, fireplace with blowers etc. and they don't hold a candle to this.
 
Be warned on 'outdoor stoves'. When I was still in high school; my uncle purchased a fabricated boiler, and put it in his basement. This boiler had 'stainless' tubes and fabrication. Seven years later, that boiler was gone. The lifetime warranty expired when the manufacturer, Riteway, went bankrupt. I live today a few miles from several 'outdoor stove' manufacturers. They all remind me of used car lots with a tent for an office. They all talk about 'lifetime warranty' and 'stainless steel'. When I was installing boilers; I would not even touch a fabricated boiler. I saw more than one retube job ruined by a stuck damper motor or an owner that was not qualified to start a campfire. Outdoor stove owners were told to call the original installer. I passed up many begging people when furnaces rotted or pipe melted. I like to sleep at night.

Todays 'outdoor stoves' and 'outdoor heaters' are not boilers. They are designed to not hold or create pressure. They do not have an ASME certification. Many insurance companies will deny claim if one of these non-code heaters is on the premises. Get something in writing from your insurance carrier before you start. The word of an insurance agent is not worth the breath he would expend, after you file a claim. That little ASME cloverleaf plate means that the unit is at least halfway safe.

If a solid fuel heater manufacturer uses, or recommends, plastic pipe or line voltage solenoid pull relays ANYWHERE in their products or systems, run like hell. The best plastic pipe will melt if the temperatures exceed the thermal limit. For most PVC based pipe, the maximum temperature is 150 to 165 intermittant. Even below the maximum temperatures, the pipe will harden and degrade rapidly. If power is interrupted the water temps may rise to boiling, even if the damper limit units drop. When the pump comes back on your pipe is doomed when boiling water hits it.

The old timers understood the difference between iron and steel. They made household stationary boilers from iron and fabricated portable boilers from steel. If a stationary boiler was too large to cast, they used plate that was more iron than steel. They also understood that someone qualified was there to maintain things. Fabricated boilers were made to be repaired and it was understood that high temperatures destroyed steel by embrittlement and warp. Low boiler temps caused acid and made the best steel rot like paper. Boilers were designed to be repaired and regular maintenance was expected. Pipe was meant to take temperatures triple the maximum boiler theoretical runaway. Many even frowned on solder with soild fuel systems and power stokers.

I do not install boilers anymore and I have no money to make. Think about that when some sales weasel starts talking about his product. Is there any real technical information on their website? Is his warranty backed by a third party? What happens when, not if, something 'sticks'? My household boiler is cast and it has been static tested to 175psi. I have two seperate popoff valves that blow at 30 psi. The draw rods will pull at 90 psi and dump the water in the firebox. My auto draft is not electric and it has a fusible link, volitile cutoff, and weight on the draft. The boiler room is solid concrete with a ten inch concrete roof. The circulating system is a choke thermosyphon but I have a two inch high velocity pump to engage into a floor thermal sink if the boiler reaches 200 degrees. I trust nothing when it comes to my life. I sleep like the dead when it comes to the furnace. I still look at the furnace, just before I turn in. End of rant.........
 








 
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