thoughts on this home made wood stove?

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this is basically an updated version of a fisher stove with a baffle and a reburn section added into the design, as well as a glass window in the side for aesthetics and ambiance. It is a little smaller on the outside than a Fisher "Momma Bear" due to the need to match to the japanese fire bricks (weird sizes) but internally it is only slightly larger than a "Baby Bear" due to the same issue (brick size). The bricks are basically 220 x 105 x 54 in mm or 8 3/5" x 4 1/10" x 2 1/10" so the interior dimensions are smaller than you would think.

The plate steel is thicker too as they the options were to go down in thickness from .25 to 6 mm which is .2362 or go up to 7 mm which is .2756 for the sides & bottom and as far as the top plates went, I arbitrarily went up from 5/16" .3125 to 10mm which is .3937, (just in case the reburn was more enthusiastic then expected).

The frames for the front and its door are all 8mm plate with a 5 mm bead welded to the plate to form the channels for the sealing gasket rope which also helps to keep the possibility of warping down. the same was done for the door with the viewing glass.

Just test fired it yesterday up at the cabin to heat the paint up and get the smell out of it prior to moving it into the cabin. With a 50/50 mix load of soft and hardwood it burned for right at about 4 hours with full heat output (600 degrees Fahrenheit measured with a IR gun on the bottom of the two plates) and 2 hours with just coals. that was with the primary air-feed and secondary air-feed (re-burn valves) wide open. I think that at the reduced levels and the re-burn set correctly it should burn for a full 8 or 9 hours.

one of my questions is does anybody have any idea on how large the re-burn holes should be? I drilled the holes with a 3.5mm bit so a little larger than 1/8" would 1/4" be better?

Also the biggest problem so far is keeping the glass clean as i did not make an air wash system for the glass if I were to make one would air need to go down from the top across the glass, or would up from the bottom work also?

Thoughts and critique are welcome. DSCF0027.JPG DSCF0028.JPG
 
Nice work. I used to have a Fisher Honey Bear insert, and I loved it. The only thing I see that may be a problem is that the fire brick looks higher than the the bottom of the door frame, so it looks like you're going to get a lot of ash spilling out when you open it. If it's going to stay outside, that may not be an issue, but watch out for embers blowing where they shouldn't be going.
 
Yes you need to add a spill tray just below the doors. A couple of inches wider or 25cm wider all the way around otherwise you will have embers spilling out. The small holes are OK for now, but will have to be made much bigger. The reason is they get plugged up so easy with debris. Hard and soft wood does not mix for wood stoves because they conflict with each other. For starting your fire anything that can start easy is OK, but for long burn you want the largest pieces possible without any air spaces between the wood. When you mix woods you have two different temperatures of burn so there will be more smoldering. Is this unit going to be used for heating water? Your coils inside the stove should not be left dry which could encourage more baked on deposit. Maybe an acid solution running through the system might provide a great clean now and then. The design and execution is beautiful. It looks like it could give you many years of wonderful use. Thanks
 
Nice work. I used to have a Fisher Honey Bear insert, and I loved it. The only thing I see that may be a problem is that the fire brick looks higher than the the bottom of the door frame, so it looks like you're going to get a lot of ash spilling out when you open it. If it's going to stay outside, that may not be an issue, but watch out for embers blowing where they shouldn't be going.

really? that might be an issue then, I purposely left the lip of the door lower so that it would be easier to empty ash out of . I am bending a ash catch tray from aluminum that my plan was to place in front of the door come reloading or cleaning time to catch the ash as I scooped it back towards the door
 
Yes you need to add a spill tray just below the doors. A couple of inches wider or 25cm wider all the way around otherwise you will have embers spilling out. The small holes are OK for now, but will have to be made much bigger. The reason is they get plugged up so easy with debris. Hard and soft wood does not mix for wood stoves because they conflict with each other. For starting your fire anything that can start easy is OK, but for long burn you want the largest pieces possible without any air spaces between the wood. When you mix woods you have two different temperatures of burn so there will be more smoldering. Is this unit going to be used for heating water? Your coils inside the stove should not be left dry which could encourage more baked on deposit. Maybe an acid solution running through the system might provide a great clean now and then. The design and execution is beautiful. It looks like it could give you many years of wonderful use. Thanks

Edit: I understand, you thought the large water valves in the back were for a water heater. Sorry I put those on so I could control the secondary reburn. once I figure out the size actually needed I was going to take those off and drill endcaps out to the size I actually need for airflow for the secondaries. end edit.


Thanks, this one will be indoors with no water heating, house heating only. but now that I am finished the plan was to build the next one with stainless heat exchanger tubes in it to heat my outdoor japanese bath with. it will be outdoors only without a reburn, just a square box with water coils inside in the top. so it will always have water in it while burning. Do you think lime away or one of those commercial cleaners would be strong enough to keep the mineral deposits at bay? my plan was to run a solution of that through the heat exchanger once a month or so. If the waters hardness here was measured by precious stones it would be a sapphire or a diamond :) but thats why it tastes so good ha ha ha.
 
Good design and work. My only concern is the steel doors warping.
Stoves usually have cast iron doors. Might not be a problem though.

Oh and air wash tube across the top of the glass, not the bottom. It's a must if you want to see the fire.
 
Good design and work. My only concern is the steel doors warping.
Stoves usually have cast iron doors. Might not be a problem though.

Oh and air wash tube across the top of the glass, not the bottom. It's a must if you want to see the fire.


Sunfish, how much air you think would be needed? I could probably redrill the leg of the secondary to feed the air wash also as I think that my secondary supply tubes are more than large enough, though they might need bigger holes to avoid clogging up, If I do that though I think I will probably run most fo the time with the primaries closed or almost so...might have to play with that a bit. thanks for the info!

the door i am not so worried about its made of 8mm thick plus it has the double wrap around fo the 5mm for a total thickness on at the edge of 13mm or 1/2" after welding it I had to straighten it out on my hydraulic press so if it warps form the heat of the stove, I will put and X brace about 1/2" thick going from corner to corner
 
How much air? I'd run a 3/4"-1" tube along the top of the glass with 1/8"-5/32" holes. It can run off the secondarys, but where the fire wants to pull air from will effect how much air the glass gets.
 
How much air? I'd run a 3/4"-1" tube along the top of the glass with 1/8"-5/32" holes. It can run off the secondarys, but where the fire wants to pull air from will effect how much air the glass gets.
roger that, then I might jsut want to add an extra tube right above the glass ....
 
You could probably insert some L bracket near the doors that could be removed easily to help with keeping the ash in and also removeable when you wanted to do a clean. You just need to make up a system to hold it in place so it isn't easily dislodged when loading the firebox.
 
You could probably insert some L bracket near the doors that could be removed easily to help with keeping the ash in and also removeable when you wanted to do a clean. You just need to make up a system to hold it in place so it isn't easily dislodged when loading the firebox.
thats easy enough, got plenty of angle iron sitting around.
 
Needless to say, OP made a lot better stove than this redneck creation, but I guy wrote to me once who made one just like it and said that it actually worked. His was burning indoors in an old squaw hut. He used a rural mail box for more volume and a longer burn time and piped it up an existing brick chimney. I guess guys will try anything once.
 
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