building a woodstove from sheet steel... looking for designs or thoughts

[ken morgan]

even cheaper on Rakuten (18,900yen / $165)
http://product.rakuten.co.jp/produc...b1e00f63906d1934b35bf95a868fa0&scid=s_kwa_pla

I looked at this and I do not think it will keep heat through the night, nor do I think it will last more than a season or two as it is a thin gauge sheet metal stove. obviously I could be wrong as I have no experience with this stove, but I think it is not for me. total cost so far for the door 50 bucks and the sheetmetal 26,000 yen (10mm and 6 mm) is GTG. I will also need to buy firebricks for this design at about 25 firebricks at 190 yen per. Thats another 5k yen but no big deal. still a stove that will work for >40K yen fits the bill..if it works properly....Only time will tell.

 

[IyaMan]

I looked at this and I do not think it will keep heat through the night, nor do I think it will last more than a season or two as it is a thin gauge sheet metal stove.

Yeah, the metal grade is thin on that, though you'd probably get much more than a season or two, especially if only using on weekends.

Good luck with the build and be sure to post pics!

 

[ken morgan]

Yeah, the metal grade is thin on that, though you'd probably get much more than a season or two, especially if only using on weekends.

Good luck with the build and be sure to post pics!

will do.....I am a hard headed cuss at times, but afer all of the online research i think its cheaper to build.

 

[dave_dj1]

Years ago somebody made an oval one, it was stove pipe gauge with a heavier bottom. We burned out the bottom but found a steel oval pan and used that for the bottom for years in our camp..lol

Like this one:
http://www.antiqbuyer.com/images/2013-6-ARCHIVE/GEMCO/IMG_0502.JPG

why not a barrel stove? You can buy the kit for $75 or so, a barrel can be had for $10 around here.
I have a barrel stove in my garage, I lined the bottom with firebrick, it works great. If it rots out I can just get another barrel, the end is clamped on by a large ring.

 

[ken morgan]

Years ago somebody made an oval one, it was stove pipe gauge with a heavier bottom. We burned out the bottom but found a steel oval pan and used that for the bottom for years in our camp..lol

Like this one:
http://www.antiqbuyer.com/images/2013-6-ARCHIVE/GEMCO/IMG_0502.JPG

why not a barrel stove? You can buy the kit for $75 or so, a barrel can be had for $10 around here.
I have a barrel stove in my garage, I lined the bottom with firebrick, it works great. If it rots out I can just get another barrel, the end is clamped on by a large ring.

I actually considered one for the shop at fuji, but not for in the house, for ascetic reasons + (I think the following would apply, though I have no empirical proof) would probably not burn all night, and if I did put enough fuel in it to burn all night it would drive us out of the house heatwise

 

[Mad Professor]

How about a Warner?

Almost 600 lbs of boilerplate steel and takes a 32" log

 

[ken morgan]

Finished product last month:

 

[ken morgan]

these photos are outside of my shop right after I painted it in late october early november . I have since installed it and am running it every weekend. good thing is long burn time, bad thing is with all the fire brick I lined it with it take a while for the heat to get out of the stove and into the room, but once warm, it will keep the room warm for 2 or 3 hours without any fire or coals in it simply from residual heat in the fire bricks. the reburn did not work as well as I thought I iwll try a redesign on that next summer when its warm again, till then the reburn only partially works.

 

[Jakers]

First off, that looks amazing and excellent work

Now if I may offer some friendly ideas... I think you have too many holes in your secondary burn tubes, try plugging half of them first. another thought is to add a loop for the air to travel through to get to the tubes. the air has to be heated pretty hot (think +700*F) to ignite the gasses instead of cooling them off. the best operating secondary burn tubes ive seen ran along the walls of the stove just above the hot coal line to preheat the air. as for the firebrick, if you get the secondary burn working, youll want all that brick as the inside of the stove will burn out quickly if not completely lined, top included. long warm up time is an issue with any newer brick lined stove

 

[GVS]

these photos are outside of my shop right after I painted it in late october early november . I have since installed it and am running it every weekend. good thing is long burn time, bad thing is with all the fire brick I lined it with it take a while for the heat to get out of the stove and into the room, but once warm, it will keep the room warm for 2 or 3 hours without any fire or coals in it simply from residual heat in the fire bricks. the reburn did not work as well as I thought I iwll try a redesign on that next summer when its warm again, till then the reburn only partially works.

Try a fan blowing across the top of the stove until the stove warms up and begins to push heat from the sides and ends.Might work.

 

[ken morgan]

First off, that looks amazing and excellent work

Now if I may offer some friendly ideas... I think you have too many holes in your secondary burn tubes, try plugging half of them first. another thought is to add a loop for the air to travel through to get to the tubes. the air has to be heated pretty hot (think +700*F) to ignite the gasses instead of cooling them off. the best operating secondary burn tubes ive seen ran along the walls of the stove just above the hot coal line to preheat the air. as for the firebrick, if you get the secondary burn working, youll want all that brick as the inside of the stove will burn out quickly if not completely lined, top included. long warm up time is an issue with any newer brick lined stove

yeah that what I have been finding out. I can adjust the flow for the reburn via the "water" valves on the back, and sometimes it will reburn other times it will not depending upon how far open the primaries are. I am playing with it this winter to figure out what is what and will break it down at the end of the season for modifications etc. as it is I just got back form the cabin and the stove will heat my cabin for about 6~8 hours on low and slow, but when I run it at full power like when I first arrive and am heating the cabin from ambient its only good for about 4 hours.

 

[svk]

That looks great!

 

[ken morgan]

That looks great!

Thanks it is a work in progress. as was mentioned above some issues with the re-burn working at full speed, so this coming spring I will pull it down for mods.

I have decided to run the re-burn circuit under the actual wood and then up the back before re entering in at the top, that with a few less holes. the hope is that some preheating of the air will occur and further the re-burn action. and also a slight reduction in the size of the baffle as I think it might be too tight.

no matter what I do its cheaper than buying a pre-made unit over here. entry level prices for a similar sized stove start at about 1500 or so and I have only spent about 650.00 or so to date, 100+ on the pyro ceram glass alone. so any mods after this will be low cost as I have all the materials left over that I can use to mod as needed.

 

[Del_]

Thanks it is a work in progress. as was mentioned above some issues with the re-burn working at full speed, so this coming spring I will pull it down for mods.

I have decided to run the re-burn circuit under the actual wood and then up the back before re entering in at the top, that with a few less holes. the hope is that some preheating of the air will occur and further the re-burn action. and also a slight reduction in the size of the baffle as I think it might be too tight.

no matter what I do its cheaper than buying a pre-made unit over here. entry level prices for a similar sized stove start at about 1500 or so and I have only spent about 650.00 or so to date, 100+ on the pyro ceram glass alone. so any mods after this will be low cost as I have all the materials left over that I can use to mod as needed.

Primary air should also be pre-heated. Secondary air is not going to pick up much heat under the stove. The more preheating of combustion air, the better.

 

[ken morgan]

Primary air should also be pre-heated. Secondary air is not going to pick up much heat under the stove. The more preheating of combustion air, the better.

I think you misunderstood me when I said under the wood,I am referring to the actual burning wood as the tubing I use is stainless steel it can handle the heat of the fire directly upon it that why i wanted to run the square tubing under the fire, level with the fire bricks and then have it come up inside on the back wall before entering the manifold I would have to put the control valves under the stove, or run the pipes in such a fashion as to be able to get at the valves from the side. this would essentially be the same as several of the jotul stoves i have looked at where they run all of the air under the firebox to preheat the air before sending some to primary and some to secondary.

sorry this is hard to explain in words maybe I should draw up some new plans and post them.

 

[Jakers]

I understood what you meant. Seemed clear as glass to me. The only problem I see is the ash insulating it a bit but it should still get plenty hot if you keep it clean

 

[ken morgan]

thanks, I am into empirical evidence. bad habit of mine, So this stove is a test mule to sus out all the various issues and then i can go into production here locally. (not joking) after searching the market here locally for over a year, I have come to the conclusion that any stove that is worth owning and meets US EPA is going to cost over 5 K here in japan. I personally could care less about the EPA as they are measuring particulate matter (for christs sake why?) and not greenhouse gases in regards to wood stoves. Here in japan it is not an issue as there are not enough users to matter. So I am looking at length of burn, heat output into the room and lastly stack buildup (creosote) obviously a the EPA burners are cleaner in regards to the stack buildup if this is on purpose or an coincidental is up for grabs.

I am also now thinking about a self cleaning stack system, triple walled + insulation with extra thick inner layer and a purposeful high temp cleaning cycle, (Yes a chimney fire on purpose) but in a controlled fashion with a stack that is designed to handle it (repeatedly). got nothing but time on my hands and a desire to contribute to this area of engineering.

 

[disk_55FL]

Ken : Good looking stove. You have some skill(s).

I built my house heater also. The original design was built

in 1979. It’s mostly mild steel plate ( the majority in .156” thick )

The door is .25”. The air inlet / controls is Stainless…. As is the

Baffle / “oven” / pass thru. ( the hole above the door ). I heat my single

story house ( ~ 1600 Sq. Ft ) 99% with wood. It’s a smoke dragon

( no CAT / reburn ) and it’s never had any firebrick. My combustion

air is brought in from the outside. I also added a variable speed blower

that can be used to force air into the firebox. This works well to “boost”

the heat output or get the fire going after it burns low ……. But, it really

shines first thing in the morning to burn down any of the unburnt coals

that remain in the bottom of the firebox after an all night burn. I get

8 to 10 hours on 6 – 7 splits. The 7 AM house temp is about 70* F.

Unless it’s below zero outside. I'll try to include a picture.

Keep up the good work !

 

[ken morgan]

Ken : Good looking stove. You have some skill(s).

I built my house heater also. The original design was built

in 1979. It’s mostly mild steel plate ( the majority in .156” thick )

The door is .25”. The air inlet / controls is Stainless…. As is the

Baffle / “oven” / pass thru. ( the hole above the door ). I heat my single

story house ( ~ 1600 Sq. Ft ) 99% with wood. It’s a smoke dragon

( no CAT / reburn ) and it’s never had any firebrick. My combustion

air is brought in from the outside. I also added a variable speed blower

that can be used to force air into the firebox. This works well to “boost”

the heat output or get the fire going after it burns low ……. But, it really

shines first thing in the morning to burn down any of the unburnt coals

that remain in the bottom of the firebox after an all night burn. I get

8 to 10 hours on 6 – 7 splits. The 7 AM house temp is about 70* F.

Unless it’s below zero outside. I'll try to include a picture.

Keep up the good work !

View attachment 621753

nice that's the kind of stuff I like to see people building their own gear. I thought about adding a blower just for the purpose of burning the coals up after a whole night. What kind of blower do you use. And how do you control the speed?

 

[ken morgan]

I am trying to figure out how to use a bi-metal strip to open and close the air feed. Unfortunately I have not been able to locate a supplier for any large bi-metal strips. I was thinking about making my own, possibly brazing together a piece of Steel and brass to make my own. The biggest problem at least I think is how to get the strip flat after brazing them together.