made me a wood burner for the garage...

[railman]

on a side question....what do ya use to cut your tubing and such.....a chop saw, band saw, cut off wheel, or torch?

l8r, John

 

[86 slo-vo]

just one barrel heated my 30 x 40 just fine with 12 ft ceilings...make sure you put the exahust out the other end of the top barrel so the heat has to move through the barrel before going up . and put about 3 or 4 inches of sand in the bottom under your fire grate. dont worry about paint, it wont stay on there anyway..lol

yea i put the flapper on the front of the top barrel, wanted to keep the vent as far from the studs and styrofoam as possible to help prevent a fire

btw didnt even know you were on here...

on a side question....what do ya use to cut your tubing and such.....a chop saw, band saw, cut off wheel, or torch?

l8r, John

used a bandsaw, actually have 2 of them but one just sits in the corner....which reminds me i really need to go get a new blade, the one that is on there now is shot

but im looking to pick up a chop saw, seems to be alot quicker for the stuff that doesnt have to be perfect

 

[railman]

cool, was just curious....

let me know what your local steel supplier says....so we can compare...

l8r, John

 

[86 slo-vo]

will do, ive got too many projects waiting to be started lol

 

[snoopdoggie]

If you have more of the pipe you connected the two drums with, poke a hole in each end of the top drum and insert the pipe through it and mount a small fan on the pipe. You'll draw even more heat out of the exhausting smoke.

Sorry. Didn't see this had already been mentioned.

 

[86 slo-vo]

yea i may see about getting some today

 

[AllanD]

A couple pieces of advice...

1)Don't leave the ashes in the barrel at the end of the heating season.

2)Line the lower barrel with sand (better than nothing), "Black beauty" (better)
or Firebrick (best) (Note: just laying it in place works)

3)The upper barrel works even better as a heat exchanger of you weld several lengths
or 3" or 4" diameter pipe through it lengthwise

Or as a friend did... welded a continuous length of seamless 8" diameter duct
through his upper barrel and mounted a blower fan on the back blowing air
THROUGH that pipe...

Any heat that escapes to the outside world other thn that required to
create a the "draft" that keeps the fire going is wasted energy.

Someone else I know used stainless steel barrels and welded threaded bungs in the
ends of the upper barrel and pumped coolant through them... then again he also put pipe in the floor for radiant heating from the floor.... but it was all filled with second hand anti-freeze.

His standby generator was powered with a water cooled 4cyl Kohler engine
and that was also in the circulation system... so the wood stove also served
to "preheat" his generator engine.

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[CopyKat]

Another idea would be to encase it in a tin box and put a funace blower on the bottom drawing in the cool air from the floor. Then have a couple output ducts at the top for a forced air effect. buddy of mine did this for his shop.

Insurance will not cover any wood stove here unless it has a tripple wall insulated chimney. At over $60/foot it's not worth it for a wood stove.

 

[86 slo-vo]

thanks for the tips guys, most of that will be done before it goes into action i hope

as for the triple wall, ive got a single 3 foot piece that will be going through the roof but the rest will be just regular wood stove pipe...dont have that kind of money

i really havent looked into the insurance deal yet

 

[Doom's Day Custom]

Another idea would be to encase it in a tin box and put a funace blower on the bottom drawing in the cool air from the floor. Then have a couple output ducts at the top for a forced air effect. buddy of mine did this for his shop.

Insurance will not cover any wood stove here unless it has a tripple wall insulated chimney. At over $60/foot it's not worth it for a wood stove.

Where i live and in the instructions that came with my wood stove which say that you only need single wall till you get to a wall or the roof then you the triple wall to exit the garage or wall so it must be different where you live.,

 

[86 slo-vo]

finished welding the stuff in...it comes where you can bolt it but i didnt want to worry about it leaking

welding cast to thin metal SUCKS...exspecially when you dont do any prep work lol

 

[86 slo-vo]

damn my garage is a mess! time to do some cleaning this weekend

 

[Will]

It's not that hard to get a stove to 800F. I personally would get a small cast iron boxwood type. They are $150 and 60,000 btus. We ran one in a decent sized shop in Iowa--an old leaky barn thing where you could see through the walls. It was more than enough. You couldn't work in your underwear, but you could work comfortably.

A small stove is easier to get going and you have less wood involved so you don't waste any by heating long after you are done. A little boxwood will happily warm the place up on a few broken chair legs. If your garage is decent, which it looks like it is, you don't need that huge barrel thing. And certainly the risk is gaudy. I managed to burn through my heavy woodstove while learning to use it years ago. There's more heat in a stove than there is in a burn barrel. A lot more. Just make sure you know where the exits are because if that thing ever fails and dumps out a ferocious load of gloriously burning coals, the music is going to be playing pretty fast.

I don't know how much you've used wood but the secret is to get the stovepipe hot so it will draw. I start with an empty box and put a fire starter brick (you might need several in that drum) right under the chimney. Once that brick is flaming up nicely it will warm up the pipe and then when you start adding a little wood, it will burn because it's drawing in fresh oxygen.

And, last, what I use in the shop now is a torpedo heater. Mine is 110,000btu and it heats the place in 15 minutes. I run it just once in a while after that. It's the best if you have a project that needs to get done. Wood is better for loafing and piddling around though.

 

[86 slo-vo]

It's not that hard to get a stove to 800F. I personally would get a small cast iron boxwood type. They are $150 and 60,000 btus. We ran one in a decent sized shop in Iowa--an old leaky barn thing where you could see through the walls. It was more than enough. You couldn't work in your underwear, but you could work comfortably.

A small stove is easier to get going and you have less wood involved so you don't waste any by heating long after you are done. A little boxwood will happily warm the place up on a few broken chair legs. If your garage is decent, which it looks like it is, you don't need that huge barrel thing. And certainly the risk is gaudy. I managed to burn through my heavy woodstove while learning to use it years ago. There's more heat in a stove than there is in a burn barrel. A lot more. Just make sure you know where the exits are because if that thing ever fails and dumps out a ferocious load of gloriously burning coals, the music is going to be playing pretty fast.

I don't know how much you've used wood but the secret is to get the stovepipe hot so it will draw. I start with an empty box and put a fire starter brick (you might need several in that drum) right under the chimney. Once that brick is flaming up nicely it will warm up the pipe and then when you start adding a little wood, it will burn because it's drawing in fresh oxygen.

And, last, what I use in the shop now is a torpedo heater. Mine is 110,000btu and it heats the place in 15 minutes. I run it just once in a while after that. It's the best if you have a project that needs to get done. Wood is better for loafing and piddling around though.

i have one of the torpedo heaters...they work good but with the way keroseen prices are it was getting super expensive...like to the extent of $50 a week. i dont have that kind of money and with the torpedo you get burning hot then shut it off and 5 minutes later your cold again

i just want smooth even heat, and as for the stove i looked into them and just couldnt find one in my price range, and figured since i have fabrication skills i might as well put them to use. and the garage isnt insulated except for 3/4 styro behind the metal and a little inso on the cieling and with 12 foot walls and about 16 feet to the peak im going to need quite a bit of heat the place isnt what i call "air tight"

but thanks for the tips, i will have to give it a try

 

[AllanD]

I would take the gift of a cast iron stove as a mortal insult.
The joints often leak and if inadvertantly overfired they crack.

"Proper" stoves may have a cast door, but are fabricated from
1/4" thick mild steel and lined with firebrick.

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