Can I ask about a home-built wood stove ?

[Poodleheadmikey]

I have been designing / refining a wood stove in my head for a while now. Generally while I drive. <g>

Since I have abandoned the NewMac furnace but want to start burning some wood again, I guess I'll weld together what I have mentally pictured.

A two pass fire path - with the flue connection over the loading door. Well: actually three pass as the chimney will double-90 back over the top of the stove.

Any thoughts? Things to incorporate? Avoid?

What do you all think?

PHM
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[Jimbob]

1) Do you have house insurance?
2) do you plan on using this in the house?

Better check with your insurance co. first, before you start cutting any plate steel....:-/

 

[98dingo]

1) Do you have house insurance?
2) do you plan on using this in the house?

Better check with your insurance co. first, before you start cutting any plate steel....:-/

And then considering the stove is not UL listed you will need 36" of clearance to combustibles and 18" of floor protection on all sides.

 

[Poodleheadmikey]

I meant: talk about the stove. <g>

I don't give a damn about the insurance and I am not going to burn my house down with my own work. <g>

PHM
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[xman23]

I heard an unconfirmed story about some guys on the night shift were building stoves at a GE plant. It was said to have the GE Logo on the front. I wonder it anyone has one of these.

Tom

 

[Dakotas Dad]

I meant: talk about the stove. <g>

I don't give a damn about the insurance and I am not going to burn my house down with my own work. <g>

PHM
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Please don't take this wrong, but my feel on how this forum works is that you may not get much help with what you want, because that sentiment and attitude are about 180 degrees out from the purpose of the board and goals of the members.

As far as home building a stove, doesn't seem to hard to get something put together that would make some heat, but I bet the big guys go through some serious prototyping to get one that is efficient, clean and safe..

 

[Poodleheadmikey]

I heard a story about some guys on the night shift at a local oil refinery who were building woodstoves.

The day foreman's name was Fisher and so the night shift guys wrote "Fisher" in very nice scrip with welding bead right across the loading door.

Later I came across one of what I suspect was one of those refinery-built wood stove in a house outside of Philadelphia. The guy who had bought the house with the stove already in it told me that it was a: Fisher Wood Stove.

Which of course anyone who has ever seen a Fisher Wood Stove would know to be nonsense. <g>

But he insisted that it was a classic Fisher. <g>

PHM
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I heard an unconfirmed story about some guys on the night shift were building stoves at a GE plant. It was said to have the GE Logo on the front. I wonder it anyone has one of these.

Tom

 

[Poodleheadmikey]

I just wanted to knock some stove design ideas around. I didn't ask about anything to do with safety or insurance or UL listings.

No good eh? <g>

PHM
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I meant: talk about the stove. <g>

I don't give a damn about the insurance and I am not going to burn my house down with my own work. <g>

PHM
------

Please don't take this wrong, but my feel on how this forum works is that you may not get much help with what you want, because that sentiment and attitude are about 180 degrees out from the purpose of the board and goals of the members.

As far as home building a stove, doesn't seem to hard to get something put together that would make some heat, but I bet the big guys go through some serious prototyping to get one that is efficient, clean and safe..

 

[VCBurner]

Hey Mikey,

There have been threads on here about homemade stoves and tweaked out stoves or stoves that people upgraded. One guy added some secondary burn tubes to his stove, that was an EPA exempt stove. No one here is going to judge you on what you do, and if they do so what? I think you may find some comments about safety because no one around here wants to see anything bad happen.
I'm sure your experiences would be enriching someone on this site. Use the search bar at the top of the screen to find some threads that may interest you. As far as this thread, just hang in there you may have some comments made. It's just not a common topic so it may take a while to get feedback. I like your free spirited thinking. More people need to think outside the box!

 

[-PB-]

Hey Mikey,

There have been threads on here about homemade stoves and tweaked out stoves or stoves that people upgraded. One guy added some secondary burn tubes to his stove, that was an EPA exempt stove. No one here is going to judge you on what you do, and if they do so what? I think you may find some comments about safety because no one around here wants to see anything bad happen.
I'm sure your experiences would be enriching someone on this site. Use the search bar at the top of the screen to find some threads that may interest you. As far as this thread, just hang in there you may have some comments made. It's just not a common topic so it may take a while to get feedback. I like your free spirited thinking. More people need to think outside the box!

+1 well put Chris!
anyone named poodleheadmike can't be that bad

 

[pen]

Insurance is important as freak things happen. Even if the stove itself didn't directly cause a fire your insurance company needs to approve the stove. If they don't, they can deny your claim and you are poop out of luck.

With that said...... Back to the stove.

Burn technology has come so far in the past few years that if I were to consider building my own stove there would be no way I would do it w/out incorporating secondary combustion. Having burned stoves with and without this I can say that the difference is night and day and I'd never go back to a stove w/out this technology because of the less wood I use, longer burn times, and a cleaner chimney. The only thing my old stove (fisher) could do better was it could get the house up to temp faster. However, that was necessary since the fire was out 2 hours before I came home from work every day. With the new stove, I'm just as warm I just cant raise a 60 degree house to 70 as quickly as I used to, but I can keep it at 70+ no problem.

What concerns me about doubling back the flue pipe (from the front of the stove to the back then up) is that the extra 90's will slow and cool flue gasses and give you poorer draft and a great chance for creosote production. I'm sure I gain a few btu's because I have single wall pipe coming off of my stove instead of double wall, but I highly doubt the gain is really that great or else every new class A chimney would stop at the ceiling and single wall would be run up to it.

Stop by a stove shop and kick the tires on some of the new stoves. I bet you'll get some good ideas there.

I know several guys running their own wood stoves. But they have insurance companies that have checked their setups and are OK with them. It's the only way to fly.

pen

 

[Poodleheadmikey]

OK: I'll start -

The left and right sides will be made from 3" square tubing - with all the tubes welded edge-to-edge. Ten 3" square tubes will form each side.

The bottom of the left and right sides will be about 36" apart and connected by a 36" wide flat plate - the floor of the fire box.

The tops of both sides will touch each other. And be welded to each other at the innermost edges.

Forming an inverted cone shape: Wide base - narrow 'pointed' top.

Front and back of the stove body to be flat. The rear plate just a flat plate. The front plate to have the loading door low and the flue pipe connection high.

At a level just below level of the flue pipe connection will be a flat plate running front-to-back inside the stove. This flat plate will touch the front but miss touching the back by about 8". Forming a "smoke shelf".

The smoke will leave the firebox at the top rear, travel forward across the top of the smoke shelf, and exit at the flue connection over the loading door.

The stainless steel flue pipe will double-90 back over the apex of the stove's tube-wall tops (on it's way to the chimney thimble behind the stove) and further heat the room air rising through the tubes.

BTW: My thought is that the 3" square tubes forming the sides will get hot and heat the fresh air inside them. This heated room air will convect out the tops of the tubes - drawing cooler air in at the bottoms. The rising air will then also have to travel around the hot flue pipe.

The uppermost of the double-90's will actually be a tee - with a barometric damper in it.

I have two new Heat Reclaimer (are they called Heat Mate?) units here too. I'd like to incorporate one of them as well but I can't picture where it will go yet so maybe I won't use one.

Does that description give you all a sufficient mental picture?

If not - let me know and I'll try to do better.

PHM
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[Poodleheadmikey]

Please describe to me what secondary combustion is and what it is about the stove having it which forces it to happen.

PHM
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. . . Burn technology has come so far in the past few years that if I were to consider building my own stove there would be no way I would do it w/out incorporating secondary combustion. Having burned stoves with and without this I can say that the difference is night and day and I'd never go back to a stove w/out this technology because of the less wood I use, longer burn times, and a cleaner chimney . . .

pen

 

[HotCoals]

I say forget the secondary's and instead put a cat in it. :roll:

 

[OhioBurner©]

Good luck, I'd help you if I could. My old stove looks like it could be easily built - everything is square and nothing ornate or fancy. Works just fine to heat the home but is a creosote factory and not much to look at so we are wanting to replace. I'm sure it consumes more wood than an epa stove as well. But then again most of the stoves I am looking at would be 3-4 grand for just the stove and the new 6" liner. 4 grand would equate to a he!! of a lot of wood (especially when I dont have to pay for it other than time and gas) so if you look at it that way a newer more efficient stove isnt neccesarily cost effective. It would just mean less of my time to process wood and clean the chimney, but mainly doing it for looks to be honest.

Keep us updated with your progress if you actually go through with it.

 

[pen]

secondary burn systems were created as a way to try and clean up the emissions of a wood stove. By accident, they also help keep the chimney cleaner and give a more complete burn.

Quite simply, heated air is plumbed to a series of SS tubes below the stoves baffle plate. The gasses are forced to move to the front of the stove and pass by these tubes. There is enough heat for the "smoke" to burn but not enough air until they encounter the heated air from these tubes and they burn against the baffle plate in a fashion that looks much like a propane burner.

End result, more complete combustion which means more bang for your hunk of wood.

Here's a video of my stove with secondary burning taking place.

turn your volume down so you don't have to listen to me breath (sorry, not a cinematographer)



pen

 

[Poodleheadmikey]

Very cool.

Where does the "heated air" originate? What forces it into the firebox through the tubes?

PHM
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[pen]

It is drawn into the stove from the back / bottom and is warmed along the back/inside of the stove as goes up to feed air to the tubes.

pen

 

[Jimbob]

Here's a good discussion on the secondary air tubes. Some people have added them to their older stoves. You could incorparate something like that in the stove you build.

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/31420/P0/

 

[BrotherBart]

Go to a stove store and do a lot of looking at how the stoves are made. Lots of EPA non-cat stoves are pretty much carbon copies of each other's designs.

And then forget about it and buy an inexpensive non-cat stove. Stoves are pretty much like computers now. Costs more to build your own than to just buy one tested and certified to work right.

As to comments in the thread, remember:

"Come on in and sit around the fire with a number of colorful characters who, like the Cartalk Guys, can answer ANY question regarding wood stoves,coal stoves, fireplaces, chimneys and more ....but don't be surprised if your answer contains a little more than you were asking for!"

 

[bioman]

Hey poodlehead mickey, I say goforit, I've built several stoves over the years, most are still in service. there's always room for improvement, nothings perfect. sounds like a great idea with the 3" tubing. that thing sould move some air.

Good Luck with your project.

 

[Poodleheadmikey]

Where's the glory? Where's the reaffirmation? Where's the satisfaction?

Hell; any old body can trot down and just write a check. <g>

PHM
------

Go to a stove store and do a lot of looking at how the stoves are made. Lots of EPA non-cat stoves are pretty much carbon copies of each other's designs.

And then forget about it and buy an inexpensive non-cat stove. Stoves are pretty much like computers now. Costs more to build your own than to just buy one tested and certified to work right.

As to comments in the thread, remember:

"Come on in and sit around the fire with a number of colorful characters who, like the Cartalk Guys, can answer ANY question regarding wood stoves,coal stoves, fireplaces, chimneys and more ....but don't be surprised if your answer contains a little more than you were asking for!"

 

[HotCoals]

Build away!
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...ooglebase-_-D28X-_-202398324&locStoreNum=1273

 

[Peter B.]

Poodle:

I've wanted to build a stove of my own forever... like since the first EPA stoves came on the scene. I 'studied' them at the time and thought and thought and _still_ figured I could do better.

But I never got 'round to it.

I say if you want to do it, go ahead, but STUDY the craft and don't reinvent the wheel. Learn from what's out there, incorporate your own ideas and...

If you actually get to torturing some steel into rough shape, get back to us.

Peter B.

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[weatherguy]

If you want to build something build a masonry heater.