Homemade Camp Stove

[Chad Smith]

I bought another 3' piece of pipe over the weekend and burned the stove again. Having a better "draw" on it did fix the small amount of smoke that had come out of the door. I have some mounting brackets I want to weld to the bottom of the legs, then I will repaint the entire thing and post the finalized pictures. Thanks for the advice gentlemen.

 

[begreen]

I don't remember,.. I think they said it was Pyrex. Regardless, I'm going to put off getting that for now anyway. But, could you tell me why there should be a preference?

A pyrex pie plate was used on the Elm stoves. Not sure if they still do, but it looks like it. NeoCeram, Robax are two common transparent ceramic "glass" brands used today.

 

[Battenkiller]

A pyrex pie plate was used on the Elm stoves. Not sure if they still do, but it looks like it.

Borosilicate (Pyrex) glass has a coefficient of thermal expansion of about 32 x 10‾7/ºC. I know this because my wife works in borosilicate ("boro") glass. She routinely shoves a rod of boro into a 4500ºF oxy-propane flame with little pre-heating, and brings it up to about 1500ºF and higher without it shattering. Then she will take this rod directly from the flame and lay it onto her bench without even allowing it to cool slowly, then pick it up and put it right back into the flame again to add more glass to it. So I think that Pyrex will do the job adequately.

Beware, however, that U.S. made cookware branded as "Pyrex" is not made of borosilicate glass at all, but is merely tempered glass with the Pyrex trade name embossed into the surface. At the price that this stuff is sold for, it couldn't possibly be real borosilicate glass, which is quite pricey. The stuff my wife uses is lab-grade rod and tubing - genuine borosilicate glass - and it is expensive even in bulk.

FWIW, it's not the temperature so much as the rate of heating/cooling leading to a rapid expansion/contraction of the glass that causes internal stress. Regarding tempered glass, I once got the glass doors on my fireplace extremely hot by burning a bunch of construction lumber scrap, and the glass literally exploded into thousands of tiny pieces. Since this only happened to one panel out of the four, the air came in through this mega-draft opening so hard and fast that I could barely get near it to open the doors. Good thing I was right there or it could have been a real hairy situation. Personally, I would never put tempered glass into the door of a wood stove after witnessing this.

 

[begreen]

That tweaked my curiosity. Indeed Elm has been using pyrex pie plates for years. From what I could find, there are different ways of "tempering" glass. Here's what Pyrex.com has to say on the subject:

"It has also been wrongly suggested that World Kitchen lowered the quality of PYREX glass bakeware by switching from borosilicate glass to soda lime glass. Again, this is not true. The Charleroi plant has produced PYREX glass products out of a heat-strengthened (tempered) soda lime glass for about 60 years, first by our predecessor Corning Incorporated, and since 1998 by World Kitchen. In fact, since the 1980's, most, if not all consumer glass bakeware manufactured in the U.S. for consumers has been made of soda lime glass. Consumers should know that soda lime glass, such as that used to make PYREX glass bakeware, is significantly more resistant to breaking on impact than borosilicate glass and comparably resistant to breakage caused by severe temperature changes."

http://www.pyrexware.com/thetruthaboutpyrex/index.htm

 

[Battenkiller]

Pyrex lab ware is fragile because it is so thin, but 3/16" borosilicate can take pretty rough treatment. I've dropped some of my wife's HD boro tubing on the concrete floor without it breaking. Regardless of what the current maker states, borosilicate is much more resistant to thermal shock than is tempered glass. All lab ware and European cookware continue to be made from borosilicate for this reason.

To show you how little faith the makers of Pyrex cookware have in the thermal resistance of their products, they have a specific set of instructions for its care:

PYREX GLASS BAKEWARE SAFETY AND USAGE INSTRUCTIONS:

* NEVER use on top of the stove, under a broiler, in a toaster oven, or place over oven vent or pilot light.
* AVOID severe hot to cold temperature changes, including:
o DO NOT add liquid to hot dish
o DO NOT place hot dish or glass cover in sink
o DO NOT immerse hot dish in water
o DO NOT place hot dish on cold or wet surfaces
o Handle hot ovenware and glass covers with dry potholders
* ALWAYS add a small amount of liquid to the vessel prior to baking foods that release liquids while cooking.
* DO NOT overheat oil or butter in microwave. Use minimum amount of cooking time.
* DO NOT use or repair any item that is chipped, cracked or scratched.

Summarized easily as: "Don't expose our glass to extremes of temperature. It's not safe to do so."

Another good thing about boro is that when it does go, it breaks in long cracks. Tempered glass literally explodes into thousands of pieces about the size of peas. Ask yourself which way you want your stove glass to break when and if it does. I certainly wouldn't sleep well knowing that my raging fire just might get exposed to a completely open front without warning.

 

[begreen]

Can't disagree that ceramic is a superior material for stove glass. They have an inner and outer glass on the Elms. Now I'm curious to know how many Elm door windows have failed? They do warn about thermal shock in the manual, so it is possible.

 

[Cowboy Billy]

Howdy Cold Hunter

Great looking stove!

While welding the pipe would be better than brazing. When I put my wood furnace in 8 years ago. I needed to go from 7" pipe to 8" pipe I could not find a adapter. So I made one up and brazed it together and am still using it. I burn wood and coal 24/7 all winter and have had some really hot fires. Its not a apples to apples comparison as my braze is just behind the stove on the flue coupler on the stove and not the flue coupler itself and its behind a baffle.

On the 4" flue pipe. Your are going to have to make sure you keep it clean as creosote buildup will really decrease the volume of the pipe fast. And it might be hard to find a brush for it.

I have a military tent stove and it uses a 4" flue. I have not used it yet. Here is one you can look at on ebay to get some idea.
http://cgi.ebay.com/WOOD-COAL-DIESA...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item53e04dd6f4

They also have this one listed with a 2.5 inch pipe but it looks like it is outside use only.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Portable-Milita...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item1c112cb02f

It looks like you have made a really good sized stove for what you are heating. I have a round oak in a 12x20 room hooked to a 27' coachman travel trailer. And its really hard to keep it damped down so its not too hot inside. If its above 30deg outside I have to leave the windows open and sometimes crack the door too. One nite it was -6 deg F and I had no problem getting it to 95deg inside.

Dad next to the stove

Cooking breakfast

My hide out in the woods. Its off grid no power or water.

Billy

 

[Battenkiller]

Can't disagree that ceramic is a superior material for stove glass. They have an inner and outer glass on the Elms. Now I'm curious to know how many Elm door windows have failed? They do warn about thermal shock in the manual, so it is possible.

The inner glass is plate glass of some sort. Not sure what kind. I'm sure that it goes a long way to protect that pie plate on the outside. On an Elm, I doubt you'd run into a situation where both pieces of glass would fracture due to thermal shock at the same time. I'm curious about the failure rate myself. Maybe I'll shoot Steve an e-mail. I'm interested in his stoves anyway.

On this homemade stove, however, I think it makes sense to go with ceramic instead since it'd only be about $30.

 

[Chad Smith]

Cowboy Bill, It looks like we both enjoy the outdoors.

I'm not sure I'll be able to cook on top of mine, but I guess that remains to be seen. The sides get a lot hotter than the plate on top does. This is an unfortunate side effect of the way I built it horizontally, but I don't regret that.

I noticed you had a piece of concrete tile board propped up behind your stove. That is exactly what I planned on doing also. Have you discovered any issues with this?

 

[begreen]

Howdy Cold Hunter

My hide out in the woods. Its off grid no power or water.


Billy

Looks like a serious man-cave there. Something's missing though, duct tape? beer cans?

 

[Cowboy Billy]

Thanks Cold Hunter

The cement board is working fine for me. I am going to cut some strips of cement board and use that for spacers and I want the bottom up some so it can draft plenty of cool air behind it. The C-board gets too hot to touch but seems fine behind it but I need to take a temp gun up and check the temp on the wall behind it.

The air gap between the fire box and top plate will probably cool it down some. The stove I have up there was made between 1890 and 1894 according to JackPine another form member here. Back then a stove had to do more than just make heat!

I love the woods and I could live up there without a problem if I could find a decent job. We have a 120 acres and there is always something to do even if it is just walking in the woods. The only thing that bothers me is all the wolves. They killed two deer within 200 yards of the trailer this year.

Here's a link to the picture perfect form where I posted more pictures.

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/54138/


Thanks BeGreen

There are plenty of beer cans there and whiskey bottles too. But most of them are in a box outside the window. We built the addition just before deer season so it hasn't had time to get much character yet!

Billy

 

[begreen]

For sure your burn pile is bigger than my burn pile last year. But not by all that much... Burned steady for almost a week. There were still hot coals in the ash 30 days later, I kid you not.

 

[Cowboy Billy]

For sure your burn pile is bigger than my burn pile last year. But not by all that much... Burned steady for almost a week. There were still hot coals in the ash 30 days later, I kid you not.

I believe you. Its crazy how long a big pile of coals like that will last. The pile in that last picture was the worst on I have ever burnt. I pushed out the area for the trailer with a loader trees roots and all and got a lot of dirt in it. It took me over a year to get it all burnt. I would go up light it and the top two feet would burn off and go out. It was so wet inside the middle of june I could still see snow and ice in the pile. Last year when I cleared the area for the pole barn I cut the root balls off and put them in a separate pile and took out all the trunks of the trees. So all I had was branches tops and small trees. I got some to burn and it was smoldering when I left for home. When I got back three weeks later it was still smoldering. I went to the woods and brought back a bunch of dead spruce threw it on the pile and was able to get it burnt up.

Billy

 

[Chad Smith]

HEY HEY HEY .....

Cut it out you topic hounds!.

This one is all about ME!

ROFL

I got me a man-cave too! It may not be much to look at, but I'm pretty darn proud too!

As I may have mentioned before, the 20' trailer I use was a derelict "Decon Trailer" that my company wasn't using anymore. (A Decon trailer is a decontamination trailer used on jobsites where the workers are required to take showers after lead abatement or asbestos removal). The boss gave it to me. (Yes, I said GAVE). I gutted the inside and turned it into a two room camper with bunks and a kitchen area.

I relined all the walls with white bathboard. Built a partitional 2x4 wall to split it in half. Laid down another layer of 5/8 plywood decking. Custom built the bunkbed frame into the camper for added structural stability. Also built a countertop in the kitchen area. The actual camper only took an investment of around $240 dollars. (Don't hate me. )

Right now, the thing has two bunks, Microwave and oven, coffee pot, 28 inch TV, DVD player, old XBOX, and soon this woodburning stove as backup heat.

The lease I'm on currently did have a meter for electricity. The lease I'm moving it onto next year also has electricity, and will give me the opportunity to build an enclosed porch or another room onto it once it's in place.

Keep in mind, the whole reason behind me building this stove for heat was that I don't want to rely on "electrically generated" heat anymore since I'm always going to be off the beaten path.

 

[Cowboy Billy]

Free is good!! I would stay in it. Good thing you replaced the interior and got rid of any comintation. Great thing about a wood stove it does a lot better drying out cloths when they are wet! I was wondering how you got by with just electric heat until I saw you are from down south. Up where we are at you gotta be able to kick out hte Btu's! Last year when we were UP there were some days we were going through a 20lb propane tank a day to keep warm.

I knew exactly what you were talking about when you said "decon trailer" I do not have the abestos card but I had to take the 40hr hazemat class twice and am current on that.

Billy

 

[Chad Smith]

Our typical weather during deer season is a daytime high of 50-55, and lows at night around 25-30. Nowhere close to what you guys deal with up north.

 

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

I have a little 24"x12" rectangular box stove made from 16 gauge steel with a 4" exhaust. I use it for heating my "deer camp" which is a 12'x12' tent. It does a fine job so long as I feed it dry wood. I'll get a little puff of smoke when I open the door to load it, but not too bad.

Also, I've had it make a wierd chug-chug-chug sound on a rare occasion. It had something to do with the draft, but I'm not sure what caused it, how to prevent it, or even how to make it happen again.