and after seeing some of the post here, I am now wondering if I am actually as good as I thought I was!
Oh yea, I am a welder / fabricator and have been for 43 years now, and after studying small bit, compared to what I usually do on most projects, building a boiler seemed simple to me! But now I am seeing things about additives for the water, rust control, etc., and I will be truthful, I'm lost on that part!
I thought that I'd just ad enough automobile antifreeze to get it to above the point it couldn't freeze down to about O degrees F and that would be enough to keep anything from rusting, but now I wonder?
As I said, I am welder fabricator that finished welding school some 43 years ago! I have worked on coal fired power plants more that I care to remember, and now I am thinking about why they flushed the boiler out with hydrogen gas before we worked on them!
Will a boiler really rust that fast without any special protection?
I have built fireplace tube grate blowers that lived for years and all that was needed was to make sure the blower had enough CFM of air flow and the tube lasted!
The first one I built I used 16 gauge tubing and a small blower and that burned out pretty fast, but I was using an old hair dryer to blow on the coals every morning to get the new wood fired up, LOL!
I have noticed that some of the manufactures of outside boilers use stainless steel but I really didn't think that was necessary since the fire box would be engulfed in water with antifreeze in it!
It is hard for me to believe that metal can burn away when one side of it is surrounded in a maximum of 195 * water!
Would someone give me some answers here before I spend a grand build something that will fail in the middle of next winter?
My fire box is an old 36" x 60" oil tank that I have already cut down to 40" long and it is 3/16" thick!
The water tank is tank is 48" x 70" and I haven't cut it yet, but I believe it to be 1/4" thick!
Any ideas and help with the problems I have failed to see coming would be greatly appreciated! I hope I am wrong about getting scared here, but I'd rather know now than latter!
Thanks ahead for any post concerning this matter, and by the way Hi to all here! Seems we all have the same ideas, but maybe different approaches!
But it's like the man said, two heads are better than one!
Ranger
Oh yea, I am a welder / fabricator and have been for 43 years now, and after studying small bit, compared to what I usually do on most projects, building a boiler seemed simple to me! But now I am seeing things about additives for the water, rust control, etc., and I will be truthful, I'm lost on that part!
I thought that I'd just ad enough automobile antifreeze to get it to above the point it couldn't freeze down to about O degrees F and that would be enough to keep anything from rusting, but now I wonder?
As I said, I am welder fabricator that finished welding school some 43 years ago! I have worked on coal fired power plants more that I care to remember, and now I am thinking about why they flushed the boiler out with hydrogen gas before we worked on them!
Will a boiler really rust that fast without any special protection?
I have built fireplace tube grate blowers that lived for years and all that was needed was to make sure the blower had enough CFM of air flow and the tube lasted!
The first one I built I used 16 gauge tubing and a small blower and that burned out pretty fast, but I was using an old hair dryer to blow on the coals every morning to get the new wood fired up, LOL!
I have noticed that some of the manufactures of outside boilers use stainless steel but I really didn't think that was necessary since the fire box would be engulfed in water with antifreeze in it!
It is hard for me to believe that metal can burn away when one side of it is surrounded in a maximum of 195 * water!
Would someone give me some answers here before I spend a grand build something that will fail in the middle of next winter?
My fire box is an old 36" x 60" oil tank that I have already cut down to 40" long and it is 3/16" thick!
The water tank is tank is 48" x 70" and I haven't cut it yet, but I believe it to be 1/4" thick!
Any ideas and help with the problems I have failed to see coming would be greatly appreciated! I hope I am wrong about getting scared here, but I'd rather know now than latter!
Thanks ahead for any post concerning this matter, and by the way Hi to all here! Seems we all have the same ideas, but maybe different approaches!
But it's like the man said, two heads are better than one!
Ranger
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