Redesigning a Stove, help me out!

[kgrant]

First off I'll introduce myself.

I'm in Fairbanks, Alaska. I have a Blaze King King with a cat in my house. Been using that one for about 5 years, love it. Grew up with an old Blaze King at my parents.

But why I'm here is a stove for my cabin.

I have a log cabin, 20'x24' with a 10' peak. Right now I have an Osburn in there. Don't know the model, but the firebox is darn small. When it is -40 outside it is all I can do to keep it 60 inside. And I have to stoke the fire every 4-5 hours. Nothing wrong with the Osburn, just too small.

I do need to do some insulating on the cabin, but it isn't going to get much better than it is.

I'm on a budget, and I can't afford to drop the money on a new stove.

So I ended up with a series 100 Earth Stove for free. It is in pretty bad shape! Inside it looks very similar to the one that Roospike rebuilt, only worse! Here's a link to his rebuild https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/6129/

I'm going to rebuild this thing a bit. I have tons of scrap steel and will do all the work myself.

First off the flu goes out the rear, and it is 8". And it has been so hot, it is oval, not round! So I'm going to cut it off and plate over the hole. I'm not sure what size to put back in the top. The pipe in the cabin is 6", and I'm not going to change that. So should I just put a 6" collar on the stove, or should I go 8", and run 8" pipe as far as I can and neck it down to 6". Seems like the larger pipe would be able to flow more than the straight 6".

Second I want to install a baffle. I don't know if there ever was one, but I don't see any remains of one, nor do I see any in Roospikes pics. How far down from the top of the stove should I put it? In my Osburn, the baffle is 3 or 4" from the top. Do I need a baffle? Seems like it should create a chamber where it might do a secondary burn? Should make it more efficent.

So basicly I have a shell of a stove, and am going to rebuild it and try to make it more efficent, but most importantly throw out more heat than my little Osburn.

How would you go about doing this? Help me design a stove.

Remember this is a cabin in the woods, no codes or anything. It is probably occupied 60 days a year.

I'm working on getting some pics of mine up.

Thanks!

Kevin

 

[swestall]

Keep the stove output collar as it was designed. As for adding a baffle, it will burn hotter yet if you do and with only using it 60 days, why bother? Perhaps check for an Englander on sale at Home Depot?

 

[kgrant]

Well even though it is only used 60 days a year, it is still nice to get the most heat and burn time from your wood. That would be the reason for installing a baffle (I think?, I'm not a stove engineer). Plus the main reason to do this is my current stove doesn't put out enough heat. And it takes a lot of heat to get a log cabin warm at -40, those logs soak up alot of heat.

I'd love to get a new stove, but I don't have a grand to drop on one. This one will be free, except for time, which this time of year I have plenty of. Plus why not recycle something, instead of sending it to the scrap heap.

Here's the only photo I have of the current stove.

click on picture for fullsize view

 

[Hogwildz]

1. Alter the stove, you void the listing.
2. Void the listing, void a legal install.
3. Should it have a problem and burn your pad down. Ins. Co. may have a case to deny claim.

Not trying to be a "Richard", just stating fact. Honestly, its not worth the time or potential problems.

And welcome

 

[kgrant]

So, what is a listing? And I think that any work on this stove will make it better than it is, right now it is not safe. Well there is no insurance, so no problems there. Beleive me, if this was my house, it wouldn't be getting done.

Here's some pics of the fubared Earth Stove.

click on pictures for fullsize view.

 

[Hogwildz]

Listing is UL or Hersey Warner (spelling) tested. This thing may not even have one.
Bro, seriously, that stove is ready for the scrap yard. Its been severely over fired, everything is warped. You might as well just buy some steel and build your won fresh.
You will basically be replacing everything on that stove. That baby is a basket case with no future. Of course thats merely my opinion.
You do what you have to do. Good luck.

 

[swestall]

HONESTLY, you will be wasting your time and endangering your life if you do anything but sell this stove to the scrap man. There are a lot of CLASSIC stoves out there for a few hundred dollars. These stoves can put out 100K/BTU pretty easily and will burn fairly clean if burned fairly hot. They will use wood, but they will work.
That stove you have is an accident looking for a place to happen, don't make it in that beautiful cabin. That cabin looks like some nice place to get away to!
You could order one of those Potbelly stoves from Northern Tool and be safer with little cash spend.
Please don't risk having to wake up to a burning bedroom.........

 

[stoveguy2esw]

that stove is a train wreck, i seriously doubt it could be rebuilt and operated safely. note also, the unit when it was built was designed to be flued with an 8" chimney or larger, simply makiing the collar smaller does not make it a proper 6" flued stove , the draft control setup and firebox dimentions were laid out to perform with an 8" flue , so closing the collar down to a 6" would be literally the same as dumping an 8 inch collared stove into a 6 inch chimney , you just shouldnt do it , it wont burn right. find another stove that isnt so wasted, that thing is a time bomb

 

[kgrant]

Well I know I could do it (rebuild) but I just got a KILLER deal on an Englander 30-NC.

First off I went to Lowes, just to see what they had. Well they had the Century stoves, marked down 25% for a seasonal clearance. Was looking at the 2000sq/foot model, forget the model number. Went and talked to a sales person to ask how long the sale was going on for, and they told me that just this morning they had a meeting about all of that stuff being 50% off.

But before I jumped the gun and got the Century unit (that I didn't really like), I went to Home Depot to check out the Englanders.

Well Homedepot wasn't on sale, but I asked the gal if they were having any sales. They said no, but they would do a price match if it was a comparable item. THey had to call Lowes and bla bla bla....

Basicly an hour later I left the store with an Englander 30-NC new in the crate for $350! Couldn't pass it up.

Now I just need to get it out to the cabin. A little easier in the boat than with the snowmachine, but it should be in there and running by Saturday.

Thanks guys.

 

[begreen]

Whoa, you stole that baby. Put some skis on the crate and tow it .

 

[Hogwildz]

IIIEEEEEEEEEEEE argh.
I'm going to HOme peehole tomorrow. I hope they have a 30 left, I am slacking this year. Missed it last year too.

 

[Corie]

Holy COW that's cheap.



The steel to build the stove costs more than that.

 

[swestall]

Hey All, I went to HD with my brother to buy one of these. We were told that the stove had to be the same make and model; in other words NO DEAL. I was disappointed, but, my brother bought the stove anyway. I'd told him about England, Corie and all the good things to say about the 30. He is going to replace a
CLASSIC Fisher with this one. I told him his stack would be cleaner and he's going to use about 1/2 the wood.
And to our friend in Alaska, consider yourself one lucky camper. I'd love to use that cabin some day!

 

[frannie]

How big is the Osborn? I'm looking for a back-up stove for a small 320 sqft cabin. Can't find one small enough. I'm in Bettles.

 

[webbie]

Dang, K......

I'm all for recycling, but that thing is beat. I would only use something like that if I lived in Alaska and had no heat.....oops!

In all seriousness, that thing is toast. Maybe completely fixed up it is OK for the hunting shack.

Before we told you how to fix that baby up, we would pass the hat around and come up with a few bucks to help you find something else used.....or perhaps get a donation from a nice manufacturer!
The freight would be a killer, though.

 

[frannie]

Thanks anyway. I'm driving the ice road back and hoped to score on a stove to transport from Fairbanks. Don't feel good about sleeping with a cast iron box stove in a small cabin. The Woodway store has the best selection but I'm paying top dollar. They have a Jontol F-100 and a V.C. Dutchwest Plate Steel model they offer as small in size but big in price. I'm still open if you hear of anything. Bye

 

[kgrant]

The fubared one is still sitting in the shop. I'll get to it one of these days, like all the other projects.

Frannie, the Osburn is still at the cabin, and I don't know of my plans with it yet. If you're still in town I would check out Lowes and see if they have anything left. The stoves and accesories were 50% off a few weeks ago, so they might be sold out.

Cheers