Homebuilt woodburning cookstoves?

Liese, DH apprenticed himself to a brick mason for many years. The mason was about 70 years old when we met him. He was a perfectionist, well, so is DH. This stove and chimney was the first project DH built completely on his own. The old mason certainly was around to watch. The old guy about had a heart attack when DH let me lay some brick. The old feller admonished that DH could no longer say that he, DH, had built the whole thing. The old feller mainly built chimneys, so DH got lots of learnin'.

How can that be so when another 'expert' says:

Inquiring minds want to know?

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Can you explain the picture of the bricks that step down with the holes in the back for me? My dad has something that looks identical to that in his basement and the holes in his lead under the foundation of the house.

I never knew what this was... and still don't.

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Dahc.

This photograph will show the stove floor. The foundation of the stove/chimney, under the house floor,[IMG][/IMG] also had holes in it, block or brick turned sideways. The hole you see in the floor of the stove was for air flow, just like the square holes in the back wall of the stove leading to the flues. This allowed air to be drawn into the stove for combustion purposes from under the house. Otherwise the combustion air would come from the interior of the house causing even more drafting.

Well, Smokey Joe was thin cast iron, not a drum.

I would think the main concern about a drum would be routine checks for structural integrity, and a way to contain the fire, should that integrity fail.

Well now, let's see, the PO hauled it from Virginia, then installed the homebuilt stove and lived there for 8 years. We have lived there for 17 years. There has been insurance on the place through TN Farm Bureau, then, for 25 years with a homemade wood stove in the living room in use every dadgum winter.

Oh, but what about before then? Well, the house was built 75 years ago (Out of solid oak sawmilled off the place when it was cleared), and it originally had TWO wood stoves. I removed one old masonry flue when adding on, and the other is still blocked off with a flue plate.

Oh, and I'm going to get those pix. Forgot last night, after evening chores. I'll put a note in my pocket, that usually works!

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Jim Steele
Sweetpea Farms
"To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing." -- Robert Gates

I'm in the process of building a combination wood cookstove, oven, smoker, water heater and masonry heating stove for our tiny cottage. First time for me. So far I'm still in the design and model testing mode. When I get further along I'll write about it and post photos on my blog.

On the insurance issue, there is a solution. Don't worry, be happy - and smart. I'm building a house that is unburnable. It is made of stone and concrete. The interior is designed to prevent fire of contents as well. Prevention is better than any form of insurance.

For a good getting started book on the topic get "The Book of Masonry Stoves: rediscovering old ways of warming" by David Lyle. There are also some good books on building bread ovens that are relevant as well.

As to the paranoia about "home built stoves" and such, consider that the cooking stove, fire places, chimney and beehive oven in our existing farm house were all built by the previous original owner who was obviously an amateur (take a gander at some of the brick work) yet it has done great for 230 years, the house hasn't burned and the brickwork all still looks fine. I agree with the sentiment - relax and chill.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

Relax and chill????? Why should or would I do that? I've been stuck too many times with the mess that comes from this mentality. Home built stoves, incorrect and faulty installations, structure fires, families losing their all their worldly possessions. The lucky ones made it out with their lives intact - not all did.

I am rather curious as to where your attitude comes from that you've been stuck. Pray tell.

The simple answer for you is don't buy something that was home built. It's that simple. It is your choice what you spend your money on and if you don't check it out before you buy then it is your own fault.

So, what have you gotten 'stuck' with? How did you ever get 'stuck' with it? Why didn't you investigate your prospective purchase first?

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

My attitude comes from being a fire fighter and first responder. I don't really think you'd want the gruesome details, nor is this an appropriate place to talk about them. We leave that for the firehall.

So, you saw some bad examples. What you failed to see was the good ones. Your view is highly biased because your work involved responding to problems, not successes. There are many excellent home built projects. You just miss them.

By the way. I too was a fire fighter. A big difference is I understand the above.

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

Here's my homebuilt and incorrect installation, folks...sorry for the wait, michiganfarmer...but if you knew what I have to go through to post pix here...

And pardon the dust...we are not a white-glove household...heheheh...

Front view...the basic frame is of angle iron, the steel is 3/8 plate, it is lined inside with firebrick on floor and one brick around the sides, the back legs are cut off because the PO could not get it in the house with them on (been intending to put some iron back on for 17 years, but this works).


Side view. The only brake work is the top, and that could be done for you if you're building it. The top contains the plenum and fan. The fan is on a rheostat we have mounted in a switchbox on the floor.


Closeup of heat tubes and fan mount.


Inside door detail. The door dampers (one on each) screw in, on bolts welded to the strap in the pic. They close nice and tight when you want that.


Flue pipe connection. There is a damper in this, the control is on the other side.


Inside shot, up toward the heat tube plenum. You can see the damper, too. Note the flame shield that extends into the box below the flue pipe exit. It is warped because we used to burn a lot of bois-de-arc (osage orange), a very hot wood.


There you have it. This thing rocks! It has kept us warm for 17 years now. We did install central, but mainly for the a/c. We use the woodstove for heat. The central furnace never came on last year, except to burn it for a routine fall test to make sure it worked.

Hope it gives folks some ideas.

When we first moved in, I did have to get under the house and install floor supports under all that masonry work. The PO had not done that, and it was starting to sag. I would suggest supports under any wood stove of larger size. They are heavy. The tile flue goes to an outside tile-lined, stacked chimney, with access door for cleanout. That area it goes out through used to be a window.

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Jim Steele
Sweetpea Farms
"To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing." -- Robert Gates

Color me impressed!

Very nice job...

After we signed a contract to buy, I came along just as the PO was about to remove it and take it with him. I said NO CAN DO, bud, it is affixed to the property. Good thing I came along at just the right time to see that. And his wife was a RE agent, so she durn well knew that!

I have heard horror stories of people buying farms and moving in after the POs had left, only to find bath fixtures, light fixtures and all kinds of attached stuff gone missing. If it is affixed to the property in a permanent way, it stays unless otherwiss negotiated in writing. That's the law.

Sorry, I'm hijacking the thread here.

One thing about this stove -- you must be a good welder or know one. But I believe it will still be heating when I'm cold in the ground.

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Jim Steele
Sweetpea Farms
"To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing." -- Robert Gates

Wish I was there! I need 3 food grade barrels to make a double-barrel smoker. Got everything together now but the durned barrels...hard to find food grade around these parts. At least so far. I found some a man was reselling, he wanted $17 each! Yikes!

I got all the barrel stove parts from TSC when they did their closeout last year, picked them up for about nothing or durned near. Then he up and wants $17 a barrel. I was insulted.

Neatest two-barrel stove setup I ever saw was, guy had dug a basement into the hillside with doors going outside. He plopped a 2-story log cabin on it. He put vents in the floor of the first story, venting into the basement. Then he put vents in the second floor, venting into the first floor. Used regular registers in the vent holes.

His barrel stove was in the basement, so all his wood trash and ash was kept out of the first and second stories. In winter, he'd go up to the top story and crack open the windows, and the heat would rise up through the vents.

It was BRILLIANT!

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Jim Steele
Sweetpea Farms
"To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing." -- Robert Gates

This post has been in the back of my mind for a while [well lets see a post date of 07/2007]. Or perhaps it was some other post about how 55-gallon drums are not suitable to use as a wood stove.

Anyway. It is 2008.

I have cleaned, inspected and re-installed our woodstove.

In the bottom barrel, our teens had been throwing logs in such that they bounced off the back of the stove. Well this behavior did knock loose the fire clay in the back.

So I did mix about 1/2 gallon of fire clay up, and I applied it to that back wall of the drum. After cleaning them both, we stood them upright, and I poured the cement into the bottom in a very soupy mixture, so it self-leveled a bit. After 2 weeks for it to cure, we have setup the stove once again.

It appears to be ready to go for another year.

2006, 2007, and now we are heading into 2008 and this stove does not appear to be any worse for the usage.

Putting out 200Kbtu I did expect it to have burned through by now.

We have a dozen drums here in the back yard waiting for projects. They are all food-grade, we use them for holding livestock feed, and storing woodchips, and fermenting potato mash. But the primary purpose of having these drums was as ready replacements for the wood stove. So far we have not needed a replacement though.

We burn first-year [unseasoned] wood, and wood chips [sometimes soaked in WVO], and newspaper logs, and locally harvested peat.

The upper drum or secondary-combustion chamber is wrapped with 50' of copper tubing. Which heats water for our thermal bank, which flows through our radiant floor loop. [of course we have pressure relief valves]

May God bless you.

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http://www.mofga.org/

http://www.mofga.org/Programs/FarmAp...2/Default.aspx

Some of the wood cook stoves being manufactured today are quite pricey. I think you are paying for the fancy design and chrome trim. Lehman's also sells wood cook stoves made of thick steel, plain as can be, functional, air tight and not so pricey. Search Baker's Maid. The fire boxes on these stoves makes them good heating stoves, too.

Really?

I had not thought of $100 as being too pricey.

But if you wanted lower efficiency you can spend more money.

Any stove with a secondary combustion chamber and that heats water for radiant floors is pretty efficient.

Ithere has been homebuilt, or antique, or.. stoves heating homes here in the Ozarks since people first moved into houses.
Anyone remember the old King heaters? made of metal so thin that when you had a good fire the entire stove would glow cherry red? or--if it was real hot, it would do a lil dance on the floor--REALLY!
And to think--I raised 3 children in that house!
I would think there would be a old wood cook stove around that you could copy? Theres 2 sitting in my out building.

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In Life, We Weep at the thought of Death'
Who Knows, Perhaps in Death,
We Weep at the though of Life.

Texan
I think you'd be better off buying a good used cook stove before trying to make your own. I did a quick search in Craigslist in Texas and found this stove.

http://houston.craigslist.org/for/778356248.html

Looks like it's in good shape and the price is good too. I myself just bought a Monarch cook stove off of Craigslist here in California. I got it for 500$. Here's a pic of my stove.
[IMG][/IMG]
There are several other cookstoves in my local area in the 300-600$ range. I don't think you could make a stove as good as one of these used ones for that amount of money.

Good luck,
Michael