Stove for the workshop, anyone have any ideas/exerience

I'm thinking of making something to provide a little heat for my workshop, mainly to avoid the condensation that occurs.

As it is is made from wood the actual fire part must stay outside (want it to be wood fired).

I was thinking along the lines of having a boiler made from a steel water tank, and weld tube going through it, just above where the fire would burn, and using a fan to blow the hot air through into the workshop.
Someone else suggested routing the chimney through the shed to provide heat, and someone else suggested using water for the same effect.

Does anyone have any suggestions or information, or have built something similar?
Thanks

Mith said:

As it is is made from wood the actual fire part must stay outside (want it to be wood fired).

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[FONT=&quot]Even though the building is wood you could quite safely put a potbelly stove or something similar in.[/FONT]

Yes, thats what I'm leaning more towards now. I am a little leery about introducing hot things into the fuel filled wooden shed.

Do you guys think this is something that could be home-made. I don't recall having seen any homemade ones before?

Thanks

Mith,

On this side of the pond, most insurance companies will not allow a wood burning stove in a building that contains fuel. It may be something you need to consider because if you do have a fire, the insurance may not pay.

On this topic, I'm gonna put a wood burning stove in my shop to replace the propane stove (not funace) thats in there now.

My concern is gasoline fumes and the risk of explosion. My thoughts are: 1. be careful of when dealing with gasoline and a lit fire, and 2. mount the stove off of the floor a couple feet, like a person would do with a water heater.

Any other thoughts?

Eric

You use to be able to buy these kits to convert an old 55 gallon drum to a wood burner. I have one in the garage at my cabin and it works pretty good. You just set the drum on leggs(part of the kit) cut the top off now the front and bolt on door (door is part of kit) and then the kit comes with a flange to connect your chimeny to. It works pretty good and I do leave it unatended a lot. But I can't find them kits anymore unless anyone else has seen them some place.

edit: I also have a fan that blows the heat off the barrel and pushes it to the space.

murph

thcri said:

You use to be able to buy these kits to convert an old 55 gallon drum to a wood burner. I have one in the garage at my cabin and it works pretty good. You just set the drum on leggs(part of the kit) cut the top off now the front and bolt on door (door is part of kit) and then the kit comes with a flange to connect your chimeny to. It works pretty good and I do leave it unatended a lot. But I can't find them kits anymore unless anyone else has seen them some place.

edit: I also have a fan that blows the heat off the barrel and pushes it to the space.

murph

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Like this?
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_20894_20894

Eric L said:

Like this?
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_20894_20894

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Yep, that would be the kit. I did a search on their web page and could not find it??? But that is the kit.

murph

Brian, I don't have insurance, and I would have thought welding would void it anyway.

Murph, do you have a picture of that? It sounds roughly like what I would like to make. I was thinking of a barrel in the vertical position with a door cut in the front to load it.


Here is a picture kinda of what I was envisaging

Mith,

Are you thinking of something like this?

I've got a question...
The ones mentioned already use what I believe to be a standard 55 gallon drum. I use the same drum as my burn barrel.

What's the life expectancy of the barrel? Mine only last a year or so.

I can get my burn barrel to glow red just burning paper. Is this thing going to glow when it's fired up?

Oh, BTW Jim. If you do use the barrel setup, I would recommend you burn it once outside first. The paint on the outside and whatever was on the inside, you want to burn off before you put it in your shop.

Brian, I'm trying to stay away from a 55gal barrel for the reasons you just said.
The stove you linked to is pretty much what I'm looking for.

I was thinking if it were made from really heavy steel it would hold its heat for longer.

Do you think the stove you linked to would pose much of a fire risk?
It looks well enclosed, just a case of keeping fuels away from it.

Mith said:

Murph, do you have a picture of that? It sounds roughly like what I would like to make. I was thinking of a barrel in the vertical position with a door cut in the front to load it.

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I don't have a picture right now, but am planning on going up to my cabin this week-end and could take a picture. A long time ago we built one using that same kit but we modified it and stacked two barrels on top of each other. The burner was in the lower barrel and the upper barrel was just for heat only. You would pipe your vent connected opposite ends of the barrel. You get twice as much Btu's out of it doing that. And we even had a drip tube from a 5 gal pale that we dripped used oil in. That would make the barrel cherry red.

For my cabin I didn't need that much heat and in fact I used a 30 gallon barrel instead. If you go with this system get yourself a damper for in the flu pipe. Otherwise you will go through way too much wood.

And only use a Class A chimney cause these things get hot.

I will try and get you some pictures this week-end.

murph

thcri said:

A long time ago we built one using that same kit but we modified it and stacked two barrels on top of each other.

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Using Eric's link to Northern Tool, you get Model BK100E. On the same site, go to Model # BK50E and that's the kit to incorporate the 2nd barrel.

Jim - Being cast iron, I would trust it over a regular steel barrel.
On that same site, here's more options.
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/ranges.asp?g=118&r=2139

BTW, I just used that site since in my search, I included UK in the search to try to find choices closer to you.

Mith, these throw a fair amount of heat, and not that dear. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/WOODBURNER-POT-BELLY-STANDARD-LOGBURNING-STOVE_W0QQitemZ190073492369QQihZ009QQcategoryZ20564QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem