How to build a redneck stove

[nanotech]

Well, I said I'd make a picture diary of my progress.

And here it is for all you viewing pleasure.  Neither the webpage nor the stove are completed yet, but they are both on thier way.

http://www.boomspeed.com/bofh1968/stove/

Man, I hate using Microsoft Publisher for making webpages.  It adds SO much extra crap in there!!  But I was lazy enough to not want to hard code it in HTML this late at night.

The next update I do will be in straight HTML so it won't take forever to load like this one does......

[zap]

Looks fun nanotech, do you have any idea of the btu's you might get?

Side note: Publisher does add a ton of overhead.  You should be able to open the source and remove much of the overhead in word, wordpad, or any text editor.  I used to use a nice little free program called web dwarf.  Easy (what you see is what you get) to use and you could go from down and dirty to a full featured web page with very little overhead.  I think there's a newer version out now but I've not used it.

[nanotech]

Zap, no idea on the BTU's, but if I can get even 10% of what was emanating from the firebox when I lit off all the cardboard, I'll be sitting pretty.

It was about 20 degrees F out when I tested it and the wind was blowing about 5-10mph through my front yard, and I could STILL feel heat almost 5-6 feet away.

And that was with half the stupid thing already wrapped in insulation (which was working quite well).

I think I should be able to get a continuous 10,000 - 20,000 actually under the house, which will equate to about 7,000 - 14,000 actually getting up through the floorboards and into the house.

That's a VERY low estimate.  I'm pretty sure I should be able to at least double that depending on the transfer efficiency of the copper coils.  I really wish I could have put a layer of sand around them to help with heat transfer, but that would have probably added another month on to my build time and I want to get this up and running to test it out before the temperatures rise too much.  I'll probably work on the sand part over the summer.  That should bump me up to about 30,000 BTU, but at that rate I'll be stoking and restocking the firebox every two hours!!  I mean, it's only 24X18X36!!  Not much room in there, really.

Someone else will probably have a better idea of the BTU output of something this small.  I'm just going on the surface area of my little one versus the monsters we build at work.  1/3 the surface area SHOULD equate to 1/3 the BTU output, right?  And the most common stove we make at work is about 3 times the size of mine and outputs 100,000BTU continuous......

Anyways, just got home from work and have been running on 2 hours of sleep all day.  Been up since 6:00AM and it's now 1:15AM the next morning.  Got to get up at 6:00 again, so I better go get some sleep.  G'night!!  

[nothing to lose]

Nice work.

What is that insulation, are you sure it will hold up to the high heat like that over time?

If you wanted to use the sand, it looks like you could build a simple good sheet metal box around that stove easy and fast, fill the box with sand. You could insulate the outside of the sand box and put a second box around that for weather proofing and protecting the insulation then. Just a thought, alot of ways to do it.

Nice neat looking coils, looks well done.

[zap]

NTL I would think the insulation would be ok.  If he's still planning to use the pump he spoke about in the previous thread then he should be able to pull enough heat away from the fire to keep things cool.  If not then he'll just have a nice glazed covering for the stove. ; )

nanotech I hope the outside layer of metal is going to be nice and shiny on the side facing the stove to keep in more of the radiant heat.

You're probably right about the btu's and that little tyke will probably get up to speed nice and quick.  Now you just need to automate it so a few chunks of wood slide in off a conveyor when needed.  Or is that the wife's job?

[nanotech]

Heh, heh, heh.  Wife's job - um, NO!!   Wife + fire = Bad Idea (tm)!!  

I'm kidding, but no, this is strictly my idea and my little baby to run with.

Eventually (funds permitting) I'm going to convert it to a corn burner if I can talk St. Croix Stoves or someone similar out of one of thier auger systems to mount inside.

But for now the local ODC is supplying my fuel in the form of 6 to 10 inch long cuts of 4X4's and 6X6's.  Nice little chunks of wood that fit nicely inside my little project.  

Now to just get up the gumption to go finish it and get it working instead of slacking off taking 30 minute showers!!  

[zap]

I'm sure you've seen the Bixby.  If not have a look here about half way down the page. http://www.hinkletown.com/brochure.html(Bixby's site seems to going through some updating)  The Bixby goes at feeding the stove a bit different.  Might be easier for a DIY'er, maybe not.

PS... I'm glad you knew I was kidding about "the wife"... I forgot to type a smiley!

[nothing to lose]

"Heh, heh, heh.  Wife's job - um, NO!!   Wife + fire = Bad Idea "

Same here, showed her a 100 times how to build a fire. I came home from Ohio last trip and we now own 5 new blankets couple more sleeping bags, and the dogs water was froze.

 Well maybe not that bad really, but...

 How many times do we need to tell them the kindling goes on bottom not the top, heat rises, flames rise, fire starters go on bottom and firewood on top!!

 For real I open the wood burner after she has been trying to get a fire going and the burnt sticks are on top of the firewood most of the time. She is getting better though.

 Still takes her forever but she can get one going sooner or later.

Hey, Turn off the hot water tank and plumb it over to the stove project for the hot water. Saves some power and encourages you to get it done faster, and you won't waste as much time in that cold shower either till it's done right

Thats' how I get myself motivated to do things sometimes. One day I will probably rent a backhoe to do some digging around here and cut through my power line to the house that I had burried. That will be the weekend before I actually get permanantely offgrid.

Once the cable is cut, I have to either fix it or set up other power system totally. And I won't be fixing the cable to the grid power pole!