I have always wondered about these stoves. What if you accidentally touch it? Is it just one of those things that you have to be careful around, or is there some sort of protection involved to stop accidents happening?
Finally getting around to the small dingos
- Thread starter Smerft85
- Start date
- Status
I have always wondered about these stoves. What if you accidentally touch it? Is it just one of those things that you have to be careful around, or is there some sort of protection involved to stop accidents happening?
Smerft85
Member
Bigger stoves like a friend of mine can burn over 1000°, getting within 3 feet of his when it's running full tilt will give you plenty of early warning before ever making contact. I figure mine will never get beyond 800°, so a quick touch would only be enough to remind you it's hot, we had a true woodstove in a house we lived in for about a year, it's pretty much a fireplace that you can reach and see the back and sides. The only real protection is common sense to be honest, but after getting comfortable using one it starts to feel safer over all, even our dogs knew better than to get too close when it was burning. I've added forced air to mine through the square hole above the door, the square tube runs all the way through and welded front and back to seal the smoke inside the stove, blower box needs to be built still to fit the blower, as the flames inside heat the square tube, the blower forces the hot air inside the tube into the room. I would say it's like having a fully contained campfire inside, so slightly safer? I don't ever plan on hitting extreme temperatures in mine, pretty sure a small fire will warm the place up plenty, but I do plan on using every piece of proper safety I can when I install it, double wall pipe out the ceiling, proper tophat to keep sparks from starting fires, and so on. I doubt the stove itself would ever pass any type of inspection, but I will make the chimney and walls meet or exceed building codes.
gegcorp2012
Active member
Nice work on the stove and the foil backed insulation.
I see you have an air space between the foil side and interior stud face. Thats good. You need that air space for the radiant barrier to be effective if you add sheetrock or plywood on the inside.
Do you have a grate to hold the fire wood above the ash dump area? I have build BBQ smoker fireboxes and use 1/2" flat bar or 1/4 stair tread, depending on what is laying around. The grate should be separate in case the stove belly lasts a long time.
Extra thickness is preferred where the flames may be up against the sides (steel will start to glow around 800F).
Is the belly (blue part) an air tank ? How thick is it?
PLUS, you with a few changes, you could make it into a gassifier and put it on a kart to have the first wood powered kart on the forum !
BTW, I am garaging-it too. I have to go full time on my pole barn for a while because the permit is expiring soon.
Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk
I see you have an air space between the foil side and interior stud face. Thats good. You need that air space for the radiant barrier to be effective if you add sheetrock or plywood on the inside.
Do you have a grate to hold the fire wood above the ash dump area? I have build BBQ smoker fireboxes and use 1/2" flat bar or 1/4 stair tread, depending on what is laying around. The grate should be separate in case the stove belly lasts a long time.
Extra thickness is preferred where the flames may be up against the sides (steel will start to glow around 800F).
Is the belly (blue part) an air tank ? How thick is it?
PLUS, you with a few changes, you could make it into a gassifier and put it on a kart to have the first wood powered kart on the forum !
BTW, I am garaging-it too. I have to go full time on my pole barn for a while because the permit is expiring soon.
Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk
Smerft85
Member
Lots to answer! Well the insulation is stacked 3 sheets deep so the wall is full, same way fiberglass batting would be installed, I think an empty chamber between layers may have made some difference, but would have been a nightmare to instal, according to the specs r-value increases greatly with thickness so I trusted in that, I've never worked with anything but fiberglass, other than when I manufactured paper cellulois insulation (blow in), so it was all new to me.the stove is an air tank, I'd have to Mic it, but pretty sure it's 3/16" maybe a hair thicker, unfortunately I built the door before I thought about a grate so I did a heavy tack weld on some leftover 1" thick walled pipe, cleaning out ash will have to be at times when it hasn't been used in a week or so.
Wood burning gokart sounds interesting, would be fairly simple to build a steam engine powered by wood.
maybe I'll do something like that with the little red tank! Woodstove is definitely not perfect, far from it, but if it safely produces heat for a few years and doesn't smoke out the garage I'm happy, should last a while being inside and a bit thicker than my Webber grill that's been outside for 15-20 years. It's completely experimental with high hopes of it working out properly, if it does I'll be a bit excited about building a better one eventually to take it's place with thicker steel and so on, but everything done in the garage with the woodstove and insulation is all free materials and gives me something to do, I'm pretty proud to have ability to do it all on a stay home dad salary, not much! 
Smerft85
Member
Well, other than the damper on the chimney pipe, and some sort of temporary spark arrestor it's ready to take outside and burn it hot once to cook all the paint off. I'll check for smoke leaks in all the welds after the smoke from the paint is gone too.
After looking at my walls again, I now understand what gap you were referring to, the thickness of one more sheet would have protruded beyond the studs, it's roughly 1/4" to 1/2" between the surface of the insulation and the back of where the sheetrock will eventually be, while not intentionally done I knew I'd rather a bit of space than to not be able to hang drywall so it worked out for the better. Originally I though you meant I had a space between layers of insulation, i read it wrong.
gegcorp2012
Active member
you are rocking it for sure.
Go ahead and push the foam iulation towards the outside wall... the R value goes up as the foam thickness increases. The foil backing is a bonus because it reflects heat.
With the foil facing inside, it will keep heat in (good for colder climates)... just needs an air space to be effective. I am using a radiant barrier on my pole barn in a warmer climate as a heat shield so I do not feel the radiant heat on mid to high 90 degree weather we get here in the south..
The grate can fit through the door, just start with a CAD model (cardboard assisted design). Try a half circle close to the ID of your stove and see if that fits.
May need 4 pieces of fire brick or metal for llegs ro hold the grate about 3-4" off the bottom, so there is room for ashes and the incoming air.
Stove looks really good, just make sure your welds for the 2x4 heat exchanger and door and top drum, etc dont leak harmful carbon monoxide if you are running it in a tight room. Provably good to get a CO detector to play it safe and open the door if you get sleepy when working with the stove burning.
I built a gravity fed charcoal firebox from 3/16 flat plate and a dime thin SS tube that routinely saw 1200 degrees by stoking it with a 12v computer fan. The 3/16 walls and stair tread grate had pretty bad delamination after 5-6 seasons, being in the rain as well.
Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk
Go ahead and push the foam iulation towards the outside wall... the R value goes up as the foam thickness increases. The foil backing is a bonus because it reflects heat.
With the foil facing inside, it will keep heat in (good for colder climates)... just needs an air space to be effective. I am using a radiant barrier on my pole barn in a warmer climate as a heat shield so I do not feel the radiant heat on mid to high 90 degree weather we get here in the south..
The grate can fit through the door, just start with a CAD model (cardboard assisted design). Try a half circle close to the ID of your stove and see if that fits.
May need 4 pieces of fire brick or metal for llegs ro hold the grate about 3-4" off the bottom, so there is room for ashes and the incoming air.
Stove looks really good, just make sure your welds for the 2x4 heat exchanger and door and top drum, etc dont leak harmful carbon monoxide if you are running it in a tight room. Provably good to get a CO detector to play it safe and open the door if you get sleepy when working with the stove burning.
I built a gravity fed charcoal firebox from 3/16 flat plate and a dime thin SS tube that routinely saw 1200 degrees by stoking it with a 12v computer fan. The 3/16 walls and stair tread grate had pretty bad delamination after 5-6 seasons, being in the rain as well.
Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk
Smerft85
Member
Almost got the gx160 finished up. This engine was given to me by a friend that accidentally hit it with a skid loader while it was on a compressor. Had to swap a head and carb onto it, didn't have a tank when I got it, but it had under 100 hours of use when he damaged it. I don't think it looks too bad considering. All it needs currently is a valve cover gasket, but I'll be pulling the governor shortly, even the oil was still golden in color, can't wait to get it ready to start up!
- Status