Shop heaters

[Poley]

who has made a wood burning barrel of stove to heat their shop? and how did you make it?

[Backncardr]

I used a barrel stove kit from NorthernTool.com using a 55 gallon drum. Bought the kit 22 years ago and still on same barrel. I just went to their website and they won't sell it to Wash. or CA. You have to supply the barrel. Also you need a sawzall to cut the openings. If you use an air chisel put on some shooter's muffs to protect yer hearing. Oh about 30 bucks for the kit.

[Old Scout]

The barrel kits work very well. They use a 30 or 55 gallon drum and are dirt cheap. If you need a ton of Btus get the double barrel kit.

A double 55 barrel stove cooked us out of a 4000sq ft shop in Truckee with 4ft of snow on the ground.

[Goldmember]

Kit (http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=6970&productId=20894&R=20894)



Koko

[Old Scout]

Kit (http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=6970&productId=20894&R=20894)



Koko

Double Kit (http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=6970&productId=42429&R=42429)

http://www.northerntool.com/images/product/images/16161_lg.jpg

[D60]

Kit (http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=6970&productId=20894&R=20894)


Koko

Any idea if it uses 6 or 8" pipe?

[morpheus]

6"

see the assembly instructions:

http://www.vogelzang.com/Manuals/bk100e_50eMnl.htm

[67scout800]

From the instructions:
...
8. Do not operate stove while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
...

DAMMIT!!

[Poley]

Thanks guys..


#8. is a big problem!!!!! Damn I guess I'll risk it, so you guys think a single barrel is ok for 1200 Sq. Ft.?
Any on in AZ. got a line on 55 Gal. drums hard to find here.

[unimogken]

Call up some paint shops for the barrels. Alot of the thinners they use come in 55 gal drums.

[Foxfab]

and post video the first time you fire it up using one of those barrels that had thinner in it :D

Call up some paint shops for the barrels. Alot of the thinners they use come in 55 gal drums.

[Poley]

Ya a furture Darwin Award winner...... LOL

[Orionn]

and post video the first time you fire it up using one of those barrels that had thinner in it :D

or just cutting the openings in it!! :eek: :eek:


Anyone care to explane the benefit of the two barrel stove? how does it work? :confused:

[randii]

Anyone care to explane the benefit of the two barrel stove? how does it work? :confused:
Bigger radiation surface before it hits the chimney = better efficiency.

There's slightly more room to burn, as well, and a bit of a stand-pipe venturi/forced air effect from the stack between the barrels.

Randii

[Cahdealme]

Seems to be just more surface area to transfer heat.

[Aaronius]

Propane Drywall heaters work good. About 35.000 BTU's.

*edit: for the sake of accuracy. Its 80,000 BTU's.

[Poley]

Propane Drywall heaters work good. About 35.000 BTU's. Ya but Wood is Free....WELL PLATES ARE IF U KNOW WHERE TO GET THEM>>>>>>>lol :flipoff2:

Propane cost an arm and a leg

[79CJLongmont]

I was working on building something like the Mother's Waste Oil Heater (http://www.motherearthnews.com/arc/2574/). I figure I can burn some used Rotella and heat the shop all at once. The begining of the article talks about the anti-flash agent in modern oils and how modern used oil burners deal with it. I think it would be easy to implement a similar system if needed. The best part of this heater is that if you have a diesel, you could end-up with a lot of oil. My Powerstroke with a bypass filter takes 4 gallons of oil!

[Poley]

That is a good Idea, I've heard of that before, sounds good.. :smokin:

[jeepguy616]

I used the barrel stove for about 5 years until the barrel got a little thin and I found a small wood stove for about $100. I was going to make a waste oil furnace like the mothers but never got to it. I did take and use the wate oil burning concept and added it to my wood stove. I took a old paint pot that had a lid and piped in a shut off valve and then went into about 30 foot of copper tubing and wraped it around the stove pipe and then to another shut off valve and then into the top of the wood stove where the fire is. The theory is the same if you preheat the oil it does not smoke. So If I am going to be in the garage all day I start the fire and open the 1st valve at the paint pot that is mounted on a shelf on the wall and get a good fire going and then open the valve by the wood stove to a slow drip and it burns along with wood. Just have to watch the slow drip for wen the oil gets thin with the heat. Works for me!

[odee]

has anyone here tried to build a pressurised waste oil burner like the ones you can buy?

[Poley]

I like the idea of wood and oil mix burners...
but why have two shut offs, why not just one on the drip after it is preheated? in theroy it would just always be preheated.....right. :p
but great design

[79CJLongmont]

So, I finally threw a used oil burner together. First-off, lemme say that you don't have to have wood. No need to find it or chop it to burn it when you can just burn oil.

I used an old oil drum, an old saw blade, two old disc harrows, some scrap steel, copper tubing, perlite, and an old paint can. I soldered a fitting into the bottom of a paint can so I could connect copper tubing to it. I added a shut-off valve in the copper and ran it down (paint can currently hanging from rafters) and wrapped it around the exhaust stove pipe a couple of times. I then drilled a hole in the stove pipe and stuck the end of the copper into it so that it sits high above the burner. The stove pipe is just coming out of a hole in the top of the barrel. I cut a door into the side of the barrel. I made the burner system by torching holes into a smaller disc harrow and an old saw blade. The larger disc harrow I had was used to be the bottom plate that holds the perlite. So the order from top down is holey disc -> holey saw blade -> large disc with no holes holding the perlite. I spaced them all about 1" apart. I also made a witch hat style hood out of some 18ga I had laying around. The top of the witch hat is attached to the bottom of the barrel's lid. The bottom of the witch hat sits just above the top disc. To get it going, I pour some kerosene into the bottom disc and soak the perlite. I throw a piece of flaming newspaper into the disc and turn the oil on. I have a spray bottle full of kerosene I use to hit it to get it stoked and to get the oil hot enough to get it flowing. To get the oil to burn better, I add a "dash" of kerosene to it. It is currently a bootyfabbed deal, but it works Awesome. I do have a problem with the end of the copper tubing carbonizing. I just unscrew the stove side of the valve and shoot some compressed air into it when it stops flowing.

To give you an idea of how hot it gets, when doing a gear swap tonight, I sat the ring gear on the top of the drum for about 15mins. When I took it off, it dropped right onto the carrier with no force. All this was in 30 degree weather in a carport with just tarps around it until I build some walls. This thing is great and I am really using up my stash of old oil without needing ANY wood.

[jeepguy616]

Sounds like a good idea. My set up really does not need to shut off valves but this way when I get ready to clean up I can shut off the one up by the oil tank and it will drain out of the copper tubing. But is really doesn't matter if you use one or two valves. I also have a ton of wood so I have the option of wood or used oil. The wood sove I have is smaller than a 55 gallon drum, I was running out of space because the thing getts pretty warm and being as its in a 21x21 garage you need all the space you can get.

[scott-885]

I spent about $75.00 on my garage heater and it consists of a 5 ton home blower unit a thermostat and some piping to Tee into the gas line from the water heater. Works bad ass and is adjustable. An AC man gave me the heater unit for free just had to ask arround.

[Poley]

anyone have pics of their oil set-up or oil wood setup... would love to make one just need a visual.

[79CJLongmont]

anyone have pics of their oil set-up or oil wood setup... would love to make one just need a visual.
I'll try to get some up tonight. I NEED to buy a red star, but just have not sat down and done it yet. I am a slackass. I'll post links to pictures. I am warning you that it is ghetto fabulous.

[Poley]

Ghetto Fab Is the best... :flipoff2:

[79CJLongmont]

Ghetto Fab Is the best... :flipoff2:
Sorry I haven't posted pics yet. I have been EXTREMELY busy on a project. I hope to get some up this weekend. I rigged up an old (empty of course) propane tank as a feeder so I pressurize it with air if I need it. Will keep you posted.

[79CJLongmont]

Here are some pics of my ghetto fabbed unit:
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=158694&stc=1
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=158695&stc=1
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=158696&stc=1

The propane tank has a 3/4 ball valve on the top which I open and use a funnel to fill the tank with used oil and a dash of kerosene. There is a 1/2 ball valve with an air chuck that I use to pressurize the unit and another 1/2 ball valve that I use to feed the 1/4 copper tubing. I re-routed the copper tubing into the side of the barrel so that is dumps the oil right out onto the burner plate. This gets REALLY hot. I like it a ton. I never pressurize the propane tank more than 20psi, hence the air gauge on it.

[Adam F]

Speaking of ghetto fab, here's my buddies "junkyard cooker" he made from an old semi gas tank and a squirrel cage fan. He can actually heat his entire house from this. He has the squirrel cage fan pointing at the door and he can just open the door and heat the whole house. It gets BURNING hot in the garage. Just add wood. And he has some dryer hose going outside as a chimney.

http://www.toyotaoffroad.net/afertig/posts/junkyardcooker1.jpg

http://www.toyotaoffroad.net/afertig/posts/junkyardcooker2.jpg

[PAToyota]

Check this out:

http://www.galleria-e.com/cgi-bin/colemans.storefront/en/product/246601

Self-contained US Army surplus furnace for $1500 -- a bit expensive but probably not unreasonable for a larger shop. I wonder whether it will use waste oil?

[Poley]

does that sqirial cage blow out any smoke?

[K2Orion]

does that sqirial cage blow out any smoke?

just a guess here, air is drawn in the ports on the left, through the "cooker" and out the blower on the right. air-air heat exchanger he's not blowing air out of the actual combustion chamber

[JumpinNRollin]

You are right but wrong. The air would be pulled into the blower and then pushed through the cooker pipes where it would be heated. We used to make a fireplace grill setup like this out of exhaust tubing that went inside your fireplace. The fire would heat up the air in the tubes and it would cause the air to move on it's own, cold air in through the bottom opening and hot air out the top). You would heat yourself out of the room if you stoked the fire place like usual.

just a guess here, air is drawn in the ports on the left, through the "cooker" and out the blower on the right. air-air heat exchanger he's not blowing air out of the actual combustion chamber

[haystax]

If you decide to go with the barrel design, keep looking for some large steel pipe like what is used for culverts. Not galvanized but straight wall steel. Those 55gal drums tend to burn through after not much use.

An oil drip system is also very easy to integrate into the barrel design.

[D60]

Those 55gal drums tend to burn through after not much use.

This after the 2nd post in this thread says he's on the same barrel after 22 years.

In my limited experience there are many different wall thicknesses on the 55 gal barrels. I've only handled three of them, this was the three that I bought specifically for my stove kit per this thread. All three were different wall thicknesses. I used the thickest of the three and it seems quite sturdy to me (shrug)

My father used to work in the medical equipment industry and says freon comes in "very" (whatever that means) heavy wall drums.

Point being, there are options out there.

[haystax]

Whatever.......we buy at least 20 drums of oil a year and then burn trash and twine in some of them. Also heat branding irons in them over a wood fire and rarely get two years out of a barrel. I'm sure that barrels made 22 years ago were much better than the tin cans you get from Chevron or Shaffers now. :flipoff2:

[Poley]

I was thinking about building a re-bar style wood rack in the barrel, maybe that would help it last longer..

[D60]

I was thinking about building a re-bar style wood rack in the barrel, maybe that would help it last longer..

I built a grate of expanded steel, the perimeter is just reinforced with 3/8" round stock, it's about 2-3" off the bottom of the barrel per the instructions and I filled the bottom 2" with sand per the instructions.

The small plug on the lid of my barrel was plastic which I knew would melt out. I removed it and found that a fill plug from a TTB 44 threads in perfectly :D

[Poley]

got some nice barrels today, have to burn out the greese first.

will post pic links later. :flipoff2:

[K2Orion]

Ok, i'm a little confused about how the oil burner thing works. I went to the mothers link and I must have missed something. CJLongmont, care to explain how you built the burner and how it works a little more?

[79CJLongmont]

All the burner does is let the oil heat up on the top 2 plates with holes in them and then drain down into the bottom pan and saturate the perlite so that it smolders and burns. If it gets going hot enough, the oil will burn off of the top plates before it even drains down into the bottom pan. The oil feed line must be wrapped around the exhaust tube so that the oil gets preheated enough to burn by the time it gets down onto the burner plates. Other than that, I am not totally familiar with the mechanic behind it, except that it works. IF you are going to build one, build it like the Mother's link explains. Mine has been problematic and might even have to be scrapped so that I can start over and build it the "right" way. Mine wants to blaze on the verge of being out of control or go out. It has blazed out of control once. I had to quickly weld the intake holes up with some 16ga scrap so that it would go out. I had the rear of a reddy heater pointed at it and I think that depleted some of the oxygen supply enough that it would spit smoke a couple of times and then spit flames. It was angry, but cool. Anyway, just build it like the mother's link describes and you should be good to go. I cut some corners and changed some things with mine.