Diy woodstove idea

[Hndybrd91]

Hey guys just wanted to share a woodstove I made for my bus maybe can go some people build something similar if they want for a low cost hope yah like it thanks

https://youtu.be/S3jHOEjQ3S4

[farok]

There's tons of plans and ideas online - definitely check out many before committing to anything!

I'm hoping for something small (I'll be using it in a shortie), but which will run for many hours without feeding (so I can sleep). That seems to be the biggest issue with things like the cubic mini and whatnot - they go 4 hours max from what I've heard. Check out the video series starting with the video below - that's what I plan to try, or something similar to it - basically a home-made gravity feed pellet stove.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3XOLLg8wn0

Chris

[Hndybrd91]

Hey yes there are many designs and builds the reason I built this one is cause I didn't want to use a propane tank I wanted something a bit taller I been experimenting with it the last couple days and actually had it loaded up and was able to stay burning for around 6 hours so that's pretty good for my needs do like the pellet stove idea though and hope u end up making something and letting us check it out

[farok]

Wow 6 hours is a good burn for a small stove! Very nice!

Chris

[Hndybrd91]

Yes I was very happy with it going for that long but it's nice to have the height to stack the wood in there I think that's the only reason I was able to go as long

[o1marc]

The one difference I see in many home built wood stoves is that many are made from thin material such as those ammo boxes or a propane or air tank. An efficient wood burner is made from much thicker cast iron and maintains heat much longer than a thin walled version.

[SolomonEagle]

Originally Posted by o1marc

The one difference I see in many home built wood stoves is that many are made from thin material such as those ammo boxes or a propane or air tank. An efficient wood burner is made from much thicker cast iron and maintains heat much longer than a thin walled version.

I agree that a good wood stove would ideally be thicker but I disagree about the use of cast iron. I personally don't care for cast iron stoves as they are made from different parts that have to be sealed together and often leak air from my experience. In skoolie applications Cast iron is Also more prone to cracking due to extreme vibrations than a welded stove is. I have also seen plenty of home made stoves, made from various old tanks , that have lasted for 20 years or more in service.. though they do eventually burn/rust out.My 2¢

[Hndybrd91]

I would deff agree most of them are cast but u also get what yah pay for so I would deff expect a stove that j was gonna spend some money on to maintain heat but this was just a cheap little build that is suiting my needs perfectly

[Hndybrd91]

Deff agree with that as well and it is very simple for me to whip up another one of these in not much time

[Frochevy]

I'll throw one other idea in there. Not sure how it would last in a flexing bus. But, I have a Woodstock soapstone stove which utilizes thick slabs of soapstone to retain the heat for many hours after the fire has burned out. They are great stoves! But too big for a bus...

So if you use thinner welded material, but also add in something to help retain heat, maybe that would work best?

[elkoskoolie]

I bought materials to make a stove, then found out about chinese diesel air heaters. Just installed it and tested over the weekend. Very happy; 5kw heats my 4 window shorty well. Plan on tapping into my main diesel tank when the weather gets better. There's a thread on the forum.

[farok]

The diesel heaters sound really nice, though since I have a gas bus, and I'm not full-timing in the bus, I figured the wood stove idea would be interesting to try out first. I think the gentleman in the video I posted had some great ideas, though I'm not nearly as good at metalworking, and so did what I found worked and catered to what I needed.

I used exhaust headers, slightly modified, for the pellet hopper start and flue pipe takeoff (a 3" pipe fits perfectly over the header), I didn't create the lower "oven", simplified the interior baffle design, and used a sliding air intake (rather than round). I also used some stainless mesh as a spark arrestor for the air intake. One other change I made was to include some high-temp insulation along the bottom, back, and left sides so it will be pushing all the heat out the front and top (less of a concern for the bus wall it will be nearest to). The removable pellet basket is some scrap steel bent into a "U" shape with some expanded steel bent and riveted in for the grate (and now that I know it works, I need to find some stainless expanded metal to last longer). I riveted a small section of exhaust pipe so that it sticks about 1/4" into the inlet pipe bolted to the top of the stove, and so the pellets don't just overflow the basket. I also put a 16 gauge steel sheet along the inside wall that gets hottest to keep from burning it out too quickly (the top is already double-walled). I'm not planning to need it all that often, so I don't expect it to burn out too quickly but if it does, I simply use another ammo can (I have 2 more).

Anyway, I've lit the stove several times, and I can burn pellets for a long time with no maintenance - I've burnt them at a rate of about 1 1/4 pounds per hour for 6-8 hours in testing, and didn't end up with much ash to clean out, so burning hot all night long is definitely possible, and was my real goal with a stove. 2 cups of water in a small pot boils in about 10-15 minutes, so the top definitely gets warm enough. I don't have a stove thermometer yet, but the top and side are throwing lots of heat. I plan on a damper in the stove pipe to keep more heat in and burn less fuel. As of now, the exhaust is completely smoke-free after about 10 minutes from being lit, so the burn is clean and hot!

In any case, it's been a nice, fun project and break from the bus. It's not complete, but I would definitely call it a success. If nothing else, this will keep me warm in the bus this winter while working on it!

Chris

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by farok

In any case, it's been a nice, fun project and break from the bus.
Chris

Your stove looks great. It reminded me of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojYK6CW8gdw

[kidharris]

Originally Posted by Hndybrd91

Hey guys just wanted to share a woodstove I made for my bus maybe can go some people build something similar if they want for a low cost hope yah like it thanks

https://youtu.be/S3jHOEjQ3S4

What scared you off of using a propane tank?

[Marceps]

Originally Posted by farok

Check out the video series starting with the video below...

Nice find. I checked out the series, and in the following video, he confesses to a burn time of ONLY TEN MINUTES for a piece of hardwood roughly 1.5×1×8 inches--and that THREE such pieces still don't "last that much longer" (though do burn hotter)... Anyway, I don't own a wood stove, so I don't have a baseline, but that sounds ridiculous!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADLYCO35NjM#t=10m49s

... Then again, he claims to have "pretty well used up the whole bucket," when there are about three-quarters of it remaining--so maybe this guy's just a fan of hyperbole?

[kidharris]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Your stove looks great. It reminded me of this:

which one is you?

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by kidharris

which one is you?

I'm the umbrella, of course.

[Joe45]

I'm looking into maybe doing the build that Slim Potatohead did with the ammo can. Maybe using a larger ammo can?
Have also thought of modifying an existing barrel stove, but that may not be worth it.


I hate the idea of having to choose between refilling a wood stove every few hours, and needing electricity for a pellet stove.

[PNW_Steve]

Originally Posted by Joe45

I'm looking into maybe doing the build that Slim Potatohead did with the ammo can. Maybe using a larger ammo can?
Have also thought of modifying an existing barrel stove, but that may not be worth it.


I hate the idea of having to choose between refilling a wood stove every few hours, and needing electricity for a pellet stove.

A gent I knew bought a compact pellet stove for his cabin that ran from 12 volts. Would something like that work for you?

[Frochevy]

I'm not sure how they work, but it's possible to build your own pellet stove with no electricity... US Stove makes an EPA Cert stove that is gravity fed pellet stove.

https://www.usstove.com/product/wise-way-2000-sq-ft-non-electric-pellet-stove/