wtd
Senior Member
I did this. I was working at a place with lotsa scrap lumber that just got thrown in the dumpster and thought it was quite a waste - and I'm pretty cheap 
so I started looking at woodstoves and finally foound the "tent stoves" you mention.
There are a few sites that actually show you how to make them out of just about everything from toolboxes to buckets. Didn't look too hard.
I'd run across an old broken microwave that somebody'd thrown off in the desert and it was perfect for a tent stove. The "firebox" or actual oven part is suspended a couple of inches inside the outer case. I grabbed it, cut a hole in the top and got some stovepipe from the hardware store, took all the electronics out, replaced the glass window in the door with metal (salvaged from a washing machine, cut a vent in the front, fashioned a sliding door over it for an air inlet. put a cookie sheet on two bricks inside and fired it up out in the yard. Worked fine - after about and hour of burning the outer case was still "touchable", so not hot enough to hurt anything. Draft was good.
Made a metal panel to go over the window from the front of an old washing machine, put it over the window, mounted the stove on legs so it would line up with the window. This was on top of a cabinet, so the legs were only a coupla inches tall. Set the stove in place, put the metal panel in place with some sheetmetal screws and weatherstripping, elbowed out of the stove and cut a piece of pipe to reach the metal panel. Once everything was setup, I cut a hole in the metal panel, ran the the pipe over to just meet the panel, made some clips to hold the pipe lined up with the hole in the panel.
Made up a removeable stack with an elbow and a single length of pipe for the outside.
To use the stove, take out the top two screws, pull the metal panel back and slide the window down. Attach the stack on the outside. Light the stove.
Putting it out quickly is pretty simple. pour some water on the fire, take the cookie sheet outside and flood the coals, toss the ashes. Remove the stack, slide up the window from the outside.
I burned everything I could find in it that wasn't treated. It worked good, but I couldn't put enough fuel in it to last all night. About 4 hours was all I could get outta one load.
It's easy to put in and take out, taking it out is as removing the panel on the window and detaching it from however you've mounted it. Also quite light, about 20 pounds, so a little less hazard with flying cast iron if you have an "in tranit untoward event". Also simplifies the mounting method. I fashioned up a bracket that slides into the raingutter to give the stack some support, as the wind out here often gusts to 50 or so.
I didn't put it in this year simply because I've run out of free fuel - I've burned every abandoned couch, chair and stick of construction debris I could find out here.
It would heat my entire bus about 70 dfegrees about the outside temperature, and I haven't got a gonzo insulation job here.
so I started looking at woodstoves and finally foound the "tent stoves" you mention.There are a few sites that actually show you how to make them out of just about everything from toolboxes to buckets. Didn't look too hard.
I'd run across an old broken microwave that somebody'd thrown off in the desert and it was perfect for a tent stove. The "firebox" or actual oven part is suspended a couple of inches inside the outer case. I grabbed it, cut a hole in the top and got some stovepipe from the hardware store, took all the electronics out, replaced the glass window in the door with metal (salvaged from a washing machine, cut a vent in the front, fashioned a sliding door over it for an air inlet. put a cookie sheet on two bricks inside and fired it up out in the yard. Worked fine - after about and hour of burning the outer case was still "touchable", so not hot enough to hurt anything. Draft was good.
Made a metal panel to go over the window from the front of an old washing machine, put it over the window, mounted the stove on legs so it would line up with the window. This was on top of a cabinet, so the legs were only a coupla inches tall. Set the stove in place, put the metal panel in place with some sheetmetal screws and weatherstripping, elbowed out of the stove and cut a piece of pipe to reach the metal panel. Once everything was setup, I cut a hole in the metal panel, ran the the pipe over to just meet the panel, made some clips to hold the pipe lined up with the hole in the panel.
Made up a removeable stack with an elbow and a single length of pipe for the outside.
To use the stove, take out the top two screws, pull the metal panel back and slide the window down. Attach the stack on the outside. Light the stove.
Putting it out quickly is pretty simple. pour some water on the fire, take the cookie sheet outside and flood the coals, toss the ashes. Remove the stack, slide up the window from the outside.
I burned everything I could find in it that wasn't treated. It worked good, but I couldn't put enough fuel in it to last all night. About 4 hours was all I could get outta one load.
It's easy to put in and take out, taking it out is as removing the panel on the window and detaching it from however you've mounted it. Also quite light, about 20 pounds, so a little less hazard with flying cast iron if you have an "in tranit untoward event".
Also simplifies the mounting method. I fashioned up a bracket that slides into the raingutter to give the stack some support, as the wind out here often gusts to 50 or so.I didn't put it in this year simply because I've run out of free fuel - I've burned every abandoned couch, chair and stick of construction debris I could find out here.
It would heat my entire bus about 70 dfegrees about the outside temperature, and I haven't got a gonzo insulation job here.
