Snadgers patent stove!!!

[Dobby]

great can you do ours

[WiZeR]

so have you measured the temps? does the temp stay constant?

Looks good, i think im going to try it next season!

[Snadger]

Hello Snadger and congratulation!!!!
the secret of happiness is sharing...so would you so kindly share your knowledge and give us more information how you created the stove ( it is lovely ) expecially what did you use for cutting the metal, measuremts etc. Tonight I will be scouring my local garages for some...........
Don Vincenzo

The first thing I learned when I served an engimeering apprenticeship many moons ago was "The secret of being a good engineer is being a good guesser"
The second thing I learned was how to turn a wheel barrow into a bed!............ but we'll not go into that!
I didn't use a measure, because I couldn't be bothered to look for one in the workshop!
I would guess the top door is roughly 8" X 6" in old money or 200mm X 150mm
The bottom door is roughly 8" X 3" for raking out ash
.
DISCLAIMER:_I will let you know how I made mine but will take no blame for any accidents to others. I am a competent metal worker and the work should only be carried out if you feel reasonably competent yourself observing all H&S rules as appropriate...you have been warned!!!!

Now for the method:-

1) Open vent fully to allow any gas to escape...leave open overnight!
2) Knock reinforcement cage off top with large hammer
3) Undo brass valve or if it wont screw off (as mine wouldn't) resort to brute force and knock it off with large hammer
4) You should be left with a small hole about 4mm dia in centre of brass valve. Fill gas bottle with water through this hole. Use a hose and sit on a chair with hose dribbling in hole (can take about half an hour to fill)
5) With the gas bottle full of water and the door positions marked with a felt tipped marker you can start cutting with a 4 1/2" disk cutter in an angle grinder. I used about two cutting disks on the project (wear gloves , goggles etc)
6) Once the doors are cut out you basically just hack out the top area for the flue. To do it right and make it neat you should really drill holes around the marked area and use a cold chisel to join the dots but I just attacked it with the angle grinder!
7) Your flue can be anything you can scrounge about 4" to 5" diameter. Get your flue first then weld a collar for the flue to sit into, onto the top of the gas bottle. Make the collar nice and deep so that the flue doesn't need any fixing
8) The door hinges are a piece of 1/2" bar with thee pieces of pipe that fit over bar. Weld both ends of bar to pipe, weld top and bottom section to gas bottle and middle section to door giving you a large hinge
9) You dont need any air vents as you can leave doors ajar to give more air. You need to fabricate a catch for each door (similar to a gate latch)
10) Even with both doors shut there will be gaps the width of the cutting blade to allow air to fire. I made my flue approximately 8'0" long and this seems to work well giving a good draw. An improvement I will make on my next model is to move the flue to the back and put a hot plate where my flue is now to boil my kettle! I was going to put a grate in using 1/2" reinforcing bar but have found it doesn't need it and the added depth means I can stick large logs in top without shutting door. I've had it running all week and never needed to clean it out yet as most of the ash must go up the flue! The only thing in the bottom are old nails as (some of the wood had nails in it). I will get those out and recycle them!
To light I just bung a load of paper in through the top door, bit of chipboard or whatever I can scrounge on top, shut top door, open botom door, light paper, shut bottom door and whoosh, she's away!

If you didnt have access to welding gear I suppose you could use strap hinges to bolt doors on and you would need to fabricate lugs to fasten flue onto top
Angle grinders can be bought for under a tenner and the cutting disks were £2.99 for 10 at Aldi.

This has got to be the longest reply I have ever given so I hope it's of some use to someone!

[Snadger]

so have you measured the temps? does the temp stay constant?

Looks good, i think im going to try it next season!

Dammed hot is all I can say!! A lot of heat comes from the flue pipe as well.

These things can glow red if you use coal or coke and when its going full blast even with timber you can't stand closer than 3'0" away!

I made the mistake of putting a pasty on it to warm up and within 5 mins it was cremated to a lump of charcoal!

I have started to use damp timber to slow it down and if packed full it will burn all day! With a damper in flue I would think 24hrs would eventually be possible!
The greenhouse I have it in is roughly 10' X 14' and it heats that no bother. With large bubble insulation and a better breezeblock heat sink around it I could probably keep the greenhouse to a range of 55 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit! I suppose temperature controled vents would be beneficial as well!

[Don Vincenzo]

Hello Snadger and many thanks for your reply. I will have a go at it as soon I get a gas cylinder. If you hear of an explosion in the south east....don't worry it would be me!!!
regards
don Vincenzo

[Peter]

....you can't stand closer than 3'0" away!....

Bit precise there Snadger, how about 2'11&1/2" away?

[Snadger]

Bit precise there Snadger, how about 2'11&1/2" away?

Or 2'11& 63/64ths if you've got asbestos legs!

[NOG]

If you didnt have access to welding gear

You could drill and bolt on the hindges and flue. Good design beats the old oil drum.

[richwill]

I'd love to be a creative type

Snadger.. excellent idea you had there. Commercially? they'd go for around 1700 each.. have a look here for something similar (used old gas bottles)

http://www.hotcreations.co.uk/hotpod/hotpod2.html