Home made log burner

[Land Rover]

Made a copy of a kit, Drumheat was the name of them 2 barrels on it if its combustible it goes in it the reusable bits are heavy pipe and a 1/4 inch door . The barrels normally last a couple of years max but thats them glowing red at times depending on the "fuel" it really should be guarded the other thing is its illegal to burn black oil now without a licence.

The guy I saw had a heap of firebricks around the base to try and take the heat away and stop it glowing . He's in a proper insured building that opens to the fee paying public , not sure how he gets away with it , but seems a reasonably safe set up with the weld mesh cage around it . If the barrel is glowing red the heat output is savage
I was being pushed to make one of these

but I'm not that keen , and I just don't need to have the place heated that much .

 

[multi power]

I saw one of these in a large building the other day http://www.ebay.com/itm/Barrel-Stov...er-Wood-Burning-Cabin-Barn-Shop-/201775014053
It was warm , burning old offcuts of plywood and anything else lying about .The next week the guy had added a double http://www.ebay.com/itm/US-STOVE-BK...ARREL-ADAPTER-STOVE-KIT-7666258-/122150785920
and it is savage . Saves a lot of the heat by using a 45 gal drum as part of the flue .. There is no leakage and they have a weld mesh cage built around it . Takes up a bit of space , but the heat output is immense .

So what is the idea of the second drum on top?

 

[Greenbeast]

So what is the idea of the second drum on top?

less heat shooting straight out the roof i guess, it's a kind of baffle to radiate some of the flue gas heat inside the building

 

[multi power]

less heat shooting straight out the roof i guess, it's a kind of baffle to radiate some of the flue gas heat inside the building

Though it might be , then I had some hair brain idea about some heat recovery thing to send heat to another room

 

[Greenbeast]

Though it might be , then I had some hair brain idea about some heat recovery thing to send heat to another room

you could do that, but you have to be careful of taking too much heat from the gases, otherwise you end up with clogging the walls of the flue with crap and risking chimney fires

 

[Greenbeast]

it would be experimental, trial and error, recording flue gas temperatures as you adapted

 

[Land Rover]

Though it might be , then I had some hair brain idea about some heat recovery thing to send heat to another room

The fire flue comes in the bottom at the front of the upper drum and goes out the top at the back to the flue pipe . Seems to work well . Basically a lot more heat being captured and radiated .It's what we've probably all seen done with the big flue pipe running diagonally across the wall of a workshop instead of straight up .
I saw an industrial log burner on ebay a while back , it was basically a double skinned drum , air was blown into the void between the skins and then piped to another room . You could also put some heavy pipe around the drum , connect to a pump .... aye , I'll stop there before I re invent the wheel

 

[Greenbeast]

But i love this sort of thing, as said above when i had a workshop to heat i built a top loading down-draft wood burner.
So it had a front combustion chamber and a rear chamber accessed only at the bottom with secondary air coming in after a baffle. You would light some newspaper at the bottom of the second chamber to start the flue drawing and then light the main fire in the front chamber.
You'd construct it 'upside down' with newspaper and kindling on top then thicker wood. Because the draught would draw the flames down and under the baffle and then up the rear chamber to the flue. Multiple benefits, one being you could literally stack the front chamber to the top and it would gravity/self-feed the fire below.
Plus by having secondary combustion you'd be burning off the combustibles still left in the gases after primary combustion.

 

[simmy_bull]

Normally some on eBay, mostly based on gas bottle

But i love this sort of thing, as said above when i had a workshop to heat i built a top loading down-draft wood burner.
So it had a front combustion chamber and a rear chamber accessed only at the bottom with secondary air coming in after a baffle. You would light some newspaper at the bottom of the second chamber to start the flue drawing and then light the main fire in the front chamber.
You'd construct it 'upside down' with newspaper and kindling on top then thicker wood. Because the draught would draw the flames down and under the baffle and then up the rear chamber to the flue. Multiple benefits, one being you could literally stack the front chamber to the top and it would gravity/self-feed the fire below.
Plus by having secondary combustion you'd be burning off the combustibles still left in the gases after primary combustion.

Sounds like a good idea and presumably the fire would keep in for longer if you needed it to because of the self feeding?

Struggling to picture exactly how it works would it roughly look like a u bend on a sink?

 

[Greenbeast]

Sounds like a good idea and presumably the fire would keep in for longer if you needed it to because of the self feeding?

Struggling to picture exactly how it works would it roughly look like a u bend on a sink?

Yes quite, it was small because a small workshop but didn't want to be loading in tiny bit of wood every 5 minutes, it did need further refining or a re-working but then life changed and i am not there anymore.

You imagining is spot on, just like a U bend with a port right at the back for lighting the priming fire

 

[Stock]

All trials are being carried out in the open to prevent accidents.

Well I've been toying with this idea for some time and last year we built a rudimentary unit from some brake discs, 200mm pipe, two small gas cylinders, three brake discs, some angle iron and a cast iron skillet.
We uses a small tank with two 10mm valves and pipe for the oil dripper.
We could get a lot of heat out of the unit but it proved cantankerous to get it to run smoothly and efficiently. The viscosity of the oil would change with the rise in temperature flow faster generating more heat, but when the tank was refilled the viscosity was to high and you wound up opening the valve, then 10 min later closing it. We then put a smaller tank on it to prevent over spilling of burnt oil from the skillet worked fine with about 4 liters but one still had the peaks and troughs of heat. we did try various means of metering the oil but to no real success.

For phase two we looked at the rocket stove purported by many to be the bees knees. So using the 3:1 rule some gas cylinders 100mm box, vermiculite, and 150mm pipe we made an insulated flue which was installed in the gas cylinders. The cylinders were welded together with the insulated riser inside. a 125mm hole was cut at the bottom side of the cylinder opposite to the inlet for the flue which I attached some stainless flue pipe.

We then looked at making a combustion chamber, a piece of box iron 150x 250 was used we installed a grate made from 12mm round and lit our fire. If one was willing to stand over it and feed it slithers of wood it worked fine giving a max temperature on the heat exchanger of 200deg C. We tried blocks and normal stuff we burn in the house stove (have a shed full of dry seasoned stuff) but it failed dismally to give off any major heat even with coal loaded in. Small timber was the best, I scratched the noodle researched the net looked at wood pellets, modified the combustion chamber bought a bag, used a gas torch to light it filled the unit and over a 4 hr period we burned 10Kg (@€3.50/ bag). Heat output reached 250 degrees on the heat exchanger varying by 50 degrees between top and bottom. The max temp on the flue was 200 at the outlet to 60 deg 3/4 ways up. These temps were constant during the 4 hr operation. We were very happy with this set up but it requires a bit more work on the storage hopper & air inlet to allow for better control, basically if you fill the hopper you have to let it burn out completely, we had no shut off.

So now We returned to the oil fired heater again.
We sources a 100mm 220v inline extractor fan which we made a mounting bracket and transmission piese to 60mm box iron. the box was welded in to a tee with 42 holes drilled in to it a the corners, I decapitated a small gas cylinder mounted the air discharge pipe in it and installed a piece of 25mm box in the bottom of the tank with a riser on the out side going above half way up the cylinder. I welded a band around the top to seal the cut but to allow the top to be removed.

We again installed our tank and taps and lit it with some diesel, and once it was going fed in the oil.
The heat was phenomenal, with the bottom of the heat exchanger reaching 300 deg, and the flue at 100 on the top. There were no evidence of smoke from the stack that was until we accidentally put some water in it or we switched off the fan. This time we burned 15 lts of waste oil in 5 hrs with good high temperatures.
Again oilflow control was an issue.
I am awaiting so parts to rectify the oil control issue and when and if I get it working I report it................

Stock

 

[marcusthehat]

This!
I like,
a whole lot!
Always was a frustrated pyromaniac at heart.
mth

 

[roscoe erf]

Ha we had one for years, good job once going

same here spent many a cold winter at break times toasting our sandwiches

 

[Stock]

This!
I like,
a whole lot!
Always was a frustrated pyromaniac at heart.
mth

No frustrations here .............maybe for the lack of yumbos and drotts to burn but the stove are filling a need at present, Neglected to mention but I managed to source so 600mm Gas pipe I.5m long to build the heater with once we are out of the development stage..................

 

[ACEngineering]

No frustrations here .............maybe for the lack of yumbos and drotts to burn but the stove are filling a need at present, Neglected to mention but I managed to source so 600mm Gas pipe I.5m long to build the heater with once we are out of the development stage..................

If you pre heat the oil to about 90deg c it will flow alot more consistently. Something like a kettle element with a thermostat control.
Only need about a 2 litre pre heat tank then some auto top up method.

 

[Stock]

If you pre heat the oil to about 90deg c it will flow alot more consistently. Something like a kettle element with a thermostat control.
Only need about a 2 litre pre heat tank then some auto top up method.

Hold your Nellie there and be patient the grey cells here have passed that one..... and a few more.............and the max temp should be 40 deg.............

 

[Land Rover]

Very well done sir , very well done .
I'd love to be doing this , excellent stuff .
Some sort of positive displacement metering pump for adding the fuel maybe .
What about an old diesel injection pump that could cope with thicker oil ?

 

[TripleSix]

@Bobthebuilder you posted on another thread about a log burner you made? Didn't want to hijack so thought I'd ask if you've any photos of it or anyone else made anything else similar for workshop heating?

Quite like the idea of a warm man cave outside

We've loads of 47kg gas bottles laid around if you want one.

 

[marcusthehat]

All trials are being carried out in the open to prevent accidents.

Well I've been toying with this idea for some time and last year we built a rudimentary unit from some brake discs, 200mm pipe, two small gas cylinders, three brake discs, some angle iron and a cast iron skillet.
We uses a small tank with two 10mm valves and pipe for the oil dripper.
We could get a lot of heat out of the unit but it proved cantankerous to get it to run smoothly and efficiently. The viscosity of the oil would change with the rise in temperature flow faster generating more heat, but when the tank was refilled the viscosity was to high and you wound up opening the valve, then 10 min later closing it. We then put a smaller tank on it to prevent over spilling of burnt oil from the skillet worked fine with about 4 liters but one still had the peaks and troughs of heat. we did try various means of metering the oil but to no real success.

For phase two we looked at the rocket stove purported by many to be the bees knees. So using the 3:1 rule some gas cylinders 100mm box, vermiculite, and 150mm pipe we made an insulated flue which was installed in the gas cylinders. The cylinders were welded together with the insulated riser inside. a 125mm hole was cut at the bottom side of the cylinder opposite to the inlet for the flue which I attached some stainless flue pipe.

We then looked at making a combustion chamber, a piece of box iron 150x 250 was used we installed a grate made from 12mm round and lit our fire. If one was willing to stand over it and feed it slithers of wood it worked fine giving a max temperature on the heat exchanger of 200deg C. We tried blocks and normal stuff we burn in the house stove (have a shed full of dry seasoned stuff) but it failed dismally to give off any major heat even with coal loaded in. Small timber was the best, I scratched the noodle researched the net looked at wood pellets, modified the combustion chamber bought a bag, used a gas torch to light it filled the unit and over a 4 hr period we burned 10Kg (@€3.50/ bag). Heat output reached 250 degrees on the heat exchanger varying by 50 degrees between top and bottom. The max temp on the flue was 200 at the outlet to 60 deg 3/4 ways up. These temps were constant during the 4 hr operation. We were very happy with this set up but it requires a bit more work on the storage hopper & air inlet to allow for better control, basically if you fill the hopper you have to let it burn out completely, we had no shut off.

So now We returned to the oil fired heater again.
We sources a 100mm 220v inline extractor fan which we made a mounting bracket and transmission piese to 60mm box iron. the box was welded in to a tee with 42 holes drilled in to it a the corners, I decapitated a small gas cylinder mounted the air discharge pipe in it and installed a piece of 25mm box in the bottom of the tank with a riser on the out side going above half way up the cylinder. I welded a band around the top to seal the cut but to allow the top to be removed.

We again installed our tank and taps and lit it with some diesel, and once it was going fed in the oil.
The heat was phenomenal, with the bottom of the heat exchanger reaching 300 deg, and the flue at 100 on the top. There were no evidence of smoke from the stack that was until we accidentally put some water in it or we switched off the fan. This time we burned 15 lts of waste oil in 5 hrs with good high temperatures.
Again oilflow control was an issue.
I am awaiting so parts to rectify the oil control issue and when and if I get it working I report it................

Stock

It just occurred to me, one really outta bring Colin Furze in as a Consulting Engineer, BE right up his street.
He might want to put wheels on it though.

 

[simmy_bull]

We've loads of 47kg gas bottles laid around if you want one.

You'll have to convert them in your spare time and eBay them