Solid fuel stove

I posted this elsewhere but I think it could stand it's own thread:

I've been building my own little solid fuel stove. Main dimensions are 7" x 10" x 15" high. The top surface is 9" x 12" with the chimney stub 2" x 6". Everything is Stainless steel and it took me about 15 hours of work to put together. I still have a couple of pieces to touch up as you can see but this gives the general idea of how things go together. There is space in the tray under the firebox for the ashes and the whole tray slides in on rails. There is a door to add fuel and each side has an air damper. I'll see how things go before deciding on adding a flue damper. Oh... and the legs are independently adjustable by about 7/16" each. I figured the chances of me getting everything 100% square/level/plumb were about nil so I added in the ability to compensate.

 

Well... It's pretty much done now. I do, however, want to use a different pot with it so I think I shall have to take a 3 lb hammer to the rails and spread them out just a tad... about 1/2" total I think. I made the rails like that so I could use a frying pan too... with the handle sticking out one of the corners. A solid rail all the way around would have made using a conventional FP difficult the way the handles are on them... so low. The air damper holes are below the bottom of the firebox and along the sides of the ashtray so I doubt there will be issues with it. The handles slide back exposing holes for the air. I probably have too much air with 4 holes per side but you don't have to open it all the way so... My scale tells me it weights 34.8 lbs but I'm missing a few screws yet... so 35 lbs of stainless steel.

 

Be careful that the sides of your stove dont overheat and burn up your boat. Fire bricks,insulation or perhaps something inovative is needed

 

It's more for use as a heater/air dryer than a cooker so I won't be getting it very hot... certainly not to the point it starts glowing... even a little. We'll see... it is an experiment right now. I'm going to take it to Sail Oklahoma and play with it there as a tent heater.

 

It could be a real comfort in chilly weather.

I'm planning on installing (after some modification) one of these.

or maybe the pizza oven style.

 

Gave 'er a test fire this morning... 10 charcoal briquets + 2 added about 1/2 hour after the first were fired. I simmered water on the top in the pan... took about 12 minutes or so and I started it about 5 minutes after lighting the coals. After over 2 1/2 hours the stove is still too hot to touch more than just a quick brush and there is still heat coming out of the chimney. I'd call it a success...

 

Congrats!

 

That's a nice stove. A problem sometimes with wood or whatever solid fuel stoves is air leakage. If it gets overloaded, or when banked up for the night (I'm thinking house stoves) and gets going good, if there are air leaks it becomes impossible to shut them down and you get a runaway stove. Sometimes if you shut the draft way down trying to slow down the fire, other leaks will let in enough air to ignite the built up gasses and you get a backfire that will blow smoke, ashes maybe coals into the room, sometimes they will blow open the door if it's not latched good.

You have a lot of potential air leaks in that stove, the four bolted corners, the fuel loading door, the air inlets. As far as I can tell, the top just sits on it loose. I don't know what the top would do with a backfire. I would also wonder about monoxide leaks into the room through the top.

Most old stoves had lots of leaks so it's nothing new. But I've woken up to a runaway stove with all the stove pipe glowing so red you could see the position of the damper through the pipe, kind of like a shadow. I wasn't there, but I believe it was a backfire that burned my second house to the ground.

So I'd test it out good before putting it in a boat. At least be careful about banking the fire and overloading until you know how it will work. I would have a carbon monoxide/smoke detector around when using it.

Throwing water on a stove fire trying to slow it down is exciting but not recommended. I used salt a few times and that worked OK, there's probably better suppressants than that.

Otherwise it looks real nice and will probably perform great. If you ever make another, an old carburetor makes a good air inlet.

 

Nice job Stewe! I'm trying to figure out how to make one gimbaled for a sailboat. Not much success yet...

 

Look around in salvage boat parts stores, on Ebay, ect for these:

"Nice Vintage Optimus #45 Gimbaled Sea Swing Cook Stove. This is a nice unit made in Sweden, but the pan is mine and just for the picture, sorry. It is for use with kerosene and holds pressure like it should. The pan base is 7 inches and has a cut out for a small fry pan; it also has the plate that holds it in place. This unit is ready to go and should work nicely. I did not start it up, but when you pump it up and turn the knob you can hear the hiss of air. This would be a great cooker for your weekend sailboat or boat w you may want to cook something up. This is a great vintage piece that is quality made. " (description from a unit already sold, so url not posted)

I found two, one without the Aladdin style kerosene burner ($80) and one with ($125).
Oarlock sockets can be found ( I did) that fit the stoves gimbal, providing more than one location to use the stove.
Heating a clay flower pot in the pot holder, is a good small radiant heater.
the burner can be a solid fuel fabrication.

 

That is a beautiful stove!

But, that is hot. I am wanting to build a titanium stove similar to that .... to cut weight .... but, not being able to cool down quickly is a drawback ....

I cannot think of an easy way to get good cooling down action .... a removable fire box?

 

I'm not looking for kerosene and such, sorry, but a solid fuel stove with a chimney which is a bit tricky to have with a gimbaled stove. Maybe with ceramic parts btw them but I don't have means to manufacture them. Iron or steel has way too much thermal expansion to meet the tolerances.

 

You would need to place the gimbals where the chimney passed through the roof. The stove would be ridgidly attached to the bottom of chimney like a pendulum weight. Do-able.

Sealing the gimbaled 'pass thru' at the roof, I'm thinking, it would need to be a large ball valve. The chimney passing through the hole through the ball. The ball acting as the gimbals as it swiveled.
Do-able.

Large ball valves are expensive. but since you don't need pressure rating, you could make your own from stainless steel salad bowls.

actually only a half ball valve. one inverted bowl fastened to deck with larger diameter than stove pipe hole in bottom, to allow movement. A second inverted bowl, a bit shallower, soldered around stove pipe and riding on top of the deck bowl, the upper bowl changes angle in relation to the rigid lower bowl, as stove swings..

 

I'd sure hate to be in the way of that hot stove flailing away in a seaway... or even the stove when it isn't hot. Worse than a boom...

 

That's the one I did on my boat. I bought the stove from Ammocanstove. Good people good price. Around $120 if my memory is good
I added refractory bricks inside, since the flames mixed has a tendency to make hole in the steel underneath after a time. I also made the rail, realy necessary.
That is the picture when installed.
It cook well, eggs, bacon, fish, coffee. But if I am in a hurry, or it is very warm outside I will use my kerosene one which I put on top of this stove.
I find to have two stove allow to make a good choice of cooking apparatus depending the outside temperature. The wood one heat nicely the cabin by cold days.