[TheForge] Wood Stove for Shop heat

[Jerry Smith]

Jerry and All,

I was told that I could not have a wood burner in the
2 car garage that I use as a machine shop/smithy, by
my insurance agent. I can have a natural gas or a
propane furnace put in, but no wood or coal burners
other than my forge.

So I am looking for a furnace from a trailer home, to
put out in that shop with one of those large propane
tanks to feed it.

Jerry


--- Jerry Frost <frosty at customcpu.com> wrote:

> Hey all! The winter station "emergency" (Pi$$ Poor 
> planning on your part doe's NOT constitute an
> emergency 
> on MY part. Holds true in this circumstance but a 
> boatload of OT was welcome. <grin>)
> 
> Anyway, heating with wood is the subject I believe. 
> <grin>
> 
> No reputable manufacturer builds wood burners with 
> catalytic converters anymore, haven't for in the 
> neighborhood of 5-7 years. The problems with
> catalytics 
> are: Proper use and maintenance resulting in way
> more 
> chimney and hence house fires than necessary. 
> Catalytics have to be preheated before they're
> engaged, 
> then they're vrey finicky about the quality of wood
> you 
> feed them, then you HAVE to keep the fire rolling or
> 
> they plug up. Catalytic converters were an idea that
> 
> sounded good on paper but in practice have proved to
> 
> not only be inefficient but outright dangerous in
> use.
> 
> So, over the past decade or so all the good 
> manufacturers with the notable exception of Vermont 
> Castings, have gone to multiple burn zones. Some of
> the 
> high end manufacturers have taken it to indirect 
> combustion so the stove is making charcoal in the
> wood 
> chamber and only burning the gassious byproducts and
> 
> charcoal. These last are typically external wood
> fired 
> boilers but they're extremely efficient and clean 
> burning.
> 
> A good barrel stove is hard to beat if it's properly
> 
> built. A single barrel will easily heat 1,000-1,200'
> 
> sq/ft with 14' eaves if it's decently insulated. A 
> double barrel will heat twice the volume with little
> 
> trouble. You can heat more if you convert the second
> 
> barrel from a simple stack robber (heat scavenger)
> to a 
> forced air stack robber. Simply cut holes in the
> ends 
> of the scavenger barrel the same dia. as a 15 gl. 
> grease barrel. Weld a couple grease barrels together
> so 
> the ends hang out a few inches in front and a foot
> or 
> so in the back. Then you mount a fan or blower in
> the 
> back and you have a very efficient stack robber.
> 
> The reason you don't see commercially made stack 
> robbers anymore is their tendency to over cool the 
> smoke causing excessive creosote and once again as
> with 
> catalytic converters, more chimney and structure
> fires 
> than normal.
> 
> There are a number of good ways to prevent chimney 
> fires: First being a proper burning stove and well 
> seasoned wood, regular maintenance is almost as 
> important, sweeping, inspecting and repair.
> 
> Then there are the little details of proper use that
> go 
> a LONG way towards never having to say you're sorry.
> 
> Always start your fire HOT, either lots of clean dry
> 
> kindling and a roaring blaze or pack your stove
> (within 
> reason of course) with cardboard and light it off.
> The 
> best way to keep from having a dangerous chimney
> fire 
> is to have lots of SAFE chimney fires, daily is
> best. 
> This is where starting it up with a roaring blaze
> comes 
> in; the rapid intense temperature change causes the 
> creosote to fall off before it can soften and stay 
> stuck to the stack. Cardboard works really well as
> it's 
> a processed produce and contains no creosoting 
> compounds AND it burns quite hot.
> 
> Paper is a BAD choice as the vegetable inks do
> indeed 
> contain creosoting compounds and printable paper has
> a 
> coating of caolin clay which combines with creosote
> to 
> form a tough asphault-like pavement. Paper also
> doesn't 
> burn hot enough to do the job.
> 
> Next to cardboard, nearly filling your stove with
> small 
> wood for a HOT fast blaze is best.
> 
> As to the idea you want your stove to HOLD heat.
> This 
> is a good idea if you're living in the structure.
> The 
> only advantage of a heat holding stove is evening
> out 
> the temperature in the structure. Think about it;
> the 
> whole idea behind burning wood in your shop is to
> get 
> the latent heat from the wood into the air. The less
> 
> heat a stove holds the faster it gets to your shop.
> The 
> much touted soapstone stoves take forever before
> they 
> start making the room warm, the thing that sells
> them 
> is having the room a little warmer when you get up
> in 
> the morning. This doesn't apply to the shop, unless 
> you're in the doghouse with the spousal unit of
> course. 
> <grin>
> 
> If you want a heat sink to help keep the shop warmer
> 
> while you're not there they're simple enough to set
> up. 
> I'll be heating my shop with wood, waste oil, etc.
> for 
> the foreseeable future in a sub-arctic climate.
> Temps 
> of -35f and lower are unremarkable around here. The 
> heat sink I built for when the shop is warm enough
> but 
> there's still fire in the stove is In-Floor heat
> tubes. 
> I'll build a heat exchanger in the stove and
> circulate 
> glycol through it and the floor once the air is
> warmed 
> up a bit. I'll also be building a short version of
> the 
> 55gl drum 15gl. grease barrel stack robber for it. 
> It'll pivot on the stack so I can aim the hot stream
> of 
> air anywhere in the shop.
> 
> Another heat sink that's easy to set up though it
> costs 
> room is an ungrouted cinder block wall behind the 
> stove. You knock out portions of the bottom row of 
> cinderblocks so air can circulate through it and
> paint 
> it black to absorb radiant heat from the stove. If
> it's 
> an outside wall you need to insulate the outside of 
> course and the more the better.
> 
> The benefit of having heat sinks outside the stove
> is 
> they don't start robbing heat till the living space 
> warms up. An in stove heatsink robs heat FIRST and 
> gives it back LAST. In stove heat sinks are also
> quite 
> small. For instance the heat sink in my shop weighs 
> about 60 tons. A mere 12' X 8' cinderblock wall
> weighs 
> around 3,500 lbs. not counting the mortar.
> 
> You can enhance the properties of external heat
> sinks 
> easily. In my case I'll circulate hot water through
> it, 
> in the case of a hollow cinderblock wall, the
> addition 
> of a heat tube in the stove feeding to the wall will
> 
> make a dramatic improvement. A heat tube in a barrel
> 
> stove is simply a 2-3" dia piece of black pipe
> running 
> inside lengthwise near the top. Hook it to the
> output 
> of a small blower and you can force hot air through 
> 
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