Wood Burners

[Charlie Farley]

Ok, i know, its not car related.

But hey look at my 0 C to 60 C times.
I maintain and run a 1940's model, rescued from the pilot's hut
at RAF Duxford in the early 1970's.
Now the home of the Imperial War Museum's aerospace ' wing '
it was just a decaying ex RAF base when my Father took it under
his wing to renovate it on their behalf.

Anyway, i digress. I have what is basically a vertical tube, with
cast iron top and bottom. I'm sure any ex RAF types here will know
exactly what i mean , David ? But what a stunner at heat output.
My domestic gas bill is unlikely to reach treble figures this winter,
such is the burner's appetite to burn nearly anything.

As i sit here at some ungodly hour, i just cannot help feeding yet
more waste wood into it's orifice and gloating in the money saved
going towards my car build, whilst at the same time holding two
fingers up to British Gas. This small wood burner heats my 43 square metre
temporary winter abode, while the gas boiler sits in quiet abandoment.

If any of you also enjoy the quiet luxury of these burners, please feel free to post photos.
As an aside, i quarter filled this burner with coal tonight and lit it.
Nothing happened for something like 20 minutes, i was quietly reading this forum. All of a sudden a mushroom cloud of smoke came out of the top and a mighty roar commenced. Quite got me worried for the next 20 minutes. Damn thing nearly took off !!
Happy cheap heating !!

 

[David Sturch]

Charley,

My buddie build one of the first versions of this heater back in the 80's. No wood but waste oil. Took a while to get the frying pan up to temp. Once it got going though it threw out pretty good heat.
Dave

Mother Earth: Waste Oil Heater

 

[Bill Musarra]

The Mother Earth News is a great source for back to basics information. They aren't survivalist but back to basics information on just about everything from the oil burners to home construction to building a 100 mpg automobile and more using recycled or easily obtained material. I built a solar panel heater for a large bathroom(converted garage) using Styrofoam, coca cola cans, black spray paint, Plexiglas, a computer fan and a thermostat from a clothes dryer. They used to be located in Tennessee but moved to upstate New York I believe. Their magazine is full of information such as these projects that can be built with a minimum of resources. They have lots of projects with detailed instructions that are easy to follow. Their magazine can be found at newsstands every where, or a Google search will get you in touch with them.
I visited their "Village" back in the 80s and was impressed with their wealth of knowledge. If any of you remember the firestorm that erupted in the Los Angeles hills back in the 80s and made the cover of Look or Life magazines, the cover of the magazine had the burned out hills with no vegetation or homes standing with the exception on one home that stood in the middle of the smoking mess that looked untouched and didn't have even smoke damage to it. It was a million dollar type house(as many of them were) that was built with Mother's technology. It was a "Rammed Earth" home that had foot thick walls of rammed earth, better known as Sandstone to those of you who have seen the remains of ancient homes where the walls are still standing. The roof was of the ceramic or clay tiles. Nothing in the home was damaged and the interior temperature of the home didn't go up more than about 10 degrees at the height of the firestorm. They are now building these types of homes commercially and are earth quake proof. The old techniques of building were abandoned in the U S because of the abundance of trees and they never stopped building that way. The older European homes last so long due to their solid construction.Great magazine and a wealth of knowledge.

Bill

 

[David Morton]

Andy,
I can recall a smilar stove that was reluctant to run using Coke as a fuel, so one of the chaps went back to his section (department) and brought back some Avpin.(Isopropyl Nitrate)
I think it might be still in low earth orbit.

 

[Frank Catt]

The last two weeks in the UK have been extremely cold ( for us ) getting down to -9 C some nights. My guys started to moan that it was too cold to work even !! The local joinery works threw out their old woodburner stove and put in a bigger one, we quickly salvaged the old one and set about a quick install. Being worried about live fire in the workshop adjacent to very expensive cars, we installed it in an adjoining outhouse, put a steel surround caseing around the fire which could contain the very hot surface air, then sucked the hot air through the adjoining wall by the use of surplus GT40 radiator fans into the workshop. Works great, good working temperatures in the shop, and we get the heating benefit twice, once from having to cut all the timber for the fire, and again from burning it. Every scrap of surplus burnable waste material, old pallets, boxes etc getes "recycled" to great effect. Frank