I made a barrel stove.

[buffalobo]

Use rebar for your grate, easy to cut, bend and weld.

And it is cheap.


Sent from my electronic ball and chain.

[Irving]

That's a grate idea. Thanks.

[hurley842002]

That's a grate idea. Thanks.

LOL, I see what you did there.

[Ah Pook]

I think my damper is about 3.5' from the box. Still have good air control and it doesn't get hot.

[buffalobo]

I think my damper is about 3.5' from the box. Still have good air control and it doesn't get hot.

^^^This, especially with barrel stoves. Also won't corrode quite so fast.

Sent from my electronic ball and chain.

[OtterbatHellcat]

The lid on your barrel is removable, so that invites ease of some of the the things you described for upgrading. One thing a guy could do, removable lid or not, would be to fill it halfway up with pea gravel or small rocks, and then take..say.... 6 pieces of 2 x 2 angle iron cut into 33" long pieces and place them onto the gravel/rock bed. That should allow lots of airflow I would think. Wouldn't cost all that much either, I don't think.

Place the angle iron on the bed like this ... ^

[Ah Pook]

Lean to > Swedish layer

[Irving]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yYPz2xuyHc

A good over view on how to use a Swedish layer to not burn the bottom of your stove out.

That's basically the same thing as the upside down fire that I used to use in my fireplace. Putting the big stuff on the bottom like that helps you create a fire that burns for a long time and doesn't need nearly as much wood, or attention.
One thing I would like to do is weld in a baffle. Had I planned better, I would have saved the piece of metal I cut out for the door and used that. Any suggestions on what I should use now that would be pretty cheap? Any idea how large the baffle should be? For example, if it stretched 50% of the length of the stove, compared to 75% of the length of the stove; would either of those lengths be ideal over the other? I'll have to consult that stove making book I posted here before and see what it says about baffels.

Thanks for all the tips. Keep them coming.

[TheGrey]

I am really impressed, and very grateful for the pictures and video that you posted. I've often wondered about barrel stoves.

One thing- and it may not even apply: don't burn stuff like poison ivy, poison oak or poison sumac. It's a real pain to keep it separate when clearing the yard and burning all the yard debris, but the oils and particulates in those plants will float up the chimney and get EVERYWHERE, including in the air you breathe. (We had a cast iron wood stove when I was growing up.)

[Irving]

Thanks for the tip. I know I burned sumac but it wasn't poison.