Wood burning shop heater

[John D]

Im kinda needing some ideas for a wood burning heater. not realy trying to heat up the whole shop. just a place to warm my rearend while Im thinking about what toy to play with next. jb

 

[rswyan]

Barrel stove kit is probably your cheapest bet:

Lehman's - Products for Simple, Self-sufficient Living

One of these kits and a 55 gallon drum will get you a stove that will put out a significant amount of heat. There is also an adapter kit which allows mounting a second 55 above the first for a smoke chamber to scavenage additional heat. Due to the thin walls of the barrels they heat up very fast and put out alot of heat. By the same token you don't want to over fire them (due to the thin walls.)

I have a double barrel one up in my old shed (28' by 30' masonary block building) I lined the bottom barrel with firebrick better than 1/2 way up and made a grate out of rebar to hold the logs up off the bottom and allow me to get a shovel in the ash cleanout door at the bottom. I also hung a cheap ($15) box fan from Wally World on chains next to it to circulate the air across the stove. It puts out enough heat to run me out of the building on the coldest day.

These stove are not UL rated however and may pose a problem insurance-wise for your insurer.

 

[tcarter1]

What is the material of construction for your shop? Mine is metal with a thin blanket insulation. I had a local chimney sweeo plumb a chimney for my woodstove. I had to have the double wall pipe close to the wall & roof. Works great, and I really appreciate the warmth.

 

[John D]

Thats a good idea with the fire brick. My shop is metal with no insulation. concrete floor. I do have an old water holding tank from an old well that went dry on me and was thinking about useing it. we dont get that many cold days in a row here in Texas like some of you do so I was looking to build a bun warmer per say. got alot of dead oak trees on my place to use up some how. jb

 

[CTyler]

I bought the Vogelzang double barrel kit to heat my 50x64 shop. The barrel is lined with cut down regular bricks left over from our house. Also used welded up rebar for a grate but it doesn't last very long, just one season barely. Need bigger rebar than the 1/2 stuff to make it last but it was left over stuff as well.

 

[Deerlope]

Up north where its cold and where I live there must be at least 10 used wood stoves FS in the paper everyday. But a barrel stove is an inepensive way to go. Northern Tool also some in their catalog.

 

[schmism]

ive got a stove like this

warms the 2 car garage nicely.

ive lined mine with 1" thick fire brick to extend the life of the iron.

Youll wnat a second damper control because the cheepy stove doesnt seal well.

its a real wood chuck and will SUCK down the wood, i burn a lot of cut up pallets.

cheep heat no matter how you look at it!

 

[Farwell]

I bought the Vogelzang double barrel kit to heat my 50x64 shop. The barrel is lined with cut down regular bricks left over from our house. Also used welded up rebar for a grate but it doesn't last very long, just one season barely. Need bigger rebar than the 1/2 stuff to make it last but it was left over stuff as well.

Ctyler,
My neighbor has a Vogelzang double barrel stove and keeps his pole barn at 70 degrees all Winter long. He says he wears shorts while working in the building. It seems to be pretty efficient and does not consume near the wood that many of the other stoves do. Ace Hardware sells the kit for around $80. I bought one but prior to installing the stove I contacted my insurance company to make sure I would be covered if I used the stove and they said that the company would drop me if I used any type of indoor wood burning heater. That killed that idea.
There are many different ways to make sure the barrels last. One guy put a 35 gallon drum inside of the 55 gallon drum and lined the outside of the smaller drum with a fire clay or something similar. Some line the bottom with sand. Do a Google search.
David

 

[Onthesauk]

Might watch Craigslist. I see cheap or free woodstoves show up there every day. I got a free one a couple of years ago for my shop off there. Still faced with the cost of stove pipe but a good cast stove works better then a barrel stove.

 

[gclark94560]

ive got a stove like this

warms the 2 car garage nicely.

I have the same stove from HFT and it does a great job in my workshop. I only heat about 300 sq ft of the shop but it has a 12 foot ceiling. I put all my wood scraps aside for winter heat.

Regular price is around $180. I caught a sale and I think it was down around $125.

TSC had the same stove on the floor here for $179.

Greg