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[nateklein]

I have in floor heat tubing in the basement of my new wisconsin home, I am cheap yet creative and want to build my own boiler. After reading of water jackets rusting through or cracks forming causing it useless.    I want to take a 36" diameter 1/4" thick and about 4 feet tall steel "drum" wrap it with copper line, surround that with a 48" diameter 1/4" thick and 4 feet tall also. then here is the kicker, so i think fill the void with sand. I would also have the wood fill door on the top to maximize copper line wrapping. and a small ash clean out door at the bottom. also some sort of air intake that i can manually adjust the air intake to regulate the fire size I also could use a barometric damper and or a damper. My biggest fear of being a cheap ass is the water getting too hot.. . what do ya think

[mober]

it will acually be cheaper to do water around the firebox cause you can keep the same design you have in your head just without the copper cost and the pressurized system you will need to run for the copper wrap (you will need air seperator make up water backflow preventer and bladder tank for pressurized).
but you need welding skills to go the cheap way (water filled stove)

[forest]

Sand isn't the best material to transfer heat, but has been used in the past. I don't think that it needs to be pressurized, but you will need a storage tank for the hot water or it will boil out on you from the copper tubes. This way you remove the reservoir from the heat source making repairs easier. The old timers use to use copper tubing to provide hot water before the electic, or gas hot water tank. Sounds like a workable idea to me.

[willieG]

the idea is workable i think. but you will need someone with a great amount of experience on what size of tubing and how many feet of it and how fast the water (GPM) need to me moved through the tubing to prent boiling I think it would be very possable to boil the water in the tubing at some point and this may cause an air lock that then  prevents the pump from circulating and then no heat in the house or worse.

you could try it and if it works great...if not you have a good fire box just add the water jacket