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[rosewood]

after seeing some really cool homemades and gathering parts i decided to start. it first started when i bought a rolled over stainless steel 8000gal water tanker.after slicing and dicing i ended up with all  the water storage i wanted.1200gal! a trip to the scrapyard with the leftovers got me $2800 bucks and a nice find, 36'' dia x 3/4'' thick steel pipe and 8'' dia x3/8''wall pipe all 1700lbs of it! after buying everything else to make it happen my out of pocket expence is $1500 . the beast has a 3'x5' firebox ,forced draft blower ,20''x20'' 4'' thick sandfilled door,9.5'x9.5' r79 insulated shed . she gets loaded once per night and cycles every 4 to 5 hrs when temps are 20s and 30s, and 10 plus hrs when 40s and 50s .i'llpost pics when my wife can,cause i can't.. i can thank you guys here for all the great info. it really help with the build.

[willieG]

that sounds like a beauty...pics will be viewed many many times i am sure

[whlpny]

Yeah- can't wait to check it out!!!

[rosewood]

well im happy to say i made it through my first heating season with ''woodzilla'' i don't have much or little to complain about, like any build theirs some improvements to be had. for next season maybe weld a 4x6 rec tube in loading door with solenoid pulling open flap when blower starts.  and still looking at building solar water heater to mount on roof for summer. its been a satisfying project with huge savings, somewhere around additional $60 more in electricity for season. not much for all the heat and hot water ,with no skimping. as far as wood , its hard to tell cause i always came across wood to bring home to burn but i'll guess at 8-9 cord .  6 cord out of hard wood out of my stock , and  the rest pine and junk brought home.   its been firing twice a day to maintain, weather is expected to be close to 70 this weekend ,but here in new england it could snow next week so it will stay going for a little longer.  hope everyone has had a good winter and a better spring.