Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
Outdoor Furnaces - Manufacturers with NON EPA-Certified Models Only => Home Made => Topic started by: ben on March 08, 2015, 02:49:52 PM
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I'm building a conventional with a couple of modifications. We currently heat our house with a napoleon model 1400 that has a Gasification tube and they claim in the 70% efficiency. http://napoleonfireplaces.com/products/1400-pedestal-wood-burning-stove/ (http://napoleonfireplaces.com/products/1400-pedestal-wood-burning-stove/)
We love the stove, so I'm going to incorporate some of its features into a conventional water furnace. I am also adding a few features borrowed from the current boilers on the market and a few ideas of my own (I think).
The firebox is 40 inches deep. The firebox is 1/4 plate, the floor is 3/8 plate. It has air intake in the bottom (also ash falls through), The floor is a V shape to allow ash and moisture and creosote to flow/fall into ash pan. There is slates welded onto the floor to allow a 1/4 air gap between a second steel floor plate. This will hopefully allow moisture and creosote to flow regardless of ash in the firebox. It will also insulate the coals and allow air up around the fire. The gasification tube is bolted in with slots to allow for thermal expansion. There will be plate baffles to keep the heat in the firebox that will sit on the brackets in the picture and rest on the gasification tube, just like the napoleon stove. It will have a ash pan, the ash compartment doubles as the air intake. There is a divider plate to keep the mess in the front. It is at the start going to be naturally aspirated, with a spot to add a fan down the road. I'm not sure if I'm going to go r26 or r40 on the insulation.
I wish I would have started taking pics sooner. There is a fair number in the gallery already with more to follow.
I have a rough sketch with some dimensions I will post when I get to my work computer this week.
(http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag92/benamyeby/boiler/IMG_0022_zpsivgfqxtz.jpg) (http://s1300.photobucket.com/user/benamyeby/media/boiler/IMG_0022_zpsivgfqxtz.jpg.html)
Here is the gallery:
http://s1300.photobucket.com/user/benamyeby/library/boiler?sort=3&page=1 (http://s1300.photobucket.com/user/benamyeby/library/boiler?sort=3&page=1)
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Couple things for you.
First, you were so close to making this be able to be a gasser, why didnt you?
Second thing is I am not expert but I think that you are absolutely going to need a forced fan for that thing to operate at all. I don't think that there is any chance at all for it being able to draft on its own with those passes through the water jacket. I may be wrong.
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I agree with Honda, and I also worry about plugging those tubes with creosote rather quickly since it is not a gasser. Other than that concern it looks great!
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Might just have to run a wire brush thru them once a week driven by a cordless drill, well seasoned wood should cut down on the creosote issue some.
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So I'm at work now and can only post the dimensions file in a pdf file or a cad file so photobucket doesn't like it. The firebox width is 32.5 inches and the height is 43 inches. The tubes in the top are 3" id 1/4 wall, the collector boxes are 20" wide and the height depends on what box it is. I figure it should hold 200-220 gal of water. I have a rancho aquastat.
I thought pretty long and hard about going full gasser, but decided on this because I kind of wanted it to burn a bit of everything. We have 12 acres of mixed hardwood and sometimes when the wind gets blowing and knocks some trees down we only season the wood a couple months. We generally split that stuff smaller to help but there will be some higher moisture wood and woodshop scraps and stuff like that going in. I do like the simplicity of a conventional and we have a source of plenty of wood.
I have also thought about the creosote issue, In the first cleanout box (the one above the firebox door) there is actually a drain so if liquid drains out the top stretch of pipes and into the box it can flow back into the firebox instead of flowing out that door. You can see that square block in a couple of the pictures before the water jacket goes on. I also looked at the P & M conventional quite closely and I don't think my flue temps will be much colder than it. I just felt that the round tubes will be much easier to keep clean than the square. Also It can be fully cleaned from the front (except the chimney).
As I said in my first post I do have a spot and plans for a fan but I'm going to fire it up naturally first with a good stretch of insulated chimney to see what she does and what the exhaust temps are.
keep the comments coming!
In liberty
Ben
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Looks to me like you are really handy. Looks good and those tubes seem easy to access. Lots of heat will transfer to your water with those tubes. Looking forward to hearing how efficient it is when you start it up. :thumbup:
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Your design is a lot like mine. Firebox is brick lined, heat transfer takes place in 6 x 2 inch tubes, single pass. It is forced draft, by timer, on start up only. After that its all natural. Creosote is not an issue, but I brush flaky stuff from the tubes and pull ashes every Saturday. Takes about 20 minutes.
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Have you made the door yet? I would like to see pictures of your door design.
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I have just started the door. I've added a couple more pictures to the gallery. The door is 1/2" thick, with 1" rope gasket. I have ceramic insulation I will be putting in a stainless box on the inside. Some of the pictures are a little blurry. Sorry. I will add some more when I make more progress. I checked it with air. I had a few leaks... Seems the start and stop of the mig welding is where I was likely to have a leak. I patched them up. Hopefully everything stays sealed when she gets up to temperature. I'm not sure how much water it hold either. I was in a hurry but it takes about 40 minutes to fill up with the garden hose. I will have to time a pail and compare.
In liberty
Ben
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Overlap you're terminations a little more. As in when you start a new weld at the end of an existing weld back up 1/2-3/4 of an inch and start the new weld on top of the old.
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Thanks for the tip, I thought I overlapped enough. Apparently not though. I bet it would have been better if I could have cranked the heat to it and got into spray transfer mode but the water jacket is only .187 thick. I suppose I overlapped enough now, I just had to go back over them and find the spots after haha. I've also heard you have better luck running co2 instead of an argon mix for stuff like this. Live and learn!
In Liberty
Ben
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Usually a straight Co2 mix causes even more spatter.
Another thing I do is before welding anything that has to be air/water/oil tight is to hit it with the needle scaler first to make sure ALL the mill scale is gone.
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Added a couple pictures to the gallery. I have some of the latch, the hinges, the door insulation and basket. I have 3" of ceramic insulation in the door and 1" in the first cleanout box. In the chimney cleanout there is an angled stainless heat shield to deflect the flue gasses up the chimney. It just leans in there so I can take it out if it doesn't do anything.
In Liberty
Ben
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Ben, I have been watching your boiler build, nice job although I think you may have some future issues with creosote in the tubes but I just noticed your signature, THANK YOU my fellow Patriot!
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slimjim, Thanks for the comment!
First, it's amazing how many people pay lip service to things like freedom and liberty but have no Idea what they are....
Second, I appreciate the concern about the creosote. I have thought about this a while and only time will tell what happens. I do have a backup plan for a bypass if this thing turns out to be a turd. I roughly measured out the total heating area of my tubes and its not much different than the P&M. The cross sectional area of the tubes is about 15% larger than the 6" flue. I didn't want things to keep getting bigger as when gasses expand they cool. I am putting a probe in the stack and am hoping for 280-300 deg temps. I have purposely made it easy to wirebrush the tubes from the front so I can keep an eye on them. I am also hoping the interior firebox design will permit higher burn temps which hopefully burns more of that nasty creosote. I'm planning on large curved baffles on either side of the gasification tube to hold the heat in there (not it contact with the water jacket). Also with no water in the floor and brick down there, I don't think those things will hurt my chances.
I would really like if I could use both passes of tubes, it seems like a waste having 4-600 deg stack temps.
In liberty
Ben
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PM sent with my phone # let's talk!
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I've updated the gallery for probably the last time until I get a pad poured to install. That won't probably be till july or so... We will see how busy the summer is. I haven't finished the outside ash cleanout door. I have to line it with matching steel. It's just white now. I also have to do the wiring in the outside box for the aquastat. The picture of the damper actuator was just for testing. I wound up going a little overkill on the insulation if there is such a thing. The sides, bottom and top are R44 and the front and back is r28. Should be good enough. I have to add weather stripping to the outside door also.
Here is the gallery
http://s1300.photobucket.com/user/benamyeby/library/boiler?sort=3&page=1 (http://s1300.photobucket.com/user/benamyeby/library/boiler?sort=3&page=1)
One attached here:
(http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag92/benamyeby/boiler/IMG_20150419_172725654_zpscmqyd9ax.jpg) (http://s1300.photobucket.com/user/benamyeby/media/boiler/IMG_20150419_172725654_zpscmqyd9ax.jpg.html)
In Liberty
Ben
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Another update! So she is home and installed. I haven't sparked it up yet, its been very hot outside. So another update is to follow.
So it is hooked up to heat the garage and the house. The boiler is 30 feet from the garage and then about another 20 from there to the house basement. The logstor is installed in a 6" drain tile and comes up through the wall of the garage above the sill plate. The garage is a floating slab and the outer perimeter is 20" of concrete. So I wasn't going to drill two holes in it. The logstor goes as the crow flies to the corner of the garage (closest to the house) then over to the house. My pump is in the garage, there is a zone valve and small air/water hx there to keep the snow off the car. In the basement there is only a water/air hx in the plenum and a 30 plate hx for the domestic hot water. I really tried to keep the pipe length and fittings to a minimum. I ended up using about 88 feet of logstor.
I added my extra length of chimney when I got it home and the rain cap/spark arrestor (required by insurance). The insurance guy actually really liked it and doesn't require any extra fee's for homemade. I have include a finished pic with the firebrick and baffle plates. I was fairly close with my calculation of water capacity. I got a flow meter for the hose and put 210 gal of water in. I can get another 10 or so but I'm not sure how much expansion room I need until I get up to temp for the first time. I put rust inhibitor in ( I got from an industrial boiler supply place) and sent them a water sample. I wonder how accurate water capacity claims are on the factory made boilers. I wanted and accurate measurement for calculating efficiency when its going.
I am happy with this taco bumblebee pump except its flow display is not accurate at all. It seems to measure the rpm of the pump to calculate flow. But even if you partially close the isolation valve the flow display barely changes. The impellor still obviously turns and there is little to no flow. Just a note to someone considering this pump.
I had to move a couple apple trees to put the boiler here. The little one is looking good. The big one barely has any leaves except maybe 2 branches. We will see how they fare. Also it sure is hard to get grass to grow with free range chickens. Every day I get home they are gobbling up seed...
gallery link http://s1300.photobucket.com/user/benamyeby/library/boiler?sort=3&page=1 (http://s1300.photobucket.com/user/benamyeby/library/boiler?sort=3&page=1)
(http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag92/benamyeby/boiler/IMG_20150730_200736472_zpsy3jy2b9k.jpg) (http://s1300.photobucket.com/user/benamyeby/media/boiler/IMG_20150730_200736472_zpsy3jy2b9k.jpg.html)
(http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag92/benamyeby/boiler/IMG_20150730_200803761_zpslxv8cs7h.jpg) (http://s1300.photobucket.com/user/benamyeby/media/boiler/IMG_20150730_200803761_zpslxv8cs7h.jpg.html)
(http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag92/benamyeby/boiler/IMG_20150730_201622831_zpsik7oztg1.jpg) (http://s1300.photobucket.com/user/benamyeby/media/boiler/IMG_20150730_201622831_zpsik7oztg1.jpg.html)
(http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag92/benamyeby/boiler/IMG_20150730_201828556_zpszj0w9jaz.jpg) (http://s1300.photobucket.com/user/benamyeby/media/boiler/IMG_20150730_201828556_zpszj0w9jaz.jpg.html)
In Liberty!
Ben
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Quit feeding the yellow cat and the free range chickens won’t be a problem for long.
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Another update. Sorry about the frequent updates, Its a little dead on the forum in the summer but I have to post what happened or I will forget the numbers.
The temperature outside went down to 21 C or so last weekend so I had her maiden burn. Just a small fire to get it up to temp and make sure everything is fine.
I loaded 1/2-3/4 of a wheelbarrow of sawmill scraps and about 6 5" pcs about 2' long of poplar and a few pieces of ash. I didn't weigh it, also I'm waiting for my new moister tester. The fire lit easily with the under-fire air. The 210 gal of water went from 77 deg to 190 deg in 1 3/4 hours. The firebox was certainly not full.
1751 Lbs x 113 deg = 197,908 btu
197,908/ 1.75 = 113,090 btu/hr
It drew a surprising draft for naturally aspirated. The probe in the chimney registered on average between 105-115 deg F above water temp ex- water at 160 chimney at 270, water at 175 chimney at 290.
The highest the flue temp recorded was 305.
There was a fair amount of condensation dripping from the ash door on start-up and until the temp reached about 120. The boiler cycled on and off a few times that evening until the wood was gone. There was a very thin black film on the side walls of the firebox and heat exchanger tubes. This seems to have dried up when the temp hit about 175.
The initial run went better than expected but about what I hoped. I have a PWM dc motor speed control on the way so then I can add my blower fan and I also ordered a thermocouple for the firebox. This should let me know the water temp, flue temp and firebox temp. I wired an empty beer can right up to the gasification tube to see if it would make it over 1200 deg there. It didn't melt and drip off but the corners did seem melted. It was drooped down about 1 1/2 times as long as when it went in. So that makes me happy that we are seeing fairly high temps up there in the firebox.
I left my pump run until the water was cold, We used "free" hot water for about 3 days after the fire died!
When it gets colder in the fall I will do a complete test... and report!
In Liberty
Ben
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I wouldn't worry too much about the cresote issue, it can be cleaned easily.
I have (6) 4" tubes around 48" long in my stove. My manufacturer sales a
wire brush that fits a long handle to run through the tubes.
I've ran the stove for a month and didn't have issues.
I batch burn but don't think you'll have issues cleaning it once a week.
takes me 15min at the most to clean.
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Just looked at your gallery. Nice craftsmanship!
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Thanks for the comments!
Well I couldn't handle it anymore, I was to excited to turn off my water heater. I fired the boiler up Saturday morning. Its been running 4 days. It hasn't been all that cold, just below freezing at night but up to 5-10 C during the day. The boiler has been doing a lot of idling. I'm running at 185 5deg differential. It will overshoot and stop at about 188-189. The longest idle time would be around 8-9 hrs (estimate). So I'm hardly burning any wood. It smokes a little when it starts after a long idle until the firebox warms up (maybe 2 minutes to a roaring fire).
I didn't weigh any wood yet but I did put my thermocouple temporarily in the firebox up by the secondary air tube. When the burn cycle starts the temp at the top of the firebox climbs, the smoke stays until it hits about 8-900 degrees F. After that the temperature by the firebox baffles quickly climbs and hovers around 1250 degrees. It started raining after this pic was taken so I took the camera in but the highest peak temp I recorded was 1375 F. I'm quite pleased with that. That should be doing a fair bit of secondary combustion.
(http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag92/benamyeby/boiler/IMG_20151107_171856103_zpszlsyzllb.jpg) (http://s1300.photobucket.com/user/benamyeby/media/boiler/IMG_20151107_171856103_zpszlsyzllb.jpg.html)
A quick link some may find informative:
http://www.uky.edu/bae/sites/www.uky.edu.bae/files/AEES-36_0.PDF
electrical box with PWM speed control added
(http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag92/benamyeby/boiler/IMG_20150912_131940172_zpsuwtivx7x.jpg) (http://s1300.photobucket.com/user/benamyeby/media/boiler/IMG_20150912_131940172_zpsuwtivx7x.jpg.html)
new forced air, air intake with filter. I was worried about snow drifting in.
(http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag92/benamyeby/boiler/IMG_20150912_131851372_HDR_zps0qzt0mpr.jpg) (http://s1300.photobucket.com/user/benamyeby/media/boiler/IMG_20150912_131851372_HDR_zps0qzt0mpr.jpg.html)
On a side note, I got a new to me toy and I've been using it for pretty much everything.
Removing front door system to install a new tighter one.
(http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag92/benamyeby/boiler/IMG_20151011_123656421_HDR_zps3mmfn7xl.jpg) (http://s1300.photobucket.com/user/benamyeby/media/boiler/IMG_20151011_123656421_HDR_zps3mmfn7xl.jpg.html)
I do intend on weighing some wood and calculating efficiency. And will keep everyone posted when it actually gets cold and I convert some wood to btu's!
edit: I forgot, It took the water from 53 degrees up to 189 in an hour and a half. So 1751lbs x 136 deg = 238,136 btu (not counting steel) / 1.5hr = 158,757 btu/hr
It doesn't seem to burn as efficient when warming up initially until the water reaches about 165 degrees. I will time a cycle when I up my differential.
In Liberty
Ben
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Well, I'm a tinkerer and can't quite leave anything alone.
I've been playing with the air speed control to tune the firebox temp and secondary combustion quality. I was getting temps in the 1300-1450 range but it seemed somewhat sporadic , It depended on how much wood was loaded and how many cycles after the wood was loaded. It seemed to smoke more and have lower temps when fresh wood went in.
It was my suspicion I didn’t have enough secondary combustion air. So first I added an adjustable plate in the blower stream to block off some of the underfire air and therefore push more to the gasification tube. Things were better. I reduced the fan speed which made the fire less roaring but more of the smoke was burned off. The primary fire would have been creating less volatile gases. Still about the same temps but a little less smoke out the stack.
Then I added a second gasification tube underneath the first. I made it out of some 2x3” tube I had laying around. I figured I had to much friction loss on the gasification tube to get that quantity of air above the fire. This helped too but was still sporadic.
I thought I still needed more air… So My under fire air comes in from the back and over the ash pan and up slots that are about 1.75x5” in the bottom V of the firebox. There was 3 of them, The one at the very front was kind of hard to poke ash through because its fairly low right inside the door. So overtop of this air hole I bolted in a piece of 3x5 tube with a ramp to cover up the whole air slot. (if that makes sense, I will take pics soon). On top of the tube I welded a plate that ramps toward the firebox baffle plates and has 2 big slots in it to blow air directly towards the original gasification tube. The big tube is about 16” long and stops flush with the bottom door flange. I then took out the divider plate and turned the fan back to high.
This made a drastic difference. When I stoked the fire this time my thermocouple probe jumped to 1400, then 1650 then 1875 and then went blank… It has melted/broke my probe. When I cracked the door the flames shooting off of the air intake tube in the front of the firebox looked like a torch. The flames started about 4” away from where the air was injected and was swirling around the curves on the baffle plate. I have been through both of my probes and have a new stainless steel higher temperature one on the way.
All of these changes have been made with the boiler still making usable heat so I’ve been letting it burn out and do the change and start a new fire all before the water temp goes below about 150. My next step is to sawzall/grind off the new rectangle gasification tube all the way back to where it makes its 90 bend in the top of the firebox. This will get more flow back there.
So by now I have figured out a few things I would change if I did it all again. First I had to put on a rain cap with a small mesh spark arrestor. That thing gummed up fast and dripped creosote all over the roof. It seemed to gum up when I was tinkering and burning much less smoke and just after the fan kicked on but before burning the smoke. I would also move my water level indicator. It is a high temp silicon tube in a nice, easy to see spot but got dirty from smoke out the door pretty quick, you need to wipe it off to see the water level. And If starting over I would make the original gasification tube much larger for flow or have a second fan that could be controlled independently for maximum efficiency. The original one was certainly better than nothing but it was improved greatly after modification. The baffle plates seem to work good, I would maybe extend them a little bit lower on the outside edges. But that would take away some firebox space.
I’m going to try and get a video of the secondary combustion. It sure is hard though with no viewing window!
I hope this might be helpful to someone planning a build or wanting to modify theirs!
In Liberty
Ben
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Maybe something like this for a view window? This piece of glass cracked, thought maybe not enough air for the air wash but actually the silicone would creep in and glue the glass in solid, couldn’t expand and contract freely and thats what cracked it.
(http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t167/Marty_Lappin/HeatmasterSS/IMG_1452_zpspjy32zcw.jpg)
(http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t167/Marty_Lappin/HeatmasterSS/IMG_1455_zpsvj1zyvcs.jpg)
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Have a video as well but photo bucket is being stupid
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I outstupided Photobucket…..
Still with the cracked glass but here’s what a fire looks like in a G400 secondary chamber.
http://vid160.photobucket.com/albums/t167/Marty_Lappin/HeatmasterSS/IMG_1454_zpsd7arist9.mp4
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Hey, that little window looks good! Did you use the special temperature glass? I would have to take my door off and bore a hole through it and then add a tube of some sort through the insulation, similar to yours it looks like. The down draft gasser sure does blow some fire down there! It's nice to watch it with the door closed so you know your not affecting the burn when you open the door!
Maybe a window is a job for the spring shutdown for me.
Thanks for posting that!
In Liberty
Ben
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Both pieces in the flange are some kind of stainless, the 1/4” piece is something Dad brought home from work when he was a tin knocker yet for union shop. They were gonna toss it all out and he brought home a 5 gallon bucket of drops. Have used it for base plates for the grain dryer legs, or any other supports that are direct contact with cement. The thin stuff was leftover from last winters project of making a new reservoir to dump waste oil in.
Clamped em together and cut the square out with a plasma cutter then faced em in the bridgeport, after that used a 2 1/2” carbide hole saw in the bridgeport for the center hole. Used a piece of 2 1/2” 409 tubing I had left over from last fall/winters project of building a new waste oil boiler. I then cut a slot in the bottom and each side for an air wash effect, all slots are angled thirty degrees in the same direction to get a swirl effect. The slot on the “right” side as you are looking at it actually runs up, then makes a 30 degree angle down to prevent water from just running into the tube if its raining.
Took the secondary door off the boiler and placed it on two plow beams each covered with a towel to prevent scratches then built two “L” brackets to bolt to the bridgeport table to act as stops so if the holesaw bound up the door couldn’t try to spin. Could do the outer skin of the door and the middle layer but had to flip over to get thru the inner skin. Slid the tube in, got the flange slid a 1/8” on the tube then bolted the flange down, took some 26 gauge sheet metal and laid it around the flange to protect the paint on the door from any weld splatter.
Used #10 nuts with the centers drilled out for spacers to prevent clamping the glass down tight.
Used a scotchbrite pad on a right angle die grinder to pattern the outer piece of stainless.
If I was to do it again I’d use 2” tube instead, the air slots I’d leave the same but with a smaller tube the air wash should work much better. It kind of has a dead spot for 2-3 inches in from the fire where ash settles. When I have it open I just use a piece of bark to scrape the ash out.
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Ill be interested to see how your air wash works out for you, it will be a pain to try and clean that glass if it fogs often. Richard Modified my door so that people at the shows could see the secondary. I believe he bored a 2 inch hole all the way through, then he welded very small L brackets on the sides and on the bottom of the hole which excepts a piece of glass which slides right down into the L brackets. The glass fits snug enough so that it makes a seal actually. It does get fogged over though and I slide it out every other day or so and clean it off. I have to use some water and some ash to clean it since it is caked onto the glass. Richard wants the door back though for next year. I think I may mod the stock door after it gets swapped out, it really is handy to be able to see what is going on in the secondary other than just looking at the flue pipe.
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I'm going to build a new one for the new stove so you can keep that one, enjoy!
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Ill be interested to see how your air wash works out for you, it will be a pain to try and clean that glass if it fogs often. Richard Modified my door so that people at the shows could see the secondary.
Been in for three weeks and no need to clean it yet.
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Slim, that's great news to me!! Thank you!!!
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You are very welcome, enjoy. Are you up and running 100 %
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Yes, boiler has been running flawless. Cleaned the ashes out of the secondary twice and once out of the primary. Oil boiler tied into the system also works flawless with seamless switch over to oil if te boiler goes out. I have been through a little over two cords at this point.
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Any idea how much heat loss you have underground?
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Yes the gauges are a great help. Gauges show around 1 degree from exit to entrance with the house not calling and the water heater charged up. Last night it only got down to around 40 degrees and my house thermostat kicks down to 66 at night from 70 during the day. I don't think the boiler did a burn cycle other than the purge cycles. I will typically put 4-7 split pieces in depending on the temp for the night and the anticipated number of hours untill the next load. It seems that I have to run a minimum of 4 pieces unless it is going to be 60 degrees I which I just shut the boiler off. The 4 pieces end up bassicly turning to charcoal/extremely dry from sitting in the heat and laying on the coal bed all day. I am putting togeather a ubnt wifi system so that i can monitor boiler temp and fan cycling as well as in house forced hot air fan cycling and primary loop temps.
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Yes the gauges are a great help. Gauges show around 1 degree from exit to entrance with the house not calling and the water heater charged up. Last night it only got down to around 40 degrees and my house thermostat kicks down to 66 at night from 70 during the day. I don't think the boiler did a burn cycle other than the purge cycles. I will typically put 4-7 split pieces in depending on the temp for the night and the anticipated number of hours untill the next load. It seems that I have to run a minimum of 4 pieces unless it is going to be 60 degrees I which I just shut the boiler off. The 4 pieces end up bassicly turning to charcoal/extremely dry from sitting in the heat and laying on the coal bed all day. I am putting togeather a ubnt wifi system so that i can monitor boiler temp and fan cycling as well as in house forced hot air fan cycling and primary loop temps.
:post:
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Was power washing equipment this afternoon (its just that nice out) and came up with a minor brainstorm on how to make a new view port that will cut the air off when the draft fan shuts off. No extra solenoids or controls, just a bit of clever machine work. Will only work with an induced draft though and not a forced draft.
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Do tell
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I’ve noticed the induced draft is strong enough to pull the loading door shut if you just have it cracked. I have some borosilicate glass (pyrex) that would be tougher than regulate glass, when the draft fan is running I’d think there’d be enough vacuum to pull a piece of glass away from the cover of the view port I already have as I’ve seen it actually pull water in from the bottom when it was raining, use 3-4 small springs around the circumference to push the glass out again to shut the air off.
Might work, might not, I have more stainless and carbide tooling for both the lathe and bridgeport so I’m only out the time to try it.
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Well nuts, appears I only have lighter gauge left and none of the quarter inch stainless.
Guess I could make a prototype out of mild steel and see what happens even though corrosion will be an issue and cause problems.
I usually don’t build prototypes anyways, just do it right the first time instead :thumbup:
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I usually don’t build prototypes anyways, just do it right the first time instead :thumbup:
Yep, sure wish I had stainless the first time as the prototype seems to work just fine, need to head to the hardware store in the morning though and see if I can get some lighter springs but with more coils per inch. Machined in a total movement of 3/32” for the round piece of pyrex to move, when I turn on the 400 the glass does move but not the full amount. As a test I placed a hand full of ashes in the tube, on its own it does get most of them out eventually, if I just place the lightest pressure on the glass with a fingertip it opens the rest of the way and whats left of the ashes are gone in a matter of seconds as I machined in a swirl effect for the airflow. But the glass has to move the full amount to make the air follow the channels….
The real question will be if freezing up will be a problem or not come some frigid weather.
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May go back to the original one, when the stove is idling no air gets thru my new one, which is what I was after, but the glass is already looking cloudy from the gasses that accumulate in the stove while idling.
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Just a quick update!
I think I'm completely tuned in now (until the summer shutdown!) It's been running good. I've changed from a fan to a blower and rearranged my damper setup because of backfiring upon loading a big load of wood scraps on hot coals and the woodgas igniting and backfiring through my fan. I've added a one way blast flap on the intake tract. I clean the flues about every 3 weeks or a month it seems.
These are my temps in the to top the firebox now:
(http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag92/benamyeby/boiler/IMG_20151130_165815665_zpswwiizvgh.jpg) (http://s1300.photobucket.com/user/benamyeby/media/boiler/IMG_20151130_165815665_zpswwiizvgh.jpg.html)
I took a video, you can see the flames curling around in the top by the baffle plates. It pretty much always has the wispy flames dancing up there but with the door closed and only open a very tiny crack there is a flamethrower blasting upward from the air injection at the front of the firebox. That disappears when the door is opened wide.
(http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag92/benamyeby/boiler/th_VID_20160203_215117961_zpsywbx3pr5.mp4) (http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag92/benamyeby/boiler/VID_20160203_215117961_zpsywbx3pr5.mp4)
hope that video works!
I will take some pictures next clean out.
In Liberty!
Ben
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One last update on this project, for me anyways.
We have sold the farm so perhaps the new owner will post!
Over the summer the only thing I changed was the blower/damper setup. I didn't like the damper flap on the outside of the blower because when the boiler idles, the smoke can condense into creosote on the blades of the blower and blower internals.
So I've put a damper flap between the blower and the air intake. Also, I can adjust the amount of air that goes into the primary or secondary air intake by raising or lowering the damper/blower setup on the flange.
Sorry for the blurry pics, my phone doesn't have a great camera!
I'll still check back on here once and a while too, this won't be my last boiler!
In Liberty
Ben
(http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag92/benamyeby/boiler/IMG_20160913_190506392_zps44z3shoq.jpg) (http://s1300.photobucket.com/user/benamyeby/media/boiler/IMG_20160913_190506392_zps44z3shoq.jpg.html)
(http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag92/benamyeby/boiler/IMG_20160913_190457154_zps2rcmze2a.jpg) (http://s1300.photobucket.com/user/benamyeby/media/boiler/IMG_20160913_190457154_zps2rcmze2a.jpg.html)