Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
Outdoor Furnaces - Manufacturers with NON EPA-Certified Models Only => Home Made => Topic started by: newmod on October 13, 2011, 11:11:55 AM
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I got all my steel yesterday. Planning on 30x30x42 firebox. About 300 gallons water capacity. Following after a CB that I had previously owned. Was gonna go round on box and jacket, maybe on the next one. I am using 1/4 inch steel. I got a very good deal on 1/4x48x96 sheets of new steel.
On the CB I owned I had used TACO 009 for house and garage. I am planning on the same for this one unless people have any downfalls with them. Should I have the return water come into the lower part of the water jacket, kinda like a water heater. what type of aquastat should I use. Going with a natural draft door operated by soleniod. what other considerations am I missing?????? There will be many pics to follow on my build. Should be starting on Saturday.
Alot of good ideas on here. I was initially gonna use 2 different size propane tanks, but hard to find. Plus like I said. I got a good deal on steel..
Newmod
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ALSO, Thanks R W Ohio for letting me come check out yours and your sons furnace.
Newmod
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Alright another new build!take lots of pics as you go and post them up.
As far as the return water I'm not all that sir it matters.my stove sucks off the bottom and it work great.plus I never have to worry abouts low water going to the pump that way.I would just try to direct your return water to give a swirling action inside the tank.help the water circle around the firbox.
My uncle runs taco pumps and has went through three in two years.I am running Grundfos and haven't had any trouble.
good luck!
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Good luck...
We love pics...
Insulate well....
Buy good pipe...
Return in the bottom....
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Jackell440 has a good method of heating and mixing his water that makes most burners envious... Laws of physics say bottom return top pump feed for proper stratification. I also agree though, that I wouldn't matter if you have good mixing and movement around the fire box. I have mine fed in the back at the bottom, all the way through in a 1 inch steel pipe to the front, into and up through the water jacket door, and back into the front up top. Works very well but is at the opposite end of the pump draw so it has thorough time to mix and circulate. But I also have a t fitting in the return at the back to direct excess return into the rear of the boiler that is throttle by a ball valve. I cut almost all flow to the door once in an experiment and found out that the entire 400 gallons would boil uncontrollably because it would enter the rear and exit right away and my thermostat was directly between the ports so it only picked up the small amount circulating and read about 140 degrees constantly :bash:
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Peacmar,That was what I was trying to refer to.(I was on my cell phone posting at lunch)I had designed an regular style of wood boiler ,and I had the return lines running to the front of the furnace,but I then had the pipe turned perpindicular to the burn chamber with another 45* nozzle to cause the water to circulate around the burn chamber.
I had also considered an pump that just recirculated water on the furnace all the time.All kinds of crazy ideas and theorys out there.
To the original poster Just do the one that you think works.Just try to improve on your design as you go. :thumbup:
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Industrial boilers normally have the water enter at the top. Because it is cooler and more dense it "falls" to the bottom and forces hotter less dense water up. I used this principal of natural circulation when I decided to place the feed inlet about half way up and towards the back of my boiler. A baffle also helps direct the feed downwards. Because our units are completely forced throughout the boilers I am not sure that natural circulation has any advantage. I am satisfied with how it performs but I have nothing to compare it with. I may reroute the feed inlet into the bottom drain and see if there is any difference.
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All kinds of crazy ideas and theorys out there.
To the original poster Just do the one that you think works.Just try to improve on your design as you go. :thumbup:
:thumbup: X2 :thumbup:
As I and others who have built their own will tell you-
This is only the beginning, plans will change and ideas will grow as you go. Try to plan ahead and know your next step, because you will change your mind ten times before you do it. As the pieces start to come together you will find yourself dreaming about being at home building your burner. You'll wake up in the morning with new ideas and wonder why you thought that was such a great idea the night before. Bust most importantly you'll stand back when its done and say "I did that".
I might suggest looking at many different brand of boilers out there when your not working on it so you can incorporate all the features you like best about them. Each one has its own perks. Sounds like you have a very good platform as a starting basis so have fun with it and make it your own. And oh yeah....
Don't forget pics! ;D
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All kinds of crazy ideas and theorys out there.
To the original poster Just do the one that you think works.Just try to improve on your design as you go. :thumbup:
:thumbup: X2 :thumbup:
As I and others who have built their own will tell you-
This is only the beginning, plans will change and ideas will grow as you go. Try to plan ahead and know your next step, because you will change your mind ten times before you do it. As the pieces start to come together you will find yourself dreaming about being at home building your burner. You'll wake up in the morning with new ideas and wonder why you thought that was such a great idea the night before. Bust most importantly you'll stand back when its done and say "I did that".
I might suggest looking at many different brand of boilers out there when your not working on it so you can incorporate all the features you like best about them. Each one has its own perks. Sounds like you have a very good platform as a starting basis so have fun with it and make it your own. And oh yeah....
Don't forget pics! ;D
This is exactly What I did every day for like 3 yrs before I built mine!Good advice. :thumbup:
Sounds like tomorrow will be your start so I hope to see some pics when I get home from work! ;)
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Actually, we got started on everything last night. Water jacket and firebox are tacked up. We built the frame for the firebox to sit on. It kinda like a puzzle, figuring out what to weld next with getting ahead of yourself.
How far below the water line should i put the outlet for the pumps. I dont want to go to high with them for fear of water running a little low and burning up the pump.
I will get pics up later today.
Newmod
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Hope this works....
(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6096/6244457401_0152fd6ca1.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/68676926@N06/6244457401/)
Locating pump support bracket, welding it on, and doing a little plumbing. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/68676926@N06/6244457401/#) by Quicksilver99 (http://www.flickr.com/people/68676926@N06/)
Mine is about 10" from the top
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Having trouble posting pics. Will try to figure this thing out
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https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2480105811140.2141492.1507397718&type=3 (https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2480105811140.2141492.1507397718&type=3)
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I can't get the link to work.
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Same here...link does not work.
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New mod what are you planning for exhaust? I have a 8 ft chimney,5 ft are in water and firebox,2/3 into firebox . There is a lot heat to capture here,also with stack 2/3 in fire it helps "I believe" to get to gassifier stage.
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Todd,
I can not get the pictures either. But I hope that the build is coming along as you had hoped.Winter is soon to be apon us.
Ron
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hmmm. It wont work for me either. Well I will have to have the wife help me resize pics so i can load them. The water jacket is all welded, the firr box is almost done. We welded five 2 inch cross tubes in for better heat transfer and a baffle towards the back of the box. All in all it is going very well. Hopefully most all construction will be done this weekend. Still taking pics so I can get them loaded.
For the exhaust, we ran 6 inch pipe out the back and i have a triple wall TEE and a couple sections of triple wall pipe that we are going to hook in.
I found 120 ft of 1 inch Thermopex online for a good deal. Can I use the normal 1 inch pex crimp rings on that, and to hook it into my 1 inch pex in the house.
newmod
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Got firebox welded into the water jacket last night. Everything is turning out great. If I didnt have this car lift in my garage, this job would not be fun at all. We hope to have everything up and running by the end of October. I am confident that we wont have any leaks. I HOPE !
Newmod
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try this one. CLICK VIEW SLIDESHOW
http://s1188.photobucket.com/albums/z416/newmod/ (http://s1188.photobucket.com/albums/z416/newmod/)
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Looks good. :thumbup:
I just want to know how you plan to get rid of your ash?I didnt really see how you plan to get it out of the bottom from under your cross tubes.
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Jackel, The cross tubes are actually on top top collect heat in the firebox. We just had it upside down for welding purpose
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ok I see.I have seen stoves built with the same tubes in the bottom.I just didn't see that it was upside down. ;)
Looks good though.Keep it up! :thumbup:
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What Aquastat should I use. I have researched a few but not sure what to get. It will need to operate the draft door and possibly inductor fan.
Newmod
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I use a ranco controls ETC 111000, easy to program and works great.
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Ranco seem to be great units.You can also find Johnson units that do the same thing.pick up a grainger book and start reading through it. :thumbup:
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If using the RANCO control, do I have to purchase a (well ) for it, so it is actually submursed in the water? Not really sure how the aquastats get mounted. Thanks
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you'll have to weld in a bung ,not sure of the ranco's,honeywells are 1/2'' ..i think.
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My personal preference is the ranco if all your using it for is a thermostat. Otherwise a good PID and thermocouple can be picked up for about the same price is you want other controls such as low water temp shut down of the fan so it don't keep cooling your water should your fire ever run out. You can mount it in a well or if you insulate it well enough it can go on the water feed pipe between the boiler and the pump. If your good at sweating copper pipe you can make your own well for a few bucks by drilling out a brass end plug just big enough to slit in a short stub of 1/2"copper pipe and capping the other end and silver soldering it all up. Fill it with a bunch of heat sink compound from an electronics store and its super accurate. I was able to put it all together for mine for about $10, beats paying $30 plus shipping for the purpose built ones and I had 4 feet of extra tube to use for the drain and overflow vent also.
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pics of OWB added to album
http://s1188.photobucket.com/albums/z416/newmod/ (http://s1188.photobucket.com/albums/z416/newmod/)
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Looks like your almost there.what's your plan for the outside?
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Jackel,
i plan on insulating with 2 inch rigid foam board and also wrapped with some other sort. Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Going to use the RANCO 111000 aquastat but still need to choose a thermometer that i can wire in and have the remote head in the house. Indian summer is running out soon here.
For the outsite I need to weld some sort of frame to the Waterjacket so I can mount the steel siding
The door latch wasn't what I was planning on but with the t-handle it is DEFINETLY gonna seal the door. The door warped a little from all the welding, no big deal, just so there is no air leakage into the firebox.
Newmod
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The more you can insulate the better off you will be.
Now I used just regual fiberglass bats on mine.Seems to work well.When it snows it doesn't melt off the top.
Make your frame as big as you can so you can insulate as much as possible,and have it so you can take pieces off parts that you need to get to it in a pinch, if you have to work on it.
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i would go with the fiberglass,the 2''board is only about r 20 or less from what i have seen unless you know of something different.plus fiberglass will take alot of heat from exhaust where as foam might burn a bit.
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Thanks for the pics Newmod...OWB looks good so far... I'm envious of that shop too by the way! >:D
Keep up the good work, and keep takin pics...
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Airgap,
Thanks. Ya the shop sure comes in handy. It is a terrible mess, building kitchen cabinets, OWB, and everything else in there. Gonna be cold this winter though. wont have it heated until next year.
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Todd,
Ready to fire it up soon?
RW
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Well we slowed down on the build for a little while. Pressured it with 5 lbs of air. found some pinhole leaks, when trying to grind and reweld we just chased the pinholes for what seemed like hours. Finally got it patched and put water in it found 1 more leak, fixed it. It was gonna be done today but I got shafted in to working today. IT WILL BE DONE TOMORROW !!!
Newmod