New wood stove

[drobertson]

bill, I don't think you need the grates, just my opinion.  My main concern was the deflector above the door.  the seals are a good idea but not that critical if you have a good draw.  the heat can cause some warp on the doors but a controlled burn can reduce this.  Angle Iron tacked in to fit bricks would help but here again, not completely necessary.  As far as I can tell, I would add a 1/8" deflector just above your door opening, going in about 4" or so at a slight angle up, for the length of the opening.  Tack it in and try it. It can always be removed if not welded to much pretty easily, I think you will like it and leave it.  Or just add some stock to the opening, reducing the opening, keeping the diverter, and try that,  air, and smoke moves around and tries to find the least resistance.  This might be what is happening.  All said, warm is better than cold in the winter, aye? david

[CTYank]

Might want to weld some angle clips around the inner sides, to hold 1" firebrick. High combustion temps -> more complete combustion, and much longer lasting steel.

In a similar vein, preheated air discharge ABOVE the fire, like on an angled baffle, would turn much more of the fuel into heat output. Below the fire, not so much.

Purely trying to be helpful. MIG?

[rooster 58]

    When I built my stove, I stood 1 1/2" firebrick up around the perimeter of the box. Then I placed 2-3 in" of sand in the bottom, followed by 1 1/2" fire brick floor on top of sand. I got lucky because the bricks really didn't need cut much. Been using this stove for years, first as my camp, and now my home. The bricks never moved or cracked, even without retainers or anything to hold them.
     

    That's an awesome looking stove by the way

[thecfarm]

I've been in a few garages where a box fan was used to move the heat. Might be $15 now? May have a hard time finding one this time of year. They will move some air.We had a green house for a few years and used them to move the air around. They was cheap. We brought 4 of them. I told the wife they won't last long. Once we turned them on they were on until we closed. Just about on from Feb to June. We still have them! We used them for 3 seasons.Looks like you used all new metal. Do you know about how much it all cost? I might build one too.    When I get to it. 

[drobertson]

Bill I wanted to post a pic last night of my deflector but I had a hot fire going at the time, here is a shot of how mine is, inside and above the opening, the length of the door opening. 

 

[trapper]

If I remember corectly when I was a kid our heatrola in the living room had a swinging flap covering about a third of the door opeming.  Allowed bigger wood to go in and still have the baffel.

[Al_Smith]

A lot of older stoves had as winged flap .It also helps if the draft is as low as the bottom of the fire rather than over it .I mean it will still draw but just blows more smoke when the door is opened .

Grates won't do you much good burning wood unless you have an ash pan .Besides once you get about an inch or so of ash in the bottom it acts like an insulator .

[Bill Gaiche]

drobertson, I cut a 6"x3/16" the width of the stove. Attached it to the front lip and angled it down toward the back of the box yesterday morning. Still have a plenty of room to load the wood. I removed the 6" metal that I had installed earlier to the top front to make the opening smaller. I believe this deflector will make it work better now. The reason I installed the grates was , when building a new fire it seems to help keep the wood up some off the bottom so it can get better air to the fire. If the deflector isn't enough I can add a few more inches to it and have it hinged so I can swing it up out of the way while loading with wood. The air vents in the front lets the air hit pretty much toward the middle and down of the fire. If needed I can add a little deflector to the inside of the door to flow the air down toward the bottom.  It worked pretty good yesterday. Just need to burn more wood and see how it goes. Thanks again for your help. bg