Shop Stove?

[Qweaver]

I need to put a wood burning stove in a 12'x24' shed stall.  So it has to be fairly small.  I am considering a cast iron boxwood stove.  Cheap, small and easy to move.  But I have no idea how well it will heat that small un-insulated space.   I may put foam insulation in later but I just want a warm place to work this winter. I need heat right away...it's cold out there!    Is there a better choice?  We had a pot belly stove when I was a kid and it seemed to put out a lot of heat.

[WH_Conley]

I know what you mean about cold. I have used those stoves before, it will not keep that size area toasty with no insulation. It will definitely make a difference on the felt temperature though. Ever think about a barrel stove?  Not too much difference in foot print but more surface area for heat transfer. Maybe get you by this winter and have something a little nicer next.

[northwoods1]

How cold is it there? How warm do you want it to get inside the building?

Here is gets really cold, but out in one of my unheated shops I will use a torpedo heater to initially heat up the space then I turn a small gas heater on to keep the temp up. That works for me and it is fast. I have a small woodstove in one of my shops and it is about 12 x 24. There is no insulation but the room is totally enclosed in a larger steel buildiing. I really hate having to go out and start the woodstove it takes so long to heat the area up so I can begin working. And then all the tools are so cold also. I might try sticking the torpedo heater in there to take the chill off, which it does very quickly!!

[WDH]

My experience with stoves is that the small ones burn out quickly and do not form a coal bed that provides long lasting heat.  One that is fire brick lined will retain heat from the wood and allow the formation of a long heating coal bed.  One that is not designed for long heat will just work you to death. 

[Sprucegum]

I built a 18" x 18" steel box with 6" chimney for my 10' X 14' cabin. It'll take the temp from -10 to +40 in 20 minutes. When I build up the fire to boil water for tea I have to open the window and the door  :D

Toss in one little poplar stick every 10-15 minutes and its comfy.

[pineywoods]

I put one of them cast iron boxwood stoves in my shop. Don't work to well. I grew up in houses heated with these things, so I should have known. They make a lot of heat, but it all stays right around the stove. Nice to back up against to warm your backside while your feet and front side freeze..Got one of them infrared jobs that fastens on a propane bottle. works good, nice to not have to stoke the fire. Best I ever had in a shop was a barrel stove with a box fan behind it to move the heat around.

[Left Coast Chris]

I got a free older wood stove from my neighbors mobile home.  It has a 16x24 fire box --- pretty small.   My shop is only 24'x32' so I did not want the stove taking up alot of space.   I put it in a corner and built a sheet metal shield around three sides of it so I could put it about 9" or so from the walls of the shop.   I then used some 6" well casing steel pipe for the stove pipe.   It takes maybe 30 min to get the heat up in the shop but it has worked well.   I have alot of wood scraps and I feed it every 2 hrs or so.   Can't beat it for a free stove.

One note is that we only get down to the mid twenties (+25 degrees) on a really cold morning here but the shop is uninsulated and the stove performs adequately in those conditions.

[JSNH]

Barrel stove is the best. I heat a 18' x 36' workshop with 12' ceiling with one. The barrel stove heats very fast and that's what you need to take the chill off. Put 3 inches of sand in the bottom of the barrel stove before you use it. The stove will last for years. Easy to make works great.

[Qweaver]

Thanks everyone.  I had never used a barrel stove so I had no idea of how well it would work.  I've got the wife stopping to pickup a kit on her way home.  We'll be working warm tomorrow I hope.  $49 beats the heck out of any other stove I could buy.  
That's what I love about this forum...if you have a question, someone here will have a good answer.

[SwampDonkey]

My little Georgia made stove is cast iron with a 36 inch firebox. Has two hot plates inset in a swing top and has a front door and draft plate. My stove pipe has a damper. Stove is older than Moses I think. It definitely is not air tight in any man's mind. :D You've seen the old stove in my steam bending thread. But my shop is 50 feet long and 12 feet wide. I can heat that up pretty quick with seasoned wood. I shove a shovel full of planer shavings in and lay my wood on top and she's roaring in 5 minutes, then I dampen down the air flow with the damper and drafts. Some mornings there is still coals, but a match is cheap and I have to rid of shavings anyway. I burn about 5 or 6 halved wood blocks a day from 8:00 am until the next morning. I have my walls all insulated and the ceiling. There is one inside wall toward the centre of the barn. Even in 20 below temps the over night burn will hold heat for 3 days and not freeze water. I always open the door up when working, both from dust issues and it's gets ungodly hot at times. :D  I've never have hardly any creosote or soot in the shop. Pretty much less than an ash shovel full.

Dad used this stove in a potato shed to heat around the doors. The shed was 70 feet long and 40 wide or so and 20 feet to the ceiling. Now not all that space was heated as spuds make heat themselves. He had installed a thermostat controlled fan on the stove pipe to throw heat. He had a single oil furnace for backup to heat that and another area twice that size and the ceiling out there was about 35 feet from the floor. :D



My brother walked in the shop the other day and said I had her nice and hot in here. Yup, I says.

Northwoods, is your shop with the wood stove insulated? That fibre glass pink insulation isn't that expensive for a little shop. I couldn't afford gas and wouldn't make much sense with all kinds of wood around. ;) Insulating will solve a lot of the heartache.

[Reddog]

I've got the wife stopping to pickup a kit on her way home.  We'll be working warm tomorrow I hope.  $49 beats the heck out of any other stove I could buy.  

Just make sure you use a Steel barrel.   ;)




:D :D

[pigman]

A plastic barrel will put out more heat, for a short time. ;D

[Magicman]

You are making a good decision.  Several years ago, I decided that my shop needed a wood heater so I bought a cute little cast iron pot bellied job.  As WDH said, it wasn't large enough to ever get a good hot coal bed going and being small, I was continuously feeding it.  That cute little heater just didn't work.

[John Mc]

I've seen people make stoves out of old hot water heater tanks. They're built heavier than the typical steel barrel, so last a good while.

Here's a link to an article about building a used hot water tank wood stove that appeared in Mother Earth News back in the late '70's.

John Mc

[bugdust]

Qweaver, I heat my 24'x40' shop with a coal burning stove. Darn things are getting pricey though and coal around $65 a ton. I throw in 2 buckets at night and have plenty of fire in the morning. I once useed a barrel stove in my 24'x24' cabin and it done a pretty good job. You can increase the heat by adding an additional barrell on top, there's a kit for that too.

[SwampDonkey]

Can't beat $65 a ton, could never get that price up here and they closed up all the mines.  :-\

[Al_Smith]

This barrel stove buisness has been discussed elsewhere on the net just recently .I'm not real sure where the idea came from .I've heard the US forestry service or the Army corps of engineers during the building of the AlCan highway during WW2 .

I would probabley guess the later .Makes sense,lots of wood and empty oil drums and cold GI's .

At any rate ,fired hard a single barrel puts out right around 100,000 btu's per hour and around double that with a second barrel atop if I'm not mistaken .They would flat run you out of a small shop or you'd be sitting around in your skivies.

Stotz of monster maul fame used to make a neat  air tight door kit for them if you didn't want to make your own .I have no idea if they do now days or not . Brick or sand line the bottom the barrel lasts a good while .

[Qweaver]

This cold finally released it grip on me and I finally got the barrel stove together.  It was harder than I thought it would be.  It took me 4 hours.  I hope to have it heating tomorow.  I still have to get the pipe through the wall.