Ideas Please - Upcoming project

OK to cut the long story short. I want to make a couple of wood burning stoves of different sizes. One for my allotment and one for my shed at home.

I've come across pages where others have made them from empty gas bottles and oil drums, but these are a little too dangerous or large for my liking. Like these





I was wondering if any other members had some other ideas of what I could make it from as the possibilities are endless but I can't think beyond a few ideas, all of which are not really ideal.

Here's the criteria (I'm after two here so have divided them into two)

• Must be made from metal, ideally steel and a bit thicker than your average garden incinerator.

• Both must be from something that no one really wants, so something recyclable.

• One must be quite tall and thin, think of a large fire extinguisher type size and shape (I have tried looking for an empty one of these, but to no avail)

• The other larger one just a metal object that could hold a fire in it. So far I've come up with gas bottles, fire extinguishers, cement mixing drums and beer kegs, all of which have recycled value so have been more difficult to get hold of or for a cheap price.

Any ideas would be most helpful

Thanks everyone!

 

Washing machine drum? They work as incinerators obviously only suitable for outside though.

 

The large one is providing heating but not in the shed, more of a porch that I'm hoping to build outside of my shed on the allotment. The other smaller one is for my workshop/shed at home. I have already secured a length of 6 inch steel pipe to act as a flue. With this burner I was hoping to have it as a very small burner and also mount a door on it too, to enclose the fire.

Yeah I had thought of that originally but not really good indoor though.

I know. I think that's what the trouble is. Gas bottles are apparently worth £50 in credit or something like that and I think the same with fire extinguishers and beer kegs too.

 

That's not been my experience with Calor Gas bottles. When I got one "new" I entered a contract, and that had a buy-back clause - so in theory when I no longer need it I can sell it back to the company; in the meantime I can take it, empty, and swap it for a full one (no paperwork needed).

But the contract was on a decreasing value basis, so after a few years the refund is effectively worthless. As far as I am concerned I own my gas canister, but it has a sell-back value (let's assume that is now negligible / worthless)

So apart from the safety aspects I wouldn't think twice about my contractual obligations in chopping it up ... particularly if I bought / obtained it from someone else.

Its a cracking DIY project, but if it were me I'd be on the lookout to recycle a small stove as I think I would be too scared that fire might "escape" from my DIY creation.

 

Be careful with your porch roof!

 

There is a gas bottle near me for a fiver but I'm still really nervous about going near one if I'm honest. I know you have to fill it with water etc but I still feel rather uneasy about doing it.

 

This sort doesn't look very difficult to make http://theflyingtortoise.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/how-to-make-your-own-simple-cheap.html and could probably be adapted to take a flue



I put a multifuel stove in the back of a vehicle some ago, including paving slabs under it, heatproof insulation behind it, profiled metal section with collar and flashing where the flue went through the roof and it was easy, you just need to fireproof everything close to them. Even a stove made of something as small as that cooking oil can will rapidly heat up a small shed.

Dunno if Building Regs cover stoves in sheds.

 

@Scrungee . Brilliant idea! Now where do I find one of these containers? I don't use a lot of oil in my cooking...

 

I think they're 20L containers and we once bought a dented one at Tesco's that was so cheap we just had to have it, being reduced to only a couple of pounds. Try anywhere that does catering for empties. I'm sure there must be a more elegant solution for making a stove with one of these.

I knew somebody who heated their ex-London taxi they were sleeping in overnight in cold deserts using a Heath Robinson affair fueled with rolled up newspapers and consisting of a biscuit tin with a flue made of baked bean cans poked out the window.

Not as much fun as DIY, but I got one of these http://www.tesco.com/direct/la-haci...imenea/209-0988.prd?pageLevel=&skuId=209-0988 in the sale when they were reduced from £50 to £12.50 and paid with £6.25 in CC vouchers as it was also 'double up' promotion back then.

 

Maybe a local restaurant/fish and chip shop might have one?

 

We had one of these a year ago, went rusty as soon as we first used it.

Just to update the thread. Ive decided to scrap the idea of having a stove in my shed and am instead am going to go for an oil filled radiator instead. I forgot to mention that I have juice in there now and so I never saw it as an option.

I'm still hoping to make a wood burning stove for the allotment though. Today's mad idea is using a stock pot from the army surplus stores. Though this would be really difficult to machine too.

 

I've always keep some juice in my shed!

 

So new contracts are more prescriptive than the old ones?