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A stove made from a gas cylinder will turn out to be more economical and efficient than manufacturing equal in complexity from other available materials. The shape of the gas cylinder itself will help. The quality of a stove is largely determined by its firebox. The ideal firebox in all respects is spherical. Considering that the firebox must have at least 2 openings - an inlet, for loading fuel and supplying air, and an outlet, for the release of exhaust gases into the chimney, the optimal shape of the firebox is not a very long and narrow cylinder with rounded ends, and that’s what the cylinder is. Its shape is chosen based on the need to maintain greater pressure with minimal metal consumption, but the result is the same.

What kind of stove can be made from a cylinder?

Since the shape of the firebox is optimized for the most general principles, then stoves made from cylinders can be very different - from flaming combustion to sophisticated designs, from which even an experienced heating engineer, as they say, turns his eyes back. This article examines several furnaces, arranged in increasing order of manufacturing complexity; their purpose is also taken into account:

• for residential premises.
• Heating systems for non-residential premises.
• Summer cooking.
• Universal small-sized portable emergency; stove just in case.

The need to minimize costs for Additional materials and the opportunity to make a stove with your own hands without complex instruments and/or technological operations. Of course required condition– sufficient convenience and safety of use. Unfortunately, it is impossible to give recommendations on the legalization of homemade stoves: fire regulations for them are very strict. Here everyone needs to resolve the issue on the spot, as best they can. Or don’t decide at all: building stoves yourself is not prohibited anywhere, but possible consequences will fall entirely on the author/owner.

Note: the requirement of maximum simplicity and low cost does not apply to the rocket stove described at the end. However, this stove not only heats large room on slivers-twigs, but also allows you to get a real warm bed at home without building a brick oven. And the costs of materials and labor required are several times less.

Which cylinder should I look for?

First of all: the stove requires an all-metal cylinder. Composite explosion-proof ones are not suitable, they are not heat-resistant. A 5-liter household cylinder (item 1 in the figure) is definitely not suitable for the main part of the stove: it’s too small. The ratio of its surface to volume will give such heat loss that it will not be possible to completely burn any fuel. Making additional thermal insulation is not worth the trouble. The complexity of the work, the cost of materials, the dimensions and weight of the furnace will increase so much that all the work loses its meaning.

Note: The only possible use of a 5-liter cylinder is a fuel tank for a liquid fuel stove. Two of these will be discussed below.

12 and 27 liter cylinders (items 2 and 3) allow you to make a stove just in case, which can also be stored in the pantry of a city apartment. From a 12-liter one as a stove you can remove a thermal power of 2-3 kW, and from a 27-liter one – 5-7 kW.

The best blank for the stove is the most common 50-liter propane tank with a diameter of 300 mm and a height of 850 mm (item 4). Its volume is already sufficient for efficient combustion of any fuel by any known method, and its weight and dimensions do not yet complicate the work. In addition, there are many such cylinders in use that are still in good working order, but have exhausted their service life according to the specifications; they can be bought inexpensively. Most of the stoves described below are made from just such cylinders.

Note: if you have a choice, you should use a cylinder with a valve rather than a valve. The valve makes an excellent stove power regulator by supplying air (air throttle).

Regarding the common 40-liter cylinders for industrial gases(item 5) with a caliber of 240 mm, then they are poorly suited for the furnace: although the walls made of thick durable metal will ensure the durability of the furnace, the cylinders themselves are too narrow, heavy and bulky. A good powerful stove, up to 100 kW or more, could be made from a 12- or 18-inch professional cylinder, but they are rare, expensive, and not every healthy man can shoulder such an empty one.

In principle, it would be possible to make camp stoves from small 2-10 liter industrial cylinders, but again, the metal is thick, durable, difficult to work with, and the stove itself will be too heavy. There are, however, in the population of small special balloons some exotic individuals that make excellent ones; We will talk about them later.

From simple to complex: balloon stove

You probably guessed even earlier that the simplest homemade stove from a gas cylinder is an emergency backup stove, 12 or 27 liters. You can use a 50-liter stove on it, but such a stove will no longer fit in a city pantry. A balloon potbelly stove will not be able to regularly heat several generations: the metal body is relatively thin household cylinder will burn out. But it’s quite possible to heat a shed with it from time to time or to stay on it until it’s warm.

The design is extremely simple, see fig. Of the purchased components, you only need a firebox door or a monoblock from the furnace/blower chamber. Here, the theoretically optimal shape of a thick, curly cylinder works best: a cylinder potbelly stove does not need a grate with an ash pan, or any internal partitions. One thing that is necessary, like any potbelly stove, for good heat transfer is a horizontal chimney elbow made of metal pipe length from 2-2.5 m.

Note: the chimney diameter of a 12-liter potbelly stove is 60 mm, a 27-liter stove is 80 mm, a 50-liter stove is 100-120 mm.

Balloon cooking

From gas cylinders They make good grills. They also burn fuel, but these are no longer ovens, but culinary technological equipment, and quite a lot has been written about it. Therefore, we will not dwell further on gas-cylinder cooking. However, those interested, as they say, without leaving the cash register, to find out how to make a barbecue grill from a cylinder yourself, can watch the video:

About pyrolysis

All of the following designs of cylinder stoves use pyrolysis to one degree or another - decomposition under the influence of high temperature heavy organic compounds into light, volatile and flammable ones. Pyrolysis allows you to burn everything that, in principle, can burn, completely - down to carbon dioxide and water vapor. It is hardly possible to build a furnace with an efficiency of more than 70% without pyrolysis.

One of the main parameters of the pyrolysis process that must be taken into account when developing a furnace is the degree of its complexity. Simply put, this is the number of thermochemical reactions required to break the original complex and heavy molecules into those capable of burning to completion.

Pyrolysis of heavy flammable liquids (eg used motor oil) usually occurs in 2-3 stages. Wood fuel breaks down into easily combustible gases in a multi-stage process, and its complete pyrolysis requires 5-6 times more time than in a liquid fuel stove.

Since the exhaust gases move from the combustion source into the chimney under the influence of draft, pyrolysis ends at some distance from the firebox. For oil furnaces it is insignificant, about 10-15 cm, and in them pyrolysis can be combined in space with afterburning of pyrolysis gases. This condition is also true for coal stoves; volatile components of coal are released and disintegrate easily.

For complete pyrolysis of wood fuel, a gas-flame path length of about 1 m is required, and in its space it is necessary to distinguish, physically or implicitly, 3 zones (chambers): the firebox itself (gasifier), where the fuel burns and primary pyrolysis gases are released, a secondary gasifier (reactor ) with a supply of secondary air (secondary air), where pyrolysis is completely completed, and an afterburner, also with a secondary supply, where light gases are completely burned. These conditions must be taken into account when designing a wood stove.

Oil garage

The next most difficult, costly and labor-intensive method is from a balloon. This product is in great demand: you can heat a garage with such a stove for nothing, but there is no large-scale production, firemen prohibit it. Let us briefly recall the principle of its operation.

The oil burns quietly in the fuel tank; air is supplied here in doses using an air throttle. Here the heat of its combustion goes mainly to evaporation. The vapors rise into a vertical gasification column, or reactor. The reactor walls are perforated; outside air because the pressure in the entire furnace duct due to the draft of the chimney is lower than atmospheric.

The influx of air sharply increases the combustion of oil vapors, the temperature rises and pyrolysis begins. The pyrolysis products also begin to burn, causing the temperature to rise even more; in the middle part of the reactor it can reach 1300 degrees. At this temperature, nitrogen oxides are formed in noticeable quantities. Nitrogen oxidation is an endothermic reaction; it consumes a significant part of the fuel energy. However, nitrogen oxidation is useful in this case: it protects the furnace from overheating and explosion; The rate of formation of nitrogen oxides increases sharply with increasing temperature, according to a power law.

In the upper part of the reactor, the pyrolysis gases have almost burned out and there is a large excess of air. For complete afterburning in the column, it would have to be made several meters high and solid, without perforation, but then the nitrogen oxides would have passed the peak of their temperature instability and carried a noticeable share of the fuel energy into the pipe. To avoid this, gases from the reactor are released into an afterburner or afterburner.

The afterburner is divided approximately in half by an incomplete partition. Directly in front of it, pyrolysis gases burn out, maintaining a temperature that prevents the stabilization of nitrogen oxides. Behind the partition, all the oxygen in the air is already consumed, but the temperature here is still above 700 degrees. Now nitrogen oxides decompose with the release of energy back into nitrogen and oxygen, which is used for afterburning of the remaining pyrolysis gases; the energy release of these 2 processes maintains an approximately constant temperature in the afterburner.

The outlet to the chimney from the afterburner is located away from the partition, but it is enough to move it 15-20 cm away from it: thermochemical reactions in oil gases proceed quickly. Already completely burnt gases with a temperature of about 400 degrees go into the chimney, which ensures the efficiency of the furnace up to 80% and higher.

Typically, for furnaces used for exhaust from cylinders, a 50-liter propane bottle is used, cut in a ratio of 2:1, a third goes to the tank, and 2/3 to the afterburner, pos. 1 in Fig. From such a stove you can remove up to 30 kW of heat, but there are also plenty of emergencies with a serious outcome from them.

However, the magazine “Behind the Wheel” has long ago published the design of a garage furnace for working off with a power of 5-7 kW with a reservoir from a 5-liter cylinder. With such a low power, it was possible to combine the reactor with the afterburner into a single fully functional column:

1. In the lower cone of the column, the gases expand and the temperature drops to a value sufficient for pyrolysis, but almost eliminating nitrogen oxidation.
2. The perforation of the column is rare and the air flow through it is in slight excess.
3. In the upper cone, the gases are again retained for a time sufficient for complete combustion at a power of up to approximately 8 kW.

Nitrogen oxides are still formed in this furnace, but in negligible quantities, ensuring only automatic adjustment of the furnace mode. Operational power control is ensured by a rotary valve on the filling neck, which is also an air throttle.

This furnace can be significantly improved if there is a 10 or 12 liter industrial cylinder with a caliber of 150 mm and a height of 800/900 mm. These most often sell helium for inflating balloons. The profitability of the balloon business reaches 400%, but it most often takes place on temporary promotions, and the shelf life of a balloon filled with helium is limited and short: helium is the second record holder after hydrogen for diffusion speed. Therefore, completely serviceable helium cylinders are often sold cheaply.

Note: We do not recommend trying to run a helium business alone. All over the world, the flower and holiday mafia has firmly laid its paw on him, which, they say, even Cosa Nostra bypasses.

The design of a “helium-propane” 2-cylinder furnace for mining is shown in pos. 4. The thick walls of the cylinder distribute heat more evenly along its height, and the dome at the top and the narrow, 60-80 mm outlet into the chimney trap gases more effectively than a cone. Therefore, the perforation of the column and, accordingly, the air flow can be increased, obtaining a power of 10-12 kW. A maximum filling of 3.5 liters is enough for 3-4 hours of operation at full power.

At the same time, you can improve the fuel-air system. A standard cylinder valve is perfect for the throttle; you just need to extend it from the inside with a thin-walled steel tube, pos. 4a. You can simply screw it, as hard as you can, onto the part of the fitting protruding inward: the landing thread on it is tapered, so it will grab tightly.

It is better to make the filling fitting retractable and sliding in the neck, pos. 4b. Through the extended fitting, the stove is ignited and the fuel level is monitored. And when retracted, you can relatively safely add oil while the oven is running.

If the stove is constantly heated, then it is still advisable to remember about sappers, for whom the most dangerous is not the first, but some N-th mine. You can completely guarantee against an emergency with a stove by arranging a fuel supply from a separate feed tank or just a feeder, pos. 5. The height of the feeder should not exceed the maximum permissible fuel level in the tank (for a 5-liter tank this is approximately 2/3 of its height), and the feeder must be located at least 0.5 m from the stove. This way you can control the fuel level and refuel the stove as you please. In addition, the volume of the feeder can be any, only its height is limited, so it is quite possible to adapt a tank for it with refilling for a day or more.

"Long" stoves

In this case, this metaphor does not mean stoves made from recumbent industrial cylinders, but from ordinary 50-liter wood fuel stoves. In the long-term burning mode, wood undergoes pyrolysis, which greatly increases the efficiency and duration of heat transfer of stoves. The fuel in them (from dry sawdust and weeds to fragments of antique furniture) burns thin layer from the surface, which is why “long” stoves are sometimes called surface combustion stoves.

Pyrolysis can occur either in a physically limited separate volume with subsequent combustion of the pyrolysis gases in an afterburner (these are furnaces with separate combustion), or the pyrogen gases immediately evaporate into a large, well-heated buffer chamber, where pyrolysis is completed and the pyrogen gases burn, these are co-combustion furnaces. To ensure high efficiency of both, it is highly desirable to heat the air entering the pyrolysis zone.

Bubafonya

An example of a long-burning furnace with separate combustion is the widely known one. In it, pyrolysis is concentrated under the “pancake” oppression. The diagram of the bubafoni device is shown in Fig. on right; As the fuel burns, the air duct with the pancake moves down. Much has already been written in detail about the operating principles and features of making bubafons, so we will only note the following:

• The efficiency of a homemade bubafon can exceed 85%, and the duration of heat transfer from one load of fuel can reach a day.
• Fuel for bubafoni needs to be room-dry with a humidity of up to 12%
• It is permissible to add fuel to the bubafon while moving, but you cannot stop it; you need to wait for maintenance/repair work complete combustion downloads.
• The diameter of a 50-liter bottle of 300 mm is the minimum acceptable for bubafoni, so this stove must be made from it carefully and with a full understanding of the matter.

Bubafonya is a very economical stove and is well suited for heating garages and households. premises. Its design is simple and can be made at home. On the trail. rice. The main stages of the working process and dimensions are shown specifically for balloon bubafoni with a power of up to 5-6 kW. You just need to add that the gaps for air supply between the root (closest to the air duct) ends of the blades must be kept the same. When welding, instead of a jig, it is convenient to use suitable scraps of metal - pieces of rod, etc. The blades are first grabbed from the outside, and then, after removing the “conductors,” they are cooked to the end.

Note: The power of the bubafoni can be adjusted within a wide range, up to 10 times, but only manually, because The air throttle can only be installed at the upper end of the air duct, which is movable.

Slobozhanka

The Slobozhanka combined combustion furnace is even simpler in design and not inferior to the Bubafon in terms of parameters, diagram in Fig. on right. But it’s hardly worth making a slobozhanka from a balloon, because its minimum permissible diameter is about 500 mm and a balloon slobozhanka will not show good efficiency. In addition, all Slobozhanka stoves have very serious disadvantages:

Construction of the Slobozhanka stove

1. Extremely toxic gases accumulate under the roof of the stove; if you open the stove lid while moving, you can be poisoned to death.
2. There is no way to stop the Slobozhanka: if you close the throttle, the stove will pull air back through the chimney before choking. The pressure in the furnace will exceed atmospheric pressure and the toxic mixture will come out.
3. A hard, dense carbon deposit settles on the hearth or grate of the furnace, as in all “long” furnaces. After about a year (this is with good fuel), it grows to the mouth of the air duct, and it is difficult to knock it down and in easily accessible places.

A beautiful stranger

Most other homemade “long” stoves are no better, but more complicated than bubafoni. But there is one, almost purely pyrolysis stove (which is rare with wood), worthy of attention; its drawing is shown in Fig. In addition, this furnace is also a bunker, which allows wood stoves also rare.

According to the principle of operation, the “stranger” is a simplified and truncated rocket stove, about which see next. section The retention of pyrogases in the afterburner under the hob is achieved by a diaphragm in the chimney, in exactly the same way as washers distribute coolant from the heating main to consumers. In the furnace business, such a constructive technique is rare, because any weakening of draft deteriorates the quality of the stove, but in this case the creators turned evil into good.

How? Power limitation: this is an exclusively summer-country cooking stove. It’s only enough for cooking, although you can squeeze several times more out of a 50-liter bottle. But the “stranger” works on any flammable garbage that can be pushed into the bunker; best of all - on fairly long chips, branches and dry stems, and it is much more economical, cheaper, simpler and lighter than the simplest brick slab. A foundation here, of course, is not needed, and a chimney with a height of 1.5-2 m is sufficient. The furnace is ignited from the top, through the neck of the gasifier or the loading hatch, using a flammable liquid.

The authors of the “stranger” cannot be denied knowledge of heating engineering, but with metal they were a little too clever: separate, and even removable gasifiers under the stoves and vault (the bottom-grate and partition in the original) are simply not needed here. The bottom can be the bottom of the 50-liter cylinder itself with the same 20-mm hole in the center, and the ash pan can be placed in its skirt. The outlet pipe of the gasifier is welded onto the dome of the cylinder, and the afterburner can be made from a piece of 300 mm pipe or sheet metal. In this case, it is quite possible to clean the stove through the fuel bunker and the gasifier outlet.

The crown of creation, or...

Emela never dreamed of it

The crown of balloon-stove creativity is, without a doubt, the rocket stove, see fig. But not only and not so much because doing it according to all the rules requires considerable (albeit uncomplicated) work, attention, ingenuity and accuracy. The main thing is that the rocket stove was purposely created for a 50-liter bottle, although most often it is made from a barrel. Not only the shape, but also the dimensions of a 50-liter propane cylinder are optimal for this stove: if a rocket from a barrel heats a horizontal section of the chimney in a stove bench (hog) up to 6 m long, then a balloon one, with a drum capacity four times smaller (see below for details) - up to 4 m. It’s unlikely that anyone will need a bed of this length, but the rocket hog can be made from thin-walled metal corrugation, laying it in a wave-like pattern in the mass of the bed. This, of course, will greatly increase both the efficiency of heating the room and the duration of heat transfer after heating, which can reach 12 hours.

The advantages of a rocket stove do not end there:

• This is a stove that not only burns long, but also continuously burns. Additional fuel can be added while the furnace is running without restrictions.
• The rocket stove can also be stopped and re-ignited without restrictions, and the ignition itself is simply simple: with paper, straw or shavings, like a fire.
• The rocket stove breathes, just like .
• Unlike brick stoves, a rocket stove is almost insensitive to long breaks in the firebox during the cold season.
• Acceleration of a newly built or standing rocket stove is also simple: heating with paper, shavings or straw until the stove becomes warm to the touch.
• The foundation of the rocket furnace is not needed: although its weight is under a ton, the support area is large and the load from the furnace on the floor does not exceed the permissible 250 kg per square meter according to SNiP. m.

The rocket stove has only 2 disadvantages, and, as they say, not fatal. Firstly, after kindling and, possibly, during the combustion process, it is necessary to set the stove mode by adjusting the air supply. If the stove makes a loud noise, this does not mean that it heats better. On the contrary, in this mode the gas-air path quickly becomes overgrown with carbon deposits; A correctly heated stove whispers quietly.

Secondly, the furnace power is regulated only by the amount of fuel loading. On-line power adjustment is generally impossible; Only the oven mode is set by air supply. While driving, you can not only add more fuel to increase power, but also pull out individual smoldering chips with tongs and immediately extinguish them, but this is a fire hazard.

Note: if “at a whisper” the stove seems to be heating weakly, it doesn’t matter, wait until the heat goes into the battery. The oven will release it later, cooling down after heating. If you need to quickly warm up, without thinking about fuel consumption yet, open the air until it starts to hum. It is not advisable to bring it to a loud roar; the carbon deposits inside will settle heavily.

How does a rocket work?

The design and principle of operation of a rocket stove. Here we recall the most important things.

The idea of ​​a rocket furnace “on fingers” is as follows: imagine 2 physically connected processes with an efficiency of less than 100%; Let's say 90% each. For the 2nd to occur, the products of the 1st are needed. If they are launched simultaneously together, then due to mutual interference caused by entropy, the final efficiency will not exceed 65%. And if you “scroll” the 1st one first, save its results somewhere and then run the 2nd one on them, then the maximum overall efficiency will be slightly more than 80%.

In the very in a general sense this is a universal law. It is thanks to him market economy with all its bulky and gluttonous financial, administrative and power superstructures, it turns out to be more effective subsistence farming. This law is technically implemented in the rocket oven sequential connection 2 furnaces, generating heat and storage-heating.

The stove-generator consists of (see Fig.) a blower 1a with an air supply regulator (it sets the stove into operation), a fuel hopper 1b with a blind lid, a channel for supplying secondary air 1b to ensure complete combustion of the fuel, a flame pipe (fire pipe) 1d and internal or primary chimney - riser - 1d. The fire duct cannot be made too short or long: it must, on the one hand, heat the secondary air well, without which complete combustion of wood pyro-gases cannot be achieved. On the other hand, in a fire pipeline that is too long, the gases themselves will cool down and pyrolysis will not reach completion. The entire generating stove is securely wrapped in high-quality thermal insulation with the lowest possible heat capacity. All that is required of the primary furnace is to completely burn the fuel and release a stream of burnt hot gases from the riser.

Note: from an efficiency point of view, the optimal internal diameter of the riser is 70 mm. But if you want to achieve maximum furnace power, then you need a riser pipe with a diameter of 100 mm; then its shell needs not 150, but 200 mm. In this case, the efficiency decreases slightly. Further, when describing the technology for constructing the furnace, the dimensions are given for both cases.

The basis of the heating-storage part of the furnace is a high-capacity heat accumulator, but it is impossible to immediately release gases from the riser into it, their temperature is about 1000 degrees. There are good heat-resistant heat-storing materials, but they are very expensive, so the authors of the rocket stove used adobe as a storage device. Its heat capacity is enormous, but it is not heat resistant, so the secondary furnace must start with a high-grade to mid-grade heat converter, with temperatures up to 300 degrees. In addition, part of the primary heat must be released into the room immediately to compensate for current heat losses.

All these functions are performed by the furnace drum, and a 50-liter cylinder will be used for it. Gases from the riser enter under the cover of the drum 2a with the cooking surface 2b. The drum is thin-walled metal, it transfers heat well into the room. Having rolled under the lid, the gases enter the annular lowering of the drum between its tube 2g and the metal shell of the riser insulation 2v. Under the drum 2d is also metal; the metal does not allow flue gases into the insulation of the primary furnace.

The fact is that inexpensive and high-quality insulating materials are porous. Let flue gases flow into them - their pores will be drawn in, they will quickly become clogged with fumes, and all the insulation, and with it the efficiency of the furnace, will go down the drain. Adobe is also porous and is also very easily spoiled by carbon deposits. Therefore, the primary task when building a rocket stove is to ensure complete tightness of the gas and smoke duct.

In the drum, approximately 1/3 of its height from the top, the gases have already cooled enough to transfer their heat to the storage tank. From this height to the bottom, the lining (coating) of the entire stove with adobe begins. In the drum, the flue gases release, outward and into the storage tank, approximately half of the heat generated by the generator, but it is too early to transfer them to the heat exchanger: from the drum, through its outlet, 2e gases enter the secondary ash pan 3a with a sealed cleaning door 3b, and then into a long horizontal section of the chimney (hog) 4. From the hog, the gases that almost completely gave up heat into the adobe bed are released into the ordinary external chimney.

Why is a secondary ash pan needed? The gases coming out of the drum are not very hot and are already chemically neutral, because burned out to the end. But they still contain a small amount of solid suspension; mainly microparticles of mineral components of wood. And the hog, as mentioned above, is made of thin metal fiber and is also laid with twists, and this entire pipe is tightly walled up, so it is impossible to clean the hog. If you let dirty gases into it, the gap will soon become overgrown with soot and the bed will have to be broken. And in the secondary ash pan, the suspension settles. Once or twice a year it will have to be raked out, but the stove will now last for many years.

So now we know enough to start building a rocket stove. That's what we'll do.

Building a rocket

First, we need to stock up on 5 types of linings. However, their components are either inexpensive or just lying around, and it’s not difficult to prepare the mixtures yourself:

1. 5a - the most common adobe: clay, thoroughly mixed with finely chopped straw and mixed with water until the dough becomes thick. Because the bed was not blown or saklya, except for its weight it is not loaded with anything and is located indoors, the quality of the clay of great importance doesn’t have one, you can take a self-digging ravine.
2. 5b – main heat insulator. Medium-fat oven clay in half with crushed stone from light fireclay bricks ШЛ. Water until the dough becomes thick.
3. 5v – heat-resistant, gas-tight, mechanically strong coating. Ordinary fireclay sand with oven clay 1:1 by volume. Water until it reaches the consistency of plasticine.
4. 5g – self-dug sand, river or ravine, or very thin sandy loam. No washing or calcination is needed; just sift through a 3 mm sieve.
5. 5d – medium-fat oven clay.

Some clarifications. It is better to introduce grass straw into adobe (meadow grass hay), with it the strength, which we do not really need, will be lower, but the heat capacity will also be greater. As for the recipes for making adobe, choose any suitable one; for a rocket stove it is not important. You can do it as in the video below, but we don’t need to build the entire house.

Video: making adobe

Mixture 5b requires crushed stone (not sand!) and only SHL. Other fireclays (ShM, ShV, etc.) are themselves good heat accumulators; it’s not for nothing that stove fireboxes are made from them. But in this case, a large heat capacity will only do harm. It is advisable to add more crushed stone, as long as the clay glues it together.

The purpose of the 5v mixture is to extend the life of the stove. All the metal structures in it are steel with a wall thickness of up to 3 mm, so it is necessary for the rocket to “fly” properly. But in the heat path, thin metal will quickly burn. However, by that time the 5B coating will have been fired, and over time, sections of steel pipes will spontaneously be replaced by ceramic ones. True, then the stove will have to be cleaned carefully (the riser, although slowly, still becomes overgrown with carbon deposits), after all, it is fragile.

5g contains a fairly large admixture of alumina. IN construction sand it is undesirable, so they get rid of it. But alumina is just right for the lining of the riser: the heat capacity of the mixture is minimal, and when sintered, it will also gain some strength. And they get the raw materials for free.

Note: The riser can also be lined with composition 5b, but, firstly, it costs money. Secondly, the work will take a lot of time - you will have to line it in layers, with the previous layer completely drying, otherwise the coating in the shell will dry for an inordinately long time and the inside will certainly crack.

Stage 0

First you need to make a bed for the stove, see fig. – a durable wooden trestle bed of the required configuration. Its frame is made of intersecting quarter-mortise logs (beam 100x100 mm) with a cell of at least 600x900 mm under the stove and at least 600x1200 mm under the stove bench itself. The oblong cells of the frame are oriented along the bed. The curved edges of the frame are brought to the contour using scraps of timber and boards.

Note: There is no need to raise the bed any higher; taking into account the power of the lining of the bed, it will be convenient.

The frame is covered with 40 mm tongue and groove boards. The joints of the flooring boards should be oriented perpendicularly long sides frame cells. The ends of the beams and boards protruding beyond the desired contour of the bench are sawn to shape immediately, but its outer contour remains free for now; it will be lined with plasterboard, etc. upon completion of the furnace construction.

Before assembly, parts are first impregnated with biocide, and the entire structure is impregnated twice with a water-polymer emulsion. The frame parts are fastened at the crosshairs with diagonal pairs of 6x90 mm confirmats, and the flooring boards are attached to the frame with longitudinal pairs of 6x60 mm confirmats, a pair in a board for each longitudinal joist.

Then, at the site of permanent installation of the stove, 4 mm mineral cardboard is laid on the floor with some margin for cutting along the contour, and the place above which the stove itself will be is additionally covered with a sheet roofing iron; it needs to be cut to shape in advance, taking into account that the offset before the furnace fire must be at least 100 mm, this is enough for a rocket.

Now the bed is moved to its place. An exit to the outer chimney is immediately arranged, somewhere at the rear edge of the bed. Its lower edge should be 70-90 mm above level A of the furnace lining (see figure with the main diagram), i.e. 120-140 mm from the level of the bed flooring.

Stage 1

On the bed along the entire contour, a strong formwork of height A is made, according to the basic layout of the furnace (40-50 mm), with a smooth top edge. If the bed is adjacent to the wall, the formwork is brought up to the walls, and the level of its top is beaten along them with a cord. Then the formwork is filled with adobe and its surface is smoothed with a polish - a flat, smooth board with a rounded corner. If the formwork is incomplete and it is inconvenient to guide the far end of the glaze along the mark, you can still lean beacons made of strips of plywood against the walls; they are removed when the adobe dries, and the cracks are filled in.

Stage 2

While level A is drying, let's start making a drum from a cylinder, see fig. First, cut off its top so that you get a hole with a diameter of 200-220 mm (don’t forget to bleed off the remaining gas!), cover it with a steel round 3-4 mm thick, this will hob. Then they make a cut 40-50 mm below the top welding seam of the cylinder, this is almost the lid.

A thin sheet metal skirt is welded to the lid. Its side seam also needs to be welded; it will take the skirt away from the seam connection. Cook at a direct current of 60 A with a 2-mm electrode. I must say that holding the arc in this mode is quite difficult; you need to be a fairly experienced welder. After installing the skirt, holes are drilled in it for M4-M5 bolts, 3-6 holes. evenly around the circumference, 20-25 mm from the bottom edge.

The third cut of the balloon is below the bottom seam, where the tube begins to turn into a rounded bottom. There is no need to remove the remnants of the balloon skirt, as this will only hold it more firmly in the stove. Now at the bottom of the tube we make a cutout for its outlet in the form of a horizontally elongated rectangle. Its height is 70 mm, and its width depends on the chosen riser pipe, see the inset at the top right of the main diagram.

The next operation is laying the sealing gasket. It requires a braided asbestos cord; woven shaggy twine is not suitable. The cord is glued with superglue or, better, “Moment”. Then the glue, of course, will burn out, but the gasket will stick to the residue, especially since the cover will have to be removed once a year, not every year.

Having laid the gasket, immediately, as soon as the glue has set, we put on the lid and place a load of 2-3 kg on it. Under load, we mark the location of the hole in the tube. After removing the cover, drill and tap the thread. Now we insert the tube into the inverted lid and measure the depth of the drum, this is necessary to clarify the height of the riser pipe. We separate the lid from the tube so that the gasket is not soaked through with glue and the cord does not lose its elasticity, stage 2 is completed.

Stage 3

Level A will take a week or two to dry, and during this time we will work on the combustion part of the furnace. Parts 1a, 1b and 1d from professional pipe 150x150 mm; 1d round riser pipe. When marking workpieces, you must observe the distance indicated on the main diagram from the rear edge of the hopper, when viewed from the side of the blower, to the front edge of the drum. Within the specified limits, it is arbitrary, based on the location of the furnace and its design. The forward movement of the blower is also arbitrary, but, of course, within reasonable limits. There is no need to push the blower under the bunker either, the valve will be hot. The best option– the edge of the blower is flush with the front edge of the hopper, as in the diagram.

After cutting out the holes for the bunker and riser pipe, the first step is to weld in the partition of the secondary air channel 1b, at a height of 30 mm from the bottom of the firebox. A full seam is not needed, 2 clamps through the not yet welded rear end of the firebox, 2-4 through the hole for the hopper and 2 through the ash pan are enough. Material – sheet steel 1.5-2.5 mm.

Note: The tilt angle of the bunker can be within 45-90 degrees from the horizontal. But when tilted at 45 degrees, rough wood chips can get stuck, and if the bunker is vertical, then when adding fuel, your hand ends up dangerously close to the hot drum. Therefore, a slope of 60 degrees was chosen.

The rear edge of the air baffle should be flush with the front edge of the riser pipe hole. Its front edge should protrude outward by 20-25 mm. This shelf is needed to avoid littering when cleaning the stove: this design does not allow the use of a grate with a retractable ash pan, and the ash will have to be scraped into the tray; its edge is slipped under the shelf. However, the rocket furnace produces nothing but ash.

It is better to make the blower valve with a vertical stroke in grooves with flat springs; a rotary door will not ensure proper smooth adjustment of the furnace mode, and a throttle with a rotary damper is more difficult to make. The hopper lid is bent from galvanized steel. There is no need for complete tightness here, as long as it fits tightly.

When the combustion metal structure is ready (don’t forget to weld the riser pipe and weld the back of the flame pipe!), it is lined with a 5B compound in a layer of 10-12 mm, as shown in the diagram. Continuous coating is given only along the bottom. The top and sides of the blower from its front edge to the hopper are left free. Having been lined, they are placed to dry.

Dry by putting the blower part on the pole. At first, they inspect it regularly: if the coating slips, it is removed and a new portion is made from thicker clay and with less water. Do not rely on chance, this is a responsible operation!

Stage 4

The combustion part will dry out soon (2-3 days), and during this time it is quite possible to make formwork for insulation and lay its bottom layer, because Level A adobe has already dried enough to hold a small amount of weight. The design of the formwork is clear from Fig. The meaning of what is marked in red will become clear later. Formwork is made from boards or plywood 20-25 mm thick. There is no need to firmly fasten the parts, because... the formwork will then have to be dismantled. Thin wire brackets on the outside at the corners are sufficient; You can just cover it with tape.

The formwork is put in place with the outer edge of the front plank level with the edge of the bed and exactly along the axis of the future stove. You need to install it carefully, with measurements, otherwise the parts of the stove will not fit together later. You can prevent accidental displacement with thin pointed pegs, sticking them into the adobe from the outside. The beacons along which the bottom layer of insulation will be aligned are made of any material, but their height must be exactly equal to that of the front formwork strip.

Stage 5

The formwork is filled with mixture 5b to level B. The filling surface is leveled with a glaze along the beacons and the front strip.

Stage 6

While the insulating pad dries out and the combustion part dries out, we make the shell of the riser and under the drum. With the shell, everything is simple: either a piece of pipe, or we bend it from a thin (1-2 mm) sheet. Both, of course, are made of steel. If the shell is made of sheet metal, the seam can be folded; a perfect circle is not necessary.

Note: there is no need to make a shell below the riser pipe and then use clay (see below) to round the top of the riser. The stove works better if the gases flow into the lower part with a bend.

Under the drum, as can be seen in the diagram, is inclined. This is necessary for better flow turbulence in the secondary ash pan, see below. But if you thought: “Well, now we’ll cut out an ellipse within an ellipse!”, then you’re in vain. With a tilt of 10 degrees, the major axis of the ellipse turns out to be as much as 304.5 mm, but we need a smaller one, 5-7 degrees.

That is, we make the outer diameter of the hearth blank (steel sheet 2-3 mm) 4 mm smaller internal diameter drum, and the diameter of the cutout for the shell is 3 mm larger than its outer diameter, and will fit like original. Gaps in the outer and internal contours(marked with green circles in the diagram) after installing the bed, we will coat it with 5d clay, bringing the sausages into the fillets simply with your finger.

Stage 7

We check whether level 5B is completely dry. This can be done by temporarily removing the front formwork strip. If not, we take a smoke break (sorry, we are struggling with nicotine. We drink juice.) for a day or two.

If it’s dry, we put the furnace part into the formwork; its coating is probably already dry. It is also necessary to place it exactly along the axis of the furnace, vertically and horizontally, with measurements: the drum and shell should ultimately be concentric plus or minus 2 mm, and the top of the secondary ash pan (see below) fit tightly under the upper edge of the drum outlet. We set the front edge of the blower flush with the outer edge of the formwork and, accordingly, the bed. At the same time, it will protrude from the insulation to the thickness of the formwork board, this is just enough to then smear it with adobe on the outside: the insulation used is effective, but also sensitive to air humidity.

We fix the exposed combustion part with pegs, just like the formwork. Let them remain in the mass of isolation, no big deal. Now we install additional front panels and fill the formwork to the top with mixture 5b, this is where we have reached the level G of the lining. It is no longer necessary to completely level it, so as not to accidentally catch the bunker protruding from the solution. It is enough to iron it with a polish, resting on the edges of the formwork, in the area where the drum is located, marked in pale gray on the formwork diagram. But here you need to level it until smooth.

Stage 8

We dry level G. This is also a responsible operation; you cannot rely on the microclimate of the room and conventional drying by natural evaporation to the outside; the oven will turn out bad and short-lived. It is necessary to create more or less stable conditions inside the drying mass.

This is done with a regular 40-60 W incandescent light bulb. It (turned on, of course) is inserted into the firebox so that the flask is under the riser pipe. You just need to provide some kind of mini trestle for the lamp socket so that the bulb does not touch the metal, otherwise the glass may burst. The top of level D will dry enough to withstand further operations while we make the secondary ash pan, see next.

Note: the light bulb will have to burn continuously for a total of approximately 30 days, taking into account further stages of drying. During this time, the 60-watt one will consume 24x30x0.06 = 43.2 kW/hour of electricity, and the 40-watt one will consume 28.8 kW/hour, which will cost 129 rubles respectively. 60 kopecks and 86 rub. 40 kopecks Whether such an expense is exorbitant is up to you to decide. However, on any side it is better to take 40-watt. Drying will take longer, but it will be of better quality and less sensitive to the quality of the raw materials.

Stage 9

We make a secondary ash pan, or just an ash pan for short, because... There is no primary in this furnace. Here it looks similar to the same unit in the American prototypes rocket stoves, but differs from them fundamentally.

In the Americans, an almost laminar flow of gases enters the ash pan through the wide outlet of the drum, but here it is twisted for deeper cleaning, see next. stage of the ash pit installation diagram. The cause of the vortices is the rotation of the Earth; more precisely, the Coriolis force caused by it, the same one that spins the water flowing from the bathtub.

Note: military-historical oddities. At the end of World War II, the Nazis developed the V-3, an ultra-long-range multi-chamber cannon with gradual acceleration of the projectile, to shell London. They made adits in the rock and assembled the entire system. And then it turned out that the Germans, famous for their thoroughness... forgot to take into account the rotation of the Earth! All the shells would have missed. So the V-3 never fired, causing only panic in Western intelligence agencies and a wave of myths that has reached this day. Later, Saddam Hussein floated around with the same idea. He was going to shoot from his desert at Berlin, Paris and the same London. His specialists have already calculated everything accurately and conducted successful experiments on small models. But, again, after everything it turned out that everyone modern technologies It is not possible to create precision-precision gun barrels 200-300 m long. In general, work loves a fool. Even if the fool is smart and knows a lot.

Drawings of the ash pit are shown in Fig. Dimension L is measured from point A (marked in red on the formwork diagram) along the perpendicular (red arrow there) to the edge of the bed. Dimension H is the sum of the heights of the formwork measured locally and the exit window already cut in the drum (70 mm if cut accurately). The bevel of the top of the ash pan back is arbitrary within reasonable limits, as long as it does not later stick out from under the coating of the drum with adobe.

The walled ash pan box is made of thin steel sheet or galvanized steel 0.6-1.2 mm. The front panel (face) is made of steel sheet 4-6 mm, because it can be exposed from the outside and has M5 threaded holes for attaching the cover. The cutout for the chimney bur is along the outer diameter of the existing metal flue; 150-180 mm is suitable for this stove. Its location is arbitrary, you just need to observe dimensions A, B and C on the drawing of the ash pit. All parts except the hog are connected by welding with a continuous seam in the same mode as for the drum cover skirt. For the addition of a hog, see below.

The cover of the cleaning hole measuring 180x180 mm is also made of steel with a thickness of 4-6 mm. The sealing gasket underneath is made of mineral cardboard. Mounting bolts – from M5x8 to M5x15 with hex heads. Bolts with any splines should not be used: the inside of the ash pan becomes overgrown with a thin layer of dense soot. The thickness of its layer will soon stabilize, but the bolts to remove the cover have to be unscrewed with a socket wrench with a crank.

Note: It is not advisable to use a hinged door with a latch - it will not provide a seal forever. You won’t notice it right away, but the stove’s appetite will increase and it will begin to become overgrown with smoke inside. And you have to open the ash pan for cleaning at most once a year if the stove is heated with room-dry wood.

Stage 10

We must assume that while we were fiddling with the ash pan, level G had already dried out. You can check by temporarily removing the formwork wall, as well as level B. If ready, install the drum and ash pan.

Replace the drum tube without the lid. We make sure that it and the riser pipe are concentric, and also that the outlet window is in the right place, see the inset at the top right in the general diagram of the furnace and the diagram in Fig..

We put a little mixture 5b inside the drum and use a spatula to form a wedge from it with an inclination of 5-7 degrees, converging to the outlet window. Now we put it in place under, and press it into the solution with a stick. We select the mortar from the cutout under the shell, otherwise you won’t be able to install the shell; the mortar is on crushed stone. Next, we install the shell, turning it slightly. We coat the gaps along the external and internal contours with 5d clay, as described earlier.

Stage 11

There is no need to wait for the insulation under the floor to dry; we immediately line the riser. We fill the shell layer by layer, 5-7 layers in total, with a 5g compound (home-dug sand or thin sandy loam). We compact each layer with a rolling pin with an even end and spray it with a spray bottle until a crust forms. Not reaching 5-6 cm to the top, we form a plug from 5d clay. When it dries, thin cracks form between it, the pipe and the shell, but that’s okay: when the furnace is fired, they will soon be overgrown with soot from the density and strength of the concrete.

Stage 12

Immediately after installing the drum, install the ash pan; We will close the cleaning hole with a lid later. Installing it is simple: on the lower and large side surfaces we apply a layer of 5d clay 2-3 mm thick. We insert the ash pan into place, press and press down. Then we coat the contour of the drum output window (also known as the input ash pan) on the outside with the same 5d clay. Smear the sausages squeezed inside into fillets with your finger. Don’t lose sight: the edge of the hearth protrudes into the ash pan as a narrow segmental shelf; a fillet must also be formed under it. In general, the transition from the drum to the ash pan must be sealed both inside and outside (green oval on the general diagram of the furnace).

Stage 13

If the level G of the insulation has not yet completely dried, we wait for it to dry. To speed it up, the formwork can already be removed. If yes, we also remove the formwork (drying continues, the light in the firebox is still shining!) and apply insulation with a 5B solution to level B. We apply it without formwork, by hand. Manually, without much precision, we form a semicircular arch at level B.

Stage 14

Without waiting for level B to dry, we make formwork along the contour of the bed, as when forming level A, but already to level D. Now we clarify its value according to measurement data: above the upper edge of the hole for the bur in the ash pan there should be at least 80 mm. It is also undesirable to do more than 120 mm; the heat transfer of the stove after heating will be sluggish. For brevity, we will call the new level G G1.

Stage 15

We fill the new formwork with adobe to the bottom edge of the hole for the bur in the ash pan, on one side. On the other - to the lower edge of the exit to the outer chimney. We level it roughly with our hands, but we need to make sure that there are no dips and, accordingly, U-shaped sections of the hog. If you read carefully at the beginning, you will understand that we will be able to lift the hog from the ash pit to the chimney by 10-30 mm. It is necessary for uniform heating of the bed, but downward sloping areas of the hog are undesirable in any case.

Stage 16

We stretch the prepared corrugation to its full length. We insert one end of it into the ash pan by 15-20 mm and flare it from the inside with a flat screwdriver through the cleaning door. We coat the outer contour of the hog's input into the ash pan with 5d clay, as already described.

Next, we cover the beginning of the hog, counting from the ash pan, by 15-25 cm with adobe; it will keep the corrugation from being pulled out during the following operations. Now we lay the hog in the bed with bends, but not coming closer than 100 mm to any edge. As you lay, lightly press down, pressing lightly into the adobe. Having laid it, we insert the far end of the corrugation into the exit hole into the chimney and, again, coat the contour with 5d clay.

Stage 17

We manually cover the hog with adobe so that there are no gaps or niches under the bottom of the corrugation. Then we fill the formwork with adobe and smooth its surface with a polish. If the adobe is thick, heavy, and made from oily clay, you can immediately form roundings on the upper corners, see the inset at the bottom right of the main diagram. It is convenient to do this with a strip of galvanized steel, bent with a trough to a quarter of a circle. If the adobe is light, you will have to dust it with a milling cutter or circle around the stone during final finishing.

Stage 18

We constantly put the ash pan and drum lids in place. The light in the firebox is still on, drying out! We attach the drum cover with screws with conical heads: when tightened tightly, they will tightly compress the gasket between the cover and the tube.

Stage 19

We form the adobe coating of the drum, as already said: 1/3 of its top remains free, and counting down from half its height, the adobe layer should be no thinner than 100 mm. As for the rest, as God pleases, here the rocket stove will tolerate any design.

Stage 20

After drying is complete (about 2 weeks), remove the formwork and round off the remaining corners, if necessary. The last operations before kindling - we paint the drum with heat-resistant enamel at 450 degrees (750 degrees is much more expensive), and cover the stove bench acrylic varnish in 2 layers; 2nd after complete drying of the 1st.

The varnish will not prevent the stove from breathing; the breath will flow through the bed covering. But, firstly, the varnish will prevent the adobe from collecting dust. Secondly, it will protect it from accidental moisture. Thirdly, it will give the stove the noble appearance of glazed clay.

Final stage: rocket launch

In a dry oven, we put the ash valve in the grooves without closing it (the light bulb is no longer there, of course), close the hopper lid and heat it with paper, straw, shavings, etc., all the time feeding fuel through the ash vent. When the bed feels at least a little warmer to the touch, add more light fuel and load the standard fuel into the bunker. Having waited until the stove hums quite loudly, we close the vent “to a whisper.” That's it, the rocket stove with a stove bench is ready! Now - off to the start! That is, in bed.

Finally

There is a direction in balloon-stove creativity that is still being developed only by smokers, and then somehow: the construction of stoves from 2 or more cylinders. And from the point of view of heating engineering, its prospects are quite serious.

Old non-autonomous diving equipment Based on the number of mounting points for the helmet, it was divided into 2 classes: three-bolt with a soft suit for work at depths of up to 60 m and heavy, hard 12-bolt deep-sea. The profession of a shallow-water diver has absolutely official name it was a three-bolt diver. In this regard, I wonder what hidden meaning the trolls and goblins of the Runet would see in the name, well, let’s say: “Society of Multi-Cylinder Stove Makers”?

Real House master should know how to make a potbelly stove with your own hands from a gas cylinder. Such a stove will warm you up in severe frost and help you cook food in your summer cottage where there is no mains gas. This is not so little.

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Which cylinder is better to use?

The best option is to use 50-liter propane gas cylinders. And that's why:

• small weight;
• sufficient volume to obtain optimal power;
• sufficient size to burn any fuel.

Why gas? If you have a summer house without a main gas pipeline, such a cylinder will always be found on the farm. Yes, and its thickness is optimal - 4 mm. This thickness is sufficient for burning solid fuel, the cylinder is quite light.

Below are step-by-step instructions for self-made the first two designs: a three-way potbelly stove and a pyrolysis potbelly stove with 2 chambers. Before manufacturing, it is necessary to properly prepare the cylinders for working with the grinder and welding. The procedure should be as follows:

• Unscrew the valve at the top of the cylinder and remove any remaining gas. The valve must be completely dismantled.
• After the remaining gas has come out, turn the cylinder over. We remove the condensate into a previously prepared container. Condensation has a sharp bad smell. Therefore, the container will have to be thrown away after use.
• We turn the container over again and fill it with water to the brim to displace all remaining gas.
• After this, drain the water.

Time efficient work potbelly stoves - 2-4 hours.

Do-it-yourself three-way potbelly stove

Three-way potbelly stove

A three-way potbelly stove (pictured above) is two 50-liter gas vessels welded to each other at right angles. The operating principle is as follows:

• The first is the actual horizontal stove made from a gas cylinder using wood. It is equipped with all the details characteristic of a stove: a ash pan, a loading chamber for firewood, and grate bars. Firewood is loaded here and ignited.
• The second vessel is a unique design in its simplicity and genius. It is divided by internal partitions in such a way that smoke from fuel combustion, passing through it, changes its trajectory three times. The speed slows down and the oven body gives off more heat. Eventually, through the outlet pipe, the smoke comes out.
• To increase the heating surface, additional fins are used..
• As in a traditional oven, the air supply is regulated through the ash pan.

Expert opinion

Pavel Kruglov

Stove maker with 25 years of experience

Such a wood-burning stove from a gas cylinder is quite capable of producing about 10 kW of heat. This is enough to heat a room of 100 m2. This could be a warehouse, barn, greenhouse or garage. Such a simple design of the furnace is capable of achieving an efficiency of up to 55%.

It is quite possible to cook food on such a potbelly stove made from two gas cylinders.

Before we begin production, we will figure out what materials and tools we will need and prepare the necessary drawings. It is very good if you have welding skills. If not, then any specialist using ready-made drawings will bring your project to life. A video that can be easily found on the Internet can also help.

Materials and tools

We will need the following tools:

• portable welding machine
• "Bulgarian"
• drill
• drill
• other tool.

There are also few materials:

• electrodes
• cutting wheels
• 2 gas cylinders of 50 liters
• sheet 2 mm thick
• fittings with a diameter of 20 mm
• other

Step-by-step instruction

Scheme of a three-way potbelly stove

• We make metal blanks according to the drawing above.
• We cut out the necessary holes in the cylinder. One is for the stove, the second is for the smoke to escape.
• Cut off the bottom of the second cylinder. At the end we cut a hole for a pipe with a diameter of 100 mm. We cut the balloon so that it fits tightly onto the first one, as shown in the drawing above.
• Make a grate.
• We make a blower. We weld the legs, hinges and door frames.
• We make doors. We seal all junction points.
• The scraps from the cylinder should be used for partitions in a vertical cylinder.
• Weld one cylinder to another, weld the chimney.
• Weld additional fins to increase the heating area.

Manufacturing of a two-chamber pyrolysis stove

The photo above shows a potbelly stove made from a gas cylinder. This version of the potbelly stove is more compact and economical. Instead of two 50 liter propane cylinders, we will need 1 24 liter propane vessel and 5 pipes with a diameter of 57 mm and a length of about 400 mm.

The operating principle is as follows:

• The first propane cylinder is similar to the previous option. The only difference is that instead of grates, there are slits cut on top of the cylinder itself.
• There is an opening on top of the cylinder. 5 heat exchanger pipes fit there. Through these pipes the smoke rises into the secondary chamber. Following this path, the heated air releases some of the heat into the room.
• Additionally, warm air is supplied to the secondary chamber through a separate channel. A pyrolysis effect is created - the smoke burns out in the fuel chamber and releases additional heat. And only after that they finally come out.

The power of such a horizontal stove can reach up to 5 kW. This is enough to heat 50 m2 of usable area.

Making a pyrolysis (long-burning) two-chamber stove is not much more difficult. It is more compact, but has less power. In the same way, we will prepare tools, materials and you can make the necessary drawings.

Materials and tools

You will need the following materials:

• electrodes
• cutting wheels
• 1 gas cylinder 24 liters
• sheet 2 mm thick
• corner for making “legs”
• fittings with a diameter of 20 mm
• pipe diameter 57 mm
• pipe diameter 20 mm
• other

You will need the same tools:

• portable welding machine
• "Bulgarian"
• drill
• drill
• other tool.

Below is a drawing of a potbelly stove made from a 24-liter gas cylinder.

Step-by-step instruction

Diagram of a two-chamber pyrolysis stove

Your actions should be like this:

How to properly install a potbelly stove and chimney?

In order for the balloon furnace to work correctly and the efficiency to be maximum, it is important to carry out the installation correctly. Otherwise, the cold room may become smoky. All fire and safety regulations must also be observed.

Installation requirements:

• Any combustible objects should be no closer than half a meter from the stove. Distances to fireproof objects are not standardized.
• If you heat a greenhouse, do not place the stove close to glass or plants.
• The wooden floor covering must be covered with a metal sheet. On the side of the firebox, a patch measuring 50x70 cm is also covered.
• If the walls are made of wood, it is worth protecting them with fireproof material.
• The potbelly stove is placed at a height of 200 mm.
• Point a fan at the stove. Additional air flow due to convection will increase efficiency.
• Clear the ash pit from ash in a timely manner.
• Insulate the chimney. This will significantly reduce heat loss from the stove from the gas cylinder in the garage.

Trial fire

After the potbelly stove is made, you need to test it in action. The first fire will show all the defects. The oven must be heated before painting. The test is carried out in the following order:

• We light the stove with a small amount of fuel. The first stage lasts 30-40 minutes.
• If smoke is not visible anywhere, next time we make a full load and heat the stove. Our goal is to fade the old paint.

If smoke gets in somewhere, these places need to be sealed. After testing, the oven must be coated with heat-resistant paint.

Conclusion

It’s up to you to decide which type of potbelly stove from a gas cylinder you choose. She will become an indispensable assistant. Advantages:

• The cylinder body has an ideal thickness of 4 mm. Due to this, optimal thermal conductivity is achieved. The dimensions of a standard 50 liter cylinder provide ideal efficiency.
• Compact. Can be used in cramped conditions.
• Available materials and elementary construction are used.
• A wood-burning stove made from a gas cylinder allows you to install a surface for cooking.
• Does not require making a foundation.

The disadvantages include:

• Quite low efficiency
• They operate only on solid fuel. Although, there is a modification of the potbelly stove made from a gas cylinder during testing.
• The need for constant cleaning.
• A wood burning stove made from a gas cylinder cools down quickly.
• It is unprofitable to use as a source of constant heating.

As you can see, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Such horizontal stoves from a gas cylinder are installed in places where it is impractical to install a centralized heating system and there is no main gas supply.

When installing a potbelly stove, it is important to strictly follow the requirements fire safety.

Factory-made stoves are expensive, so it is advisable to make a stove from a gas cylinder in the garage yourself from scrap materials.

If you do not have welding skills, any specialist will make such a product for you according to the above drawings.

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One of the simplest and cheapest ways to heat a dacha or garage is heating with wood, for which homemade long-burning potbelly stoves are used. These are primitive metal stoves with some modifications to increase the efficiency of burning solid fuel. In this article we will tell you how you can make such a potbelly stove with your own hands from a gas cylinder, as well as correctly install it and connect the chimney.

Scheme and principle of operation of a potbelly stove

The history of these heating units goes back to the beginning of the last century, when they were used to heat rooms in houses and even apartments. This popularity is explained by the primitiveness of the stove design and ease of manufacture. But this same simplicity negatively affects the efficiency of its operation, because the efficiency of a traditional potbelly stove hardly exceeded 45%. Therefore, today it is used mainly for periodic heating of cottages and garages.

Initially, the heater was a metal body with a door at one end for storing firewood and an ash pan, and a chimney pipe was welded to the back. There was no grate, the fuel burned directly on the bottom (hearth). At the same time, the lion's share of the heat left the room through the chimney, since the hot combustion products entered there directly from the firebox. To understand the structure and operating principle of such a potbelly stove, it is worth studying the following diagram:

As you can see, hot flue gases containing a large amount of heat immediately leave the body of the furnace and are not used to heat the room. Later, the design was modified by unknown craftsmen in order to take away this heat, as a result of which the following types of wood-burning potbelly stoves appeared:

• stove with grate and smoke circuits;
• long-burning heater, where the process of burning wood occurs from top to bottom.

Note. To additionally extract heat from the chimney pipe, they began to install a samovar-type water heat exchanger on it, which will be discussed below.

The two-pass wood stove, shown below, has a grate and 2 baffles that force the flue gases to make a tortuous path inside the body before venting out. Thanks to this, the potbelly stove becomes more economical, since combustion products have time to exchange heat with the surrounding air through the metal walls of the unit.

There is also a variant of a round stove with one smoke circuit, where pyrolysis gases are burned. This potbelly stove is designed for burning sawdust and small wood waste. There is a double-walled design and lower location chimney pipe, since gases must travel from the firebox from top to bottom in order to give off heat. The operating principle of such a homemade potbelly stove is shown in the diagram:

Another design, where solid fuel is burned from top to bottom, is not so economical, but it works much longer from one fill. The firewood here is set on fire and burns from above, pressed down by a weight with a pipe through which air enters. How such a long-burning potbelly stove functions is shown in the diagram:

For reference. People call this unit nothing more than the “Bubafonya” oven.

The topic of making various wood-burning stoves from gas cylinders is very popular and here’s why. Firstly, this available material, which can be found at any scrap metal collection point. Secondly, such a tank is an actual finished furnace body with fairly thick walls. All that remains is to modify it yourself and you will get an excellent potbelly stove for heating a garage or cottage. Moreover, the design can be both vertical and horizontal.

Advice. Most of all, a standard propane cylinder with a capacity of at least 50 liters is suitable for making a homemade heater. Using tanks of a smaller volume will not give the desired effect, the stove will be heavy, and the heat exchange surface area will be small.

A vertical potbelly stove made from a cylinder, made by yourself, is more compact and takes up little space in the room. But the wood in it will not burn for a long time, no matter how you limit the air flow, since the flame will begin to cover the entire volume of fuel.

Another thing is a horizontal stove, in which the flame moves from beginning to end, gradually burning the wood. But with it there is more work; you need to arrange an ash chamber outside, since inside it will take up too much useful volume. The structure of this potbelly stove is shown in the drawing:

Now about how to make a horizontal potbelly stove at home. To do this, you need to carefully cut off the top of the cylinder with a grinder, where the gas valve is screwed on. Naturally, the valve must first be unscrewed, and the container must be filled to the top with water in order to displace all the propane vapor that could remain inside the tank.

Otherwise, you risk causing an explosion, the consequences of which are unpredictable. The next sequence of actions is as follows:

• cut a strip in the side wall where the ash chamber will be welded. Another option is to drill many holes, as seen in the photo below.
• make and weld an ash pan from metal 2-3 mm thick to the cylinder. Place a homemade door or damper in front to regulate the air supply;
• The loading door should be cut into the front end. It can be made in a round or square shape, or you can purchase a finished product;
• in the back you need to cut a hole for the chimney duct. You shouldn’t make it too big; it’s enough to take the chimney diameter as 100 mm, maximum 150;
• weld the pipe;
• make a stand from any available rolled metal and also weld it to the body.

Bake vertical type It’s a little easier to make from a balloon. To make such a potbelly stove with your own hands, you need to cut openings for the doors in the side wall, and the cut pieces of metal themselves can act as doors. You just need to attach loops to them, for example, from several links of a thick chain, as was done in the photo:

But you will have to tinker with the grate bars. Not only do you need to make a grid (preferably from periodic profile reinforcement), but you also need to somehow install it inside the cylinder. Here you will have to cut off its top or bottom part - at your discretion.

After installing the grate, the cut part should be welded in place, and a pipe should be attached on top to remove combustion products.

Note. Instead of a cut-off hemisphere, it is easier to put a flat lid made of a sheet of iron. However, the pipe does not have to be attached from above. It can also be embedded into the wall of the potbelly stove at the top.

About the top burning potbelly stove

To make this type of stove, you need to assemble its internal part - a weight with a pipe for air supply. It should be round in shape with a diameter such that it fits freely inside the cylinder. Usually it's thick sheet metal(at least 10 mm) with a hole in the middle where the pipe is welded. On the bottom side, for better distribution of air in the combustion chamber of the stove, several ribs are attached, this is clearly shown in the photo:

As in the previous version, you should cut off top part cylinder and make a hole in the middle for the pipe to pass through. In order for the future lid to close tightly, it must be scalded all around with a steel strip. The chimney pipe cuts into the side, in the upper part of the stove body. How to properly make a long-burning potbelly stove, where the process goes from top to bottom, is described in detail in the video:

How to make a chimney for a potbelly stove

For stable operation of this kind homemade stoves It is important to ensure good traction. To do this, the cut of the chimney pipe of a potbelly stove made from a cylinder must be at a height of at least 4 m above the level of the grate. When connecting the gas duct sideways, the minimum length of the horizontal section should be 400 mm, and at the bottom of the vertical part it is necessary to organize condensate drainage, as shown in the figure:

At the same time, it is desirable to take measures to effectively remove heat from the flue. There are 2 proven ways to do this:

install a horizontal section of the chimney from the potbelly stove at an angle of 30-45°, running it along the wall. After this, the canal turns up and goes out onto the street;

A purchased or homemade samovar-type water heat exchanger is installed on the chimney.

A pipe coming out of a potbelly stove at an angle and passing through the entire room will have time to transmit internal air a significant amount of heat, which will increase the overall efficiency of the stove and reduce wood consumption. In turn, a chimney with a water circuit will allow you to install 2-3 small radiators in your dacha and provide them with heat. The device is quite simple to manufacture: a water jacket with two pipes is made in the flue section.

Advice. It is better to provide circulation in the water circuit mounted on the chimney of the stove by force, using a circulation pump.

Conclusion

For heating cottages, garages and greenhouses it is difficult to find more profitable option than a homemade wood stove made from a gas cylinder. Compared to electricity and gas, burning wood is much cheaper, even taking into account the low efficiency of these units. In addition, the efficiency of a potbelly stove can be increased if the removal of combustion products and heat extraction are properly organized.

To make a potbelly stove from a gas cylinder, you don’t need to spend a lot of money An economical stove made from a propane tank won't cost too much. The main thing is to make the right drawings. And the materials for work will be available materials. So an old cylinder, metal sheets, fittings and pipes are the whole set of necessary products.

• • Efficiency of using a stove from a gas cylinder in a garage
  • The principle of operation of a potbelly stove made from a gas cylinder using wood
  • Types of wood-burning gas cylinder stoves
  • Do-it-yourself stove from a gas cylinder: preparatory work
  • Do-it-yourself potbelly stove from a gas cylinder: installation technology
  • Chimney equipment for a gas cylinder boiler
  • How to make a stove from a gas cylinder (video)
  • Examples of a potbelly stove made from gas cylinders (photo)

A potbelly stove made from a gas boiler allows you to burn heat more slowly, processing all the fuel. In this case, you can control the air supply and the combustion process using a special damper. This increases the efficiency and combustion duration. That is why homemade stoves used in garages, greenhouses, baths, workshops.

Using a gas cylinder stove you can easily heat a small garage

Advantages of the oven:

1. Easy assembly. Construction can be completed quickly and easily.
2. Independent fuel. The boiler does not require electricity, only solid fuel. In this case, the type of solid fuel does not matter.
3. Small dimensions allow the structure to be placed in any corner of the house.
4. Easy to use. The mechanism is simple, wood burns for a long time and does not require constant monitoring.

But for the stove to work, good ventilation will be required, otherwise the necessary draft will not arise. The heat capacity of the structure is also not encouraging. This is due small area boiler

You can increase the heat capacity by equipping a jacket.

Only dry logs should be used for the stove. The disadvantages include the difficulty of cleaning the structure from soot and ash. But the disadvantages are less than the advantages. At the same time, the equipment of the furnace will not be expensive.

The principle of operation of a potbelly stove made from a gas cylinder using wood

The gas cylinder design is a long-burning system. It consists of three main elements: a firebox, a chimney and a blower. The latter is a special channel, which is located at the bottom of the stove. The blower supplies air to the firebox, controlling combustion. This part is equipped with a door to control the oxygen supply. In addition, soot accumulates in the ash pit.

There is a firebox above the ash pit. This element is used to burn fuel. Air enters the chamber through a grille, which is connected to the blower. The firebox is equipped with a door. This is how firewood is loaded into a potbelly stove.

The furnace is ignited when open doors fireboxes and closed blowers. Unburned parts fall through the grate or fly out through the chimney.

The chimney is an exhaust pipe through which the remaining combustion products exit. A special view is installed in the chimney - a damper. It is used to block the chimney. Thanks to it, you can slow down the combustion process and increase efficiency.

The main principles of operation of a potbelly stove:

1. The blower transports air into the firebox;
2. Firewood or coal is burned in the loading chamber;
3. Combustion products are eliminated through the chimney;
4. You can control the intensity of combustion using a damper;
5. Firewood is placed into the firebox through a special door in the body of the stove.

You can cut the necessary holes in the gas cylinder using a grinder

The blower and firebox are considered the main elements and are mounted directly in the body of the gas cylinder. The chimney can be placed separately. The principle of operation is quite simple, all that remains is to figure out how to correctly design a potbelly stove.

Types of wood-burning gas cylinder stoves

Potbelly stoves are divided according to the installation method into vertical and horizontal. Each type has its own installation features, advantages and disadvantages. It is important to study each option in detail.

Nuances of installing a horizontal furnace:

1. The construction of such a potbelly stove requires less time;
2. The stove is installed on a metal sheet to avoid fire hazards.

The vertical design is compact. It can be placed in a corner and will not take up much space. The cylinder is installed with the tap down, so the design has its own differences. Door at vertical potbelly stove is located below. Less steel will be required for the substrate equipment.

Do-it-yourself stove from a gas cylinder: preparatory work

To create a wood-burning stove from a metal cylinder, you will need to use welding. That is why you should choose a room for work in advance. This should be a well-ventilated room with reliable wiring and constant access to electricity.

You should immediately prepare all the tools for work. You will need a welding machine and a grinder.

The gas cylinder stove should be installed in such a way that it does not come into contact with the lining of the room

The process of making a potbelly stove can last several days. It will be better if the room has a roof. Welcome good sound insulation, because during work it can be noisy, and this will not please the neighbors.

Materials for creating a potbelly stove:

1. Frame. Can be made from an old propane boiler. It is best to choose a large 50 liter cylinder.
2. In some cases, the stove may be equipped with legs. For this purpose, sections of pipe, fittings, metal profile.
3. Using scraps of rebar you can make potbelly stove handles. A similar handle will be located on the firebox lid.
4. You can make the door yourself or buy a ready-made one from cast material. The stove will require 2 doors: for the firebox and for the vent. The first one should be bigger.

Separately, it is worth taking time to prepare the cylinder. First, you will need to bleed the propane from the tank. The operation is performed outdoors. Open the supply tap and wait until the hissing stops.

Next you will need to rinse the bottle. The main thing is to get rid of the unpleasant odor, which is used by the supplier to detect a leak. Bleach is used for washing, and then the structure is washed with water.

Do-it-yourself potbelly stove from a gas cylinder: installation technology

First, prepare the container for the oven. You should take a 50 liter cylinder. After this, you will need to decide on the design of the potbelly stove: vertical and horizontal.

How to make a horizontal oven:

1. First, the top part with the tap is cut off from the cylinder.
2. 4 legs are welded onto the container. The housing must be placed horizontally.
3. A chimney opening is equipped in the upper part of the cylinder. A bent collar made of steel braid measuring 5 cm is welded onto the round hole.
4. In internal space install the grate at a distance of a fourth of its diameter. To do this, holes are drilled in the wall of the cylinder.
5. Next, a hole is made for the door and a nut with a ball valve is welded.

The finished stove is mounted in a garage or other room on a special steel sheet. There should be enough material to occupy a space 50 cm more from the door. The vertical design has its own characteristics, but the preparatory work is the same.

Before installing a potbelly stove from a gas cylinder, you should watch the training video

The hole for the valve in vertical ovens is made 10 cm larger. Next, a collar is installed on the chimney. The blower is installed at a distance of 5-10 cm from the bottom. A firebox is installed above. Grates are installed between the loading hopper and the blower. Finally, install the handles on the doors.

Chimney equipment for a gas cylinder boiler

To operate the stove you will need to have good draft. To do this, the chimney is mounted at a certain height. This place is located above the edge of the grate. You will also need to equip a place to collect moisture. You will also need to remove heat from the chimney.

Heat removal methods:

1. Install the horizontal section, maintaining a slope of 35 degrees. Next, the chimney will need to be turned up and brought out into the street. A heat exchanger is installed on the channel.
2. Warm air can be carried by a pipe that exits the oven at an angle. This increases the efficiency indicator and combustion duration.

By equipping a water jacket on the stove, you can significantly increase the useful properties of the structure. All features and nuances of installation can be seen in special drawings. In this case, the heat exchanger can be equipped on the housing.

Water circulation in the jacket occurs in a forced manner using a pump.

In this case, the diameter of the heat exchanger must be larger than the diameter of the chimney. The open ends of the pipes will have to be welded. When water passes through the shirt, it heats up and transfers heat to the room.

How to make a stove from a gas cylinder (video)

A stove made from an oxygen or gas cylinder is quite simple design. You can assemble such a potbelly stove on your own. The main thing is to stock up on a welding machine and a grinder. The installation should be carried out based on calculations and drawings.

Examples of a potbelly stove made from gas cylinders (photo)

Stoves such as potbelly stoves are especially popular - users are captivated by their extreme simplicity. And to make them yourself, it’s enough to find a suitable case made of durable metal. good technical characteristics The long-burning potbelly stove uses wood from a gas cylinder - the same one that is used to store propane. To assemble it you will need the most simple tools and a welding machine.

Let's see how to assemble a potbelly stove from a propane tank.

What are the benefits of potbelly stoves?

To begin with, it would be nice to understand the features and advantages of potbelly stoves. The main advantage is extreme simplicity. If you have a gas cylinder available, then the assembly can be completed in a matter of hours. The main thing is to have a welding machine, which is impossible to do without. A cylinder, a door, a chimney pipe - and an excellent handicraft heating unit ready to take in the first portions of firewood to give its owners warmth.

Omnivorous - a stove made from a gas cylinder is suitable for burning any type of fuel. This can be firewood, compressed eurowood, wooden waste or pellets. Throw into it everything that can ignite and burn - the potbelly stove is undemanding when it comes to the quality of fuel. The main thing is to let it flare up, and then you can burn anything in its interior.

Affordability – a potbelly stove made from a cylinder is extremely cheap. You can use a new cylinder for it or get an old one from somewhere. If you live in a rural area where there is no gas main, then there will be no problems with the search. And if you can’t get a cylinder, fit sheet iron under the potbelly stove, old barrel or any other suitable container.

Other features and advantages of potbelly stoves assembled from gas cylinders:

You can adapt any battered, but more or less whole, gas cylinder to a potbelly stove.

• Versatility in use - if you need a stove for a bathhouse or for a garage, use a potbelly stove. Its production will not take much time, and you will have an excellent heating unit at your disposal;
• A potbelly stove made from a cylinder does not require special maintenance - you only need to periodically clean the ash pan and check the condition of the chimney;
• Easy to install - simply mount the stove on any suitable base or weld metal legs to it;
• Ease of modernization - a cylinder stove can be made more efficient if you use some technical tricks;
• Relatively high heat transfer – thermal power, depending on the volume of the stove, will range from 2 to 7 kW (heated area from 20 to 70 sq. m);
• A stove made from a cylinder is characterized by stable operation in any conditions - you just need to build a decent chimney with a height of at least 3-4 meters;
• Easy self-assembly - if you know how to work with a tool, then after 2-3 hours of work you will have the most effective potbelly stove made from a gas cylinder at your disposal;
• Several modifications for consumers to choose from - the stove body can be vertical or horizontal, large or small volume.

There are also some disadvantages. The first one is unsightly appearance. But if you put in some effort, you will be able to build a nice, compact potbelly stove with good appearance. The second drawback is not the highest efficiency. For such units it is about 70%, but this figure can be improved by implementing afterburning of combustion products with secondary air.

All the main ways to increase efficiency will be discussed in the corresponding section of our review.

Self-assembly

Let's see how to make a potbelly stove from a gas cylinder. Our step-by-step instructions will tell you about all the stages of this simple process. First, you need to decide on the design - the gas cylinder in the design of the potbelly stove can be located vertically or horizontally. Here it all depends on the availability of free space, but the horizontal arrangement is still more convenient in terms of loading firewood of increased length (and ensuring long-term burning).

Regardless of how the body is located, the stove itself will consist of three parts:

• The main body - it is also the combustion chamber and a container for ash (the ash pan will be located in the lower part);
• Doors - through one, firewood is loaded, and through the second, coals and ash are removed;
• Chimney - combustion products are removed through it.

There will also be a grate inside.

A homemade long-burning stove made from a gas cylinder is a unit of increased volume. Therefore, you have to find the largest cylinder. If the volume is too small, you will have to constantly add more and more firewood.

All dimensions and indicators are given as an example. Depending on your needs, you can make the desired changes based on this drawing.

You can make a potbelly stove from a gas cylinder without a drawing - we will use the illustration given as an example. The ash pan door will have dimensions of 20x10 cm, the loading door will have dimensions of 30x20 cm. To cut these holes, use an angle grinder (grinder). Cut carefully, as the cut pieces of metal will serve as doors.

Next, carefully cut off the upper part where the faucet is located - this is where the chimney of our potbelly stove will come out. We weld a pipe with a diameter of 70-90 mm and a height of 10 cm here, after which we proceed to welding the grate. The grill itself can be made from pieces of metal or reinforcement. After that, we attach it inside the gas cylinder using welding.

Since you will be working in a confined space inside a gas cylinder, be sure to take safety precautions.

The next stage is preparing the legs. The easiest way for them is to choose a piece of thick reinforcement. We cut the reinforcement into pieces of suitable length and weld it to the bottom of our potbelly stove. Now we proceed to installing the doors - for this we use simple metal hinges. Try to weld the doors as carefully as possible to minimize the gaps between them and the body. If necessary, weld pieces of metal around the perimeter for maximum sealing.

Do not forget to weld metal locks to the doors of the potbelly stove from a gas cylinder - they will not be difficult to make yourself from sheet iron.

Installation and first launch

Our step-by-step instructions will help you quickly assemble a potbelly stove from a gas cylinder with your own hands. There is nothing complicated here, and all operations are divided into three main stages:

There is nothing difficult about working with an angle grinder. But if you doubt your abilities, then it is better to entrust this process to a person with experience.

• Preparing a gas cylinder - you need to unscrew the tap, drain the gas condensate from there, then fill it with water so that all the gas comes out from inside. There is also a recommendation to let the water sit for a day. Another recommendation is to add potassium permanganate to the water. Next, the liquid is drained, and the cylinder can be safely cut. If you are unsure of the results of flushing, consult with knowledgeable people;
• Cutting a gas cylinder - you need to cut out the doors and the hole for the chimney. Here you can do something more cunning - cut a hole for the chimney not in the upper end part, but in the back, closer to the top. A larger hole is cut out in place of the valve - the hob is welded here;
• Installation of the grate and installation of legs - for this it is recommended to use reinforcement with a thickness of at least 12 mm.

The last stage is installation and launch.

A potbelly stove made from a gas cylinder must be installed on a non-combustible base - this can be a concrete or brick pedestal. It is highly advisable to lay a sheet of metal under it. This is necessary to ensure fire safety. Now we can start launching - we install and secure the chimney, and start chopping wood.

We place small chips on the grate, after which we proceed to larger firewood. Do not try to light a potbelly stove from a gas cylinder using flammable liquids - an explosion or a powerful bang may occur. In the event of an explosion or bang, a gas cylinder will survive, but it can stun people.

If the wood is too wet, use special stove ignition products. We set fire to small chips, watch the flame - the ash pan door (which also serves as an ash pit) is closed. As soon as the flames consume all the wood, close the firebox and open the ash pan. A craving will arise that will make the fire burn more cheerfully. Wait until the room becomes warm, adjust the draft level according to your preferences.

Increased efficiency

We move on to the last stage - the modernization of our potbelly stove, assembled from a gas cylinder. The simplicity of the design of this furnace leads to its not being the most high efficiency. Our task is to prevent heat from escaping into the chimney or going into the walls. Therefore, we will take some measures.

Heat Reflection

To begin with, it would be a good idea to think about the installation location - there should be no windows or doors nearby, it is advisable to mount a potbelly stove from a gas cylinder somewhere in a corner that is not blown by all the winds. And then you need to take a sheet of galvanized iron and beat this very corner with it - the radiated heat will be almost completely directed into the room, and will not go into the walls. This is the easiest way to upgrade.

Create convection

A potbelly stove from a gas cylinder can be turned into some kind of convector. This is done in two ways:

An extended chimney will allow more heat to remain indoors rather than escaping outside.

• Using a sheet of metal, we create a kind of jacket around the gas cylinder and attach it to the stove body;
• Using a U-shaped metal profile, we cut it into pieces and weld it vertically to the cylinder.

The essence of the procedure is simple - in the gap between the sheet and the cylinder or in the gaps formed by the profile, cold air, which will heat up and go to the ceiling. This will create natural convection in the room, which means heat will be spent more efficiently.

Shirt made of stone

If you have brick or stone, you can create a kind of shirt around the potbelly stove from a gas cylinder. The materials are not laid flush against the metal, but leaving a small air gap. Thermal radiation will warm up the stone (or brick), as a result of which it will begin to give off accumulated heat. If the flame suddenly goes out, the masonry will retain the heat accumulated earlier. Convection also forms between the potbelly stove and the masonry.

Some people line potbelly stoves made from gas cylinders with bricks or stones. The result is quite attractive and efficient stoves.

Horizontal pipe

Another way to prevent heat from escaping into the atmosphere is to trap it indoors. To do this, you should slightly modernize the chimney. The essence of the procedure is to create a long horizontal section that will transfer heat into the room. For example, in the case of a bathhouse, a small country house or a garage, its length can be 3-4 meters (in addition to the vertical section). Having passed through the pipe, the heat will mostly transfer to its metal, after which it will enter the room. The combustion products will enter the vertical section already noticeably cooled.

Pyrolysis supplement

The incoming secondary air helps to burn out the combustible gases when the stove is properly heated.