Making a firebox. Used 3/32 steel skin over 3/16 angle steel. I will then firebrick the inside. How will this withstand seasonal use? It will have wood fires inside it, not gas, coal, etc. This is to be used for maple syrup boiling. There are no real "plans" to be had for such a project. Anyone made an incinerator or woodstove like this? Any reasonable predictions are welcome. Very little cash into this project, but the time is certainly there. If it fails for the evaporator, it'll be on helluva grill. The box is 16"deep,24"wide, and 24"long.
Hi Bzzzzzzzzzz good to see you still around. Seems right to me, the brick should protect the steel. Corrosion during the off season will probably be a bigger problem than heat damage unless you can keep it really dry.
Bill
buzzz,
I made one almost identical. (24x24x24)
My door sealed pretty tight. My air vent was in the center of the door. The vent was three- 2" dia. holes with a steel plate on the inside with identical three holes. From the outside I could rotate the inner plate to adjust the size of the vent from closed to fully open. (similar to a kettle grill vent).
Well, on the first fire up...lots of junk 2x4's...I had a very hot roaring fire. I had the door open and soon some smoke started leaking out of the door a bit. I closed the door and opened the vent. Quickly, this thing started making some wild noises sucking air in the vent...then a large puff of smoke came out of the door vent...followed by more noise. I closed the vent completely.
5 minutes later I fully opened the vent again. The rush of fresh air into the box resulted in a violent explosion that blew off the stove pipe. Moral of the story...add more fresh air inlet vents and put some vents lower in the fire box just above the firebrick. After I did that I had no problems.
Wow, that is certainly food for thought. Probably the wood was just smoldering in that hot bed of coals with no oxygen. Add the sudden third element of combustion(oxygen), and the gases got what they were waiting for. I had also heard that the vents are best put close as possible to the bottom of the fire. The flue itself effects the drafting the fire gets. If the temperture difference is bigger and spans a long distance the draw will be stronger. How long was the flue on this one?
The firebox is a basement workroom heater.
The flue pipe was inclined and about 6ft long before it entered the chimney in the basement of the house. This is the only thing venting into the chimney since the furnace is a high efficiency and vents with pvc pipe outside thru the wall.
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