coal/wood stove plans

here are some quick drawings, if you have any questions i will be happy to answer them. i have one more to draw up showing the sliding shaker grate, but really, it's quite a simple set up that's worked well.

PICS LOCATED HERE: Pictures of your stove

2nd page

3rd and last page

Hi Berlin, I see in the plans you use rerod for the grate!! How long does the rerod last?? I always thought rerod was pretty poor steel, probably because it is alway rusty when I see it, rarely new.

When I have worked with rerod, it is pretty soft, and bends easily with muscle power, at least the 1/2" stuff does. I've never worked with 3/4".

Are the 1/2" rerod pieces on top in the grate, and the 3/4" underneath, or visa-versa??

When you shake the grate, is the motion making the grate act like a big mill file, the top rerod pieces at 90* to the shaking motion??

Just trying to figure out how you have it set up, I'm gonna make a rerod grate for my boiler and see what happens. My flat grate with slots is too smooth to get enough grinding action to chew up the hard ash in my firebox.

Thanks for posting the plans.

I think the hollow air filled angled baffle with air holes is genius, I bet the flames in front of the baffle's holes are pretty spectacular !

Greg L

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hey, greg,

the rebar is 1/2" on top, with 3/4 on the bottom, yes the 1/2" is perpendicular to the directions in which the grate slides. it works pretty well because it acts like a big metal file, only it files and grinds at large pieces of ash and cinder, the vibration helps drop everything that has already burned to a powder, it is impossible to move without the leverage of the handle made of 3/4" rebar, with the handle it moves very easily. plus if something is jammed or stuck in the grate, and won't easily allow the grate to slide, the loop at the end of the rebar grate allows me to get the handle moving first so i can slam or hammer at the grate until it slides freely which happens after one or two hits; this is why i simply didn't make a double hinge between the end of the grate and the lever handle, but rather used a stell loop with lots of slop.

rebar actually works surprisingly well, perhaps because it is so impure, but it doesn't want to warp or sag at all for about 6 tons of coal so far, and didn't in my stove before this one either, plus it's fairly cheap/free.

i don't know about genious 8) but the secondary burn system works pretty well, and gives quite abit of addtional heat when burning the stove medium to high. works good for woodburning too, and when burning wood all i have is steam coming from the chimney and no creosote, (i take good oak and ash wood when it's given for free, although i prefer burning coal)

OK, I'm going to locate some rebar and make one up, I need a more aggressive grate to grind up the hard chunks of ash. My current grate is too flat and smooth on top, I think it merely shaves the bottom of the ash pile. I need a course-cut file to cut and grind it up.

I'm not sure if my current lever is going to be enough, it is about a 2:1 ratio. But I'm already chopping up some hard chunks that jamb between the grate and end of the firebox. So maybe it will be enough.

I may be able to shape the grate to have less flat area at the edges too, this will facilitate the ash sliding down the brick sides into the pan. I hope.

Thanks Steve, neat design.

Greg L

Is there a coal supply in Wisconsin zip 54017

426 downloads? surely someone has started building one of these? i would like about any progress etc. also if someone has built one how it's working for you and so on. it could help others trying to do the same if i've overlooked something.

kofted wrote:Is there a coal supply in Wisconsin zip 54017

Try yellow.com and look under "coal and coke" dealers.

I am new to this forum, but I think it is great. I live in ND where we have a vast supply of lignite coal. I resently bought plans from Mother Earth mag; and DEB designs for a outdoor boiler. I would like to add coal for fuel. I am planning on sharing with anybody who would use them. Please help. Thanks for everything.
Robert Barfield
uthke@srt.com[/img]

i'm in process of getting the metal to make this stove, and was wondering if you have a closer pic, or full drawing of the grate setup, also , i'm a little lost as to what the top door is, in front of the stove pipe.i plan to do a double wall, and install a blower fan to send the heat through the existing duct work in my home, and just wondered what this door was for.
thanks for your time

one thing I learned about rebar is that when dealing with 10' long sections it's real easy to bend, once cut down to 18" of so it is impossible to bend by hand. We build stuff with sucker rods out here in oil country, they are just like rebar - cheap and useful. Good plans. Merry Christmas

wtfdidido wrote:i'm a little lost as to what the top door is, in front of the stove pipe.i plan to do a double wall, and install a blower fan to send the heat through the existing duct work in my home, and just wondered what this door was for.
thanks for your time

The top door shown in Berlin's plans is for loading. From what I've read, he dumps a couple buckets of coal in from the top door, and does it very quickly to avoid soot/smoke rolling out. He then avoids opening it for awhile until the volatiles burn off.

Berlin - I appreciate the help you've given me on this forum, and the plans you posted. I have a few questions regarding your stove.

What size coal are you using in this stove? On the stove I built, I did not make a top load door, but only a front load door. I'm finding it difficult to load more than a half-depth bed (5" or so) with front load. My front firebrick are laying on their side, and the side and back firebrick stand on end (like the Harman Mark III). Once I get the stove loaded to the top of the front firebrick, I have to use a small shovel to get the coal in, and that takes lots of time and I always spill some coal and make a mess. So I usually stop at the 5" bed depth, but don't get the long burn I'd like due to the relatively shallow bed. Top load may solve this problem. Or maybe I should have moved the load door opening up,and stood the front bricks on end as well. I'm thinking I may try what Harman did on the TLC2000 - build some louvres at the bottom of the load door opening.

So, a top load door is beginning to sound like a good idea, but I'm worried about smoke pouring out of it when opened. I can see it being OK with an old bed, when little or not smoke is present. But once I dump coal on, it will start smoking. That would be OK if I didn't have to reopen the top door until 8-12 hours later, but won't I need to add more coal soon? If I dump 2 full buckets of coal at once, I will smother the fire. That's why I ask what size coal you are using. Maybe I'm using too fine of coal. Don't you smother the fire if you dump all at once?

I have anywhere from pea to nut coal that I'm using, all mixed together in the buckets. I've screen the fines out, anything smaller than 1/4" or so (seems anthracite and bit. coal have different size classes, so I'm including coal dimensions to avoid confusion). From my experience, when I burn nut/pea mixture, it takes longer to load (due to layering to avoid smothering it). Then, since the nut/pea has so much surface area, I get tremendous heat for the first few hours while burning off the volatiles. It's easy to get the stove 600* or hotter if you leave the draft open. Once the volatiles are gone, the stove burns great, more like 250*, but I get less heat. That's annoying, because I get a hot house, then it cools. I reload, and the cycle continues. How can I even the heat out, and still burn the small stuff? Maybe the high volatile bit. coal is just going to prevent me from evening the heat out with nut/pea.

When I use what they call "stove" coal or lump coal (3" - 8" sizes), I get more even heat, I'm assuming it's due to the smaller surface area, volatiles not coming off as fast. That spreads the heat out over the burn cycle. But the lump coal isn't as nice to load - gotta get your hands dirty, stack it by hand, etc. I like the idea of dumping 2 buckets in the top door and being done. But that would be hard with lump coal.

wtfdidido - I have some photos and plans for my stove too if you are interested. Let me know. I may just post them here too. I keep stalling, wanting to tweak the stove some, change the plans, etc. based on what I'm learning over the first few months of burning it. But I can't seem to get to it. I may just post what I have and add some statements to the plans for things for people to consider based on my experience.

Don't want to drift too far from the original topic. If we need to split this off into it's own thread, I assume someone that can do that will. Lots of questions - sorry.

Steinke

first off i'd like to say that i apologize for not replying sooner, but for some reason i forgot this topic was located in the "best of" forum instead of the bituminous forum.

"What size coal are you using in this stove?"

i'm using nut bituminous 1/4"-1-1/2" roughly.

"So, a top load door is beginning to sound like a good idea, but I'm worried about smoke pouring out of it when opened. I can see it being OK with an old bed, when little or not smoke is present. But once I dump coal on, it will start smoking. That would be OK if I didn't have to reopen the top door until 8-12 hours later, but won't I need to add more coal soon? If I dump 2 full buckets of coal at once, I will smother the fire. That's why I ask what size coal you are using. Maybe I'm using too fine of coal. Don't you smother the fire if you dump all at once?"

top loading is not only a great idea, it is IMHO the only way to hand fire a coal stove, no shoveling, no dust, no mess. NO smoke will pour out of the stove when loading if you have a decent design and proper draft, if smoke comes out, you have poor draft it's that simple.
sure, you'll smother the fire, and when you close the door if you have proper draft and a well-sealed coal stove, it will suck the gasses above the fire igniting them, possibly with a pop (which is why the stove should be sealed well, if it is, there will be no mess/smoke entering the home when this happens) once they auto-ignite, the stove will heat up to whatever point you set your air setting at. of course if you're using run of mine coal, there will be too many fines and you will smother the fire for a long amount of time until it reignites, during which you will begin to get cold.

to be honest with you i would just go with the lump, if it was cheaper and easier to find, i'd probably be using it. why don't u use lump and make it top loading as well, why don't you think you can load lump through the top???

btw, i'm out of town currently but when i get back in i'll be sure to get some more detailed pics for everyone.

ALSO, as i've alluded to before, i just want to be clear, in my setup, or anyones setup, with a properly drafting chimney there is NO gases/smoke coming out the top loading door; i can load the fire and LEAVE it open if i like w/ out any gasses exiting. obviously if i close the door shortly after loading and then 20 min. later open it again, you'll get a pretty good puff due to all the fresh oxygen hitting the volitiles that are burning, but there is absolutely no reason to open the door untill next loading many hours later so it's a non-issue.

Berlin: Your comments make a lot of sense. As I think about it, I was having much better luck with screened coal. I got tired of screening the past week and have been burning run of the mine, fines and all. It takes forever for the fire to come back when fines are in the mix - even up to a few hours. And the fines seem to make the ash crusty and hard to shake through the grates.

And I suppose I could still dump the lump coal into the top load, but I would have to steer away from the bigger stuff. Maybe try to keep it under 3", or load the bigger ones by hand, not with a bucket.

After 3 months of burning and research, I'm coming to the conclusion that due to my stove being in the basement, and having a chimney an exterior chimney, I'm getting "cold hearth syndrome" as they call it. My stove would smoke with a top load door open. I may try building an insulated chase around the SS chimney. If I feel the pipe near the bottom of the chimney at the cleanout tee, it's hot. But up by the roof, its much cooler, almost cold. I think it's cooling too much. I could try a quick test by using liquid nails and building an enclosure with styrofoam board. If it does the trick, I could do it right.

As I type this, my stove just "puffed" about 30+ minutes after loading coal with fines in it. It usually takes longer than that after a fresh load to get flames again.

I don't have much room for a top load door. I put four 1-1/2" square tubes thru the top of the firebox to blow air thru for heat exchange, and only have about 8" x 7" of open space on the stove top for a top load door. Maybe that's enough, or i could just remove or move the tubes some. Or load coal by using a piece of 6" or 8" stovepipe for a scuttle like others have talked about.

Thanks for the advice. These issues are why I'm just not quite ready to share these stove plans - don't want to mess other people up. I'll keep you posted. Still enjoying the journey.

Steinke