New Workshop Addition

[Joules]

For the last few years the workshop has become a virtual no go zone during the winter.  My hands would just stop working after about 20 mins.   Winter time had pretty much become a time I do CAD indoors and dream of making once the weather picks up.   Well a friend who I did some design work for made me an offer I couldn't refuse....  Basically gave me a stove for the workshop.



Pretty much as soon as it arrived I had someone saying get it installed Dad. Though she wasn't so keen on sharing sticks to heat it.



I cobbled a flue up and gave it a quick test, oh forgot to mention it also has an oven built in which is handy for the daily bread.



Had to make up my own twin wall tube, its packed with vermiculite and the ends sealed (not air tight) with high temperature silicon.  Then make up a lead tile and support tube for the flue through the roof.  They ask crazy prices for stainless steel twin wall and I had some stainless flue pipes from other work so cost was just a tub of fire cement.  Each end has a ceramic ring to centre the flue pipes.



I welded a stand to save my back and give me somewhere to stash the firewood when its freezing outside.  I really love those laser levels, it allowed me to line the stove up under a single roof tile for the rest of the install.







The lead parts are fabricated from lead flashing, the lead burning welding was done with a propane torch.  Back the lead with steel sheet helps to stop the lead collapsing as you work it.  The storm collar and anti downdraft cowl are fabricated from an old copper hot water tank.  I riveted all the copper parts and figured, since stainless steel pans don't suffer corrosion with copper bottoms my copper fittings should be just fine.  So far no leaks from my lead work.



I now have a warm workshop, jacket potatoes or hot pasty/pie ready for dinner.  A local gardener provides me with pruned branches through out the year so cost of fuel is minimal, just time cutting it up.  I have even managed to do the Sunday roast in the oven.

This current warm spell we had over the last few weeks have been a mad rush getting it all installed, and just in time now the weather has taken a turn for the worse.  So this winter I will mostly be in the workshop.


             Joules

[awemawson]

VERY nice 

Quite an unusual design but eminently fit for purpose

I like the co-axial flue - masterly stroke 


Andrew

[DavidA]

Yes,  very nice indeed.

Here is (yet another) short precautioany tale.

I have a pot bellied stove in my big shed. And it works very well.  However,  a few month ago I was in the shed and had lit the stove as usual,  but got distracted with the jobs in hand and forgot about the stove until I noticed it was getting a bit chilly.  So I opened the front door and was greeted by a 'WooooF' (No,  not a rather annoyed dog) as the extra slug of fresh air, mixed with the stove full of gas that had built up due to the flames going out, ignited.
A large and disconcerting orange flame shot out .
The top 'lid' of the stove jumped into the air and the place was filled with bits of dust.

So don't let your fire get too low.

I suppose I should have checked for any usable charcoal.

Dave.

[Joules]

Thats whats so handy about the glass door on this one you can see whats happening and open one of the air controls to feed into the fire.  I could never keep on top of a pot belly stove, this one I feed when the window stop flickering and I can see it from the lathe. 

[PeterE]

Joules,

Just a though. If there are possibilities to arrange for separate air supply from outside to the hearth that would lessen the risk of woooofs when opening the door. It would create one air flow through the hearth and just leave the air within your shop circulating round the ouutside of the burner and transmit heat more undisturbed.

BR

/Peter

[Mayhem]

I have one in my workshop and wouldn't be without it in the winter (yes we get winter here in Australia - its just a lot shorter).

[Joules]

Mmmmm hot food.



I think I better install a shaver next, I don't remember that beard when I went into the workshop !!!


           Joules

[awemawson]

Have you told the wife you may not be back for a few days 

When I set up my new workshop a few basic human comforts were high on the priority list. It's 100 yards from the house so needed to be self contained. So it has it's own central heating system keeping it cozy, but also providing hot water for hand washing, and I also plumbed a loo in even though it involved major trenching to couple it to our private sewage treatment plant.


Well worth all the effort, I can hide in there for hours on end 

[DaveH]

Excellent job Joules,
I see your best friend has sorted out her best place.
 
DaveH

[sparky961]

I love the build in oven!  Maybe not so much for the shop, but I'd love one of those on top of my wood stove in the house.

[doubleboost]

Very nice
You can not beat a bit of free heat
I always find baking bread gets my hands really clean
John

[Jonny]

Was looking at similar last three years even took mut out each time bringing a stick back.

What turned me off is pricing of the flues and would have had to go up and across as you have done but with 4 bends. The other thing was lack of room not only at floor level but overhead.
Need a plentifull supply of wood etc,  a big pile don't last long.

Went Calorgas in the end inc bottle lease and a better fire £113 all in delivered. Can get cheaper. Backed up with a large oil filled rad on thermostat. Costs me two refills per winter used daily, cant cook bread but can keep me coffee warm and not overload the electric supply.

[krv3000]

well dun im a bit restricted as to wat i have in the workshop for heeting as me workshop is made out of wood and dont fancy sumthing that i can not swich off i have one of them new pareffin heters that are oderles and ther is plenty of gaps for venting

[Joules]

 Jonny,
          that flue pipe is straight up and out, no bends the workshop is double skinned with a cavity so I guess it does look like the flue may have a bend in it.   Yeah flue pipe, especially twin wall is very pricey, however if you have a local ducting outfit you may find they can roll you seamed flue pipe in stainless.  They also offer a variety of formed ends for joining to other pipe or appliances.  This stuff is real cheap, nothing like the seamless price.  My twin wall is made up of that, the overall flue is about 2.5m tall.  Only the last 1.2m is twin wall, I think if I had bought it all recently it would have been well under £100.  I only tried Calor gas once and it generated far too much moisture for my liking.  I pack as much metal stock around the stove as I can and this helps keep heat in the shop.  Ventilation is curtesy of the roller door passing plenty of air.

        Joules

[vtsteam]

Wonderful setup, wish i could do the same. I have a spare small woodstove, and even some Metalbestos (double wall stainless) stovepipe.

But I've got wood floors, wood walls, and a very tall high pitched roof with foam insulation in the ceiling. Really the wrong place for a woodstove and chimney. There just isn't room for the stove either, since legally it needs 18" of separation to combustibles and walls, and the shop is only 10' wide -- now with benches and machines on both sides.

So I'm thinking of an external wood burner, shipto seems to be going the same way.  I have to figure it out in the next couple of weeks before it gets difficult. I may go hydronic piping into the shed with an antifreeze mix.

[Joules]

vtsteam,
           prior to me getting the stove I had designed and started to build a charcoal stove for external use, it was going to have a coaxial jacket and through the wall pipe so workshop air was blown through the outer pipe into the jacket and the central pipe returns hot air back into the workshop.  There are some marine stoves that use charcoal and I had based the design on them, but designed my own coaxial wall fitting and jackets.  The fans used are just PC fans, and the charcoal should have been good for several hours burn unattended.  I had looked into water jackets and using a car radiator, but it just gets real messy real quick with plumbing, anti freeze and venting the system externally.

The flue pipe for a small charcoal burner only needs be about 1.5" diameter as the charcoal smoulders rather than burns that means you can use stainless vehicle exhaust tubing and the stove body can be made from stainless tube used to build exhaust silencers.  The whole lot gets insulated Rockwool/vermiculite then jacketed in more thin stainless sheet or use spiral wound galv tubing.  The output was calculated at about 2-3kw and I guess would have taken quite a while to heat my workshop in comparison to the stove.

Many years ago I installed a multifuel stove in a log cabin, it had wooden floors so we built a hearth from ceramic fibre board and granite worktop to insulate the stove from the floor insulated stainless splash back (used in kitchens behind the cooker) protected the wall.  This stove had a stainless flue through the wooden roof and used spiral wound galvanised tube for the outer twin wall.  The twin wall was uninsulated as the whole building would rise and fall over an inch during the year so the internal flue could move inside the spiral tube that was attched to the roof.  The flue was capped with a top hat arrangement that kept the weather out the spiral tube and allowed movement.  That was many years ago when I was learning about heating systems and flue designs.  The stove was only taken out of commision last year and is waiting to be reinstalled, no problems in 10yrs use other than the first year discovering how much the building moved!!! and redesigning the flue.

[vtsteam]

Joules, thanks for all those ideas, very helpful! And interesting.

I do happen to have everything needed for a hydronic installation already on hand, from disassembling an earlier HAHSA outside woodburning unit for my house -- one I built from plans. That was a monster and had many problems. I later built a green wood chip burning furnace that was much simpler and more effective, but had its problems as well. I'm onto my third generation of ideas about external furnaces. The shop might be a better experimental size for that than the house!

But I'm beginning to come around to hot air instead of hydronic heat -- mainly because I'm thinking about space considerations. I can't use a baseboard radiator -- benches and machines in the way. A suspended radiiator is just an additional object and project.

On the other hand, hot air doesn't need any heat exchanger in the building, just an entry vent, so really it makes the most sense where space is restricted. I'm just wondering how much heat loss it will have in severe winters. Ducts are much bigger and harder to insulate than water pipes, and losses will be substantial. A small duct won't do to heat my 200 sq ft space on piers.

Anyway, back to your topic. It's such a beautiful piece of heating equipment and setup, and man. you're baking bread! Absolutely enviable!

[Jonny]

Joules I have never had any condensation using the Calor.

Know you can get the flue pipes and bends cheaper but not by much.
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/search/filter/vitreous-enamelled-flue-pipe/type/any/module/shopcategory/page/1
They dont do or recommend 90 degree bends and I would have needed 4 off plus a top hat. Tube I would have got from stockholders about £20.

4 of these for better flow £208 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-90-Degree-Bend-Vitreous-Enamel-for-Multifuel-Stove-/350153950035?pt=UK_Home_Garden_Other_Fireplaces&hash=item5186cd4353#ht_1096wt_932
Cheapest seen bends is £25 each.

The only place it could have gone is similar to yours but flue straight up to ceiling 90 degree, carry across inside of roof then 90 degrees up through inner wood roof and floor, 90 degrees out through brick wall followed by 90 degree to straighten back up vertically outside clearing the 18" eaves, brackets and top hat.
To cap that I use the ceiling to store longer lengths of materials and chuck empty boxes and light unused machines etc above it to keep noise down.

[vtsteam]

I think what he means is that an unvented gas or kerosene heater increases the moisture content of the air and condensation, not a vented heater.

[SwarfnStuff]

I would love something like that. BUT, then I would have to stand outside me shop cos there would not be enuff room inside.  Kinda defeats the purpose. Oh well, at least I can reach all my tools and stuff an arms length or one step away at most.