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workshop heating
shipto:
todays progress:
cut the rest of the plates and started to weld them together then ran out of gas for the mig welder :doh:.
I dug out my old hobby arc welder and did a few practice welds but decided I wasnt confident enough in the rather rubbish unit, The (probably) damp rods and the fact I havent touched a arc welder for donkeys years, to carry on. so I will wait until I get some more gas friday probably.
Being the impatient person I am I tried a test burn with some kindling and have to say I was pleased with the heat that even this small fire put into the exchanger.
edit: sorry for the big pic have replaced it with smaller one.
RossJarvis:
It might be too late, or just stoopid, but could you put fins on the pipes or maybe get perforated mesh in there, contacting the pipes to increase the surface area further? A bit like an old Scammell radiator.
shipto:
not stupid at all but yes its a bit late for fins now and I dont have any perforated plate. I am following the advice of vtsteam and putting a access panel on front so might be able to add more metal to soak heat if needed later.
vtsteam:
You don't want to restrict the exhaust too much, and clean-out becomes a problem with small stuff. A few nice big baffles with big spaces to let the smoke travel are helpful, and can be more easily cleaned.
In something this small, fins won't work well if too thin. The heat may be picked up on the broad surfaces, but then must travel through a thin cross section to reach the pipes. The thinner the cross section, the slower it travels. Mesh or thin sheet metal would provide little assistance to heat transfer to the pipes unless there was a very large number of them -- as on a baseboard radiator pipe or car radiator. A few won't do much. And they are hard to fabricate and very difficult to clean where used with a wood fire which produces tars and ash in the smoke. They soon build up an insulating layer and become ineffective.
shipto:
So got more gas and cut the access panel out of the front and welded it to the exchanger along with the ends and the air pipes.
I will get the access panel sorted tomorrow and if the rain holds off I can sort out where it is going to sit.
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