Grow Your Own Magazine

Well after a lot of thought (about 3 1/2 minutes actually!) I decided not to heat my top greenhouse but heat my main greenhouse by means of a wood burning stove fashioned out of a Propane bottle!

I designed it with two doors, one for loading and one for cleaning. The flue is the tapered hexagonal top of a floodlight tower (just had it lying around!)

Fired it up the other day as a trial run outdoors and to burn the paint off! Packed it full of paper and timber and lit blue touch paper and retired to a safe distance!!! Whoosh!! Brilliant, burns like a goodun!

Stuck it in my greenhouse but once I fired it up the glass on the windows got hot enough to fry an egg. Stuck a few breeze blocks round it as deflectors and to act as a heat sink for overnight storage heating!
Doesn't look much but works like a dream.! If I get lazy and can't be bothered to chop wood I just leave the top door open and leave the wood sticking out.
Was in greenhouse today in the pee-ing rain potting on plants with the stove on and it was so comfortable I didn't want to go home! Everyone at lotties wants one now and I'm thinking of charging an entrance fee on my greenhouse! They can make there own though as if I ever make another improved version it will be for my other greenhouse!
Now I know it's a success I may take it out again and make a better job of the surrounding blockwork!
Anyway here's a couple of piccies, it may not be pretty but it's mine all mine!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

I'm impressed snadger & we all thought you were mad. Just remember they thought Crippin was mad ...... oh, he was so maybe .........

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

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You're such a smooth talker Nic................

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

A quality looking contraption Snadger.

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Kindest regards, David.

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updated lots - Sunday 28th at 1640hrs

Just brilliant Snadger. When can you do mine ?

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From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

That looks absolutely fantastic Snadger! Well done!

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[

Thats cool Snadger. It may not look pretty, but its beauty is in how well it works.
Nice one.

Can I place an order please.............

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No mater when time you set out, you always get there at the same time

Snadger are you going to go on 'Dragon's Den' with the idea & see if you can get any money out of them to market your idea? Not sure if 'health & safety' would pass it but it certainly looks cosy!

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Into every life a little rain must fall.

Great stove snadger, bet you're all snug and toastie now.Its very similar to what they use in Turkey in the winter to heat the polytunnels for the tomato season, they have pipes running the length of the ceiling to carry heat. The air smells of smoke constantly in the winter.

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Bex

That looks fantastic Snadger! I am always amazed by people who make the most fantastic stuff out of bits of this and that, i always stumble at the first hurdle - i'd be a rubbish inventor!

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There's vegetable growing in the family, but I must be adopted
Happy Gardening!

Fantastic!!!!
I think you should enter that in a competition!!!

How about in the Vine comp under a section called something like 'Wot I have made'. (Lotties /veg plot biased) Some of the male OH's might join in too!!?
Could include benches and chairs for the woodwork section , and bird scarers/DIY stoves(!) in a metalwork section....ooh...and a fencing competition too ( wobbly-or straight)??LJ??
You'd probably be an outright winner with that stove Snadge

Hello Snadger and congratulation!!!!
the secret of happiness is sharing...so would you so kindly share your knowledge and give us more information how you created the stove ( it is lovely ) expecially what did you use for cutting the metal, measuremts etc. Tonight I will be scouring my local garages for some...........
Don Vincenzo

Before anyone goes at a gas cylinder with a saw or a grinder make sure it has been degassed - please .Being from Northern Ireland Ive seen firsthand how far they can fly.
BTW Snadger good one . Nice job

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Et tū, quis es?

SNADGER
How about a 47 kilo version you could then load it with fence posts.

great can you do ours

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Some things in their natural state have the most VIVID colors
Dobby

so have you measured the temps? does the temp stay constant?

Looks good, i think im going to try it next season!

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The first thing I learned when I served an engimeering apprenticeship many moons ago was "The secret of being a good engineer is being a good guesser"
The second thing I learned was how to turn a wheel barrow into a bed!............ but we'll not go into that!
I didn't use a measure, because I couldn't be bothered to look for one in the workshop!
I would guess the top door is roughly 8" X 6" in old money or 200mm X 150mm
The bottom door is roughly 8" X 3" for raking out ash
.
DISCLAIMER:_I will let you know how I made mine but will take no blame for any accidents to others. I am a competent metal worker and the work should only be carried out if you feel reasonably competent yourself observing all H&S rules as appropriate...you have been warned!!!!

Now for the method:-

1) Open vent fully to allow any gas to escape...leave open overnight!
2) Knock reinforcement cage off top with large hammer
3) Undo brass valve or if it wont screw off (as mine wouldn't) resort to brute force and knock it off with large hammer
4) You should be left with a small hole about 4mm dia in centre of brass valve. Fill gas bottle with water through this hole. Use a hose and sit on a chair with hose dribbling in hole (can take about half an hour to fill)
5) With the gas bottle full of water and the door positions marked with a felt tipped marker you can start cutting with a 4 1/2" disk cutter in an angle grinder. I used about two cutting disks on the project (wear gloves , goggles etc)
6) Once the doors are cut out you basically just hack out the top area for the flue. To do it right and make it neat you should really drill holes around the marked area and use a cold chisel to join the dots but I just attacked it with the angle grinder!
7) Your flue can be anything you can scrounge about 4" to 5" diameter. Get your flue first then weld a collar for the flue to sit into, onto the top of the gas bottle. Make the collar nice and deep so that the flue doesn't need any fixing
8) The door hinges are a piece of 1/2" bar with thee pieces of pipe that fit over bar. Weld both ends of bar to pipe, weld top and bottom section to gas bottle and middle section to door giving you a large hinge
9) You dont need any air vents as you can leave doors ajar to give more air. You need to fabricate a catch for each door (similar to a gate latch)
10) Even with both doors shut there will be gaps the width of the cutting blade to allow air to fire. I made my flue approximately 8'0" long and this seems to work well giving a good draw. An improvement I will make on my next model is to move the flue to the back and put a hot plate where my flue is now to boil my kettle! I was going to put a grate in using 1/2" reinforcing bar but have found it doesn't need it and the added depth means I can stick large logs in top without shutting door. I've had it running all week and never needed to clean it out yet as most of the ash must go up the flue! The only thing in the bottom are old nails as (some of the wood had nails in it). I will get those out and recycle them!
To light I just bung a load of paper in through the top door, bit of chipboard or whatever I can scrounge on top, shut top door, open botom door, light paper, shut bottom door and whoosh, she's away!

If you didnt have access to welding gear I suppose you could use strap hinges to bolt doors on and you would need to fabricate lugs to fasten flue onto top
Angle grinders can be bought for under a tenner and the cutting disks were £2.99 for 10 at Aldi.

This has got to be the longest reply I have ever given so I hope it's of some use to someone!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Dammed hot is all I can say!! A lot of heat comes from the flue pipe as well.

These things can glow red if you use coal or coke and when its going full blast even with timber you can't stand closer than 3'0" away!

I made the mistake of putting a pasty on it to warm up and within 5 mins it was cremated to a lump of charcoal!

I have started to use damp timber to slow it down and if packed full it will burn all day! With a damper in flue I would think 24hrs would eventually be possible!
The greenhouse I have it in is roughly 10' X 14' and it heats that no bother. With large bubble insulation and a better breezeblock heat sink around it I could probably keep the greenhouse to a range of 55 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit! I suppose temperature controled vents would be beneficial as well!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Hello Snadger and many thanks for your reply. I will have a go at it as soon I get a gas cylinder. If you hear of an explosion in the south east....don't worry it would be me!!!
regards
don Vincenzo

Bit precise there Snadger, how about 2'11&1/2" away?

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Or 2'11& 63/64ths if you've got asbestos