How to make a wood-burning potbelly stove yourself. What is a Loginov potbelly stove (stove-generator “SAM”)? Rectangular wood stove

Quite often situations occur when you need to heat a room well in a short time, for example a garage, a small warehouse or a repair shop, to perform certain works in comfortable conditions, without significant financial costs. To solve a similar problem perfect option- a small potbelly stove. How to cook a potbelly stove yourself? It's not difficult, you just need to have metal on hand, a set of tools and be smart.

As consumables To make an ordinary potbelly stove, you can use an old thick-walled barrel or concrete. But at the same time, the thickness of the metal wall of the product should not exceed eight millimeters, otherwise it will be quite difficult to heat it. As a result, low efficiency, loss of thermal energy, and higher fuel consumption.

Most the best option A metal container with a wall thickness of four millimeters is considered. This design will have the highest heat transfer.

A potbelly stove is an oval container, rectangular shape, which has a firebox with a door, an ash pan, and a chimney.

Most suitable material under the potbelly stove in the garage is cast iron, stainless steel. For a cast iron stove, you can use any fuel, but you must remember that it is enough brittle material who is afraid of sudden cooling.

Types of industrial potbelly stoves

pyrolysis;
oven with a hob;
potbelly stove with a casing designed to increase heat transfer.

The main feature of a homemade potbelly stove is the use of any available material: metal boxes, barrels, cans, and other old metal containers.

Furnaces may differ from each other:

consumables: brick, steel, cast iron;
fuel: liquid, solid;
functionality: gas generator, heater, with a hob.

Work tool

To cook a potbelly stove at home, you need to have a certain set of tools on hand:

welding unit, electrode wire, protective suit and mask;
grinding machine (grinder), special wheels for cutting and grinding metal surfaces;
For the manufacture of some elements you may need a gas cutter;
drill with metal drills;
metal brush;
skimmer;
hammer;
pliers;
chisel;
measuring tape, meter, chalk.

Step-by-step instructions for making a potbelly stove

All design details are marked on a metal sheet - these are 6 rectangular walls of the stove itself, one rectangle for the smoke deflector, grate plates, door latches.
Next, the marked sheet must be cut. It is better to do this not yourself, but at a metal warehouse using a guillotine, then you will not have to additionally straighten the parts, as is the case with an angle grinder.
The stove body is rectangular in shape. All sides should be 90 degrees apart.
In order to avoid mistakes when welding the box, do everything correctly, initially the sides are grabbed together, then a control check is made to ensure the horizontal and vertical arrangement of the parts. If everything is fine, the seams are completely welded.

Important! All seams must be sealed, so they must be welded very well. And to check the tightness of connections, you can use kerosene and chalk.

After graduation welding work the seams are cleaned with a metal brush.
Three sections are formed inside the stove: firebox, ash pan, smoke chamber. The ash pan is separated from the firebox by a grate, for placement of which 5x5 cm corners are welded to the side and rear walls inside the potbelly stove at a distance of about 15 cm from the bottom.

To make the grating, thick steel rods are taken, strips 3 cm wide. Steel rods with a diameter of 2 cm are used as stiffeners, to which steel strips (rods) are welded.
Under the hot gas reflectors, two strong rods are welded to the inner walls of the stove from the top 15 cm down. Reflectors are made of a thick sheet of metal; they should not completely cover the oven.
When all internal elements The stoves are welded, you can weld the upper part of the box, after which you need to make a hole for the chimney.
Lastly, the front part of the potbelly stove is welded.
Doors are being installed.

Important! The doors must be fitted as tightly as possible to the stove body, for which they must be perfectly aligned and, if necessary, sanded with emery.

This DIY potbelly stove can be installed to heat both a workshop in a garage and a small country house.

Small country house, a garage or workshop can be heated using a small compact metal furnace, called a potbelly stove. It can be made from an old one steel pipe, a gas cylinder, a barrel and even an old flask, and weld it from sheets of metal. The most important thing is that the metal used to make such a furnace is not too thin.

Potbelly stove made from a gas cylinder, an old flask, a barrel and a stove running on waste fuel

Materials and tools

To create a potbelly stove you will need:
metal with a thickness of 3±0.5 mm: thinner sheets will quickly burn out, in addition, under the influence of high temperature they can warp and the oven will become shapeless; thick-walled metal will take a very long time to warm up;
chimney pipe;
rods 16 mm;
a sheet of metal with a thickness of 0.3 mm for constructing a box for collecting ash;
tape measure, ruler, chalk;
welding machine 140-200A;
grinder for cutting metal; for doing round holes it is more convenient to use a gas cutter;
metal brush for cleaning welding areas;
emery wheel for adjusting doors;
drill and drill bits.

Schemes of potbelly stoves

The main advantage of a rectangular stove, in contrast to oval products made from pipes or gas cylinders, consists in a larger area of the heated surface, so its efficiency will be much greater. Optimal size for potbelly stove 800x450x450 mm. A stove of this size will not take up much space and will easily fit even in a small room.

The simplest design is the “Gnome” stove, which consists of a box with a pipe welded to it

An important difference Loginov ovens is the presence of two plates ( reflectors) in the upper part of the combustion chamber. Because gas path at the same time, the heat transfer of such a potbelly stove increases significantly higher than that of a conventional metal stove.

Advice. If you need to reduce the size of the Loginov oven, then it is advisable to change only its width. If the length and height of the structure changes, its efficiency may decrease significantly.

Detailed diagram of Loginov's potbelly stove

The main stages of making a potbelly stove

1. All the details are marked on a sheet of metal: 6 steel rectangles for the walls of the oven, 1 rectangle for creating a smoke reflector, plates for the grate and latch for the door.
2. Cut out sheet metal can be found at any metal depot. The guillotine, unlike the grinder, allows you to cut (chop) it more accurately. In this case, there is no need to straighten (align the sheets).
3. The furnace body is made in the form of a rectangle. Their sides are joined together at an angle of 90° and welded together.

Welding the box

4. To avoid mistakes, the furnace box is first only tacked by welding in several places, and only then, after checking its horizontal and vertical positions, its seams are welded.

Important! All connections in the body are thoroughly welded; for checking seams To ensure tightness, you can coat the joints with chalk or kerosene.

5. Welding seams are cleaned with a wire brush.
6. The internal space of the potbelly stove is divided into three parts: the firebox, the smoke circulation chamber and the ash pan. To separate the firebox from the ash pan, a grate is laid between them, on which the fuel will be placed. To do this, at a height of 10-15 cm from the bottom of the stove, welded on the sides and on the back of the box corners 5x5 cm, on which the grille will be located.

Advice. It is better to make the grate from 2-3 detachable parts. Otherwise, when replacing a burnt grate, it will be difficult to remove it from the firebox.

7. The grating is welded from thick steel rods or strips 30 mm wide. They are attached to 2 stiffeners - rods with a diameter of 20 mm. Since the grates burn out over time, it is better to make such a grate removable.

Manufacturing of grate

8. At a distance of 15 cm from the top of the box, two strong rods are welded on which the one or two removable reflectors– thick-walled sheets of metal that will delay the flow of hot gases and send them for afterburning. However, they should not completely block the oven. To allow hot smoke to enter the chimney, an indent of about 8 cm is made from the front (for the first sheet) and back of the stove.

Diagram of the passage of gases in a simple potbelly stove and oven with an installed reflector

Pipe hole

10. The front part of the stove with holes cut in it for the firebox doors and ash pan is welded last.
11. The size of the firebox door must be sufficient to allow fuel to be added and grates to be changed without effort. The hole for the ash pan is made a little smaller.
12. The hinges are welded first to the door, and then to the body of the potbelly stove. They can be bought ready-made or welded from two tubes different diameters. Door handles can be made from a strip of metal or rod.

Welding the door

Important! When attaching the doors, you should fit them to the body as tight as possible; To do this, they are straightened (leveled) and cleaned with an emery wheel. The wedge latches that close the doors are fitted to the body as tightly as possible.

13. You can cook food or heat water on such a stove. To do this, a hole of the required diameter is cut in the upper part of the box. Stove burner, which will be inserted into this hole, can be purchased at any hardware store.
14. Design for ease of use installed on legs or a welded pipe stand.
15. The chimney pipe is connected to the stove using a sleeve.
16. For inserting a gate valve To regulate the smoke output, two holes are drilled in the pipe. A metal rod is inserted into the holes and bent at 90°. A metal “penny” is attached to it in the center of the pipe - a gate, the diameter of which should be slightly less than the diameter of the pipe itself by 3-4 mm.

Gate valve for adjusting smoke output

Chimney device

To prevent precious heat from escaping through the pipe too quickly, it must have a special design. Such a device has two main parts: vertical height from 1.2 m, installed at an angle of 90° above the stove and an inclined part called hog, 2.5-4.5 m or more long, in which the smoke burns out. It is the hog that provides up to 1/4 of the heat of the entire oven.

Chimney Hogs

A tall person can touch a heated pipe, so the hog must have protective cover in the form of a grid. To avoid burns, the distance from the floor to this pipe should be 2.2 m. The vertical part of the pipe coming from the stove is additionally wrapped with thermal insulation.

Important! The pipe should be located away from the plastered walls at a distance of 1.2 m. Distance from wooden structures– 1.5 m.

Advice. Laying a pipe through a wooden ceiling and the roof - the process is quite labor-intensive. It is much easier to bring it out through a hole in the wall or window.

Exhausting smoke through the window

Rules for safe installation of a metal stove

A potbelly stove heats up much hotter than a brick stove, so all flammable objects should be kept at a sufficient distance from the stove. If the floor in the room is wooden, it is installed only on bricks or metal sheets. The metal, in turn, is laid on an asbestos sheet with its removal 35 cm or more from the edges of the stove. In the front part in front of the firebox it should protrude by 5.5 cm. Asbestos can be replaced with felt impregnated with clay. You can also install such a screen to reflect heat on concrete.

Important! A working oven requires supervision. You should not leave the room where the potbelly stove is heated for a long time.

Installing a potbelly stove on a brick base

We increase the efficiency of the furnace

A potbelly stove can heat a room in literally a matter of minutes. Moreover, you can throw whatever comes to hand into the firebox: since it does not have an extensive network of chimneys, and the smoke in it comes out “directly,” you don’t have to worry about them getting clogged.

But if a conventional heating stove installed in premises for permanent residence, has an extensive network of chimneys that retain heat; in a potbelly stove it goes directly into the pipe, so its efficiency is not too high. That is why it is too “gluttonous” and requires a lot of fuel.

To reduce fuel consumption, you can use the following tips from experienced stove makers:
door to the firebox and vent in such an oven must be as airtight as possible; otherwise, the air supply to the potbelly stove will increase, and the fuel will burn out too quickly;
to regulate the output of warm smoke in the chimney It is advisable to provide a damper;
next to the stove it is possible to provide lateral metal screens at a distance of 5-6 cm from the stove, in which case it will heat the room not only through heat radiation, but also through convection (circulation warm air);
a potbelly stove, “clad” in a metal casing, will help retain heat much longer;

Potbelly stove in casing

Round furnace with afterburner and casing with heat gun

To retain heat in the room, bends should be built up in the pipe; however, soot will be retained in them, so it is advisable to create a collapsible structure;
the pipe can also be given a stepped shape: arrange the elbows in stages, making a 30° turn with each step; in this case, each of the elbows must be securely attached to the wall with rods;

Stove with chimney elbows

throughput chimney should be less than the productivity of the furnace itself, in which case hot gases will not go into the pipe immediately; its diameter should be only 2.7 times larger than the volume of the firebox, for example, with a firebox volume of 40 l, the diameter should be 110 mm;
you can increase the efficiency of the furnace using blowing the chimney with a fan– this will turn the stove into a kind of smoke cannon;
to reduce air circulation firewood in the stove should fit as tightly as possible; if it is heated with coal, the resulting ash should be stirred up as little as possible;
To regulate the air flow, the door to the ash pit can be made adjustable by equipping it with vertically located slots and valve, which will cover these gaps;
to increase the heating area, it can be finned, that is, welded to its body perpendicular to the stove metal strips;
if you put steam on the stove buckets or metal box with sand, then they will accumulate heat and store it even after the stove goes out; sand backfill or heat accumulator made of stones can also be sewn inside the metal body of the stove;

Scheme of a potbelly stove with sand backfill, the stove is made of a pipe with a diameter of 500 mm, its length is 650 mm

Bake, lined with 1-2 layers of brick, will retain heat much longer;

Brick screen

The volume of the oven also matters: the larger area of its walls, those more heat they will give to the premises;
bricks or a metal sheet , on which the stove is installed, will help not only protect the room from fire, but also retain heat.

A potbelly stove made from a horizontal pipe is one of the simplest but most productive designs of homemade stoves that burn solid fuel. The simplicity of the design and low cost allow even novice home craftsmen to make such a stove.

Collapse

First, beginners need to understand how the stove works and what parts it consists of.

Principle of operation

The operating principle of such a furnace is simple:

firewood is placed in the firebox;
for kindling, thin wood chips are placed closer to the door;
the door in the ash pan and the slide valve must be open;
the wood is set on fire and the door must be closed;
the flame heats all surfaces of the oven. The metal, giving off heat, gradually warms the room;
For the second filling, you can use coal or waste from a carpentry shop.

Stages of work

Before starting work, it is necessary to determine the size of the furnace and prepare necessary materials, tools and welding equipment.

Drawing and diagram

Drawing of a potbelly stove made from a horizontal pipe

Another version of the drawing

The most simple stove from the pipe runs on solid fuel and consists of several main parts:

body - it is made in different shapes, depending on the materials used for its production. It can be rectangular when used sheet metal or cylindrical, in this case the body is made of gas cylinders or large diameter pipes;
grate. It serves to protect the bottom from burning and remove ash to a special compartment;
ash pan - in this part it is collected wood ash, this cavity serves as a blower to improve draft when burning wood;
combustion chamber. Firewood or coal is placed here;
To remove carbon monoxide, stoves are equipped with a chimney pipe outlet. In some cases, it is discharged vertically from the top of the furnace or with an outlet extending from the rear plane. But in any case, the chimney outlet is located at the top of the structure;
A reflective screen is installed above the door. It is placed along the entire plane of the furnace, leaving an air passage in the rear cavity. In this case, the heat does not immediately go out into the chimney, but passes through the stove, heats the walls and only then enters the pipe;
combustion chamber doors. Here they use ready-made cast iron or steel doors or homemade ones from a piece of thick metal;
the most efficient potbelly stove equipped with additional convection pipes, drawings such homemade stove can be found on forums on the Internet or check out the industrial furnaces of Professor Butakov or the Bullerian model.

A potbelly stove made of a pipe with an internal diameter of 500 mm is made according to the drawing, taking into account the main dimensions of the structure:

We will take the dimensions of the remaining parts and their installation locations from the drawing.

Let's look at the process of making a homemade stove.

What kind of pipe is needed?

Any pipe can be used. The most important thing is that it has not been previously used on gas supply pipelines and for sewerage. Such stoves, together with heat, will distribute throughout the room unpleasant odors for a long time. In terms of size - it all depends on the needs and capabilities of the master.

To heat a small garage, it will be enough to make a stove with a diameter of 400-500 mm. For a large room, you can make a potbelly stove with a larger diameter or install several small ones. The main thing before work is to clean the walls from limescale, dirt or oil and only then start working.

Materials and their quantity

To produce a potbelly stove we will need to prepare:

steel pipe with a cross-section of 550 mm, with a wall thickness of 10 mm - length 650 mm;
for the top of the stove from 4-5 mm steel, we cut out a blank 700/420 mm and bend it along the length of the shelf, marking 40 mm from the edge of each side;
front and rear walls of the potbelly stove - 2 parts, size 560/560 mm;
for the reflective screen, we cut out a blank from a sheet measuring 500/420 mm;
for the grate you will need to prepare reinforcement with a cross-section of 10 mm - 2 pieces of 600 mm each and 32 pieces of 380 mm each;
for the chimney outlet we prepare a piece of pipe with a cross-section of 100 mm and a length of 260 mm;
At the top there is a burner for cooking. You can use ready-made cast iron or make it from a steel sheet 12-14 mm thick, cutting out a circle with a diameter of 220 mm with a plasma cutter and grinding the workpiece using sandpaper or a grinder;
from a 40 mm profile we prepare 4 legs 400 mm long;
we buy ready-made hinges or you can make them yourself from a profile and a rod;
for the door we cut out a blank 340/340 mm from the sheet;
6 pieces of corner for laying the grate.

This is a list of basic materials, small parts We will make it as we go.

Tools and equipment

We will need:

a set of locksmith tools;
welding machine with clothing and eye and hand protection"
grinder with cleaning and a supply of cutting discs;
workbench with a vice;
sand for filling the bottom of the oven.

Step-by-step manufacturing instructions

Having prepared the entire set of tools and materials for work, we begin the process of making a potbelly stove from a pipe with our own hands:

Place the finished piece of pipe on a flat surface, place the protective screen at a distance of 5 mm from the front side and attach it to the pipe. Here it is important to have experience in performing ceiling tacks, although there is practically no load on the screen. We place tacks every 60-80 mm.
At the bottom of the stove we retreat 50 mm, mark longitudinal lines along the entire length of the pipe and grab the corners for laying the grate. To make it, we place long parts from reinforcement, insert the jumpers along the edges and grab them. Now, retreating 10 mm from the jumper, we join the next jumper. Thus, we assemble a grid of reinforcement measuring 600/400 mm. After this, turning the grate over, we place oven mitts on the reverse side.
We put the grate in place and join the sheets of metal on the front and back sides. Distortion and large gaps between the sheet and the pipe must not be allowed. If the pipe is cut crookedly, you will have to straighten the workpiece by grinding the walls with a grinder. Having checked the correctness of assembly, we proceed to welding the joints. The seam must be airtight, so after welding, beat off the slag and boil the burnt areas, holes and lack of penetration.
There is another option for installing a grate that is more practical. A rectangle with small indentations along the edges is cut out at the bottom of the pipe, a blank from profile pipe(for collecting ash). A grate is placed on top. This is what it looks like:
We grind the protruding corners and the joints of the parts with a grinding stone. Then we turn the workpiece face up and mark an opening for laying firewood. We put a cutting disc on the grinder and cut out a groove according to the markings.
We remove the burrs with a file, lay out the door with a welded handle and latch and install it on the finished hinges. On the sheet we place and grab the counter part of the lock, and on the door we place a homemade lock - a latch.
We turn over and place the potbelly stove bottom up, mark and weld the legs from the profile pipe, having previously cut the corners for better joining to the body. At the bottom, we cut the legs at a slight angle and weld nickels from the sheet for better stability of the potbelly stove.
We install the stove on its legs and place a blank with holes for the chimney pipe and burner on top of the stove. Having placed it with the curved edges down and checking the correct installation, we grab the plate.
Using electric welding, we burn holes in the pipe and install a pipe with a diameter of 120 mm for the hood and pancake for pans.
The parts are scalded in a circle, the joints must be airtight. At the end of the ventilation pipe we weld a damper to regulate draft.
Having opened the door and installed the grate in place, we fill the bottom of the oven with a layer of sand.

The stove - potbelly stove made from a pipe is ready.

Look at a few more manufacturing options to reinforce your understanding:

Features of operation

When test-running a potbelly stove, it is better to open all doors and windows. We make sure there is traction and an open damper. Then, placing firewood through the door, we light the flame. We close the door and go outside. The potbelly stove will smoke a fair amount, but you should not be afraid of this, it will burn out oil and other debris.

Combustion process

After using the oven for the first time, it may be necessary to repair welding defects. And then enjoy the warmth in the garage or other room. The main thing is to remember the rules fire safety, periodically clean the chimney and remove ash, periodically replacing the sand in the potbelly stove.

Conclusion

Even a novice craftsman can easily make such a design on his own. The main thing is to want to make a reliable potbelly stove and carry out all work carefully and responsibly, taking into account step by step instructions given in the article.

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Sometimes situations arise when it is necessary to heat a small space (garage, workshop or warehouse) as efficiently and quickly as possible without significant material costs. Great solution The problem will be a compact potbelly stove made by yourself, the creation of which requires ingenuity, desire, tools and metal.

A simple potbelly stove can be built from materials that are at hand. You can use a regular can or a thick-walled barrel. Many years of practice have shown that very thick metal (over 8 mm) is too difficult to heat. Thus, the efficiency decreases and most of the heat is not used for heating.

If the metal is too thin, under the influence high temperatures it will begin to deform and quickly lose its original shape. The best option is walls of about 3-4 mm.

Introductory video on the operation of the furnace

Rectangular stove with reflector

When deciding what shape and size a finished potbelly stove should take, everyone must do it on their own. A person with an engineering education and skills can take on any, even the most simple design, and make the desired changes to improve it.

Drawing of a rectangular potbelly stove:

A simple and multifunctional do-it-yourself potbelly stove is made from the following materials:

Sketches and simple drawing of the structure indicating all the main dimensions
Sheet metal (its quantity depends on the desired dimensions of the furnace)
Steel corners (thickness 4-5 mm)
Metal tube 25-30 mm
Pipe 180 mm
Welding machine
Working hand and electric tools

The furnace body will be made in the form of a rectangle steel sheets, which are butt welded together. It is necessary to cut the workpieces into five main planes (bottom, top, side and back walls). On the front panel there will be a blower and a door for the furnace, so the issue can be resolved with it later.

First they are welded side surfaces to the bottom. It is necessary to ensure that they are positioned strictly vertically, using a level or square, and are joined at right angles. Having grabbed it in 2-3 places, we once again make sure that their location is correct and finish cooking.

Afterwards it is welded back wall. All inner space must be divided into three parts:

Smoke circulation
Firebox
Ash pan

The last two must be separated by a grate on which the solid fuel(peat, firewood). It is done as follows:

From the inside on the sides at a certain height (10-15 cm), corners are welded over the entire length
For the grate, it is necessary to prepare strips of thick sheet steel with a width of 25-30 mm and a length corresponding to the width of the potbelly stove

The distance between the plates is about 5 cm
The strips are welded to two metal rods with a diameter of 15-20 mm as reliably as possible, since they have to perform another role - stiffeners

There is no need to weld the grille to inner corners. If necessary (cleaning the potbelly stove, repairs), it can be easily obtained. After some time, some plates may burn out and will need to be replaced. There are many more reasons to leave the grille removable.

The next step is to weld two metal rods on top on which the reflector will be located. The latter is a metal sheet that separates the smoke circulation and the firebox. The reflector is made removable.

It is necessary to position the reflector so that a channel is formed in front, allowing smoke to escape. It will heat up inside the most, so it is made of very thick metal (12-16 mm).

The time has come to begin the final stages of work. First, the potbelly stove is welded. It would be a good idea to provide a hole for the chimney pipe in advance. Then the upper jumper is cut out and welded, then a narrower one, placed at the level of the grate and separating the doors of the grate and the ash pan.

There is no need to worry too much about the size of the doors. The main thing is that it is convenient to lay firewood through them and remove ashes and ash. The door for the firebox is made, as a rule, almost the entire width so that the reflector and grate can be removed; for the ash pan it is narrower.

Having put everything together, it’s time to think about installing the finished structure on the legs. It is recommended to make them from a metal tube 2-3 cm in diameter and 8-10 cm in length with a nut welded at the end and a bolt screwed in. This will allow you to adjust the height. This step may seem strange to many, but during the installation process everything will become clear.

The time has come to think about a chimney, which will be made of a pipe with a diameter of 15-18 cm. In this case, it should be led out through a hole in the wall. Bends are made at an angle of 45 degrees; there should be no horizontal sections.

A rotating damper must be provided at the lower end of the chimney. For it, a circle is cut out of sheet metal, with a diameter slightly smaller similar characteristics pipe in which a hole is drilled for a handle for rotation. The latter can be made from a metal rod.

The chimney pipe must be placed on a sleeve 15-20 cm high. It is made from a product with a diameter slightly smaller than the chimney pipe and is welded along the hole to the top cover. It's time to install the stove, adjust the height and that's it - you can heat the room.

A simple potbelly stove made from a can

The simplest potbelly stove is made with your own hands from an ordinary can. There is no need to talk about the durability of such a structure, but it is quickly built, easy to install and provides enough heat.

All the work consists of installing the legs, arranging the outlet pipe and some cosmetic operations. To work you need:

Can
Flue pipe
Wire for grate
Welding machine
Tools

Let's get started

We install the can horizontally and mark where the blower will be, shaped like a rectangle or sickle. Place it under the lid
A hole is cut in the wall or bottom of the can, equal to the diameter of the chimney pipe
To make a grate, you need to stock up on steel wire. It is bent, carried inside through the lid and carefully unbent so that the zigzag is positioned in the desired position, while it remains convenient to lay wood chips, firewood, etc.
The can must be secured to legs, which are cut from tubes or corners and welded
The chimney is welded

On outside tank, you can attach a reflector, thanks to which less generated heat will evaporate. Having welded the handles on the sides, the structure can be moved to any other place.

Pros and cons of homemade potbelly stoves

Among the many advantages of such a nondescript, but useful installation highlight:

Full autonomy and energy independence
Working with any solid fuel, including plant residues, allows you to save a lot of money
The versatility of the design, which can not only be installed in various rooms, but also used for cooking
A simple design that you can build yourself from materials available in the garage
No need for construction monolithic foundation and installation of a permanent chimney pipe

But despite the significant and numerous advantages, a number of disadvantages of potbelly stoves can be identified:

The high thermal conductivity of the metal leads to rapid fuel burnout and cooling of the furnace
If the wall thickness is insufficient, they will soon begin to burn out and the oven will fail.
You need to watch the combustion process and add firewood in time, control the draft
Resinous and damp logs cause difficult to remove soot in the chimney pipe

Video - another option for making a stove

In custody

A homemade potbelly stove is a reliable and effective assistant in a cold workroom or your own garage. Its production is not difficult, and to start work there is no need for large material investments.

The construction of a potbelly stove is quite simple. When flammable material is set on fire in a confined space with air flow and smoke exhaust, the walls heat up and heat the room. The simplest oven should have three elements:

combustion chamber;
a door with air channels for fresh air;

At the same time, for maximum efficient work stoves, you need to pay attention to many points:

ratio of the dimensions of the structure;
the ability to regulate air flow;
correct chimney layout;
complete burnout of fuel, etc.

How to make a potbelly stove with your own hands, so as to take into account all the necessary points for its most efficient operation? This requires accurate thermal engineering calculations. You no longer need to carry it out, since the drawings include all the exact dimensions.

Main technical requirements

A potbelly stove is the name of a stove, implying precise thermal engineering calculations. The dimensions directly depend on the size of the combustion chamber. If the pipe is too wide and allows all the accumulating gases to pass through, then, in addition to smoke, there will be go away and warm, as well as a large volume of completely unburned materials, as a result of which the oven will not warm up.

The width of the pipe should be such as to create resistance. According to calculations, the number indicating the diameter of the chimney in millimeters should exceed 2.7 times a number indicating the volume of the combustion chamber in liters. For example, if the chamber volume is 25 liters, then the diameter of the chimney should be 65 millimeters.

How does fuel burn in a potbelly stove?

Despite the grates through which the ash falls to the bottom of the firebox when it has almost cooled down, heat is still transferred to the lower part of the tank. Because of this, potbelly stoves are usually placed on legs sufficient height according to drawings, and under the stove they lay, most often, asbestos, on top of which a sheet of metal is laid, which is 35 centimeters larger than the size of the stove around the perimeter, as in the video. The potbelly stove should be located at a distance no less than 1.2 meters from the walls of the room.

Read also: How in wooden house install a potbelly stove

The most dangerous part of the oven considered a chimney. The hottest gases are concentrated in it, which can continue to burn, which is why the chimney is constantly hot; when assembling it, you need to check the drawings more often.

Additional modifications

Currently, potbelly stoves can operate on any type of fuel, be it solid, liquid or even gaseous. Depending on the type of fuel, grate bars are added to the design of the potbelly stove. gratings, blowers, etc.. After watching the video, you can familiarize yourself with many of them, and then find the drawings of any that interest you. The stove is capable of burning even coal. By adding guides inside the firebox, the potbelly stove can even be used as a stove for cooking.

If the grate bars are made removable according to the drawings, then the stove can have two combustion modes. You can assemble a universal blower with a removable pipe, and, in this case, it will be possible to use it in one potbelly stove three different types fuel depending on the position of the blower and additional details from different drawings.

Using potbelly stoves

Taking into account heating engineering and fire safety, nothing limits the master in creating a potbelly stove of any kind and any shape. Many Canadian, Finnish and Swedish industrial manufacturers have wondered how to make potbelly stove attractive, and as a result, similar stoves are produced in an amazing design - with this design they can be placed in country houses How item interior instead of a fireplace.

By the way, the fireplace assembly is more complex and requires many costs, as well as approval of the installation project drawing. When placing a potbelly stove, no approvals are required, since such stoves are not considered a stationary element. As you can see from the video, there are many craftsmen and workshops using such stoves, and each homemade potbelly stove has its own scheme.

Read also: Review of potbelly stoves, tips for choosing them

Types of efficient stoves

For It is possible to increase the efficiency of a potbelly stove. It lasts longer and releases heat better compared to metal. The use of water can only be limited by your imagination - you can simply put on top of the stove a tank of water (and use it for domestic purposes), weld channels or pockets for water to the sides of the structure, completely wrap the stove and chimney around the perimeter with a metal tube and run water through it, as in the video. The same tubes can also be passed along the perimeter of the room. Drawings are also already available for most options.

Cast iron stoves

Such stoves retain heat for a very long time and are able to work not only with wood, but also with anything that burns. Most often, thick-walled potbelly stoves used by the military on campaigns. The design is considered the most reliable, it never burns out, thanks to its “omnivorousness”, very economical and indispensable for good heating premises. But it is not suitable as a stove for boiling water, and it is unlikely to be possible to make one at home.

The most long burning

Engineer Bystrov created a long-burning design. These potbelly stoves have a top loading and do not have a grate. These stoves are often used in smokehouses, for drying walls and drying workers' clothes. Burning of sawdust until complete burnout in a stove assembled according to this scheme can last 19 hours. Also, a sufficiently long combustion can be obtained by using wood as fuel.

The main difference between wood-burning stoves is that they can operate in two modes, which can be seen in the video. If the room needs to be heated quickly, the ash pan should be pulled out a few centimeters, opening the gate completely. The second mode is used to save the temperature in a house or country house in one place at long burning fuel. In this mode, the wood will burn much more slowly, use very little oxygen and produce more heat than with a conventional stove fire.