Woodland Antics: You can't have too many stoves!

Thursday, 17 December 2009

You can't have too many stoves!

With the weather taking a turn for the worse working in the open fronted cart shed I use has become distinctly chilly, not to say numbing. The thermometer stubbornly refused to rise above zero all day earlier in the week and with a dose of snow promised it's time for operation 'instant stove'.

I've had an old stainless steel nitrokeg beer barrel saved for just this purpose but not got around to making a stove from it. Fixing a stove pipe on needed a bit more scavenging but I found an old ford transit propshaft and cut the ends off to fit into the existing opening in the top of the keg. Then a length of old stainless steel flue liner to take the smoke up and out of the shed. I apologise if this is beginning to sound a bit like scrapheap challenge but needs must...

The barrel just needs an opening cut to turn it into a stove, then light up and enjoy. This is about as basic as it gets and I intend to replace the cut out section on hinges as a door, but refinements will have to wait and at the moment it does the job.

Project 'Instant Stove' was accomplished just in time as the first snow has started falling outside the shed. Another benefit is that the stove is already starting to tidy my greenwood work area as it devours the mess of bits and offcuts lying around.

3 comments:

Premodern Bloke said...: Now THAT is what I call improvising. Good to see that there are chaps still around who know how scrounge and make do with what is at hand to meet an immediate need without pulling out the plastic credit card.

Good example of "More for Less".; 18 December 2009 at 15:39
Richard Law said...: Hey Mark! That looks really complicated, have a look at this super instant mini stove: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2487/4193777634_8191d1f80b_b.jpg I'm fitting a bit of gash flue liner today. I share your idea of drying the wood round the top.; 19 December 2009 at 08:55
Woodland Antics said...: Richard,

Having been an engineer (rocket scientist) in an earlier life I have a terrible tendency to overcomplicate things normally without increasing efficieny at all.

Your photo reminds me of my temporary furnace a couple of posts ago

http://woodlandantics.blogspot.com/2009/12/im-hooked.html

Though I could argue that my stove has fewer parts than yours! In the end you use what you have lying around.

cheers

Mark; 19 December 2009 at 09:25

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My Interests

Most of the posts on this site will fall into a few themes. I'll try to fit the title to the crime. But some posts and interests just won't fit into a box no matter how hard I try.

Polelathe - posts about polelathe turning and related topics.

The polelathe is a traditional foot operated wood turning lathe. You might have seen one in use at a show or a museum, in fact you might have seen me demonstrating one. The turners who used these lathes for making chair-legs were sometimes referred to as Bodgers. I have been a bodger all my life, but its only since 2005 that I have taken up bodging on lathes. I spend as much time turning as I can, and during the summer months it is my main employment, though I mix it with a number of small jobs of a woody nature.

I am fascinated by all traditional crafts and trades, especially those working with wood. For millenia woodlands have provided us with an amazing range of products for everyday use. It is only very recently that we seem to have lost touch with woodlands and their uses.

I only use local wood, very often it is wood that I have cut myself and would normally be an unwanted by-product of managing small, local woodlands or heathlands.

Commons - posts about the Lynchmere commons. The commons were purchased from the Cowdray estate in 1998 by The Lynchmere Society, a local trust, which now manages about 340 acres of mixed heathland, woodland and adjoining fields. The commons are located between Haslemere and Liphook on the Sussex, Hampshire borders. I first got involved with helping the society to manage the commons in 1999 and since then have gained a lot of experience working on the commons as a volunteer. I prefer to work as a woodsman but I also help to manage the commons.

I am very keen to manage the commons in a sustainable way and as a part of this am trying to use the traditional crafts and ways of working that helped to shape this landscape.

Greenwood - Posts on woodland and woody topics not covered in polelathe and commons posts. Greenwood is unseasoned wood, but I shan't be too choosy and will cover all manner of only slightly woody topics here

I have a tendency to be a jack-of-all-trades although I try to focus upon pole-lathe turning, charcoal burning and besom broom making. As a woodsman I help to care for local woodlands in the Western Weald. I often work at or teach tree felling, coppicing and chainsaw skills.

Landrover - I restore, maintain, use and abuse a number of slightly eccentric old landrovers. I will post about working on them and related classic (and not so classic) car work.

Crafty - covering a range of traditional crafts not immediately related to wood and my interest in brewing, baking and preserving.

Woodland Antics

Thursday, 17 December 2009

You can't have too many stoves!

3 comments:

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