Gas bottle stove.

[Streepips]

Anyone here attempted to make one of these?
I intend to use a 47kg bottle as the body and add bits as needed, lots of examples on ebay and various forums but not many that look either efficient or even attractive!
So bearing in mind that woodworkers are essentially a practical lot, with varying degrees of design skills, ingenuity and gumption this seems as good a place as any to ask !
I am sure Mr Garnham would agree that it is a far better use for a gas bottle than heating a shop with gas !

Chris

 

[John. B]

Chris, What is,
'One of these'
No links appears to have, 'not appeared' :? :? :? :?

 

[Tom K]

Chris, I know Tusses did one HTH

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/view ... ttle+stove

 

[Streepips]

John,
"one of these" is just as described. No links or images, a stove made from an old gas bottle !

 

[Streepips]

Thanks Tommo,

I will have a look.

 

[chippy1970]

I saw a bloke making them and selling them for lots of money a few years ago on the telly.

 

[Streepips]

Yes, those on the TV were called Hotpods, made with gas bottles and scrap VW parts, very nice little units. sold for well over a grand each........
But, about the same size as Tusses and probably similar outputs of around 4 to 6 KW tops which means a nominal output ( average operating output) of around 2 0r 3 KW.
If you cannot envisage KW as heat output the consider that 40,000BTU is about 11.5 KW.

The space I have to heat is around 7,200 cubic feet so models of this size would be too small to make any difference unless you were right next to them.
The bottle I intend to use is the larger 47 kilo one so hopefully this will give a greater output but even then only one section ( an enclosed area under a mezzanine floor area about 1200 foot cubed) will be warmed, the rest of the workshop will just be aired with the chill off.
Thats fine because I want most of the heat where I sit at the desk or just stand, pillar drill, wetstone sharpener, grindstone etc, I will not need as much heat out where the tablesaw, PT, morticer etc are.

I will use coal as well as offcuts and shaving so it will have a proper firegrate whereas wood burners work best with a solid bed of sand or even ash.
I have sussed out how 'airwash' works so the glass door I put in will keep clean and I have a way to rig up ;cleanburn with a secondary heated air input that ensures minimum smoke and tar and ramps up the heat from any given amount of material. Cleanburn simply second combusts the very high temp flue gas with the extra prehested oxygen feed above the normal combustion area

For this to work the stove must be airtight so that intakes, valves dampers etc are the only access for air in and exhaust out, if there are gaps, say around the door then the combustion is not controllable and thats when you only get 30 minute burns , high fuel consumption and no overnight burning.
I have looked at lots of stoves and most have little burn control or decent output until you spend £500 or more, and the second hand ones are fetching silly money, hence the attraction of building one.

So I just wondered if anyone has built one with any of these features included, so I might get some tips.

 

[MikeG.]

I am sure Mr Garnham would agree that it is a far better use for a gas bottle than heating a shop with gas !
Chris

I agree with that....however, I wouldn't want to be associated with any plan that involved taking an angle grinder to a bottle containing a mixture of air and petro-chemicals!!!

Are you really really sure you know what you're doing here? It seems to me to be in the same category as welding a fuel tank.

Mike

Incidentally, your post appears to have been reported to the moderators.......why would that be?

 

[Streepips]

Hello Mike,

Your concerns regarding the hazardous nature of at least the initial stages of the venture are fully understandable and yes, safety is paramount,
This has of course been done successfully by numerous people before, each of whom used their own variation of venting and purging the bottle.
The basic method favoured is:
Use up what gas you can with a burner/heater.
Take bottle outside on preferably a breezy day, turn upside down and open the valve handwheel. The propane is heavier than air so will find its way out and be dispersed, This will of course leave a 'residue' of gas, so the bottle is once more set upright, the brass valve assemby is the removed. Being brass of course it is spark safe, The bottle is then filled with water, drained, refilled and left a few days, then drained again.
There is by this stage nothing left to ignite in the bottle.
There are some that merely use up all the gas with an appliance, then uncouple the regulator and light the remaining non pressurised gas which gives a flamethrower effect of short duration but ensures that all the flammables are gone. I will not be using this method although I have done before. It is startling, but non explosive as the expanding lit gas has an outlet via the valve housing.
There may be other less successful methods, but because of their unsuccessful nature they have obviously no author remaining to advise against them. This is were the learning curve has literally become vertical.

I will be using the first method described above, which is acknowledged to be erring grossly on the side of caution.

As a matter of interest, I have in fact welded petrol tanks where there is no readily available replacement, such as Chevrolet Camaro and other imported cars. If done correctly there is no hazard. The method for this is however somewhat different than that for the propane tank and the two should be regarded as very different operations although the hazard is essentially the same. Explosive gas in a steel container.

So assuming that this venting and purging stage is accomplished, have you any other thoughts on the proposal Mike? Design, or items to cannibalise for components? such as a scrap cast iron thicknesser bed for a hotplate?
All input welcome at this stage !

Chris

 

[Streepips]

PS

Regarding the mod alert. Probably someone thinking I am using a "stolen" bottle" whereas its from a scrappie, who dont want it because of the heavy galvanising to these bottles.

 

[9fingers]

Chris, I suspect you will find that the bottle will be the property of the original company irrespective of where you got it.

This is not a "holier than thou" post honest as I have four gas bottles at home and only one is on a contract!!

I can't see the LPG police pursuing you!

Bob

 

[Streepips]

Thanks Bob, Quite agree with you!, and congratulations on your collection, I have no contract, seems not required. I use these bottles anyway with a fireball heater, thats what got me considering the stove conversion. Just gave a workshop stove away you see, a woodburning stove. those round steel things. sawdust burner, patio heater BBQ wood only stove, but not enough oooomph. So resorted to gas heating again until I get a better stove.

 

[Hitch]

There is loads of people making them on another forum i frequent...

have a look and do a quick search, plenty of threads should show up.

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/index.php

 

[Streepips]

Hitch,

I had a few good look on the MIG forum as well in my research, in fact considering joining it, looks a good forum and I will need advice on selecting a decent MIG because I have only used arc and oxy acetylene before.

 

[Hitch]

Yeah, join up mate, they are a friendly bunch...if anyone is nasty, let me know and il nuke them :lol:
Oh the joys of being a moderator :lol:

 

[bigjoe]

Hello Hitch...im from over there too ...Hitch is a mean mod! but easily bribable with some alcholic apple juice 8)

Joe

 

[Rob H]

I have 2 gas bottel stoves and made 3 for mates there are very good will be making a bigger one for my new work shop soon. the first 1 i made a cut the door out with the jig saw but the rest i did with the plasma cutter much easyer and faster just made a hard board template and cut round it for the hole in the top i used a 3" hole saw. and 2, 1" holes at the bottom for the draft doors.