Wood Heat Thread ~ post pics

Not wood, but I finally got the defunct pellet stove converted to run on waste motor oil. Everything ran great until the thin wall stainless steel bowl I used for the burn pot failed and dumped unburned oil on the shop floor.

 

Oops.
At least it didn't result in an uncontrolled burn on your shop floor, though.

 

Fire extinguishers were present for that possibility.

I'm going to have to start shopping Target and Walmart to find stainless steel cups and bowls that meet the size requirements. The failed burn pot was half of a double wall bowl that would have worked perfectly except the description online didn't mention the flared lip at the top that prevented it from dropping all the way in place.

 

Any possibility of fabricating one of your own? That way you could start with thicker stock, and have the right dimensions.

What are you using for an ignition device?

 

I don't have all of the proper tools (or skills) to try fabricating stainless steel sheet. I'm using the pellet stove's original cast iron burn pot because it has the auto-igniter and thermocouple fan control (two of the systems that still work), but because that pot has a trap door on the bottom for emptying ashes, it won't seal tight enough to hold oil. So I need to find a cup or bowl that fits inside the pot and works with its unusual sloped bottom. I just took the stainless burn pot out and realized it didn't fail, but it slightly deformed under the heat and tipped over inside, dumping out the oil.

As a side note, the auto-igniter isn't hot enough by itself to start the oil. So what I did was start the system to get the igniter warming the oil, then I cut a small strip of used oily rag and stuck it in the burn pot to act as a wick, which I lit like a candle, until the chamber temperatures were hot enough to sustain the burn.

 

Does it have to be stainless, though? You could probably work something up pretty easily out of 1/8" mild that would be strong enough for your purposes.

 

What I think would work best for you would be a stainless cup inside steel in the bowl. I am pretty sure that stainless melts lower than regular steel so worst case is that the stainless deforms by melting into the steel bowl which then maintains its size and shape.

 

I found a thick gauge hammered stainless cup at Target. First test burn I realized I didn't drill enough vent holes and after an hour it didn't even get hot enough to cook the sticker off the bottom. Moving on to Mark III.

 

The heating season has started!

Cleaned and running, and pellets are on sale

 

How effective do you suppose those little deflector tabs on either side of the burn pot are at keeping the flame inside the center of the stove?

 

Those are actually the sides of the burn pot. Pellets are fed from the bottom, the flame has no choice but to be centered.

 

One of these years I gotta get a log splitter. This using a hand maul is getting real old real quick...

 

Get a tractor with hydraulic hookup on it to run the tractor mount log splitter. Split wood then put split pieces in the bucket for easy transporting it to where you stack it

 

Good for you, though.

 

Well, if I could afford a new tractor, I could afford a gas log splitter. I have a 49 Ford 8-N with the PTO for my bush hog. Maybe I'll research ones that will run off of that...

 

true, but 63 is starting to push it, I think. Still, doing this, I don't worry about doing the cardio in my gym...

 

For the price point of a PTO-driven one you're better off buying one that's self-powered. They're less expensive and more fuel efficient than your tractor would be.

 

That kinda was my thought...

 

Since you already have the tractor, see about getting the hydraulic lines t tapped to put a connection toward the top of end, then get the splitter for the tractor. No worrying about hooking it onto the ball to tow it around like the self powered setups.

 

Splitting it is half the fun