Wood burning stove / fireplace

[wrekin]

I have a shed with windows, table etc that's great when we're working in the wood. To make it more homely, and so we can cook lunches, make tea, make it warmer in the winter etc without using bottled gas or the firepit outside, I'd like to put a stove in the shed itself. Cast iron wood burning stoves seem ideal for this, but I'm worried about it being a target for break ins. The shed has a small plastic window with no shutter so people can see there's nothing stored inside to steal, but a big lump of cast iron would change this.

I have thought about making a brick hearth with a metal stovepipe, but I understand they're a lot less efficient, especially for heating, than having a big lump of hot iron in the middle of the room.

Does anyone have any other ideas or experience with this? Thanks!

[RichardKing]

Machine Mart do a little cast iron stove for less than a hundred quid www.machinemart.co.uk

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its also small enough to stuff in the back of your Landrover to bring with you & take home.

[woodbodger]

How about one of these made out of an old gas cylinder, This was my first go at welding and I am quite chuffed. You see them advertised on Ebay for about £50. I think if you put something cheap like this in you shed bolted to a long length of angle iron( this would make it diabolically hard to move) once it is in the shed ( belt the thread of the bolts when they are done up so it can not be undone) and job ids done. This one is going into our cabin in the woods, Euphemistically called "the Lodge".

[RichardKing]

If you do make one out of an old gas cylinder then take care because heating by cutting or welding can vapourise gas molecules adsorbed to the surface of the metal which then form an explosive gas/air mixture in the tank.

[steve rollnick]

Give some thought to a "rocket stove"?

Check http://www.aprovecho.org/lab/index.php .

There are suppliers of the Stove Tec in the UK, and quite a few do-it-yourself demos on you tube for a rocket stove.

It wont look that good, which might suit you, and it seems very effieicnt as a stove?

Steve

[Darren]

in the living wood Mag there is a artical turning a oil drum into a woodstove

[docsquid]

We managed to pick up an old Portman Tortoise Number 1 stove at a farm auction for about 50 quid. Unfortunately we needed quite a complex flue arrangement for it, and the flue is much more costly than the stove. Our main concern is the flue, rather than the stove itself, being nicked, particularly with our current problems with "scrotes"... However it does work very well.

[RichardKing]

For the stove flue in this situation you could have used some cheapo galvanised tube sold as ducting.

[jennysmate]

What about a chiminea that you see in garden centres? I saw a nice looking cast iron one for £50, probably get it a lot cheaper elsewhere.

[docsquid]

RichardKing - unfortunately it needed to meet Building Regs and because of potentially-flammable insulation on the roof of our building, we needed a twin-wall section to go through the roof, plus the waterproof grommet. This was the costly bit, the main flue was bog standard cheapo stuff.