Do-it-yourself garage oven: metal, long-burning, brick

Unfortunately, heating is not provided for garages (although, perhaps, fortunately, given the current tariffs), therefore, you have to heat yourself. Well, any heating is a stove. In this case, it should be small, but effective – you need to quickly move the room from a “minus” to a good “plus”. So when choosing a design, do not forget that the garage oven should ignite quickly and easily. It is also desirable that it could be heated with waste – it is very non-budgetary to buy good firewood, and there is nowhere to store it. Well, one more requirement – the design should be simple so that you can easily do it yourself. 

What stoves can be made for a garage

In a cold garage in winter is very unpleasant. That is why heating is required. Garage stoves are usually small steel potbelly stoves. They are made from thick-walled barrels, pipe sections or from gas cylinders. Such garage ovens are simpler in execution, require only minor modifications, because the body, and sometimes the bottom, is already there. Furnaces are also made from sheet metal, but these are options for those who are closely friends with welding. Brick stoves in garages are not very common – they are still larger, they heat up less, which is not entirely suitable for this case.

The most common potbelly stoves that work on wood, everything that burns is laid in them. Such omnivorousness and fast heating are their main advantages. They also have many shortcomings, and one of them is gluttony, therefore, more economical long-burning stoves have recently begun to be made. Usually the top burning principle is used. They are good because one full bookmark (an oven from a 50 liter propane cylinder) can burn up to 8 hours. All this time it is warm in the garage.

Ovens are being worked out separately. There is enough similar fuel in garages, but you need to be careful with mining – heavy metals are contained there and excellent traction is required so that they do not get inside.

Potbelly stoves – proven and simple designs

Potbelly stoves – a hit of the 20s of the last century. Then these stoves competed with brick ones and stood everywhere, even in apartments. Later, with the advent of centralized heating, they lost their relevance, but are used in garages, summer cottages, and for heating utility or outbuildings.

Potbelly stoves from a cylinder, barrel or pipe

The most suitable material for making a potbelly stove for a garage is propane tanks or a thick-walled pipe. Barrels are also suitable, but you need to look for a not very large volume and with a thick wall. In any case, the minimum wall thickness is 2-3 mm, the optimal one is 5 mm. Such a stove will serve for more than one year.

By design, they are vertical and horizontal. It is more convenient to heat a horizontal one with firewood – longer logs fit. It is easier to make it elongated upwards, but the firebox is small in size, you will have to cut firewood finely.

Vertical

First, how to make a vertical garage oven from a cylinder or pipe. Divide the selected segment into two unequal parts. Below is a smaller one for collecting ashes, above is the main one for laying firewood. The following is the order of work:

• Cut out the doors. Small at the bottom, large at the top. We use the cut pieces as doors, so we don’t throw them away.
• We weld the grates in the chosen place. Usually it is steel reinforcement 12-16 mm thick cut into pieces of the desired length. The fitting step is about 2 cm.
  

• We weld the bottom if it is not.
• We cut a hole in the lid for the chimney, weld a strip of metal about 7-10 cm high. It is better to make the outer diameter of the resulting pipe for standard chimneys. Then there will be no problems with the chimney device.
• The cover with the welded pipe is welded into place.
• By welding we fasten locks, hinges to the cut-out pieces-doors and put all this in place. As a rule, potbelly stoves are leaky, so seals can be omitted. But if desired, a strip of metal 1,5-2 cm wide can be welded along the perimeter of the doors. Its protruding part will close a small gap around the perimeter.

All in all, that’s all. It remains to assemble the chimney and you can test a new stove for the garage.

Horizontal

If the body is horizontal, the ash drawer is usually welded on from below. It can be welded to the required dimensions from sheet steel or a suitable sized piece of channel can be used. In the part of the body that will be directed downward, holes are made. It is better to cut something like a grate.

Then in the upper part of the body we make a pipe for the chimney. To do this, you can weld a cut piece from a pipe of a suitable diameter. After a piece of pipe is installed and the seam checked, the metal inside the ring is cut out.

Next, you can make the legs. Corner segments are best suited, to which small pieces of metal are attached from below to stand stably.

The next step is to install the doors. On the blower, you can cut a piece of metal, attach loops and constipation. Here without any problems. The gaps along the edges do not interfere – air for combustion will flow through them.

There will be no difficulties even if you make a metal door – welding the hinges is not a problem. Only here, in order to be able to at least slightly regulate combustion, the door needs to be made a little larger – so that the perimeter of the opening is closed.

It is problematic to install furnace casting. Suddenly someone wants to have not a steel door, but a cast-iron one. Then it is necessary to weld a frame from a steel corner, attach a casting to it with bolts, and weld this entire structure to the body.

From two barrels

Everyone who used a potbelly stove knows that very hard radiation comes from its body. Often the walls are heated to a red glow. Then next to her is impossible. The problem is solved by an interesting design: two barrels of different diameters are inserted one into the other. The gaps between the walls are covered with pebbles, clay mixed with sand (calcined on fire, covered only when it has cooled down). The inner barrel acts as a firebox, and the outer one is only the body.

This stove will take longer to heat up. It will not immediately begin to give off heat, but it will be more comfortable in the garage and after the fuel burns out, it will warm the room for a couple more hours – giving off the heat accumulated in the tab.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEWZxL2ebXE

Long burning garage oven

All from the same gas cylinder, you can make a stove for a long-burning garage. There are different designs, but the most proven and stable one is called Bubafonya – after the nickname of the author who invented it and posted it on one of the forums. It was about 5-6 years ago. Since then, many have had this miracle – a simple and original design, high efficiency and the fact that you can lay not only firewood, but also shavings and even sawdust. You can even modify Bubafonya for water heating in the garage, which has been done more than once (a water jacket around the body).

This homemade wood-burning stove has only one drawback – in order to remove the ashes, you will have to turn the body upside down. True, there are already improvements that eliminate this shortcoming. With a welding machine, you can make such a stove in the garage with your own hands in a few hours – it is very easy to manufacture.

Design

This stove uses the principle of top combustion: firewood burns from above, the flame spreads down as the upper layers burn through. This explains the long period of time for combustion – the flame spreads down much more slowly. However, the heating is effective. Already in the first minutes, a sufficient amount of heat begins to be released.

This stove is traditionally round, vertical. The body is an ordinary cylinder with a bottom without a welded cover. The main focus is in the shape and structure of the moving part. It is often called “cargo”, but this is only one of the functions. This part also brings air into the combustion zone. She represents a metal circle to which a pipe is welded in the middle. On the back side of the metal circle – from the center to the edges – corners or pieces of a small channel are welded. These are air ducts through which air enters the periphery of the combustion area. There is also a cover with a hole cut out in the center through which the cargo pipe is passed. The smoke pipe is welded almost at the very top of the body. Its horizontal part should not be more than 40 cm, then the pipe rises. The height of the chimney is at least 2-3 meters, but it is necessary to determine the draft – so that in any weather the smoke does not go into the garage. 

Principle of operation

Having filled the body with firewood interspersed with shavings and sawdust, the bookmark is kindled. A lid is put on the pipe and, when the flame flares up, the lid is placed on top. Since the pipe is hollow, air is supplied through it to the combustion zone, which supports combustion.

The diameter of the “load” circle is slightly smaller than the diameter of the body – through this slot, combustion products enter the upper part (in the figure it is signed as a “secondary combustion chamber”). As you know, they are combustible themselves and can give off a large amount of heat. In this zone, with a well-heated furnace, these gases ignite. Combustion air comes from a slot in the cover in the area of ​​the pipe passage. Something can “pull up” in a circle. It’s not that important. It is important that the lid should not be made airtight, and also that because of this, the draft in the pipe should be excellent.

The gases ignited in the upper part give no less heat than burning wood. This explains the heating efficiency when using this design. Burnt gases exit into the chimney. As it burns, the load sinks lower and lower until the entire bookmark burns out. After the stove goes out and cools down, you can lay a new batch of firewood and start the process all over again. It is necessary to take out the ashes after several fireboxes – the firewood burns out completely, only a small pile of ash remains from the bookmark and a couple of coals from the lowest firewood.

Here is a brief summary of the principle of operation of this unit. As you can see, there is not only upper combustion, but also afterburning of gases. Very simple and really works well.

Manufacturing process

Most likely you have already understood how to do everything, but we will briefly describe the process. First, let’s talk about the materials that are needed for this stove. Most often, 50-liter propane tanks are used. A barrel with thick walls and a piece of pipe with a diameter of 300 mm to 600 mm will do. The height of the case in finished form is from 110 cm to 200 cm. In addition, you will need:

• pipe with a diameter of 85-100 mm, length – about 1,4-2,3 meters – depends on the height of the case (for an air duct);
• a pipe with a diameter of 120-150 mm, a length of 40 cm (smoke pipe);
• a sheet of metal with a thickness of 4-5 mm – cut a circle for the cargo / air duct;
• a strip of metal 3 cm wide, 2-3 mm thick – weld the side onto the lid;
• corners with a shelf thickness of 4-5 mm or the same channel, shelf width – 50-70 mm;
• metal handle – weld on the lid and to the body – 4 pcs (two each).
  

These are all the necessary materials. Now actually about what and how to do. We will proceed from the fact that we make a garage stove from a gas cylinder.

• At the cylinder washed with water, cut off the upper part. This will be the lid, so cut off 3-5 cm from the walls. We process the cut points with a file.
• In the upper part of the cut cover, remove the valve. This will include the pipe. We adjust the hole to the diameter of the duct. It makes no sense to achieve tightness – air must enter the slot, but it must be processed with a file.
• We weld a strip of metal along the circumference of the lid – its lower edge should protrude by 1,5-2 cm. This will keep the lid on the case.
• We weld the handles. They can be made from a thick rod. It is useless to put wooden linings – they will quickly char.
• We cut out a circle from a sheet of metal, the diameter of which is a couple of centimeters less than the diameter of the case. We process the edges with a file.
  

• We weld the duct pipe to the circle in the center of the side, cut a hole. We weld the seam again – so that there are no fistulas.
• From the back of the circle we weld the corners / channel. They do not reach the edges of the circle by a couple of centimeters.
• On the body, stepping back from the edge of 5-8 cm (so that the cover “sits down”), we weld the smoke pipe. We weld the seam thoroughly on both sides – it must be 100% tight.
• We weld handles to the body.

That’s all. Do-it-yourself garage oven made.

Revisions

Design improvements swing ease of use. The most inconvenient thing is the need to turn over a heavy body in order to shake out the ashes. To get rid of this, an ash pan and traditional grates are made in the lower part. The solution is understandable, but this innovation can lead to the fact that the firewood will burn faster – air will be sucked through the door slots. If there is a lot of oxygen in the lower part, the firewood will burn quickly, and not in smoldering mode, as happens in the original design. The way out is to make the door airtight, with sides and a seal.

The second improvement concerns the number and shape of the ribs on the air duct disk. They are made not from corners or a channel, but from steel strips. They are bent and slightly displaced, so that passing the air, as it were, twists. 6-8 pieces are welded instead of the original 4. This alteration gives only pluses – air is more evenly distributed over the combustion zone, firewood burns evenly over the entire area.

Ordering a brick oven for a garage

Brick ovens give softer heat, but until they heat up themselves, they will not heat the garage. If you are going to heat daily, this option is good. If the garage will be heated periodically, it is better to make a metal stove – it is long and dreary to disperse a frozen brick stove, and it will start heating in two hours.

For those who decide to put a brick oven in the garage, we will lay out the order of a small (relatively) oven with a heating panel and a hob (just in case).

A stove made of solid ceramic bricks (not burnt). Without taking into account the battle, 290 pieces are required. Laying is carried out on a clay mortar, the thickness of the seams is about 0,5-1,8 cm.

A separate foundation is needed for this furnace – the mass will be under 500 kg. Its dimensions are larger than the dimensions of the oven by 15-20 cm.

Furnace lining is desirable (laying fireclay bricks on fireclay mortar). Bricks are undermined for furnace casting. The dimensions of the bed for the grate, stove and doors should be larger than the dimensions of the casting. The gap is necessary to compensate for thermal expansion and also for laying a heat-insulating layer around the doors. This will reduce the formation of cracks next to them (due to different thermal expansion).

Asbestos cord has traditionally been used as a heat-insulating material. If you don’t want to deal with asbestos, you can cut mineral wool cardboard into strips. Only it must withstand very high temperatures – up to 1200 ° C (minimum 850 ° C).

Installed in the 6th row, the valve allows you to switch the furnace into winter and summer modes. This is convenient in the off-season, when full power is not required, but it is already damp.

The height of the furnace can be increased by repeating the 14th and 15th rows.

See the video for the process of pre-laying a furnace without mortar (recommended in order to pick up bricks and understand what’s what).

Drawings and diagrams

Describe all the designs for a long time. Much can be understood from the drawings.