Saw these things here and there over the years but wasn’t sure if they worked well. Picked it up for like 50 bucks on. CL after a friend showed me how well his worked. This thing will straight put out some heat. Shop is 50x30 and 20’ at peak and within 20 minutes the temp will be noticeably warmer and comfortable enough to work in the shop. You can fit a BUNCH of wood in a 55 gallon drum. Maybe this is the wrong section to post , but wanted to share. Worth every penny !!
Nice! Those things definitely crank. A buddy of mine made one a few years back and I think the only problem he had was that over time, the drum got thin and eventually he tossed it once a few pinholes appeared. Too many heat cycles wore through the thin sheet metal. I think if you always have a layer of ash in the bottom (or maybe sand?) it should protect it...
Good find. Hopefully they are old barrels, it seems these new ones are so thin compared to what I remember the thickness was on old barrels. Right now where I can buy once used barrels they are $30 each +tax.
definitely always ash in it. I can’t get cover off to clean it properly so have to painstakingly scoop some out occasionally. Has a rack in there too which adds to joy of it all.
I think it depends on what the barrel was used for. I worked in chemical processing plants. Some barrels we'd get were soo thin you would wonder how they hold anything. Others were so thick they would wiegh 70 lbs empty. Generally drums with oils in them were thinner. Those that had caustics/corrosives were thicker.
My very first wood stove(about 40 years ago) was a barrel stove with a 10 and a 15 gallon barrel. It was piped out of a window of the mobile home I was living in at the time, with one triple wall pipe through the window, and single wall everywhere else. I only burned it when I was there... It worked well, and somehow, I didn't burn the place down! I wouldn't recommend that though!
$50.00 for a double barrel is a good deal! They make a lot of heat & done well actually re burn some pretty well. Sand in the bottom for sure, even with a grate & they'll last a good while. Nice find.
Yes, those things are thin and don't lst long so keep a close eye on the barrels. Tap it in several places with a hammer as a test; replace as necessary.
Must not have been burning pine. my dad had one of those in a couple different shops, (same stove got moved around a couple times) seems like he had to replace the top barrel every so often because it would rust though. We now have the same stove in the shop at my work. Took the top barrel off because we always had trouble getting and keeping it warmed up enough to draw well. He must have made it with a pretty good barrel on the bottom though because we’ve never had to replace it in probably over 10 years now. We Always leave a pretty good layer of ash in it. We throw old oil and fuel filters in it and usually have a 5 gallon bucket of waste oil that we soak splits in. The thing I dislike most about it is being so thin it heats up fast and cools just as fast, not very efficient at utilizing all the heat produced. I’ve been thinking about adding a fairly heavy baffle plate inside to try and hold the heat in a bit longer. They ain’t pretty but they will put out the heat
Been around several double barrel stoves. Never owned one but did have a stove we made from an upright barrel that we welded a grate in, worked well. I know sand was mentioned for lining but you can also use firebrick. I also saw one that had a pipe straight thru the center of the top barrel and a blower attached to the pipe to blow heat out the front.
I got one 2-3 yrs ago that had hydraulic fluid in it from my buddy for a burn barrel. It was really thick gauge steel. I put the water drainage holes in it and it's holding up great. Like everything though now, most everything is all engineered to be the bare minimum to do the job. Finding stuff made extra beefy/ heavy duty is difficult now.
