Was asked to elaborate on my heating system and I figured I'd just start a one stop shopping thread. First the history. My Dad started heating with wood as an extra heat source around 1970. He grew up around saws as my grandpa was the first Homelite dealer in this area in the 1950's. They sold saws and Dad worked on them some as a kid so he is partial to them. Yes. he has quite a few of them. When the energy crunch hit Dad started using wood more and more. He was just using a fireplace and made up a pipe grate which used 180 degree bends which allowed water to circulate through. Had a bottom section and back which was on an angle to catch more of the heat. He ran it through the existing oil furnaces circulator pump that fed through the houses base board heating system. Better than the fireplace but used quite a bit of wood still. He then decided to make his own stove. He scavenged to tanks and welded them on top of one another. He used and old door from a coal furnace and welded it on the end. That was in the mid 1970's. Here is his stove in the basement of the house. When he built the house he laid a block wall in the center and the stove sits next to it on one side. It acts as a huge heat sync and holds the heat if you will. There is a register above it which is in the center hallway of the house so it centrally feeds heat to all the upstairs rooms. Gotta say he nailed it with the design and has been in use for 40 years now. If you notice the door in the wall that is what we call the "wood chute". Where the fireplace is on the other side of the house is the original cute. It would hold a 1/4 of a cord. Our job as kids was to refill it. Used a lawn cart when fit and sleds when it snowed. This kept Mom happy as the wood wasn't drug through the house and made for easy filling for the fire. No bugs waking up in the heated house was a plus too. When he made up the new stove we decided to make a bigger chute on the other side. We hand dug the area outside along the foundation wall of the house. Poured an angle floor with drain going to the perimeter tile. Then laid the sidewalls with the sheet limestone that was dug out. This one will hold about 3/4 cord so fills are done with a truck now. Simple latch door was made and slope cover on outside to divert rain away. He uses about 8 cord a year and it's amazing how good his set up is with no electric, pumps or fans needed. He always tells me his advantage when the electric goes off. They lived on a 1 1/2 acre plot in a house that Dad built himself. He worked for his Dad and they built houses and did plumbing work in the mornings. Utmost respect for Dad as he built his house AFTER he got off work. Working nights till dark or more. Grandpa didn't give paid vacations so dad worked his tail off. Mom helped as she could but she was raising us 3 kids and had her hands full. Dad's brothers would help when he HAD to had another set of hands but they were all in the same boat. In the early days we scavenged for wood. Taking trees down for friends, getting a g=dead/ fallen tree out of a fencerow or yard. Anything to try to get enough for the Winter. Didn't have our own storage area so my Mom's mom let us keep it in one of their barns. Then we'd rehaul to an open sided, roofed structure in the fall so us kids could drag it to the chute, about 75 yards away. One year we were getting low and no deads to be found. A guy a road over had an apple orchard and wanted it cleared. A neighbor who was also desperate for wood told Dad of it and the owner said he would do it on the 1/2's and he would help. That meant 1/4 for us and we had to burn the brush. They agreed and the owner basically never helped even though we stacked his half in his barn. We completed the job but vowed never again. We had one neighbor who was an elderly widow. She was our saving grace for a while as she had a large woods. She heard what had happened and said we could cut all we wanted but were only to cut dead trees and she wanted no live trees cut which meant no driveways in the woods. We hauled it all out with a lawn tractor and wagon. Great fun for us kids as we were in charge of hauling while Dad and his cutting buddy did the sawing. Grandma gave a bigger section in the barn and we started getting ahead which was nice. As kids we were always there. I think it was on my 6th birthday Dad gave me an Estwing hatchet and I was the limbing/cleanup crew. Still have it to this day. More to come....
Where abouts in Ohio? I checked out your entire build thread on the Cataspliter, very nice, lot of time in that buger huh?! The wood barn fire, just crazy man, crazy.
Welcome to the mix we call FHC. Great story, and I as well am looking forward to more. Also checked out your albums, detail oriented for sure.
When I was a kid my grandparents used a parlor stove as a back up after they had an oil furnace with baseboard heat put in. They still burned a lot of lump coal in it at that time. Here is the stove as it is today. Not used anymore, I just keep it in here for memories and such. It was made near here in Piqua, Ohio Probably in the 30's or 40's I'd guess. Grandpa had an old John Deere with an open Buzz saw that he would use to cut up Locust trees out of the woods as an addition source of heat when they would die or fall. He bought a Homelite saw from my other grandpa too. It was one with a bow bar. Still have that one and I'll get a pic tomorrow. Grandpa started to get shaky and we worried about him and the buzz saw so when i was 8 I gave them a Christmas present. I would cut the wood for them....... all with an axe. I made piles in the woods and then dad brought the trailer around and we hauled it to the house. Kept me out of trouble for a while. after 2 years of doing that I started running a saw. A little homelite super 2. Kept her in firewood for years using that set up.
Great stories! Thanks for sharing. Along the same line, when I was younger, 50 years ago Grandma & Grandpa lived on a farm. No electricity, no gas, no telephone. When I got to go to the farm I was the cob hauler which provided fuel for the cook stove. Good times. Kids today wouldn't understand.
I wasn't fortunate enough to see the hard work that goes into heating a home with coal or wood in my younger days. So I took upon myself to learn and live it for myself. I enjoy it very much...great story Kevin in Ohio .
Great stuff Kevin. Have you ever looked into having the stove restored? That thing sure would sparkle.
The stove actually looks better than what the pictures show. Not perfect by any means but it's original. It also has something that could never be duplicated. Inside, it still has some sticks grandma gathered and placed in there. I always remember the large jar of fuel oil she kept and kept 3/4's full. She'd stuff corn cobs in it and use them for "turbo" starters, using 1 or 2 to relight the stove if it went out. They would use wood on warmer nights and during the day. Real cold they use coal and put a large chunk in for the night. My great grandparents bought this farm around 1900. It was 150 acres at that time but they sold 50 acres off to my grandpa's brother. I always grew up loving farming and tractors/equipment. Grandpa had stopped farming by then but still had his old equipment. I can remember him letting me drive tractors at a VERY early age. I can distinctly remember pulling trees with him when I was 6 years old. He had a John Deere 60 which had a hand clutch which allowed me to drive even though I couldn't reach the pedals. I drive the tractor and he'd hook the chain to the trees and then I'd pull them out. Working our way around the fields to keep the fencerows clean. Around that same time, the farmer who was renting our ground would have grandpa cultivate for him. I used to ride along with him then for days as then guy did around a 1000 acres. Newer equipment and such and I was in heaven. When grandpa's health went down I started doing all the fix it jobs with Dad showing how or just doing it in front of me. It's always been just understood I'd live here someday I guess as my siblings went on with life. Got a few pics of Grandpa's Homelite 420 It currently has the original drive sprocket broke. I plan on getting it running but the sprocket is needed first. Going to try and make one at work. Really in nice original condition. The chain on things dwarfs what we use now! Dad worked in construction with his brothers as stated earlier. One by one they broke away to start their own companies as grandpa didn't pay very well. We grew up poor but never knew it. Dad and Mom sacrificed hard for us and I owe them everything for that. Dad could fix anything but it was more out of necessity than wanting to. He always says, "It's junk anyway, why not try to save it." Mom was a stay at home Mom and took care of us. Eventually Dad got a job teaching Carpentry at the local Joint Vocational school and things got easier. After we were in our teens Mom started working at UD in the library. Up to this time we were splitting everything by hand, with a maul or wedges. Dad saw one of those cone splitters and decided to make one. He tore apart an old manual transmission and stacked the gears. Welded and welded till they were all solid and then cut a spiral groove into it with metal cutting blade in a circular saw. The welded that to an axle shaft. He then jacked up his old car in the barn and ran it off the rear wheel. Had a string to the throttle for the tough ones. Never got hurt with it but it was an "interesting" time. Used it for several years till he got the urge to build a hydraulic. I'll cover that later. All this time Dad never had a truck, even when building his house. He always used a trailer for everything. In the early 80's he finally got a mid 70's Chevy 3/4 2wd. It was beat up but we hauled a lot of wood with it. We were moving on up now! I still had a strong desire for farming and Dad was at a class reunion talking with a former classmate who farmed and had a AG-chem application business. They said they couldn't find any kids willing to work and Dad mentioned me. I "tried out" and made the grade so at 15 I started working. Our school allowed kids with enough credits and good enough grades to go 1/2 days so that was fine by me! I was in heaven, working my tail off. Long hours and hard work but learned SO much there. they ended up being like a second family to me and still stay in touch. I stayed there 11 years. During this time Dad decided to get another truck as the Chevy started having issues. I told him to get a 4x4 as I got spoiled with the ones I was driving at work. He kept saying he didn't need one and they were too much money. He was looking for another Chevy 2wd 3/4 ton. Everything he was looking at was out of his price range and one day when I came home form work he asked if I wanted to go look at one with him. I said sure and off we went. When we arrived I couldn't believe my eyes. It was a mid 80's Dodge 1 ton...4x4. Guy was dead honest with us as he went to a repo auction and said he had no intentions of buying it but no one was bidding on it. He threw a bid and got. He told us he wanted $500 more than he paid for it but it had an issue, The front axle was bad as the shafts just turned and their was no 4 wheel drive. My wheels began to turn....... This thing was clean and was a farm truck. I crawled underneath after the guy put it in 4WD and spun just the rear tires. Played with the axle shafts and quietly told Dad to buy it. He asked if I was sure and I said, YES!!!!!! Got it home and in 15 minutes had it fixed. Those trucks had automatic locking hubs and when the grease dries out the springs will get stuck and no allow it to lock in. Took the caps off, cleaned the pieces in gas and regreased. reassembled and good as new. Dad had a 1 ton 4x4 for $3500.00 Dad admitted VERY quickly he never wanted to go back to a 2wd My other grandpa passed away and Dad ended up with a farm when the estate was settled. It had 40 acres of woods and was in a bad state of repairs. Trees had grown over the driveways and the rental house was really bad so Dad started fixing/cleaning it up. Had lots of storage areas and lots of wood... look out! I'd help when I could and it started building up as Saturdays during the "off seasons" on the farm were spent cutting. The property had a railroad running through which wasn't ours. A Gas pipeline company bought the right away and wanted to put a BIG main through. When they wanted an easement around a bridge on our place they contacted us. We asked them their plans and they said they would totally clear everything out and have clean path as no trees were allowed within the area. Dad asked what they planned on doing with all the current trees and the guy said burn them on site. Dad asked if we could cut and he said "ALL you want." There were a LOT of really nice trees up to 3 ft in diameter. They said they would burn whatever we didn't take so no brush detail. We cut and hauled like madmen. Loading large rounds and piling them separate in one of the barns to split inside on rainy days. Here are a couple old pics Mom took when we came home for lunch one day. Dad's 1 ton had some age here but it was a beast. Ended up getting over 100 cord out before they came with the dozers and track hoes. 3 D6 Cats and 4 Cat excavators with 4 ft plus buckets did it in a HURRY. Lots of wood yet to go but we ran out of time. Seemed like such a waste as we were the only ones we knew of harvesting anything in our area.
This was the first time we filled this shed. Stack measures 80' X 18' X 7' so that is about 78 cord. Till we were all done we had about 180 cord cut, split, stacked and under roof in various locations. I had started working on my old Dodge here and was working out of the old bank barn. Throwing sparks on a wooden floor made me cringe so I decided I wanted to build a shop to work out of. Where I wanted to put it was an old chicken house my great grandparents had built. It was kind of an unusable building as the ceiling was so odd so decided to tear it all down. Pic quality is bad as they are pics of pics so be aware of that. Building was 24' x 50' Piece by piece tore it all down. Ended up reusing the fired brick for sidewalk on another project. Still using the good lumber that was out of to this day. I was going to build a bigger pole barn but once I had it to a slab I measured it and it was out of square by a 1/2 inch. Foundation was 4 ft deep and poured floor was in great shape and level. I decided to just stick frame on top of the existing floor at that point and be a little smaller. Dad and a neighbor(firewood cutting friend) helping me set the trusses. Me and Dad raised the sidewalls by ourselves and the are 14ft tall. Yeah. some comealongs were used as we put 8 ft of OSB on the first sidewall! Too much weight but we got it. Us pouring concrete here and I finished the inside with drywall. Very nice building to work out of now as it's fully insulated with 8 inch sidewalls.
Around this time I was at a crossroads. Either start buying my own equipment and farm our own ground or get another job. I loved the work and the people I worked for but the sustained future was just not there with what I was being paid. I was making it okay but because of overtime and such. 90 hour weeks were kind of normal and I remember working 21 hours straight one time. 12 -16 was normal.I would have to take off work to come home to mow the grass! A neighbor worked at a machine shop and asked me if I wanted a job. I put in an application and have been there ever since(20 years now) When I first started I was on a 3 shift machine so we worked 8 hours 7 days a week. I couldn't believe all the free time I had now My Moms father passed and grandma was by herself. She did fine as we were close and I spent a lot of time working around, fixing things up slowly. She began to show signs of Dimentia/altzheimers and Mom and Dad decided to just move in with her as the house was better laid out for that. I stayed at their old house and they moved in here. I had been doing a lot of research/planning/saving and wanted to add a garage and OWB. Drew up my plans and submitted them, got all the permits and started. Had 4 buildings to tear down first. 3 more chicken houses and a smoke house. We sectioned the smoke house up and moved it to another loaction. The other 2 were dismantled and lumber reused for forms and such. The one bought out of a Sears catalog was in pretty bad shape. Had 7, 5 gallon buckets full of nails till I was down with everything. Once they were all down I started moving dirt... a LOT of it. House is close to a hill side and the 36' X 50' garage I wanted would go into it. Had to remove 8 ft of dirt and wanted everything sloped nice so it could be easily mowed. Used our old IH backhoe for a lot of it. Once I had the little stuff done and ready I rented a Cat dozer for a week. Never t=ran one but took about 15 minutes to get used to it and I'm spoiled forever now. 6 way blades rule! Pushed all the top soil off the outer yard and made a huge pile. Then pushed all the subsoil and sheet limestone out there and packed it then. Then spread the top soil back. Dad was running the hoe and box grader while I did the major pushing. added about 4 ft to that area till it was done. Still had lots of subsoil left and county took about 75 loads. Started on the building aspect then as I wanted to let the dirt settle in a year before finish grading. Decide on a Central Boiler 5648 Stainless version for a heat source. Local dealer was great and helped me a lot with supplies. At that time there were no premade insulated lines. I wanted NO problems as this was going under my new garage and needed to be able to change if needed so this is what I I wanted to keep ANY water away from the heat lines as the hillside and sheet limestone oozes water even when it looks dry on the surface. there is 60 ft of rize behind the house. In building I used of 2500ft of tile to drain water away and keep the slabs from sitting on a water table and also quick mowing after a rain. I am came into the basement though an exiting cellar window. I was going to tie into the existing oil furnaces circulator pump with a heat exchanger and use a side arm on my water heater. I dug the trench 8 inches deeper than needed and laid a 4 inch tile line. The line slopes down to the outer edge of the garage. Then laid a large, SMOOTH bore tile on top of that. They call this High Q tile as it for driveways and such. More money but worth it to me. I stung 3 ropes into the main as I laid them down and covered them. I then poured the footer and laid the block foundation wall around the lines. Backfilled everything, leveled the gravel and got ready for the floor heat. I have one 18' door and one 10' door. My dealer gave me the specs on how long the lines could be and said to keep them equal. My trick was taking string and cutting them the same length. Then laying them on paper till I had the layout right with little to no crossovers. Made it easy when doing it full scale. I used an insulating mat and these slick, plastic rebar chairs. I went 16" on center and that was my layout grid. I wanted NO slab shifts as the system is junk if that happens. Spend the money... ONCE... here. I also wedge cut insulation on the sidewalls. All my slabs are 6 inches thick.
Had a pouring party and a family friend brought his power trowel and did a fantastic job. You can see in the background the cut in the hill. Dad helped me frame up the 2X6 sidewalls. Had to special order the trusses to match the existing roofline where it tied into the house. No changing it the way it was built but got it done. We put these trusses up by hand. My brother came over to help on this one. All up with metal roof installed. You can see why I went with matching the roof line here. Next was to build the furnace house. My plan was to build a 20' x 20' building to store all my wood and stove and keep everything, and me, dry while feeding. My dealer advised against it because of the smoke factor but I do not regret doing it. I'm dry, my wood is dry and I have enough storage to last. If I had it to do over I would but I would probably go a little bigger. I dug the lines up to the location of where the stove was to be, using the same system of line running as under the garage floor. I decided to do a monolithic pour on this building. Meaning, pouring the footer wall and floor all at once. More setup to be sure but you pour it all at once. Careful digging here and you can see the pipe sloping into the building. Stove is there looking at it's new home. Gravel in and leveled and ready to work on the forms. Used old blocks on the inside edges and fill gravel up to the edges. plastic and rebar 16 on center. In the center is a grade rail. we're rookies. Needed a good bit of bracing here as it's an exposed wall. Plan is have it just high enough for a tailgate to clear so a small step is needed to get into the back of the truck to unload. Dood will be that wide as well with a walk in door too.
Slab poured and hand trowled as smooth as I could get for easy sweeping. http://photos.imageevent.com/kevininohio/rugermini14/websize/MVC-020S_23.JPG[img] My idea was to have concrete block sidewalls. The reason being, I can stack wood against them with no fear of damaging the wall. Bugs and termites don't affect it. Dad helped me lay the corners then I finished the rest. [img]http://photos.imageevent.com/kevininohio/rugermini14/websize/MVC-021S_15.JPG After the block was all laid I put rebar through every other core and filled them all with concrete. Made up a sliding funnel and had a bucket brigade on the one. Yeah, we were tired. Then lifted the stove to it's new home. The end is open as I am going stick frame that. This is so if need be, I can get the stove out. Everything was screwed together in section form so it cam=n be done fairly easily. I ordered cathedral trusses so I could lift the stove from overhead for removal. Put a big exhaust fan in the other peak as well. I Used concrete screws into the block to secure 2x4 furring strips to attach metal siding to. This was so I could match the other buildings. I slightly angled the flue so it would exit at the peak, less leak issues to deal with. Roof is done and sidewall almost complete Got the front framed in and almost done. Be hard to tell what's in there when it's complete. The finished building next to the shop.
Next was the plumbing system. My dealer told me the parts I needed and gave me a sequence/order they needed to be in. Sold me the parts and I went to work laying it out. I drew it up and wanted to make it as clean as possible. All the while leaving options for future additions if needed. My goal was to have no mild steel in the system. Ploy, brass, copper or stainless. The pumps were cast and that was my only concession. After I had it drawn out I started. First I mounted 3/4 pressure treated plywood to the wall. Then I covered it with sheet stainless and screwed it in place. Gave me a clean, flat, nice surface to mount everything to. I have 2 zones in the garage to deal withs well. Spent a few days down there getting everything in place. Making hanging brackets, leading it all up and assembling. Dealer had a really nice side arm kit. Just cut the lengths you need and all the fittings were there. Here is my heat exchanger that heats the house. It's controlled by a zone valve that is wired into the house thermostat. Original oil furnaces circulator pump run 24/7, thermostat opens and closes the water to the baseboard as it calls for heat. Simple and easy. The green lines are the incoming out going. the orange are the lines going to and from the garage floor. Electrics and extra rope for future pulls are there as well. From there is goes to the main circulator pump. this runs 24/7 as well. Notice the use of shut off valves, drains and Tees. This makes any repairs or replacements a lot easier in the future. Then it travels through the sidearm on the water heater. Then to the middle of the 3 upright copper runs on the left. I should also mention that you have to leave slack, or a slide for the poly pipe as it grows when heated. Mine gains about 4 - 5 ft. Then along the bottom to the house heat exchanger. If not needed valve bypasses to line above heading back. First T is the feed line to the garage floor. Water can't be 185 degrees in the concrete so an adjustable tempering valve was added.(with the gray knob) Return water mixes with the incoming hot and a pressure/temp gauge helps verify it. The 2 pumps have their own thermostats and only turn on when heat is needed. Otherwise they are shut and water just recirculated back into the boiler. If you notice the spaces and Tees here you can see where it could be added to. I have not and all these finished pics were taken this AM so it has aged nicely.
Here a few more closeups. I know I would have appreciated seeing a working system when I was laying out mine. It has been exceptionally nice with the whole system. I have replaced the main pump cartridge once and that was just a year ago. 2 zone valve heads. One due to corrosion and the other to power surge. Power surge also got my transformer. My boiler has been good as well. They replaced a warped damper door for free. The only other issue was a controller that started acting funny. Temp was going up and down way to fast and called the dealer. He said to shut it down, loosen and retighten every wire on the boiler. Did that and it has been flawless for 5 more years. I have a temp gauge and controller in the house with this unit so I can see what it is doing form in the house which is nice. I have never added water since the original fill, it is still in the operating range. I watch my PH and check yearly. Only ever added once and it was borderline.
