Coal/Wood Stove Plans

Hi Steinke. Sounds like you are having a little of the 'Bituminous Blues'.

A trick that worked for me with the fines: shovel the fines into a paper grocery bag, roll it up so it is about 3-4" in diameter, sort of like a paper wraped log. Place the bags with rows of big coal between them. When the paper burns off, the fines will be in rows, the air will be able to get through the big coal and burn away at the sides of the rows of fines.

Later, like maybe an hour, you can go in a whack the log shaped fines into several pieces, increasing the surface area and the heat output.

Another trick is to put a split of wood between the rolled up fines, does about the same as the big coal I had a shortage of big coal, it sounds like you have it available anytime.

I'd sift the coal, that 's what I ended up doing, Get a pitchfork, with close together tines, it worked for me.. With your big coal, it might not, you may want to borrow a pitchfork first before you cough up the cash for a good one.

I wish I had good bituminous available close by, cheap fuel and my underfeed stoker made for bituminous, I'd set it up and let 'er rip.. But bituminous is only slightly cheaper than Anthracite by the time I factor in the miles and fuel, so I'd rather burn the Anthracite.

If you insulate the chimney with foam, use foam with a layer of reflective aluminum on it, the foam doesn't like heat very much... [don't ask ] .

Sounds like you have a pretty good stove. something to be proud of.

Greg L

Went back to sifting/screening the coal. I'm using a piece of expanded metal. Anything smaller than 1/4" passes thru, and I've just been tossing the fines in the garbage. My coal does not swell or get gooey, so I can't even get it to stick together if I put it in a paper bag and try to burn it.

With the fines removed, I get lots better burn. When I load, if I get the stove revved up pretty good before I shake, shake it, and then add few large chunks (6" piece or two) on one side of the firebox. Once those few chunks are burning, I dump a bucket or so of fresh coal on. The bigger chunks keep some open area on one side of the firebox. Otherwise, I end up losing the flame and getting a backpuff later on. If I can keep the flames going, it works pretty well. Temps stay up, much of the new smoke is burnt to provide heat instead of soot.

So sifting the fines out seems to be important.

Thanks.

Steinke

Forgot to add above - after a few hours of burn time, I go back and fill the side of the firebox with the bigger chunks of coal with some smaller stuff to close the big gaps.

Steinke

Hi guys, i'm a newbie.
i have built a narrowboat recently (with morso stove) and also I have a plastic cruiser. The morso is very expensive and big, I'd like to build a mini stove for the cruiser, this design looks cool.
Anyone any advice about building a scale model of this stove?, I was thinking about a quarter the size (I need about 3 Kw), I was also thinking about a water heat exchanger for the hot water system.
thanks for uploading the plans, I will upload photos of any work I do.
sean (UK).

Hi, I've been looking around for a design for a coal/wood stove that works efficiently for both. This looks like the ticket..... I am looking for a setup for an outdoor boiler though..... What would be the best route for making an Outdoor boiler out of this? Water jacket? or heat exchanger? If heat exchaner, where to put it?

Thanks!

-Newbie Matt

Hello deerefanatic, I built what you are suggesting.. It is a good boiler, but building one that will burn coal well is not that easy, and still burn wood well. Wood likes a bed of ashes to sit in, and combustion air to come in from the sides and over the fire. Wood will burn fairly steady in a firebox like this. Coal will NOT burn like this at all.
Coal must have open grates for the ash to fall down into an ashpan, it must have shaker grates to shake the ash down, and the only air source that the coal can recieve must be from below the fire, coming up through the grates...

It is pretty hard to get a wood coal combo that does burn coal very well. I have converted my boiler to a stoker feed coal only setup.. and this year have gone to a separate, different design coal-only boiler...

Greg L

Ok, what about taking Berlin's design and add some air knobs in the bottom of the feed compartment too? Close them when burning coal and use the under-grate air knobs, vise-versa when burning wood.......

actually, as I've said my stove will burn coal and wood very effectively. the firebrick and secondary combustion air work well with wood. when burning wood, I simply don't shake the ash down as often, mabey once every day, but I still use the underfire air; I see no reason not to use underfire air.

Okay, so what about using as a boiler? Water jacket or HEX pipes?

I'm under the impression that a water jacket will cause the firebox walls to get too cold and cause poor combustion.

-Matt

"I'm under the impression that a water jacket will cause the firebox walls to get too cold and cause poor combustion."

could likely be the case. I think in that circumstance, it would be ideal to have two layers of firebrick between the coalbed and the water jacket, this would insulate the coalbed and allow more complete combustion.

Cool

Looks like I might build this due to the versatility of being usable for wood or coal... But probably twice as big..... As I've posted elsewhere, I need some giant BTUs..........

Good stuff.........

Will it also burn anthracite ok? I see you burn bituminous coal............

I think the hollow air filled angled baffle with air holes is genius, I bet the flames in front of the baffle's holes are pretty spectacular !

Greg L

.[/quote]

This baffle thing has had me thinking of nothing else. I want to make sure I get it right the first time for the boiler I am building. Can you be more specific on details?

Wayne

I love your stove design K.I.S.S. simple. I will start mine as soon as I get back from a trip. Alot of questions.
Could you post some pictures of your shaker system? I'm sure it's simple but I'm just not gettin it.
It looks like you used 10 lb. plate, would you go thicker in any areas?
I will probably have the main stove body 'broke' up rather than use the angle iron corners, do you see any assembly problems with this, particuarly the shaker system?
The top of the stove looks a little crowded, is it fine as is or would you use a larger box/top or maybe an oval flue takeoff?
Is the glass door worthwile or constantly black(bit coal)?
Could I get away with using my current class 6" 'A' flue for this season, even if it meant using wood only; as I am currently doing? (my current wood stove is too small anyway)
Have you considered adding a Domestic Hot Water coil? It seems like it might tuck in nicely below the hollow baffle.
I'm sure our insurance companys would have a cow if they saw this. I am thinking about a permanant 11 ga. heat shield wraping the sides and back, and one on the bottom.
Any general changes you would make now that you have lived with it for a while?
What do we call it? How bout,'The Berlinator', 'The Bitatron', 'Igotacoalstoveandyouronawaitinlistfor2years'.

I'm off on a hunting trip, hope to reply back soon. I'll figure the weight of this beast while I'm gone.

Thanks, Josh

Hi cool plans,

I'm wanting to build a stove for my boat, its a grp 25' job.
I have aquired some tube, 10" dia and about 1/4" wall, I also have some tube 8" 1/4" wall, and top and base plate 10mm thick.
I was planning to weld the 2 pieces of tube, to the base and top plate, with a swing door on the front sealed around the edges by flat bar, that does ash removal and loading combined.
I was thinking of filling the cavity betweeent the 2 tubes with sand as an insulator instead of fire bricks, my flu could be 2 inch car exhaust pipe, a secondary air system if benefiacial could be fabbed from some hydraulic tube.
for fuel I'd like to use charcoal or non bituminous coal.
Has anyone any comments on this idea.
Sean.

I think a 2 inch flue would be too small. You might want to consider 4 inches or more depending on the size of the firebox.