This is my coal stove

Steve,
No it only heats my shop when I peck around after work and on weekends. I had a wood burning 30 gauge barrel stove in here for years, but I can't leave well enough alone. I bought the "Flirt" and "Rose" off of a gentleman last year and decided to try my limited skills on the "Flirt", because it was in way worse shape than the latter.

Hmmm. A 55 gallon drum could be a monster sized version Joking aside, that is the coolest stove I've seen in quite a while, nice work man....

Thanks Lightning,
I was originally asking for help on how to run it. And apparently there is a lot to joke about, but I appreciate it, and thank you! I'm the new guy I get it.

JohnnyDanger wrote: ↑

Wed. Nov. 07, 2018 8:35 pm

Steve,
No it only heats my shop when I peck around after work and on weekends. I had a wood burning 30 gauge barrel stove in here for years, but I can't leave well enough alone. I bought the "Flirt" and "Rose" off of a gentleman last year and decided to try my limited skills on the "Flirt", because it was in way worse shape than the latter. As far as the grate is concerned; It came with none. I had to make one out of one of my beloved restored cast iron pans ( I can hear you laughing now). I drilled about 15, 1/2" holes underneath and scrub the bottom of it with a poker to empty the ashes.

You are very talented to see a grate in a skillet. That's the kind of stuff I enjoy seeing people do.

Very innovative ratrod stove. I bet there are some on here looking thru their fry pans right now for a thick one, not to mention using a stove pipe for the body. Even I could build something like this. Very neat and nice looking.

I have never heard of using chimney liner for a stove liner either. I am curious how that works/lasts long term.

Welcome Steve, nice job getting it running again.

Back to your question of running that stove.

First off, its small so don't expect it to heat a large uninsulated area in really cold weather. Size does matter.

Since you have a fire, you don't seem to need help getting it started. And since you've changed the grate design you'll have to stick with poking to clear ash since you have no way to shake the grate rotationally. Although, you'll have problems just poking from above once you get the firebed properly filled. More on that in a bit.

Unlike with wood, with all coal fires the primary air source is always feeding in under the firebed, through the four damper openings in the ash cleanout door.

You don't need much over fire air from the secondary damper openings in the bottom edge of the loading door. Exception to that is when you have fresh coal burning you'll need a bit more over fire air to help burn off the volatile gases that are being released during the "snap, crackle, and pop" stage. If they build up too much then can be explosive, from a simple puff back, to a loud explosion and parts flying off the stove,

Coal works best with a deep firebed to help retain heat within the bed to get the high temps needed to burn coal properly and thoroughly, plus put out a good amount of heat. That may make your ash scraping/clearing from above impossible.

You might think about cutting a hole in the side of the frypan inline with the "clinker door". It's that little door right below the front of the cylinder. It's purpose is for running a poker in over the top of the original type grates to break up any clinkers as they try to form from high heat, but are still at the crumbly stage. If you go poking ash from the top of the firebed - like you can with a wood fire - you'll form clinkers together when the hot coal embers are rather soft and get easily pushed together. Then the firebed will get choked for airflow and you'll have trouble keeping a good fire going.

Paul

The Godin stoves have a 22 gauge barrel, but protected by fire brick. Warm Morning barrels are also protected.

Stainless steel is far more resistant to heat than ordinary steel, there even have been oil burner combustion chambers built of it. I once replaced a cast iron baffle with stainless, and it held up far better than the cast which melted in the middle. This was with an oil fire of at least 2000 degrees, pure white flame.

I love your stove. A total beauty. I love how you used chimney flue as a cement liner.

I have a Nay Aug Stoveworks No. 10 from around 1885. I have attached a photo of it.

I have been running my stove for a couple of years now. I couldn't find any information about how to run a cylinder stove like ours, but I figured it out. If you have any questions, let me know.

Nice stove V.

JD, you may not have looked around at my own threads here yet but, there will be no laughing on my part. most of my "inventive process" is simply making what i have do what it wasn't meant for.

you are clearly a pretty bright guy and i applaud your efforts and hope you add updates as things progress.

steve

Paul,
Thank you so much for your informative reply. You articulated exactly what I was looking for. I do run the poker through the "clinker door" rubbing the bottom of the fry pan. I did cut out a scoop in front of the pan, to allow me to do just that. I have seen shaker grates, and my understanding is that you need to keep the very bottom of the burn pot clear of ash, in order to facilitate air flow. I do occasionally poke from underneath the fire pot, through the holes (90 degree angle poker) from the bottom air feed. The vents in the upper door where a complete mystery to me, and I thank you for the explanation.

How, on the other hand, do you think I should use my damper on the chimney pipe?

thanks in advance,
-John

JohnnyDanger wrote: ↑

Thu. Nov. 08, 2018 5:11 pm

Paul,
Thank you so much for your informative reply. You articulated exactly what I was looking for. I do run the poker through the "clinker door" rubbing the bottom of the fry pan. I did cut out a scoop in front of the pan, to allow me to do just that. I have seen shaker grates, and my understanding is that you need to keep the very bottom of the burn pot clear of ash, in order to facilitate air flow. I do occasionally poke from underneath the fire pot, through the holes (90 degree angle poker) from the bottom air feed. The vents in the upper door where a complete mystery to me, and I thank you for the explanation.

How, on the other hand, do you think I should use my damper on the chimney pipe?

thanks in advance,
-John

John,
The MPD restricts exhaust gas flow, therefore it helps slow the exhaust gas volume up the chimney. That gives the gas more time to transfer it's heat indoors, thus saving you fuel. The old timers called it "keeping heat in the stove".

Each stove, chimney system, and site, are unique, so you'll have to experiment by balancing the amount of primary opening to the MPD opening.

On such a small firebox stove in proportion to it's stove pipe cross section, you can likely use the MPD near to, or fully closed (letting it exhaust through the MPD plate holes and edge gaps), with the primary's open about 25%. If the stove seems like it should put out more heat try opening both a little at a time. You might want to write down what damper settings you try, and the temps it gives, until you find.

The best way to find and set coal stove dampers consistantly is to use a manometer plumbed into the stove pipe about a foot before the MPD and hooked up to the low pressure side of the gauge to show vacuum. Then use damper settings that give about a .01 to .02 WC (water column) reading. Most of us use the Dwyer Mark II manometer. Not expensive (Amazon.com) and very accurate. You can read up on "manos" here, Manometer Install

Paul