The First lighting of a test fire in the 44 Gallon drum stove was eagerly awaited. What would happen? How would it burn? Would the oven be smoke proof?
Some success, but several issues too, were to follow…
Ethan lights the first fire
This was the easy part.
Smokey start!
Air flow through the flue didn’t seem to be sufficient. The doors sealed better than I’d imagined. Issue 1 – more airflow needed. Holes in doors?
Green flame on copper flue
With the door open, the fire burned well, and hot. The green flames around the copper flue looked interesting.
Fire burning strongly with door open
Bigger logs got the fire burning hot.
Ooops! Solder gives way at top of flue, too hot!
Too hot it seemed for the soft solder holding the chinamans hat top for the flue together. Issue 2 – higher temp solder or mechanical joints?
It's getting hot in there!
So we enjoyed the fire into the evening…
Ethan likes to stoke the flames
Sitting around the open door of the fire was a nice warm way to spend the evening.
Next day issue 3 became clear. The high temp putty used to seal the flue failed, too hot! This means the oven isn’t smoke tight yet.
So there’s a chinamans hat to fix, holes to drill in doors and a sealing method for the oven to be devised. All good fun to fill the summer before we get to next winter. Should allow for some wood collection in the meantime.
Brian.
Tags: 44 gallon drum, oven, stove, wood fired
Could you seal the flue using soft metal flashing? It might be hard to get it air tight though.