Home-Built Wood Furnace Heats His Machine Shed

Home-Built Wood Furnace Heats his Machine Shed WOOD STOVES/FURNACES Wood Stoves/Furnaces (20L) 22-1-39 "It puts out considerably more heat than our old barrel-type wood burner. You can work comfortably in coveralls on days when the temperature outside is 0 degrees," says John Hemingway about a wood-burning furnace he built to heat his 50 by 90-ft. machine shed. The Hindsboro, Ill., farmer used a 250-gal. anhydrous ammonia tank for the firebox. He installed a door in one end of the 30-in. dia. tank and used flat iron to make legs that he welded to the tank. A length of 8-in. dia. stove pipe takes smoke out one end of the tank and directs it up to a flue made from 8-in. dia. steel pipe. The heavy steel flue radiates heat into the shop. A 30-gal. tank on a stand behind the furnace trickles waste oil onto the wood to start the fire. A simple valve in a pipe that runs from the tank to the top of the stove controls the flow of oil. "We shut the faucet off as soon as we get a good hot fire going," Hemingway says. To haul wood to the furnace, Hemingway built a 6-ft. long by 3-ft. wide two-wheel cart. The frame is built out of scrap pipe and fitted with wheels off a junked weed mower. "It'll hold 1/3 cord of wood so it comes in pretty handy with our big shop furnace," Hemingway says. Out-of-pocket expense for the furnace was only about $40. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, John Hemingway, 2126 E. Co. Rd. 300 N., Hindsboro, Ill. 61930 (ph 217 346-2237).

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