How to Build a Wood Burning Stove

In this time of high energy costs, people are seeking for alternative ways to heat their home. One way that has worked well for centuries is heating your house with wood. If you cannot afford to buy a wood stove to hear your home, you need not worry. Build your own.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. Find a discarded electric water heater at your local dump or transfer station. One that has a 30 to 50 gallon capacity works well.

2. Examine the inside of the tank before you try to convert it into a wood stove. You want to make sure the inner tank is free of rust or corrosion. To access this inner layer, you will have to take off the steel "wrapper." You can either do this at the transfer station or at home.

3. Set the electric water heater tank on its side on your work surface, and weld on legs. Turn the stove over, and cut off a portion of the top of one end of the heater. Turn it upside down and weld it back in place as you make a wood burning stove.

4. Weld vertical sides and flat portion of steel on top of the "upside down" piece to create a flat cook surface as well as an air channel inside the wood stove. Cut a hole near the back of the upside down piece where the air will enter the air channel. By doing this, you force the hot gases inside the stove to flow forward through the stove, thus heating more of the stove and the room around it.

5. Drill a hole near the back of the stove top and make a cover that is attached to a steel rod so that you can open and close the air through the air channel as needed. When you are lighting the burning wood stove you made, you don't want the air traveling forward through the air channel to hamper your efforts.
   Create a damper near the intake of the stove that you can control as needed.

6. Allow air to enter the stove from an outside source as you build a wood-burning stove. Have a hole near the bottom back of the stove through which air from the outside will enter through a pipe. This is important, for you don't want to the stove to draw air through the windows and doors of the house, thus forcing the stove to heat the air inside the house as well as the outside as well. By having the necessary air directly piped in from the outside into the stove, you also lessen the risk of depriving yourself and your family of necessary oxygen. Have this intake controlled by a lever.

7. Have the gases from the stove escape through the chimney pipe which is located near the upper back portion of the stove. Install a damper in the chimney pipe as well.

8. Finish the stove by spraying it with stove paint of the color you choose. This will help to preserve the metal.