Finally found someone with enough speed to upload a video. Stuart filming.
Shot near Geelong. Tom driving. SWMBO and me on the kids’ cart. Ange supervising. The safety valves blowing off some steam. Not much smoke from the Welsh steaming coal.
It is the depths of winter here in southern Oz. I know that is difficult for you northern hemisphere types to realise, but here at present we have frosts when we get up, and the workshop is just too cold to do anything productive after about 4pm.
And the tooling surfaces rust up in front of my eyes.
So I decided to make a wood burning heater for my workshop.
The workshop is 7m x 13m. Not lined or insulated. Just a tin shed.
Electricity supply is dodgy and expensive. And I dont want to suck power away from my CNC machines. Bottled gas is very expensive… about $AUD20-25 per day.
But I have plenty of trees dropping dead branches.
So I decided to make a wood burning heater.
Parameters…..
Not occupying much floor space. No wall space available.
Able to be removed in warm-hot months (it gets up to 110 fahrenheit / 45celcius in summer.
So this is what I have come up with. I had some 220mm dia pipes left over from a building job. That would be the body of the heater.
The footprint is 300x400mm. It is 1600mm high. There is an ash pan under the grate. The air intake (hidden) and flue are placed to encourage swirling in the pipe, and maximise heat transfer to the body of the heater. The top is closed with a heavy plate. I plan to add a proximity rail.
The heater is now finished, and I will do a test burn tomorrow. If it works as hoped, I will post a video.
And totally unexpectedly, I have bought a model traction engine. It feels a bit strange to buy rather than build, but here it is.
1500mm long. Deceased estate, never run on steam. Beautifully made. based on a steam engine which was used to power a sawmill. ? 3″ scale. Needs boiler re-certified.
I will make a ride on driver’s trailer, and a kids ride on trailer. I really have caught the steam disease.
johnsmachines 