How to make a wood burning stove with your own hands - features and varieties

If the sauna stove is heated with wood or coal, a fuel storage area must be arranged in the building. The same category includes temporary storage, even their portable versions. Such devices must meet a number of requirements.

What are fire boxes for?

The firebox is needed to store the required amount of fuel and to protect it. The stove is melted, and even more so the fireplace, only with dry logs. Wet wood burns much worse, generates less heat, creates a lot of smoke. It is not always possible to dry wood in front of each firebox.

The firebox is an extension, a niche, a section in which the logs are stored dry. To some extent, a tree left in the fresh air also absorbs moisture, but much less than logs left in the rain or snow. In addition, with proper stacking of firewood, the latter are dried by wind and sun, which provides the bathhouse attendant with suitable fuel all year round.

Firewood storage requirements

In order for the wood-burning device to perform its functions with its own hands, it must meet certain requirements.

• Protection from direct rain or snow - canopy, roof on the extension. The dimensions of the canopy should be much larger than the wood-burning unit itself, since it is also necessary to protect it from slanting rain.
• Ventilation - the device is located on the leeward side, the side walls are usually made lattice so that the wind blows on the logs from all sides.
• Drying - Ideally, the woodshed is divided into 2 sections. In one, the firewood is stacked for long-term storage, in the other it is arranged in a more free order so that the sun illuminates them during the day. In this way, the wood is brought back to the desired state - moisture content in the range of 20-25%.
• Ease of use - the logs are stacked in rows so that the height does not exceed a certain value. Otherwise, it will be inconvenient to pull out the firewood.

A high street firebox with your own hands can drown out sounds.

What are they built of

You can make a comfortable and beautiful wood burning stove out of metal and wood. The rest of the options - brick, lightweight concrete, are not suitable, since they cannot provide sufficient air circulation in the building. There is no need to build a capital device to store logs.

Metal firebox for summer cottages

A stationary firewood is erected from a profile pipe, channel, mesh. It is better to take galvanized pipes, as they do not lend themselves to rust. The net is strong enough to hold firewood and provides excellent ventilation. The mesh should be painted to protect it from corrosion.

An aluminum profile is often used, since it is lighter. In addition, aluminum is flexible and more ductile, such a log can be given an unusual shape.

Iron structures with forged parts can be very beautiful. Such a product serves as a decoration for the yard and premises inside the bath.

Wooden firebox for summer cottages

Wood firebox is more popular. Wood is easy to process, strong, lightweight, beautiful, durable. At the same time, for construction, you can take the most wasteful material and even an improvised one.A firewood is made from boards, modules, cuttings of a trunk, timber, pallets.

The firebox must be ventilated. The exception is small cells, usually of a complex shape, where the logs are located as freely as possible.

The wooden version can be decorated with carvings, overhead metal parts.

For a canopy or roof, take slate, galvanized sheet, profiled sheet. You can use polycarbonate, wood tiles.

Varieties of wood burning boxes used indoors

There are street and indoor models. The first ones are located next to a bathhouse or a house, most often they are attached. The latter are installed inside the house. Their volume is less, since the main stock of firewood is stored on the street. And here they leave the volume required for the current heating.

Indoor models of wood burning stoves for a private house are divided into 2 categories.

• Stationary stands are a kind of open shelving or niche in the wall. The first can be built at any time, the second is planned during the development of the project. They try to decorate the storehouses in the house beautifully: use a more expensive tree, order a forged structure, use unusual materials.
• Mobile fire boxes represent a kind of basket. It can really be woven from a vine with your own hands. There are other options: a fragment of a barrel with a handle and stand for convenient placement, a round sheet of metal with a handle. Graceful forged models are also produced.

Portable fire boxes are very compact. Logs are placed here for 1 firebox.

Where is it better to build

Stationary street buildings are divided into 2 types: a freestanding dry wood firebox and an attached one. The first is a canopy with a raised floor, for the second, the wall of the main building, barn or bath becomes the supporting structure. They have different placement requirements.

The freestanding option is best placed on a hill. Moisture accumulates in the lowlands: this leads to dampness of the firewood and to rotting of the firebox itself. The place is needed so that the building does not cast a shadow on the beds with sun-loving plants and does not interfere with movement.

The distance from the wood-log to the bathhouse or the house should not exceed 4 m. Otherwise, it will be difficult to carry the logs.

An attached wooden firebox is built on the sunny side to ensure the drying of the logs. In areas with strong winds, it is preferable to put an annex from the north, where it will be protected from too strong a draft.

It is not recommended to attach the storage to a wooden house. This increases the fire hazard of the building.

Determination of the parameters and design of the firebox

The size of the building determines the required amount of fuel. If a residential building is heated with wood, the firebox should be very spacious. On average, heating 200 m² requires about 40 m³ of logs. If there is also a bath, add another 2-4 cubes. In this case, the minimum size of the woodpile is 20 m² with a height of 2 m.

If firewood is needed only for heating the bath, the area of ​​the compartment is reduced to 3 m² at the same height.

What tools are required

For construction, you will need the most common carpentry tools:

• drill or shovel for digging holes;
• saw - electric or hand. hacksaw for wood;
• hammer, pliers, screwdriver or screwdriver;
• tape measure, plumb line.

For a wood burning stove for a bath made of metal - iron, aluminum - you will need other tools.

Making a freestanding firebox

It is recommended to make a drawing so as not to be mistaken with the markup and the amount of required material.

1. Logs should not be stored on the ground or concrete area. Therefore, even a simple canopy should have a foundation. The simplest is performed - columnar. For this, pits are dug in the corners of the site, cuttings of asbestos-cement pipe are installed and concreted.
2. After the concrete has dried, the lower trim from the timber is attached.Plank boards, lay them with a gap of 3-5 cm. This is necessary for the free passage of air.
3. Corner posts are mounted from a bar or double boards according to the scheme. Fastened to metal corners. The top harness can be made immediately.
4. Walls should be lattice. In fact, they are several planks installed vertically or horizontally. In this case, it is very convenient to make a firebox from old pallets with your own hands, since they have a suitable structure.
5. The woodshed is equipped with a single or gable roof with a sufficient slope so that water and snow do not linger on the roof. It's easier to make a shed one. For her, it is enough to immediately plan a frame with different wall heights and put it directly on the upper rafter trim. Fasten them to the corners or by the tie-in method.
6. They lay the roof with ordinary boards, slate, profiled sheet.

Before construction, the timber and boards are treated with antiseptic solutions.

Experts recommend a diagonal arrangement of the planks, but in practice this is rarely the case.

Firewood stacking methods

In order for the firebox to perform its task, it is important to properly stack the logs in it. There are several ideas.

• Stack - firewood is stacked parallel to each other, in rows. This method requires a support wall. Place the logs at a slope towards it.
• Crate - firewood is placed perpendicular to each other in each row. This design is self-supporting. It is recommended to put heavier and thicker items down.
• Circular - the chocks are folded in a ring. First, lay out a circle, and then lay the logs perpendicular to the radius, making a slope inward. The second row is placed in the center of the resulting circle. In the middle, the logs are stored in random order. A wood stack is made on both a square and a round area.

Intricate compositions are often laid out of firewood, turning an ordinary woodpile into a decoration.