Excellent Portable Wood Burner Ideas

C

coote

Joined
Apr 3, 2006
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I came across freely downloadable plans for making a charcoal-producing stove at World Stove:
http://worldstove.com/album/your-versions-of-the-everythingnice-stove/

I built one, and it sure burns nicely.
StoveLit4.jpg


I was attracted to this type of stove because it is a relatively safe, simple, efficient and smoke-free wood burner. And more recently I've come across references to how wonderful it might be to return charcoal to the soil. This evidently can lock up carbon out of the carbon cycle for hundreds of years, thus reducing C02 in the atmosphere. And it is said that charcoal in the soil can do amazing things for soil fertility. If you want to learn more you could search the internet for 'biochar' and 'terra preta'. The possiblilities are very positive and exciting.

I have written up a complete blog on how I made my stove. I wrote this for the new New Zealand site, Bushcraft.org.nz which currently has a competition running for the best tutorial submitted. Here is the link:
http://bushcraft.org.nz/profiles/blogs/making-an-efficient-portable

I heartily recommend this type of stove. Best wishes.... Coote.
 
Those things are neat. I'm going to have to follow the winning tutorial and make one for myself.

Are there any commercial versions of these out there?
 
I made one from a pineapple can. I took a flathead screwdriver and poked 3 series of holes within about 2 inches of the bottom of the can, and made a wire hangar grate for the top. A PJCB, a match and twigs in the bottom will allow you to cook a hot dog, a burger, a cup of coffee, water or soup efficiently and costs you nothing but junk. Plus, it doesn't weigh anything...
 
coote said:
This evidently can lock up carbon out of the carbon cycle for hundreds of years, thus reducing C02 in the atmosphere.
Click to expand...

why do you want to do that, do you hate plants? do you want them to suffocate like a fish out of water? :eek:

or do you buy all the crap about CO2 being a greenhouse gas when it's only a small percentage if the atmosphere and water vapor is the most significant greenhouse gas.

the stove looks neat, but if i'm understanding part of your reasoning for using it correctly, it seems highly flawed to me. :rolleyes:
 
Cool, Stephen, It looks really useful. Thanks for sharing.

:thumbup:

:D
Mark
 
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fixer said:
why do you want to do that, do you hate plants? do you want them to suffocate like a fish out of water? :eek:

or do you buy all the crap about CO2 being a greenhouse gas when it's only a small percentage if the atmosphere and water vapor is the most significant greenhouse gas.

the stove looks neat, but if i'm understanding part of your reasoning for using it correctly, it seems highly flawed to me. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

well said! :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
 
Of course, if I make a bigger one, I could always put the charcoal into my charcoal bag for the smoker!!

Works for me.

Doc
 
fixer said:
why do you want to do that, do you hate plants? do you want them to suffocate like a fish out of water? :eek:

or do you buy all the crap about CO2 being a greenhouse gas when it's only a small percentage if the atmosphere and water vapor is the most significant greenhouse gas.

the stove looks neat, but if i'm understanding part of your reasoning for using it correctly, it seems highly flawed to me. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I think the above was not really helpful. So to put things on a more positive roll, many of us use charcoal for our forges and for the grill. It is an excellent soil amendment as well. Ever notice how well the grass grows in old burns . It is not just the wood ash. So regardless of the reason for producing charcoal, it is useful stuff to diy, and to do it without a giant plume of smoke is easier on the neighbors and on people like myself with lung disease.
 
Storl: I understand that there may be commercial versions available although I haven't looked into them. World Stove list some on their website:
http://worldstove.com/products/

Fixer: I honestly don't know much about global warming, and I am certainly not convinced that any temperature rise is due to man's activity (and I do give some credence to the conspiracy theory regarding regulations and carbon tax). But I do know that we have burned a lot of fossil fuel and have returned a lot of Co2 to the atmosphere. I also know that there are a heckuva lot less forested areas around now which would be using the CO2 and locking it up in their structure. So I figure that it doesn't hurt to be locking up some carbon while at the same time enriching the soil. The stove is still a beautiful device.
 
I'd certainly like to give that a try Bhamster. (I'd need a bigger backpack of course :) ). I've built a few woodburners, including one I had installed in a home for around 20 years.... I even got a permit from the local authority to be able to install it legally. One problem I see with this type of gasifier stove is that it is difficult to keep on stoking it if you need it to burn longer than just one load of wood will allow. So a big oil drum version could be good for some applications (plus making heaps of charcoal for my forge or whatever). I'd love to have one attached to the house for cooking and heating domestic water.

Unfortunately I live in an area where I am no longer permitted to have a woodstove in my house. This is due to clean air rules. I'm used to the idea now, but when the law first came in I was a bit upset. Fires have been part of our life since the beginning of time really, and wood is the only fuel that grows on trees. So the building of a big version is out of the question for me given current rules.... in my neighborhood anyway.

I think our rules allow for wood-fired barbeques to be used during certain months, so I can play with fire a bit in my backyard.

It is great that if you use dry wood in these little gasifiers, and use them carefully, there is no smoke for anybody to see or complain about. And while man may have nothing at all to do with rising temperatures, it is good to have the 'environmentally friendly' stamp of approval on these stoves as ordinary folk like us want to still use fire for various things.

I have been going regularly to a camp in a fairly isolated part of the country. As far as I know we are still allowed fires there. I reckon it would be great to have an oil-drum sized burner set up as a water heater for a shower and dish washing, and to produce charcoal to bring home for a forge or whatever. Good idea. Might just do it some time.
 
People forget how polluting wood stoves can be. I lived in a small town in a rural area where wood stoves were ubiquitous and the quality of the air was pretty poor once every one had their stove going in the winter. It was real pea soup stuff and a great contributor to what people in that little area called the winter hack. I remember seeing catalytic converters for wood stoves 20 years ago made by cornell glass, I dont know if they are still used or were effective even then but worth looking in to.
 
Yeah... I'm hoping that we will get some acceptable technology that will enable us to have wood stoves in built up areas once again. Mind you, we've just built a new house to the new set of rules which require significant insulation and double glazing. Our heating requirements are a lot less than previously.
 
wow, i like it.

i like it a lot.

i think i'll have to make one and stash it in my car.
 
Good idea Sambo. Actually one of the best demo videos I've found showing one of these stoves was apparently made by one of your countrymen. In the video he cooks some kangaroo steak and it appears that he is actually using the stove in his kitchen. Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ys5IUE2Xg0
 
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