Time for bidding old wood stove adieu

Greetings from North Georgia,  I am Rico with a first post and plea for help.  Heating with wood and other sustainable efforts for 36 years now, some of that in off grid housing. I still cut and hand split all my wood, mostly oak pecan wild cherry.  Like many others here on Permies, I desire an Rmh ....but home insurance , one of those necessary evils,has thus far been my greatest impediment. Even our rmh guru Thomas Rubino only recently won that battle when shorty core was built inside.

As luck would have it, we are blessed by having 4 woodstoves. Our family most often gathers around the largest stove in the kitchen. I found it in the barn after I bought this house and 7 acres, free but it almost killed us carrying the beast indoors.  Dimensions are 30 inch by 20 by 20. With careful precision I can load a 32 inch log on a cold morning.  That almost means half the chainsaw work, though hand splitting become a bit tougher of course. Managing the fire and 25 feet of pipe is part of the family ethos so chimney fires don't worry us.

My question:  could I modify and improve this by removing the double doors and creating a hybrid of sorts? Perhaps use the shoebox core and have fire brick and cob to expand the front section to allow this? Maybe the existing space could be the first of two bells for stratification. I would gladly use smaller seasoned wood as part of my effort to burn cleanly and sustainably

Rico
Bill Mollison fan boy for 35 years

Darn autocorrect....bidding woodstove adieu

Thanks John, if battling autocorrect is beyond me how will I fare against AI?  Ha

Very simple ancient stove with some firebrick lining

Hi Rico
Welcome to Permies!
Matt Walker has answered a similar question about modifying an existing wood stove to make into an RMH.
Knowing first hand how awesome a properly built masonry heater works, I would highly recommend spending your time towards a full build from scratch rather than trying to make your wood gobbler slightly more efficient.

Hey Rico;
My battle about Shorty living in our home was not with the insurance company (they did not care how we heated with wood) but with my wife.
A very slow three-year push convinced her to let me build Shorty.
She remained skeptical throughout the build, and only after enjoying heating our home with bricks did she admit that this was indeed a better way!  

So, Yes, you could utilize that stove body, building a core inside, insulating it from the metal portion, and then venting it into a bell.
But only if you really like that stove. Otherwise, my choice would be to build a core; it really is easy.
Then build a brick bell around it.  I'm pretty sure Georgia has plenty of clay bricks available.

You will be blown away by radiant heat.
The hottest spot will be at the metal door, but the heat radiating from the bell is beyond belief.
Other than hand-pouring three refractory slabs and building the airframe, Shorty core herself is simple to build.
The first-generation Batchbox cores are even easier to build.

Just imagine NOT having to keep the stove burning, never needing to worry about creosote or a chimney fire, and not damping a stove down.
This is not heating with wood it is heating with bricks, and once you try it, you will never go back.

Y'all are full of it....wisdom, that is. Yes I agree it's time for this beast to heat my old barn or just a long rust filled retirement. Thanks for the advice and honest appraisal ... Gerry I  do see your point about hard work leading to minimal returns.  

Speaking of appraisals, our 1920 house and many others in the South are finding less options for homeowners insurance.  With each tornado , tropical storm or hurricane more companies pull out of our market area and find more profit elsewhere.  Sigh.  Helen was our Las big storm but months later families are still digging out.  Many places like Asheville NC might never be rebuilt.  So far my options are limited with 100 year old  pine structure deemed a risk and only conventional wood burners allowed by insurance; of course they add a hefty fee for that too, ha.

Will continue to explore ways to make a masonry stove in our house or at least find cleaner burning.  Wondering about installing a catalytic converter on stovepipe.  Anyone have experience with these for woodstoves?  Would love to try other alternatives

Another idea to get away from old style combustion in 4 separate rooms could be hydronics.  I would be using pex to create radiators in other rooms, then use an unpressurized water system and small pump to circulate water at 115 to 130 F.  I'd use a thermosiphon system to store 55 gallons in an insulated tank I already have, unpressurized as I said.  Bought a thermostat to blend our ice cold well water with hot ......back to the drawing board

Thanks again
Rico not-so-suave

To be honest, I  was aiming to redesign this stove not out of affinity but loathing; i am deathly afraid of picking up this monster again and return it to our barn.  Back in the mists of time, I was in better shape but it was an epic effort nonetheless. Next morning I could hardly hold a coffee mug.  My trigger finger issues started and hand surgery followed a few years later, ha. My three buddies helping were not so chipper either... one torn fingernail and a pulled muscle or three.

Thanks again for the insights