Flu and intake location/sizing, 'custom' Fisher stove

To make a small woodstove for my tinyhouse, I have cut the front portion off of an old fisher(I think a 'baby bear') woodstove.

The internal dimensions of the 'new' stove will be 14" tall, 13-5/8" wide, 8" deep.

The lower sides and bottom will have firebrick, as they did in original form; this reduces the width to about 10" and the height to about 12". I think I will do without firebrick at the back as depth is already quite shallow.

I currently intend to put the flu at the top of the right side, and a cold air intake at the bottom of the left side. This will keep the top clear for cooking and keep the back clear of ducting so that the stove fits well against a wall.

I intend to add a baffle a bit below the top, about where the firebrick stops, forcing the air to travel to the left side to get past the baffle and reach the flu. Baffle would slope up as it goes from right to left.

A secondary air intake (pipe with small holes drilled in it) will be located near the edge of the baffle. Likely I will weld this pipe along the back of the stove en route so it will be somewhat preheated.

I am waffling a bit on pipe size and a air intake sizing. Suggestions?

Any obvious horrible flaws?

I won't be welding it back together until I get a better welder, or persuade this goddamned POS readywelder to behave better, so not too late for major changes..

Dillon Nichols wrote:I have cut the front portion off of an old fisher(I think a 'baby bear') woodstove.

Any obvious horrible flaws?

Yes. Cutting up a Fisher.

Dillon Nichols wrote:
I am waffling a bit on pipe size and a air intake sizing. Suggestions?

From Papa Bear on down, they all took 6 inch pipe or flue. I have the flu. The intake size? Should be adjustable. Fishers never took a damper. They relied on the adjustable intake only. Are you reusing the door? If so, that should be all you need for an intake.

They all have air intake through the door. They also have a deflector plate below the outlet to redirect the gases back into the fire to give it a second burn and to prevent sparks and flame from going right into the thin stove pipe.

A pic or two would help or some drawings even. I'm having a hard time envisioning or figuring out exactly what you're trying to do by modding the stove. Just trying to make it tiny-er? The somewhat historical and definitely collectible stove. They were designed quite well and are bad ass wood stoves which is why they remained popular and some company has actually started reproducing them. I could see wanting to move the outlet from the back to the top. I hate horizontal stove pipe as it always fills up with creosote. In that case, I would take a piece of stove pipe, squish one end into a short wide oval and use it to draw a cut line on the top of the stove. Something like a 3"x10" oval maybe. That wouldn't take up too much of the top even if centered. A graphics program would make a better oval, starting with the circle. A piece of stove pipe a few inches long would work good too.

I think I would have sold the Fisher and bought a tiny stove. Since you're experimenting and planning on putting it close to the wall, get yourself an infrared gun type thermometer so you can check surface temperatures of things, like the wall. Also, a piece of sheet metal, like corrugated roofing makes a good heat shield between a stove and a wall. btdt Space it a couple inches off the wall or the mount it an inch or two off the stove.

Sorry, I'm a Fisher fan.

I was quite unimpressed with the tiny stove prices, and also how square most of them are. It's already a lot of extra cuts to produce 9.5" firewood to suit this stove, going down to 6" to suit a Grizzly sounds awful! The Grizzly is at least sort of reasonably priced, the other contenders were all over 1k by the time they get to Canada.. but it didn't exist when I first started on this project.

The Fishers are cheap around here, most everyone needs an insurable stove. This one belonged to a now deceased friend; when the house changed hands it had to be replaced for insurance reasons. I like the idea of keeping it going in a new form, blasphemous as it may seem.

I hope to end up with a RMH or masonry stove setup in my eventual larger dwelling; for uninsulated shop space, I will actually seek a larger stove for occasional use. And since it had little cash value ove scrap as far as I could tell...

Hope the pics clarify what's left of her. The back of the stove will be exactly where the start of the slope was, so I've removed perhaps 2/3rds the interior space, and the flu attachment on rear.

I have a temp gun, and will definitely pay close attention to baffling behind the stove.