Hello my name is Andy, but everyone calls me Seddie.
I recently built my own wood stove out of a old fuel barrel. Essentially I built a platform to hold my grates and fire bricks. Installed a barrel wood stove kit for door, dampener and exit flange. I ran 1 1/2 dom tubing front to back through the burn chamber and welded front and back for a heat exchanger. Bent up a box to channel the air from a squirrel cage fan through the tubes.
It works ok most of the time, really hard to keep it up to temp unless its packed full of wood. Even then it kind of peters out every now and again. It also smokes through the door unless damper is wide open. I have a 6" chimney through the wall then vertical outside about 4' above roof line. I've added a additional intake opening 2" x 6" to try and help the burn drawing air up through the ashtray area.
Questions:
How do I determine the correct intake size?
Will it hurt to make my chimney taller? Is there a thing as too tall?
Plan to use 1 x 1 box tube manifold to add a secondary burner. Will that be big enough?
Will adding a deflector plate below the pipes help it holding temp?
Any help would be greatly appreciated in helping me dial this guy in. Right now I have like $150 bucks in materials, most were salvaged parts or scrap.
