Where there's smoke...

Not much has been happening in the way of framebuilding recently, as the lack of updates on the blog might suggest. It's been damn cold and rainy in Blackwood recently, and nights spent pottering in the shed are uncomfortable to say the least. I needed a heater, and I made one.



It's an old industrial water tank - 1/4" plate all the way through. Welded internally between the top and bottom doors is a round grate, and there is another round plate welded to the bottom to cap it off.



The air control system uses a sliding plate over three corresponding holes in the airbox so I can regulate the air going into the stove. It seems to work quite well.



The door latch and handle were bodged up out of scrap. The latch bit itself is brass brazed into the end of a seatstay offcut. Just like making up a plate dropout! There's a length of stainless steel spring silver brazed over the chainstay to form the handle.



I fired it up on the driveway this afternoon. The inside of the tank is coated in some kind of epoxy sealant, so I wanted to give it a good hot burn in the open air to get rid of it. So far it seems to work perfectly. I'll weld some legs on it and then connect it up to the existing flue in the shed. Hopefully I'll be toasty warm this weekend. Expect to see a bit more action.