Hobby

[Chad Fabry]

I started building another wood burning "boiler" this past weekend. I'm posting pics just in case anyone's interested.

The fire chamber on this one is 24 inches across, 42 inches high and five feet long. It weighs 1700 lbs and is 1/2" thick.

The tank is 3/8" and I treated myself to new materials for a change. The tank weighs 1800 lbs. The fire chamber and tank are all welded up now even though they're not in the pics.

So far it's taken 40 lbs of rod. One pass w/ AC to fill and then two passes DC reverse polarity to be sure it's water proof. I'll post some progress pics when I get the fire chamber in the tank.

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[kurt]

Ummmm, whaddaya gonna do w/it? Are you going to build a river boat w/ a paddlewheel?

[Chad Fabry]

It'll heat my home and domestic water. It'll be about a hundred and fifty feet from the house and I pump the water from the boiler to a heat exchanger in my furnace plenum.

The combustion air blower will kick on @ 120 degrees of water temp, burn a hot, fast, furious fire until water temp is 200 and then shut off combustion air. If boiler temps fall below a hundred, the combustion air also shuts down because that means the fire is out and there's no point blowing icy winter air through the heat exchanger. An added benefit will be to my cats that live in the barn because they'll be able to snuggle up to the expansion tank.

The last unit I built was 1600 gallons and it's currently heating the home and shop of my sister and brother in law. This time I made the boiler capacity less and will store 600 gallons of the heated water in my basement. The heat loss off the tanks will be better used inside my home instead of outside.

[Brian G]

I know squat about boilers, but you've got big fuzzy ones to go for a project like that Brother Fabry.

Kudos!

Brian G.

There's Do It Yourself, and Then There's Do It Yourself for Real [:-thumbu]

[kurt]

I would love to see some pic's of this puppy when it's up & running. Keep us all posted; it's worthy.

[Bill Kibbel]

Now if I tried something like that, it would look like Red Green's handywork. The first firing would then blow up Possum Lodge. FIRE IN THE HOLE!

[Terence McCann]

Is that ASME rated? []

[Chad Fabry]

One thing I'm not is a risk taker when it comes to containing heated, or possibly, super heated water. The system is open to atmosphere.

When I was a kid and I read about the expansion rate of water when it turns to steam, a friend and I welded up a gallon of water in a 4 inch pipe. We then put it in a big fire and watched from what we thought was a safe distance. After an hour or so we went inside because we figured the container was too strong to burst. As we were watching tv we were surprised to hear and feel the explosion which literally knocked things off the walls in our cottage. It was the first in a summer long series of entertaining explosions.

[chrisprickett]

Originally posted by Chad Fabry

One thing I'm not is a risk taker when it comes to containing heated, or possibly, super heated water. The system is open to atmosphere.

When I was a kid and I read about the expansion rate of water when it turns to steam, a friend and I welded up a gallon of water in a 4 inch pipe. We then put it in a big fire and watched from what we thought was a safe distance. After an hour or so we went inside because we figured the container was too strong to burst. As we were watching tv we were surprised to hear and feel the explosion which literally knocked things off the walls in our cottage. It was the first in a summer long series of entertaining explosions.

As an American, I'm glad you're on OUR side! I've seen some evidence of what damage superheated steam can do, from my Navy days. T'aint pretty.

[kurt]

Chad, we are simply going to have to get together someday & share our childhood explosion stories.

To this day, I still wonder how my parents could let me have unfettered access to gasoline, fireworks, gunpowder, & oxy-acetylene....

[Paul MacLean]

To state the obvious...isn't that why there are T&P valves on water heaters??? [:-bigeyes

[Chad Fabry]

Chad, we are simply going to have to get together someday & share our childhood explosion stories.

Screw that. Let's get together and blow stuff up.

To this day, I still wonder how my parents could let me have unfettered access to gasoline, fireworks, gunpowder, & oxy-acetylene....

What always amazed me as a 14 year old kid: I could go to the sporting goods store and buy three pounds of Green Dot gunpowder, but they wouldn't sell me a Swiss Army knife unless my mother was with me.

[hausdok]

It ain't the same anymore guys,

My nephew and a friend got stupid, went into a bowling alley bathroom, mixed drano and water in a plastic soda bottle, capped it and split. The thing blew up before they cleared the building and he ended up getting charged with manufacturing explosives under some new terrorist statute.

Just a kid doing something stupid, but now it's terrorism and not a prank. Hell, it probably isn't even wise to talk about blowing stuff up here, because of the government program that reaches out and grabs key words off the net. This thread has probably already earned itself a place in an FBI computer someplace.

Like I said, it ain't the same anymore.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[kurt]

Yeah, it ain't the same anymore. Can you imagine letting your kid go out nowadays w/a couple sidearms & 150 rounds to shoot @ bottles in the local dump?

[Jim Katen]

Originally posted by kurt

Chad, we are simply going to have to get together someday & share our childhood explosion stories.

To this day, I still wonder how my parents could let me have unfettered access to gasoline, fireworks, gunpowder, & oxy-acetylene....

I set fire to our house twice before I was twelve.

The other day, one of my boys accidently set fire to our front porch.

I'm so proud.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

[chrisprickett]

My brother and I burnt up the neighborhood woods at ages 5 & 4. He also set our house on fire twice.

We used to throw .22 shells into a burning 55 gal drum, and see who would flinch first.

My oldest brother took a deer arrow in the shin holding a hay bale while his friend took target practice.

We also used to shoot squirrels with bows and bb guns in the town park.

Ya just can't have fun anymore!

[Jim Baird]

The only thing it looks to me like you need is a custom built plywood drip pan like the kind they make down in Mississip!

[Brian G]

Originally posted by Jim Baird

The only thing it looks to me like you need is a custom built plywood drip pan like the kind they make down in Mississip!

Now you're talking! Hey Chad, send me a copy of your blueprints and I'll put something together for ya. [:-dopey]

Brian G.

Prince of the Plywood Pan [^]

[Richard Moore]

While on the subject of Chad's hobbies, I thought he might enjoy this...

World's fastest hay ride?

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I'm still a bit jet-lagged after 3½ weeks in Italy, but my "fair and balanced" report is that everything sure is old but very pretty. Will post some "home inspection" photos later.

[Garcha]

.22 cal and Aluminum bat...in the basement[:-dunce] some how we all walked away. We used to make pipe bombs until we split the meighbors tree in half. Dropped a 1/4 stick and didn't move fast enough. My brother ended up wearing his Camaro dad was pissed about the yard. I never liked Rubbarb anyway. Ahh the good old days.

You know the reason noone would invade The USA is because there are so many nuts with guns and explosives and will laugh at the chance to use them. Now that is Home land security.[:-splat]

[Les]

Just because I am a "well known" book collector, I will let the photos do the talking.

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[hausdok]

Hi,

Yeah, I used to have that TM. I spent a bunch of time at Bragg during 1989 in the 18C Q-course. With conventional explosives I can pretty much give you a customized boom-boom as big or small as you want, from simple door entry to bridge and building take-down. There's also some amazing stuff they teach you down there about making field expedient explosives and incendiaries of all sorts. Then you've got to sign a document that says you'll not reveal it to anyone outside DOD channels. Where the hell is the fun in that?

Sorry Chad, guess we blew this thread a little off course.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Chad Fabry]

I come here to learn and to be entertained. So far it's working for me.

[kurt]

This is very entertaining. Kind of trivializes all these safety recommendations we make as home inspectors.

I mean, here we are advising folks to repair a stair riser or bump in the sidewalk, & we all got through childhood's full of explosives, guns, & incendiary activity.

What I really long for are the days when you could get dynamite @ the local lumberyard; I guess I'm an incurable romantic.......

[chrisprickett]

CAUTION... more thread drift. Mt boy turned 4 a few weeks ago. I bought him one of those electric motorcycles from Fisher-Price. It actually has 4 wheels and goes about 5 mph. I sent the following pic to my family members.

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With the responses I got back, you have thought I strapped a rocket to his a$$ and shot him to the moon! My mother-in-law will barely talk to me! (maybe not such a bad thing)

This PC safety crap is getting out of hand. At my daughter's school, they sent home a memo regarding swing safety. Among the no-no's were twisting and spinning, jumping off the swing, and children pushing other children. I'm waiting for the "helmet required" memo!