Homemade Double Wall Wood Stove

Basic Wood Stoves

• A homemade wood stove is a relatively simple do-it-yourself project if you have the right tools and metalworking skills. The stove is basically a metal box large enough to hold several logs, with walls thick enough to contain the fire. A stovepipe vents smoke out through your home's chimney, and a door allows access for adding fuel and removing ash. An old water heater or fireplace insert can serve as the basis for a homemade wood stove, or you can build one from scratch.

Construction Process

• Constructing a wood stove involves welding the various components in place. The flue opening, which allows smoke out of the highest point in the stove, must be cut to a size large enough to handle the smoke but small enough to create pressure for an upward draft. The size of the door depends on the size of the logs you plan to burn. Adding legs and a heat shield to the back of the stove will protect your wall and floor from heat damage.

Double Wall Pipes

• One area where it might be useful to use a double wall design in your wood stove is in the stovepipe, which carries hot, smoke-filled air out of your home. The stovepipe can reach very high temperatures; and since it must exit through a wall or the ceiling, it can't always have the same clearance around it as the stove itself. A double wall stovepipe can be placed closer to walls since it contains more of the heat that passes through it. Building a double wall stovepipe consists of rolling sheet metal into a tube and welding the seam shut, then wrapping it in another layer of metal and welding that seam as well.

Masonry Walls

• Another option for a double wall wood stove is a unit that includes a metal firebox and an exterior masonry housing. The housing, which you can build with lime-based mortar and either bricks or stones, will retain heat even after the fire is extinguished. While this type of double wall stove will take longer to heat your room initially, it will radiate the warmth slowly into your home.