Having set out to make a stove themselves, people often use improvised materials.

Wheel rims are great for building a heating structure - iron part of a car wheel. Thanks to quality and thickness of metal they are ideal for this purpose.

Advantages of a stove made from car rims

The advantages of such a stove are obvious:

• no need to spend money on materials;
• metal resistance to high temperatures and allows fire to use any type of fuel;
• many disk options will allow you to build a furnace of optimal size;
• the material has high heat transfer;
• the thickness of the metal increases the durability of the unit;
• quick and simple design of the device.

From rims You can make several types of heating structures:

Making a sauna stove with your own hands

The construction of a furnace includes preparation and the manufacturing process itself.

Use of truck wheels

If suddenly you only got rims from trucks, don’t worry - they are also suitable. A stove made from them will last even longer due to the thickness of the metal.

Important! Only steel wheels are used; light alloy wheels are not suitable for this purpose.

Necessary equipment

To build a heating unit you will need:

• 4 identical rims the right size;
• Bulgarian;
• welding machine;
• thick sheet of metal or furnace insert;
• legs (optional).

Scheme of a sauna stove made from KAMAZ rims, drawing

If you take wheels from trucks, for example, Kamaz, then with The service life of the device will increase two to three times. The essence of this design is that 4 The disks are installed on top of each other and fastened with a welding seam.

Photo 1. Drawing of a stove for a bath made of car rims. Includes firebox, heater, water heating tank.

First disc serves as a firebox: a window is cut out for storing fuel and a door is attached. Second disc serves as a heater. Third used as another heat exchanger, fourth is a tank for heating water.

If it is necessary to impart stability to the structure, metal legs are welded.

Preparation

Take the correct size wheel rims and clean them of any dirt, rust or flaking paint residue. For this roast them at the stake And brush over the metal. Decide which disk will be at the bottom of the structure. Make chalk markings for the combustion hole.

Furnace construction process

1. The lower two disks will serve as the combustion chamber and heater. For the firebox, cut out a window approximately 20 by 12 cm. It is important here not to cut close to the edges - step back from them along 2 cm, and the structure will not lose its strength. Next, a second disk is welded, and a grate is installed between them, on which the stones will be placed.
2. The water tank must be made airtight, so it is necessary to weld it to the disk bottom made of metal sheet. A water tap is installed on the side.

1. Next, all individual parts of the structure are welded together.
2. Place a stove insert or a plate cut from an iron sheet at the bottom of the combustion chamber.

That's all - the oven is ready. If desired, legs can be welded to it.

First make cuts along the intended contour, and then cut through to the end. Be sure to sand the edges of the cuts, so as not to get hurt.

Reference. Difficulties often arise when cutting a combustion hole. The metal is thick, and the disk constantly falls or turns. The advice is simple - use a vice. Clamp the disc into them and cut a hole.

Having completed the design work, it would be nice to paint the new stove heat resistant paint. But you can only paint cooled metal, so wait until the structure cools down. The black unit looks best.

How to make a stove from rims

Many craftsmen make wood-burning stoves and even boilers from thick-walled pipes. But often such a pipe becomes too expensive, while a couple of old car wheels may be at hand. In this case, you can get a wonderful stove from wheel rims, and we will tell you how to make it in this article.

What kind of stoves can be made from car rims?

On at the moment home craftsmen invented several types of iron stoves assembled from wheel rims. They can be divided by areas of application:

• heating;
• baths;
• for cooking, including barbecue.

These car parts are attractive primarily due to the thickness of the metal. Frame wood stove It won't take long for a steel wheel to burn out, especially if you take a wheel from a truck. The latter are usually used for the manufacture of sauna stoves, since they differ large sizes and metal thickness. For a sauna stove that often operates in extreme conditions, this is an important factor.

Discs from cars and commercial vehicles can make either a good wood-burning heater for the garage or a small barbecue stove. Let's look at them all in order.

Wood-burning heat generator welded from disks

The author of the stove shown in the photo below was inspired by the design of the famous Buleryan type heaters. Only the original costs a lot of money, but such a handmade product costs ten times less, provided that the household has 3 wheels from a UAZ or GAZelle. In addition, you will need some sheet metal and a pipe with a diameter of 100-150 mm, and also a short pipe Ø76 mm.

The most difficult thing is to cut out the inner part of the wheel rims. The grinder is not very convenient, and the metal is thick. A gas cutter is preferable, but if you don’t have one, then a grinder will do. Then, using a welding machine, the disks are hermetically joined, forming a housing. The rear part is covered with a metal sheet with a chimney pipe Ø100-150 mm welded to it. If desired, a draft control valve is installed on this pipe, as shown in the photo:

It is not necessary to make a draft control damper if you make a stove from wheel rims with an adjustable air supply. To do this, a pipe with an air damper with a spring-loaded axle is built into the front door. In addition, an additional plate is installed inside the firebox, dividing the space into 2 parts, as in the Buleryan. At the top there is a secondary chamber, into which the chimney pipe pipe is welded.

The furnace can take any diameter, length and orientation in space. It all depends on the number and size of disks, and also on your imagination.

Bath stove

Wheels from passenger cars are not suitable for making a sauna stove - they are too small. The author of the idea, whose diagram is shown below, used 4 old rims from a ZIL-130 truck. Located one above the other, each of them performs its own function:

• the first disk serves as a hood for the combustion chamber. As planned, the sauna stove has a small brick firebox with doors opening into the dressing room;
• the second rim is a heater;
• the third is an additional heat exchanger that takes the energy of the flue gases and transfers it inside the steam room;
• the fourth disk is a tank for heating water.

Note. You can do without a brick firebox by organizing one inside the first rim. But then the sauna will have to be heated from the steam room, and it’s more difficult to make tight-fitting doors in the disk housing.

All additional metal parts required to assemble the stove are shown in the following diagram. A self-made sauna stove works on the following principle: wood burning in the firebox gives off heat through its walls and rim No. 1 with a cut out bottom. It is welded with a second disc where the bottom is left in place so it can be filled with rocks. Inside, a pipe passes through them with the combustion products leaving and heating the heater.

Next, the pipe falls inside the third rim, where instead of the bottom a gas divider made of sheet metal is installed. Combustion products wash the divider, and the disk sauna stove gives off more heat, since this section plays the role of an economizer. Well, the last stage of cooling the flue gases takes place inside the 4th rim, turned into a tank with a lid and a water tap. As a result, the stove works no worse than factory copies, and in terms of durability it will surpass any of them.

Barbecue oven

This wonderful device is made from two rims from passenger car wheels. Although, if someone wants a bigger stove, then there are no restrictions: you can use wheels from a UAZ or GAZ-53. One of them has the bottom carefully cut out and then the rims are welded together.

In order for the unit to be securely installed on any surface, the legs are welded to the lower section, as shown in the photo. By the way, the hole for the hub must also be plugged, but the side holes can be left, air will flow through them into the firebox. To make it easier to carry, handles are welded to the outside of the body, and an opening for the door is cut in the side.

The latter is made from the same piece, mounted on hinges. That's it, the oven made from car rims for barbecuing and cooking is ready. As practice shows, it can accommodate 5 skewers with meat.

Advice. There is no need to throw away the cut-off bottom of the upper disk; it can serve as a stand for a small saucepan, kettle or frying pan.

Conclusion

After studying the essence of the issue, the conclusion suggests itself that making a stove from rims is a very simple matter. This is partly true, especially for people who are well acquainted with welding and metalworking work. Although in the case of a sauna stove you will have to tinker with the brickwork, and the installation in the steam room must be done correctly. Well, for those who are not yet friends with welding machine, there is a great opportunity to practice on the stoves.

Furnace made from rims

Hi all! So I decided to make a potbelly stove from scrap materials to heat the garage.

Found it in the garage car wheels R14 and a little metal, I figured it out and made this design.

The combustion chamber was welded from three disks.

I cut a hole in the lower part, installed grate bars, and made a box for collecting ash. The sides and door were made from sheet metal.

The legs for the stove are made from a cut motorcycle disk.

I brought out the chimney pipe in the back wall.

This is how the oven turned out from wheel rims, minimum manufacturing costs, so to speak budget option potbelly stoves for the garage.

© When using site materials (quotes, images), the source must be indicated.

A stove made from car wheel disks can heat a room up to 15-16 square meters. m, heating a bathhouse or becoming an inexpensive, effective cooking device, which is what this article is actually about. Its main advantage is the availability of high-quality material - thick, resistant and durable steel. Boiler steel in sheets and profiles is expensive, and ordinary structural steel in a furnace structure quickly burns out.

IN additional advantage furnaces made from disks can be verified by experience. Take two pieces of metal of approximately the same size and weight: one from simple steel, and the other cut from a wheel rim, and heat it up stronger, at least in the kitchen on gas. The first one will immediately give off the smell of hot iron, and the second one can be heated to orange (about 900 degrees), without feeling anything unpleasant in the air. A furnace made from wheel rims practically does not dry out the air and does not emit harmful fumes into the atmosphere, because the rims for the wheels are made of special steels that are resistant to corrosion. Of course, they are not standardized for heat resistance, but The reserve of resistance that is built into them is quite enough for a wood-coal stove.

What you need to know about disks

The furnace is being worked out. made using car wheels. Don't do things like that!

To make a furnace from disks with your own hands, you need to know not only the advantages, but also the disadvantages of the source material and some that are significant in in this case, features of furnace design. The disadvantage of special steel is that it is not standardized for welding properties. There are several technologies for the production of wheel rims, but if welding is used for this, it is very limited, followed by thermal tempering (annealing) and flaw detection of the seam. And, of course, no vehicle designer expects anything to be welded to the wheels during operation.

This leads to a very important conclusion from a safety point of view: from disks (see figure), as well as pyrolysis ones, This should not be done under any circumstances! Unless you really want that at one not at all wonderful moment boiling, most likely burning, oil will flow through a crack in the seam or chemically aggressive, highly toxic gases will begin to be released. But these stoves cannot be extinguished; they must burn out completely. Disks can only be used to make a solid fuel combustion furnace.

Note: welds for special operating conditions that are not properly quality controlled are considered unreliable. Welded vessels operating under pressure, heat and for chemically aggressive contents that have not undergone flaw detection and subsequently tested in the operating mode of use are a priori recognized as unsuitable. Any oven satisfies at least two of these conditions.

However, it is possible to make a completely safe solid fuel stove from car wheels using welding for non-residential premises ( country house also applies to them) is quite possible if you follow the following. rules:

1. The weld must be of visually high quality, without visible defects - cracks, splashes, holes, bubbles, see fig. right;
2. You can only weld two mating parts at a time; under no circumstances should you weld the entire structure at once!
3. After making each seam, the welded parts must be given a rest to allow residual internal stresses to resolve, approx. from 3 minutes per kilogram of mass of connected parts. In practice, cook further no earlier than when you can touch the metal with your bare hand 3-4 cm from the end of the seam;
4. The finished furnace, after being left for a day to absorb the same stresses, is subjected to a test run, from 3 hours for a stationary one and from an hour for a portable outdoor one, at full power, i.e. with the air throttle (if equipped) or combustion/blower door fully open, and maximum fuel load.

During the test run, the furnace is annealed simultaneously. Detected minor welding defects, no more than 2 per seam, are eliminated after a day, after which the furnace run with annealing is repeated.

Note: The modulus of the coefficient of thermal expansion of TKR steel for car wheels is significantly less than that of structural steels. It’s clear why, but this circumstance also needs to be kept in mind when making a stove, see below.

What you need to know about ovens

When making a stove from car rims, you need to be aware of one more circumstance. According to the rules for the construction of combustion furnaces using solid fuel from the firebox or grate, i.e. from where the fuel is placed, there must be at least 40-50 cm to the first vertical obstacle to the flow of flue gases (for example, the roof of the firebox) if conditioned fuel is loaded into the stove. If it is damp or waste, the specified distance should be increased to 60-80 cm; The heating time of the oven will then increase. The latter is unimportant for disk furnaces, because they warm up quickly.

The reason is that hot pyrolysis gases are released from solid fuel, which contribute a significant, or even decisive, share to the heat release. If pyrolysis gases come into contact with a less heated surface, they will not be able to burn out and soot will fall out. With further use of such a stove, it will become coked - dense carbon deposits will form on the roof of the firebox and in the chimney. It not only reduces the thermal efficiency of the furnace (analogous to efficiency in the furnace business), but is also a fire hazard.

Note: a high firebox for raw fuel is made so that the pyrolysis gases and water vapor have time to separate, and the former also burn out before reaching the roof. In this case, fuel is loaded to no more than half the height of the firebox.

Disk stoves are very often operated using waste fuel (rotten dried wood, damp scraps, etc.), but at the same time, there may simply not be enough unusable disks for a high stove, or the optimal stove design in this case (see below) ) will not allow you to make a high firebox. Then you can make a furnace from disks by using a non-standard grate made of steel sheet from 6 mm and reinforcing rods from 10 mm. There is no need to fear that there will not be enough air for combustion: through a hole with a diameter of 10 cm, with a chimney 1.5 m high, it will pass enough for a power of 18 kW for wood and 30 kW for coal. A furnace made of disks will never develop something like this.

The non-standard grate is simply inserted into the oven with a gap of approx. 6-10 mm, due to the difference in TKR materials, see above. This design has another advantage - it solves the problem of the ash pan, which is quite serious for disk furnaces. In this case, they simply substitute it under the ashes tin can with a diameter of 15 cm.

Note: horizontal ovens from disks (see below) for the same purpose they are made without grate, i.e. the fuel burns on the stove floor, and the air flow is regulated by a throttle in the ash pan. The durability of steel for discs makes it possible to use such a solution.

What kind of oven should I make?

Based on the above, the possibilities of making a stove yourself from car disks can be sorted out like this:

• When it is desirable and necessary, because the use of auto disks allows you to improve the quality of the stove and/or simplify its manufacture.
• When possible, for the main (fire) parts of the furnace structure instead of expensive heat-resistant steel.
• When possible, partially as a sufficiently resistant material at hand.
• When you can’t do anything - discussed above.

When needed

The best use of stove disks is in mobile (portable) outdoor and garden cooking stoves and as firelights. In the simplest disk-based stove for a summer residence, a large mass and height of the side (rim of the disk) are used, which allows stabilizing heat transfer and provides some protection from the wind. How to make a simple country and garden stove from a car wheel, see video:

Video: mini garden oven made from car rims

For the cauldron

However best use disks in garden stoves - under a cauldron. The oven made from disks for a cauldron is completely round, namely in the corners brick oven Under the cauldron, the cooking utensil heats up less, and soot settles there. The disk stove ensures absolutely uniform heating of the cauldron and saves firewood, which is very significant when using waste fuel. The branches and chips collected on the site and in the surrounding area may not be enough for the pilaf or beshbarmak to ripen as expected. And damp and rotten fuel in a massive brick firebox simply will not heat the cooking vessel to the required degree. In a cauldron oven, both are excluded from auto disks, but – let us emphasize – if it's done correctly.

Flue gases follow the path of least resistance. If you simply weld 2 disks and cut a combustion hole on the side, then hot gases will flow through the technological (to facilitate the design) holes in the disk hub, pos. 1 in Fig., because their total area more than fastening and axial ones, and they are lower. If the stove is heated to maximum, then perhaps a tongue of flame will appear from the axial hole, pos. 2, but with a cauldron on the burner of such a stove, all the heat will again go to the side to no avail, pos. 3, or, if you try to plug some of the technical holes, or add fuel, the flame will burst out of the loading door, pos. 4. On such a stove, food prepared by simmering over coals turns out well, pos. 5, but not everyone cooks this way.

A proper stove for a cauldron made from disks must, firstly, be equipped with a tightly closing door on the loading opening. Secondly, the cauldron should sit in the cutout of the burner, partially blocking the technological holes in the hub, pos. 6. This is not difficult to achieve: you need to cut out the middle of the hub with a grinder, as shown in pos. 7. The remainder will not go to waste - it will make an excellent grate. How to make a garden stove for a cauldron from car wheel rims, see also video

Video: oven for a cauldron made of disks

BBQ option

It is not necessary to cut out the core of the disk hub, except for simmering on coals, in the case when a garden barbecue oven is made from disks. Then a grille is placed on the burner - a flame divider, which will at the same time serve as a culinary grille-rasper. The advantage of this design is that several different temperature zones are formed on the rasp, pos. 1 in Fig. on the right, which allows, for example, to simultaneously cook rare roast beef (half-raw with blood), medium (juicy, moderately baked, like a shish kebab), and well done (fried until crispy). If there is a group of people at the picnic, everyone will get something to their liking at the same time. It is advisable to make such a furnace from disks with a small number of wide technological holes in the hub, for example. from Gazelle. The grille is made from bicycle spokes. There is no need to cook them: they are perfectly joined with heat-resistant metal glue (cold welding).

Note: sometimes stoves without a combustion door are made from disks of the same type (item 2 in the figure on the right), placing thin wood chips through the technical holes in the hub during combustion. But the stove turns out to be gluttonous and does not cook well. Why - see above.

When you can completely

A heating stove-potbelly stove made entirely of disks works well. The advantage in this case will be its large heat capacity and heat transfer time - the metal of the body is thick - although, of course, not the same as that of cast iron, and a slight increase in efficiency. The downside is the higher labor intensity of manufacturing improved furnaces increased efficiency due to the complex configuration of the housing.

If there is plenty of waste fuel, then a stove-stove made from disks for heating small room can be made without internal partitions-dividers (see below) horizontal, pos. 1 in Fig. It is highly advisable to make such a furnace from the disks of a truck: firstly, a larger volume of the furnace will increase its efficiency and heat transfer time. Secondly, due to the complex surface of the disc rim, the area of ​​the outer surface generating heat can be one and a half to two times larger than that of a simple round one of the same volume from a barrel or. The same circumstance, together with the high corrosion resistance of car wheel rims, makes it possible to equip the stove with a jacket for water heating, see for example. track. plot:

Video: potbelly stove made of discs with a jacket

Horizontal potbelly stoves are bulky, so vertical ones are often made. If we are talking about a stove made of disks, then, firstly, you need to take care of a suitable grate and ash pan for it, see above. You can’t let coals and hot ash fall directly onto the fire protection area!

As for thermal properties, they can be improved in two ways. The first is when quick heating of the room is required, and the heat transfer time is unimportant, for example, if the stove is placed in a garage. Then its upper, hot part is surrounded by an annular casing made of thin steel (not galvanized! Zinc melts at 440 degrees, and its vapors are poisonous!), with a gap of 40-60 mm, pos. 2 in Fig. The potbelly stove thus turns into a heater stove. But, by the way, a horizontal furnace-heater made of disks will be much more efficient, see below.

The second method is used when, on the contrary, it is necessary to increase the heat transfer time after combustion, for example, in country house, inhabited from spring to autumn. To do this, you need to line the stove with any in an accessible way materials that combine high heat capacity and thermal conductivity. Soapstone (soapstone) stove stone is expensive, but fireclay brick (item 3) can completely replace it. As a last resort, you can hob impose wild stone heavier and denser, pos. 4. If the stove consists of 4 weight disks, the fuel burns out completely and the view closes by midnight, then in a tracksuit under an army blanket you sleep peacefully until 6-7 o’clock in the morning. You can get some sleep.

Let's improve the potbelly stove made of disks

It is possible to increase the thermal efficiency of any potbelly stove by installing cut-off partitions inside. This creates an afterburner chamber. In this case, the air casing, which converts the stove into a heater, also increases the efficiency of the stove.

Diagrams for constructing potbelly stoves made from disks are shown in Fig. The simple vertical one (item 1) is more compact, somewhat more efficient than the horizontal one (item 3) and provides a cooking surface, but installing an afterburner chamber cut-off device (item 2) in it is more difficult, because in this case, it must be welded to it along the entire contour adjacent to the furnace body. However, a vertical potbelly stove with a single-turn afterburner achieves an efficiency of slightly more than 60%. A simple horizontal potbelly stove (item 3) is the worst in all respects, but quite effective stoves are made on its basis. The leading value for the development of modifications is the smallest internal diameter of the fuel chamber d.

Note: To weld the body of a potbelly stove from car wheels, their hubs are completely cut out, see fig. right.

Dimensional ratios for potbelly stoves made of disks with a single- and 2-turn afterburner are given in pos. 4 and 5. The efficiency of both is approx. 60%, but the 2-turn keeps it on junk fuel, and the single-turn requires quality to ensure the highest possible thermal efficiency. There is no need to cut the cutter (steel from 4 mm) exactly along the internal contour of the furnace body: you only need to select holes in its blank so that there is a gap between the cutter and the wall of the body of approx. 1.5 cm pos. 4a. Then the afterburner will become self-adjusting to the progress (firing mode) of the furnace and it will maintain efficiency close to maximum, both at low and at full speed. A similar solution is used in Buleryan stoves, but for this purpose holes are punched in the cutter. In mass production, this is more profitable: the cutter is still cut out in one stroke of the press punch, and metallurgists willingly buy metal waste as a high-quality raw material for open-hearth furnaces. Well, at home it’s easier to leave a gap along the edges of the cutter.

A horizontal potbelly stove made of disks with an afterburner is generally comparable in efficiency to a Buleryan if it is equipped with an air casing with a slotted nozzle at the top and an air intake skirt at the bottom, pos. 5a. The casing must be adjacent to the body from the outside, and the resulting channels will act in exactly the same way as in the buleryan or stoves Engineer Butakov, Fire-Battery, etc.

Note: in the chimneys of highly efficient potbelly stoves made of disks (items 2 and 5), there must be a condensate collector with drain tap, because the flue gases coming out of them are slightly warm.

Based on a horizontal potbelly stove, you can make a full-fledged heating boiler from disks, pos. 6. If you weld its flame body from KAMAZ disks, you can accelerate to a thermal power of approx. 40 kW, and this is enough to heat an ordinary residential building.

However, making the heat exchanger body from disks of the same size, pos. 1 in Fig., is irrational: then you will have to install a fire-tube heat receiver, pos. 2. It is better to weld the heat exchanger body from smaller disks, for example. from passenger car. The temperature in it will then rise to values ​​that allow the use of a water-tube heat sink. Of the preventive measures, it only requires an annual pressure test in order to pressurize the system before starting and inspect it after it.

A water-tube heat receiver is a thin, solid coil through which coolant flows. The distance between the branches is equal to the outer diameter of the pipe; branches are located in checkerboard pattern. You can make a water-tube heat receiver for the heat exchanger of a home boiler from disks from a copper tube with a clearance of 20 mm and a wall thickness of 2 mm. In this case, the input and output of the heat receiver into the heat exchanger is sealed by cold welding.

Oven partially made of disks

As components Autodiscs are widely used in sauna stoves. A sauna stove made of disks can be built entirely, but only for a barely average-level sauna. In a Russian bathhouse, the steam from any all-metal stove is harsh.

What a sauna stove built using car wheel rims looks like is shown in Fig. rights, and a complete diagram of its structure is given in Fig. below. The main thing that ensures the proper quality of steam in this furnace is the brick firebox. Autodiscs are used as a container for the contents of a closed heater and for the manufacture of a water heating tank.

Note: It is possible to build a homemade sauna stove with an open heater only with a special design entirely made of brick, which ensures complete afterburning of the gases coming from the firebox, including carbon dioxide and water vapor, before they reach the heater. Branded metal sauna stoves with an open heater are made for this purpose from special materials according to complex technology. If you try to repeat this on your own using ordinary materials, a cloud of soot will fly out of the heater with each addition of water.

This sauna stove has already been repeated by many who like to take a steam bath in their sauna. In general, everyone is happy; Only one permanent defect was noticed: the lower cutter (parts Strut and Reflector on the right in the figure) after a year or two becomes warped and comes off from the struts, or the struts from the body. The reason is obvious: different TKR steel of the specified parts and the body from the auto disk. To eliminate the defect, it is apparently necessary to make the cutter also from a smaller disk, for example, a passenger one. Most of the rim must be cut out, leaving 4 legs. Then heat the transition points between the rim and the hub and bend the legs to size.

There is no need to weld holes in the hub. Due to heat transfer to the body, the shutter will be slightly cooler than the flue gases. Since the hub is convex, a gas plug will form under it, like a gas plug in a bell-type stove, like in a bad garden stove made of disks, see above, and the flue gases will still flow around the bottom of the heater, as shown by the arrows in the diagram.

Combi option

Amateurs don’t have dozens of worthless wheel rims lying around in their garages, but wear out, as a rule, in pairs, either front or rear. In this case, in order to make a sufficiently efficient stove with a high firebox from the disks, a pair of disks will need to be supplemented with a piece of steel pipe of a suitable diameter with walls of 6 mm or more.

The design of a furnace made of 2 disks from car wheels is shown in Fig. It does not differ in anything special from those described above. The same oven can be made horizontal. For the design of the burner, see above.

(No ratings yet)

During the cold season, it is necessary to heat not only living rooms, but also a number of auxiliary outbuildings: greenhouses, garages, workshops, etc. Using gas or electricity to heat utility rooms is too expensive. An alternative option would be to install a metal stove.

Collapse

It can be heated not only with high-quality solid fuel, but also wood waste, rotten dry wood, etc. It’s not at all difficult to build such a device with your own hands, and if you refuse to buy expensive rolled metal and use old car wheels to make the housing, it will be inexpensive. They are made from thick-walled, heat-resistant material and are excellent for such purposes.

Design Features

When making a stove from car wheels, one feature needs to be taken into account. According to the standards for the construction of solid fuel combustion devices, the distance between the bottom of the combustion chamber and the grate, i.e. from the place of fuel placement to the first barrier to the exit of flue gases in the vertical direction (for example, the roof of the combustion section) should be at least 45-50 cm. This is the case if the stove is supposed to be loaded with a standard type of fuel. When burning with damp wood or wood waste, specified size should be increased to 65-80 cm.

This is explained by the fact that when solid fuel burns, it releases pyrolysis gas, which flies out through a direct chimney into the atmosphere, taking with it a significant amount of heat. When pyrolysis gases come into contact with a less hot surface, they cool down before they have time to separate and burn out, and soot falls out. With further operation of such a furnace, the furnace arch and the inner surface will be covered with a dense layer of carbon deposits, which will not only reduce the efficiency of the device, but will also increase the risk of fire.

Schematic view of a potbelly stove made from wheel rims

A do-it-yourself potbelly stove made from wheel rims is often heated with waste fuel, and the optimal design of a stove made from such a material does not allow creating a high combustion chamber. Then they do not use standard grates, but make special design consisting of:

• from sheet steel with a thickness of 6 mm;
• reinforcement rods with a diameter of 12-14 mm.

A non-standard grate is inserted into the device with a small gap (5-8 mm), which is necessary due to the difference in the temperature coefficient of linear expansion of the materials.

This version of the grate system also solves the problem of cleaning the furnace from ash. A tin can with a diameter of 15-20 cm can be used as an ash pan in a disk stove. And in order for there to be enough air for the combustion process, the chimney must have a diameter of at least 100 mm and a height of at least 2 m.

IN horizontal model stoves made from disks do not have grates; the fuel burns directly on the hearth. To regulate the air flow into the blower, a damper is installed.

Advantages and Disadvantages

The advantages of using a stove made from car wheels include:

• Low cost. Construction heating device does not require large investments cash, since its most material-intensive part is made from ownerless rims.
• Durability and fairly long service life. In the production of car wheels, thick steel is used, which has high strength, so such a homemade unit will faithfully serve more than one heating season.
• High thermal stability. Considering the peculiarity of the steel alloy used to make car wheels, the device is able to withstand the effects of frequent and prolonged heating to high temperatures.
• Heating speed. A device of this design can quickly heat up to the desired temperature, regardless of what type of fuel is loaded into it.
• No size restrictions. To build a furnace, you can choose disks of a more suitable size and raise the structure upward not only from two, but also from three, four or more disks.
• High heat transfer. The efficiency of a homemade stove made from car rims reaches 80 - 85%.

However, potbelly stoves made from car wheels are, in fact, like other metal stoves:

• unable to accumulate and retain heat for a long time. The metal body quickly gives off heat and cools down, so such a potbelly stove will heat the building only while wood or another type of fuel is burning in it;
• require the installation of a high chimney pipe. To ensure a sufficient level of draft, it is necessary to construct a chimney with a height of at least 2 m;
• should be regularly cleaned in all departments, and especially thoroughly in the chimney. A large diameter chimney pipe must be cleaned at least once every 1.5-2 months. If its diameter is small, then this procedure should be carried out once a week.

How to make a potbelly stove from rims?

A potbelly stove made from wheel rims will be portable, which is very convenient, since such a design can be used as needed not only in the garage, but also in other rooms. It can be installed both horizontally and vertically. Both models have high heat transfer, and differ from each other only in the presence of grates and the location of the chimney pipe.

Materials

To build a potbelly stove, it is advisable to use parts from the wheels of cars or light-duty trucks. The disks from a multi-tonnage truck are too massive; a potbelly stove from them will turn out to be bulky and heavy. In such a design it will be difficult to ensure tight connections when joining individual elements.

In addition to the disks themselves, to assemble the stove yourself, you will need several additional materials:

• reinforcement rods with a diameter of 20 - 24 mm;
• steel corner;
• sheet metal 4-5 mm thick;
• heat-resistant paint;
• several bolts and nuts;
• pipe with a diameter of 100 - 150 mm and a wall thickness of at least 5 mm.

Tools

The set of tools required to build a potbelly stove from car rims should consist of:

• welding unit and electrodes;
• grinders (angle grinders) with a set of cleaning and cutting discs;
• drills;
• gas cutter;
• sandpaper;
• brushes;
• sledgehammers;
• hammer;
• measuring and marking devices: chalk or marker, tape measure and ruler

To protect the surface of the body and eyes from harmful radiation from the welding arc, sparks and splashes, you need to work in special clothing, complete with a canvas suit and mittens, closed boots, a headgear under the shield, a welder's shield and goggles.

Step by step instructions

Device diagrams different models potbelly stoves made from car wheel rims

Drawing vertical model potbelly stoves made from 4-wheel drives

At self-production ovens made from disks, you must follow the following sequence of actions:

• cut out the central part of all four disks with a grinder along with the hubs;

  

• make two round plates from sheet steel, the diameter of which must correspond to the size of the disks;
• cut a small square opening for the blower on the side surface, and make a door from the separated part of the metal. It is put on bolts welded to the body and secured with nuts. For ease of use, the door is equipped with a metal handle and latch;

  

• Weld the walls of the two disks together. Close the bottom of the lower disk metal plate and weld legs to it from metal corner or fittings;

  

• weld the two remaining disks together and close top part all around made of sheet steel;

  

• cut an opening for the firebox in the lower disk of this part of the stove and install a door, similar to the blower door;

  

  

• connect all parts of the body into a single structure;
• install the grate. For these purposes, weld guides from a corner inside the combustion chamber and place on it a pre-welded structure made of sheet steel along the edges and reinforcement in the middle. The reinforcement bars must be positioned so that the distance between them does not exceed 2 cm, otherwise small firewood will fall through;

  

  

• cut on the top surface of the device round hole under the chimney;

  

• if desired, you can arrange the chimney on the side so that you can use the top of the stove as a cooking surface, it will look like this:

When making such a potbelly stove, you need to take into account that special composition alloy steel wheel rims are not standardized for welding work. Therefore, when connecting disks, you must follow the following rules:

• Only two mating parts can be welded at a time; assembling the entire device at once is prohibited;
• after a seam has formed, parts with welded edges must be left alone for about 3 - 5 minutes so that the residual internal stress resolves;
• the surface of the weld should be free of any visible defects: cracks, splashes, shells or bubbles.

Trial fire

The finished furnace must stand for 24 hours to completely resolve the same residual stresses. After this, it must be subjected to a test fire with full fuel for 3 hours. At the same time, its combustion and ash doors must be open.

During the first test fire, the internal surfaces of the device are also annealed. If minor defects in welding seams are found, but no more than two per seam, they are eliminated a day after the furnace has cooled down. Then you should repeat the run of the device with annealing again.

Conclusion

Although a potbelly stove made from car wheels is constructed from used parts, they are very good in design. Thick, durable steel has served its time in vehicles and has received a certain amount of deformation, but as a material for a reliable body of a heating device it can last for more than one year. The most important thing is that such a stove will be safe and effective in heating a room, and the decision on how to design its appearance depends on the owner’s imagination.

←Previous article Next article →

Brazier made from wheel rims

Such a device using old wheels has many advantages, starting with ease of transportation and ending with the ability to maintain the required temperature inside the device due to free access of air.

This barbecue is convenient to use due to its optimal height. It is characterized by ease of movement, easy and simple care, and at the same time it has high level reliability and durability. Manufacturing options, as well as we discussed earlier.

There are many ways to make homemade units from wheel rims. Let's consider the simplest of them, the manufacture of which will require a minimum of materials and effort. To install it, it is enough to compact bottom hole disc with a steel sheet or other material, such as ceramic tiles.

But, despite all the advantages, this type of barbecue has some disadvantages. Among them the following are noted:

• low location of the cooking surface;
• if you install such a device directly on the ground, there will not be enough thrust to maintain the flame, which is why it may go out;
• small volume of the combustion chamber.

In terms of ease of use, this design is equivalent to a regular camp stand for a brick skewer. For infrequent use, this model is quite suitable, but to make a more reliable and convenient unit you need to work a little more.

For such a barbecue you will need two wheels, as well as a set of tools and materials, including:

• welding machine with electrodes;
• grinder;
• meter profile pipe;
• fasteners in the form of bolts and nuts;
• wire;
• mask and gloves for personal protection.

There is nothing complicated in making a barbecue from two rims. Step by step it looks like this:

An important nuance in creating a wheeled barbecue is the following: the bottom of the stove should not be welded with metal, as this will interfere with the creation of good traction. To optimize the work, you can cover the bottom with a metal mesh or make a grid of thick wire, building a kind of grate.

That's all grill from a wheel rim ready. You can improve it if you want appearance. To do this, the metal must be thoroughly calcined so that all remaining paint, gasoline and oil burn out. After this, you can start sanding the body, and finally coat it with black heat-resistant paint.

"from the presented material you will learn how to make a full-fledged heating stove for a garage or workshop yourself from 2 car wheels. Car enthusiasts know and understand how difficult it is sometimes to winter period start the car and warm it up, even if the car was in the garage. Also in winter, breakdowns occur quite often, and repairing in a cold garage is not very comfortable, you’ll get cold and chill faster))

For the above reason, it was decided to make a heating stove for the garage from car wheels with our own hands. Just in the workshop there was a pair of dead disks lying around, and they went into action) quite simple, namely, 2 disks are welded together, thereby forming a kind of cylinder, quite suitable in size for placing the combustion chamber and ash pan. A lid with a hole for the pipe is welded on top, the ash chamber is cooked separately.

Let's look at what exactly is needed to create a stove?

Materials

1. car wheels 2 pcs
2. sheet metal 4-5 mm
3. pipe 80 mm
4. black heat resistant paint
5. screw

Tools

1. welding machine
2. grinder (angle grinder)
3. drill
4. ruler
5. roulette
6. cutting torch
7. hammer
8. sandpaper
9. brush

Step-by-step instructions for making a stove from car rims.

And so, the first thing you should do is familiarize yourself with a small drawing, as they say “First theory, then practice”

HOMEMADE FRIENDNext you need to take 2 disks, the diameter depends on the size of the van you will need for the stove, generally GAZON’s ones work well.

After that, a lid with a hole for installing a pipe is cut out of 4 mm metal and the sidewalls are made of thinner metal so that the oven is more or less even without sharp transitions.

Then the two disks are welded together, and the sidewalls and pipe are also welded.

The ash chamber was made separately.

For the convenience of collecting ash, the ash pan is equipped with a retractable metal drawer.

Doors for the firebox and ash pan with latches were also made. 4 holes are drilled in the lower part to form drafts inside the oven.

Installed directly on the stove. A limiter is welded onto the pipe.

We try to open the door) this is how the firebox looks inside.

Then the surface should be sanded using an angle grinder, and then painted with heat-resistant paint.

This is how we got a fairly inexpensive stove for heating a garage space in the winter. Due to the thick walls of the metal disk, heating and heat transfer occurs evenly. Now let’s watch the video and consolidate the material covered.

Thank you very much for your attention!