Charcoal Grill for a Wood Stove???

[Superdoo]

Has any body ever tried to modify a charcoal grill to use as a wood stove? I was looking to see what I could use to DIY a stove and searching for old propane tanks, gas grills showed up in the search too and I got to thinking...
If you can get one of the rectangular charcoal grills and weld the lid shut, you could cut a door in one end and hole in the top for the pipe. The legs would already be be there, so it seems like a fairly simple mod.

Alright internet... unleash your rath and send comments illustrating the naivete of my idea whilst also pointing out my lack of intelligence!

 

[Superdoo]

Anybody want to chime in???

 

[Marbles]

If used in an enclosed area I would worry about carbon monoxide. The walls will be very thin, not sure they will hold up to the heat of an efficiently burning wood fire.

 

[Superdoo]

If used in an enclosed area I would worry about carbon monoxide. The walls will be very thin, not sure they will hold up to the heat of an efficiently burning wood fire.

The google seems to be unanimous in saying briquettes burn hotter than standard wood. Also, the plan is to use a heavier charcoal grill like the one in the photo, not the cheap round ones.

 

[Marbles]

The google seems to be unanimous in saying briquettes burn hotter than standard wood. Also, the plan is to use a heavier charcoal grill like the one in the photo, not the cheap round ones.

Give it a go. A properly stoked woodstove is hotter than an open wood fire, but obviously not hot enough to melt steel.

Have good carbon monoxide detectors. Give good spacing between grill and flammables, such as walls, as you have no distance rating.

There are lots of safety things built into a wood stove, I would personally only use this in an actively occupied space so someone could keep an eye on it.

 

[displacedtexan]

Comparing one to my (cheap) tent stove they are a lot more real estate and would require more fuel to produce the same heat.

But I see no reason why it wouldn't work.

 

[SWOHTR]

I mean sure...is this an excuse to buy a welder and cutting or plasma torch?

 

[SpringM1A]

My current burn pit is a slice out of a 275 gallon tank, so it is oval. i have a buddy weld up a grill grate to fit over it. It is stainless, has angle sides and round stock for the grates. Works pretty darn good. What I have seen for adjustability is if you have a brick structure, you can have some bricks sticking out to hold the grill and do that every other course of brick. The other option is you can use some steel that can protrude from every course of brick for more options. I saw one charcoal pit that used to grills, one lower than the other and it was just 2 bricks more narrow than the other so the bottom grill was a few inches shorter but you could use the bottom or top grill or both and you could slide them out half way to move meat around.

 

[Cheaha]

I think it would work fine. I built a wood stove out of an old metal file cabinet after watching this video:

I doubled the floor by leaving the three sides long and then folding them together like a box. It has lasted about nine years now. I did put some fire brick on the floor of it too.

 

[Superdoo]

Considering a lack of naysaying on this I think I'll proceed and make this a winter project.

 

[WoodBow]

Only down side i see is how big it is. Just takes up a lot of real estate in the shelter and in the truck. A junk air compressor tank would make a good stove body.

 

[Superdoo]

I was thinking of using this one. Looks pretty compact. Unless that's a costco bottle of Lowry's!

 

[Superdoo]

I did a test burn after adding the elbow and sealing both the elbow and lid.
Smoke was pouring out every crevice. I’m guessing it’s because the sealer around the lid didn’t do a good job of sealing as I was hoping to still use the lid to load wood. It also had vents on both ends, so they may have created problems too.
So the plan is to weld the lid shut, pull the shelf off and put a more traditional door on the side the shelf was on.
I got the new end cut and fitted last night. I hope to have the door fab’d this weekend.

 

[Superdoo]

I got the side door finished and applied gasketing to the original door. I’m going to do a test burn utilizing the rear intake on the clean out drawer.
That will tell me if I need to block off the rear intake and cut a front one in.
I’m thinking the rear intake will necessitate adding a baffle. I’ll cross that bridge after the test burn.

 

[Superdoo]

Test burn went great!
Now that I have legit proof of concept, I ordered the nesting stove pipe. Once that arrives I’ll be able to better ascertain how the intake is performing.
I’m still thinking that a front intake will be needed, but I’m not fixing it if it ain’t broke!

 

[Novahunter]

Very interesting. Look forward to the finished product.

 

[Superdoo]

Just an update on all in cost for this so far:
$15 - Grill (off of FB Marketplace)
$20 - 4" elbow (Amazon)
$40 - 3' square sheet steel
$90 - Nesting stove pipe
$15 - Gasketing materials
Total: $180.00

I could probably have shaved some money off of this, but I was trying to get material quickly to finish the build before rifle season starts here.

 

[mgray]

I don’t have a dog in this hunt, but I can appreciate the ingenuity. I hope this works for you. Good luck!!

 

[Superdoo]

Nested pipe arrived and I got everything put together.
I had trouble with the 4” damper I bought. It didn’t have tight enough tolerance to lock into place, so I had to tack weld the rod and clean it up with the grinder.
The first burn resulted in the paint gassing off and filling the tent.
My only guess is that the 8’ of pipe caused the unit to run way hotter than it ever had previously.
Afterwards I looked and didn’t notice any deformation at all. So from a structural standpoint, it’s very safe.
I cleaned off the loose paint and burned it again last night to try and get any residual fumes out. It ran much better.
It burned for over 4 hours.
Photos are before the paint burned off. I also set the stove on a welding blanket before I started the burn.

The thing works great!