A Handy Cheap Forge

The marine rail and latch for the stove were fashioned from 1/4th inch mild steel using this simple tin-can forge. I was introduced to this handy tool by Kiko Denzer at Echoes last summer. All that's required is a large tin can, a pair of holes, some kaowool, a turbo torch, and some firebricks. The forge is very useful for making small pieces of hardware, and unlike the rivet forge, is very quick to set up and very cheap to run.

Stove is Installed

This has been a fairly major project for the last month. The stove itself is a customized version of the Scout made by cylinder stoves. The owner was kind enough to sell me an un-assembled stove as well as fabricate a shortened barrel, allowing me to reduce the stove from its original 16" length to 12". I took the stove to a local welder for assembly, and I welded the legs and hinges myself. I modified the door hinge slightly to accommodate a fiberglass door gasket, and added the marine rail for aesthetics.

The heat shield is made from 1/4" tile backer to which has been glued 24 gauge steel, although I have used 16 gauge steel for the left side and base. The base is attached to a frame of 1"x1" steel tubing, and is 2" off the floor. The front edge of the base has a lip to help catch any embers that may fall.

I used stove gasket cement to bond the steel to the mineral tile backer. The shield is attached using carriage bolts and spacers to leave a 1" space between the shield and sides of the wagon. In the lower right of the right hand heat shield is a 5" x 2.5" combustion air vent.

When I am able to move the wagon out of the shop I will fire the stove up and use a laser/infra-red thermometer to check the effectiveness of the heat shield. I only intend to use the stove lightly to take the chill off the morning air, but would still like it to be far more safer than it needs to be.