Wood Burning Stove for Cabin Tent

If you read my posts much you probably know I like to go backpacking and camping. That is one of my favorite past times with my college buddies!

We have been wanting to do a winter backpacking trip. Last year we went to West Virginia in March, towards the end of the season. It ended up being a little bit late because all the snow had melted and the temperature was in the mid-70's during the day. Not much of a "winter" trip.

So we were trying to plan out a trip this winter, which at this point is still in the works. This Fall my friend Dave and I got to thinking about a winter trip again. We found a really great camp site the last time we went in October (don't ask where it is because we aren't saying). So what we were thinking of doing is hiking in to this one spot and setting up a base camp. After all, if we have an awesome camp site why pack up and move on? We can do light and fast day hikes in the surrounding area then come back to our awesome view camp. I should mention that the camp site is less than 3 miles from the nearest vehicular access, given we can get that far in a 4 wheel drive truck. The terrain also doesn't have much elevation change as it sits on a plateu surrounded by mountains and valleys (a plus). With snow we can load everything on a sled too.

Here is a picture I took at sunrise at the secret spot. I like this one because the clouds/fog hanging over the mountain tops disguise it a bit. In any event, there are about 6 or 7 ridges visible when it is clear.



So anyway, Dave and I were tossing around some ideas for the trip. If we are going to do a base camp why not make it really cool? We are going to lug all our gear in to one spot, leave it for a few days, and bring it back. I have a 10x14' cabin tent that would make a really good base camp. With several people going we could get everyone under one roof.

If we are going in the winter it would be nice to have some heat. Winter hunting camps have used wall tents and stoves for years. So we decided to look in to the stoves a bit. I remember from looking through the Cabelas selection that they have portable collapsing wood burning stoves. After looking through there I came to the conclusion that I didn't want to buy one - they are pretty expensive and is something I could probably make, for a fraction of the cost.

So we drew up some ideas over a couple of breaks between classes. The collapsing aspect was a must. So we tossed around a few ideas, settled on the theory of operation in the design of the one we went with, and refined the design a bit more.

One aspect we wanted was hinged folding and interlocking sides. The hinges would make assembly easier and the interlocking sides would provide a means of sealing up the stove when assembled.

Dave did some research in to stove size vs. burn time and came up with the dimensions. We settled on a 15x15x24" fire box. This size allows the burning of normal size logs, which means thicker wood can be burned and the thicker the wood is the longer it burns. Some of the small stoves, like the Cabelas Sheepherder and Alaskan stoves (see cabelas link above) are so small that the size wood that fits in there won't burn too long. With our stove we should be able to get around 8 hours of burn time, vs. 4-5 from one of the small stoves.

After we had the design and dimensions nailed down it was off to get some materials. We chose 16 gauge sheet steel because it is thin enough that it doesn't weigh a ton and thick enough to put up with the heat of the fire. Some of the designs we came across online used down to 22 and 24 gauge steel. Although this would be much lighter, the durability of the material would be a problem. The thin gauge metal just won't last.

We got the metal from a recycling center called Research Alloys. We walked out with a couple sheets of 16 gauge sheet steel for a whopping $14! We were off to a good start!

So here are some pictures of the end result. These are more or less in chronological order and should be descriptive enough to detail the design. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.



The fire box is made up of two parts - the top, right side, and back (on the right in the pictures), and the bottom, front (where the door is going to be), and left side (on the left in the pictures). In order to make it collapse in the way we envisioned this was the only way to do it. The added bonus of having two parts is the load can be split up if need be.



Here you can see how the parts collapse. The next step is laying them together.



This shows fairly well what the stove design was supposed to do. It isn't quite a pancake, but compared to fully assembled as a box it is pretty compact.



Here is what the assembled fire box looks like. You can see what I meant by interlocking sides in the design. The thin over lap on the top right side was an after thought (why it is so short). That is the hinged side for the top half. The idea was to have the side panel fold up tightly against the top panel. The hinges were installed so that the spacing between the side panel and the top panel was as small as possible. We figured the butt joint would be a decent closure for the side. However, the overlap (as we did) adds another layer of protection.

Also, that round yellow thing on top is 25' of 1/2" Kevlar fire wick. That is going to be used between the overlapping sides as a seal. It is the same stuff that fire dancers use in their flaming wands and what not - it doesn't burn, it holds fuel and the fuel burns but the wick holds flame after flame. I think it will hold up fine on the stove.

I spent quite a while working on the stove off and on for a couple of months to get it to where it is now. If I had a shop to work on it and the right tools (a brake, shear, etc) I probably could have done this stove in a few days. However, making do with what I had was a challenge and as a result I spent a LOT of time working on it.





Here you can see the front damper on the door. I went with a slider approach for simplicity. I was going to do a round one like what you see on most portable stove designs, however the slider was much easier and required flat cuts and not round circles. With the tools I have to work with the hole for the stove pipe was hard enough to make, let alone something as small as the damper. Instead of cutting big open holes in the door behind the slider I decided to drill out the area. I figured the small holes would keep any coals from falling through (I don't know how likely that would be, but it was a thought). It was more work but it may be a benefit.





This was my first approach to putting the legs on. The legs are made of 3/8" black iron gas pipe (the stuff Lowes and Home Depot sell). I went this way to save some work. I was originally going to use some of the sheet metal bent in to an L shape to make it rigid. Then figure some way to mount them to the fire box that would allow easy removal of them. That would have been quite a bit of work and Dave suggested I just use some pipe. So that's what I did.

Now, the pipe legs are attached with end caps to the fire box. In the picture above the end caps are welded to the fire box. I knew from reading on line that most black iron fittings are cast and don't hold a weld well. You guessed it - these caps are cast (which I knew as soon as I picked them up). However, I figured it was worth a shot to see what happens when they are welded. The welds stuck long enough for me to get these pictures and then two of the legs broke loose. Not good.

So the new design uses the same caps, only drilled and there is a 1/4" stainless steel bolt through the cap and fire box. These babys aren't breaking off!

I set the stove up outside last night and got it running. Here are some pictures from my test run.



The stove pipe will be supported when in use, I just leaned it against the bush for my test run. Also, the legs look a bit crooked (and not angled like they were when I welded the caps on) but they aren't going anywhere. I would prefer them to be angled out for stability but knowing they are strong is more important. Once set up it isn't too bad.





I let the stove run for about 4 or 5 hours. I used 4 regular size logs. Also, in the above picture you can see the bolts I used on the right side to tie all the panels together. I didn't use the kevlar seal on this run since it is outside. However, I will cut some pieces for the sides.

So that's it for the stove project for now! Our trek back to West Virginia is still in the works. I am not sure when it is going to be. However, I have a few other opportunities to use everything - including Winter Field Day. The ultimate goal with the stove is for our secret camp site in the Appalachian mountains, but any chance I get to put this to use I will take advantage of! I will post more as time goes on.