They Built Their Own Shop Floor Heat System

They Built Their Own Shop Floor Heat System FARM SHOP Maintenance Bob Bugger Jr Effingham Ill built his own shop furnace out of old welded-together truck wheels He uses it to heat his shop floor Bob worked with his dad Bob Sr to build the system We wanted a more efficient wood burning system so we decided to build our own says Bob We installed the system when we built our shop and it really works great We use wood in the stove so it provides very cheap heat says Bugger They welded truck wheels together one on top of the other The base wheel is from an old Budd semi and it supports the grate for the wood fire On top of that wheel they welded 3 Dayton wheels To add wood to the fire they simply lift a lid on top Next they enclosed the stacked wheels with a water jacket made from a used oil tank The heated anti-freeze mixture is then pumped through plastic tubing that runs through the shop s floor The heat is thermostatically controlled A pair of homemade water manifolds mount on the wall and are connected by PEX Schedule 80 pvc tubing Eight runs of the tubing were laid out over the shop floor before the concrete was poured A pump circulates the water through the stove and floor The Buggers heat the water up to as high as 140 degrees It s not boiling but to be safe they installed a shut-off valve in the manifold just in case anything goes wrong and the water gets too hot We spent only about half as much to build our manifold as a new one with copper tubing would have cost says Bugger We don t use the system for air conditioning because cooled concrete can sweat from high humidity he notes Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Bob Bugger Jr 10095 N 900 St Effingham Ill 62401 ph 217 433-3781

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