Outdoor Wood Stove Built With Combine Wheels

Outdoor Wood Stove Built With Combine Wheels COMBINES Conversions Old wheels from a Deere combine help keep Don Luschen and his family warm in their Wayne Neb home     Over the past 15 years Luschen has made about a dozen “combine” stoves for friends family and neighbors using wheels auger tubing and other scrap parts The forced air outdoor stoves burn wood Old furnace blowers circulate heat     Luschen prefers to use big beveled Deere wheels that create cones on each end when two of them are welded together      He makes a 22-in door for easy loading on one end of the stove and a draft on the other end     In the back he cuts two 6 or 8-in holes depending on what used auger tubing he has on hand The top hole is for the heat duct The bottom is for the cold air return that moves air back to the stove with an old furnace blower in the basement The ductwork is insulated A stovepipe goes out the top of the stove     Luschen creates a dead air space for the heated air to circulate between his wheel firebox and an insulated box He builds a frame of angle iron covered with metal and makes a second frame and fills the area between with sand or dirt Or he pours a cement foundation and builds concrete block walls with a cement roof and boxes in the front with metal It’s important to let the cement cure for a couple of months before using the stove he notes     “You can use anything round with thick metal for the firebox I built one stove I could crawl into and almost stand up It had a 24-in truck wheel for the door ” Luschen says “I like them 4 ft long because you can burn pallets which most people haul to landfills ”     He usually fills his stove in the morning and at about 10 each night He sets the drafts on the front and on the stovepipe according to how fast he wants the fire to burn     He notes that he’s used the smaller back wheels of a combine and even an old boiler he cut in two to make two stoves All his parts are scrap The wheels for example are often cracked He welds them shut and they work just fine for a stove     In the 15 years he’s used his combine wheel stove he’s only had to replace the used furnace blower twice The blower runs continuously and costs about $22 to $25/month to run     That’s a big difference from the cost of 500 gal of propane that he used to burn every month The wood stove is tied into the furnace system and ductwork so the propane furnace kicks in if needed That amounts to about 150 gal a year     “What I like about this stove is that there’s no dirt or dust in the basement There are no rodents or ants that come in with the wood And there’s no smoke in the house ” Luschen says     It’s handy for him to dump a load of wood next to the stove and he can burn green wood mixed 50/50 with dry wood and other junk wood He removes ashes from the stove every two to three weeks     The stove has another side benefit “We built a pet house on top of the stove and a cat sleeps in it all winter ” Luschen says     Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Don Luschen 57805 855 Rd Wayne Neb 68787 ph 402 369-2543

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