The Stove: Part One

The footing for the stove had been poured along with the rest of the footings with some rebar sticking out of it vertically.  We specially ordered a 6 foot length of 4 foot diameter Sonotube to form the lower section of the stove.  For the smaller sections of the stove and chimney, we bought 3 and 2 foot diameter Sonotubes.

Inside the 4-foot Sonotube we needed a cavity for the welded iron stove to be later inserted.  To build the form for the cavity, we screwed plywood to cottonwood braces. The cavity form also had pipes attached for the stove's air intake and a bump-out to leave a hole for a fan to blow air across the stove. The cavity form sat on a welded angle iron stand.  With the help of Mookie, a most helpful neighbor, we then slid the tube over the cavity form and footing rebar, some of which had to be cut off to let the tube down.  Next we screwed the cavity form to the tube where the cavity form's front and back (where the fan would go) touched the tube. The cavity form had to be weighted down, or else it might float in the soupy concrete around it: to do that, we climbed in, opened the top, and dropped in some of the concrete blocks that we made from the overage during the first pour.  Then we screwed down the top of the cavity form and wired in vertical rebar.

Next a piece of 3-foot diameter Sonotube was put on top of the 4-foot diameter tube with cottonwood filling the gap. This second section of Sonotube had holes for the copper pipe (for the radiant floor heating). Inside went a length of irrigation pipe; into that slid copper piping coil with its ends popping through the holes in the Sonotube. Two rebar rings bound the vertical rebar.

To hold the roof beams securely to the stove column, we made an "iron crown." We made a  we welded a twelve-sided ring out of angle iron. To the ring we welded twelve vertical spikes of 1/2" rod.  The rods were threaded for nuts.

Money Spent (so far): $7299
$  61 welding wire
$ 573 forms
$  39 10 1/4 ft 4" salvage sched 40 pipe 3.75/ft
$  19 4 SS clamps
$  50 copper couplings, copper X FIP adapter, map-pro 14 oz cyclinder, 1 pound silvabrite 100% lead-free solder
$ 290 sheet iron
$ 106 50' copper refrigeration tubing and copper cap
$   6 PVC couplings
$ 109 iron pipe
$  20 stovepipe
$   4 5/8" x 36" NC all thread rod zinc plated
$ 3 thumbscrew
$ 14 stove paint
$ 5 steel scrap
$ 6 3/16 x 1/2 HR Strip 20'