Mother's Compact Cookstove Heater

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To help prevent warping and joint fatigue in the firebox area—and to provide enough thermal mass to absorb and store warmth effectively—MOM's stovebuilder lined the base and walls of the burning chamber with a castable refractory (he used Paco Cast, manufactured by the North State Pyrophyllite Co., Inc., Dept. TMEN, P.O. Box 7247, Greensboro, North Carolina 27407 ... but any premixed refractory product should function equally well).

Protecting the firebox's bottom surface was simply a matter of pouring the loose "mud" into the concave base of the hearth to a depth of about 2 inches at the center . . . but—to form the wall blocks-Emerson had to cut a 9" X 12" flank section from the unused portion of one 22"—diameter water tank, weld a 1/8" X 1 " strip of flat stock onto one side of the contoured form, hand-trim two thin sheetmetal arcs and fasten them to the top and bottom edges of the same piece, tack a second 1/8" X 1 " strip to the curve's inner face at its lower lip, and use a greased block of wood to serve as the adjustable for—length fourth wall of the mold. By using this homemade template, our researcher guaranteed not only that the arc of each homemade firebrick would be compatible with the inside of his stove, but that the offset common to the upper seam of most water heating vessels would be accounted for.

The stove's doors and assorted hardware are detailed in the illustrations accompanying this article, but Emerson offers some additional construction hints: "The oven doors are cut, with a saber saw, directly from the walls and top of the stove . . . leakage through the small joint gap isn't a problem because the cooking chamber isn't exposed to smoke. The firebox doors, on the other hand, overlap the opening by 1/2" all around, and were cut from the lower section of one of the halved 22" tanks.

"The hinges are 1-1/2"Amerock cabinet pieces, but the sets on the lower door were carefully bent to fit the nonflush surfaces. Since we couldn't find suitable latch sets, I made my own with two short sections of 3/4" flat stock-each one notched to fit behind the head of a carriage bolt that I'd filed the square shoulder from—and installed a pair of heat dissipating coils to serve as handles. The draft controls are simply two 2-1/4" tube sections welded into the firebox doors and sealed with circular caps, each of which is—in turn—fastened to a threaded strut inside its vents with a 1/4" bolt."

HOT WATER AND A UTENSIL RACK, TOO!

Since Mr. Smyers wanted his stove to be as practical as possible, he went on to fabricate a five-gallon copper water tank that follows the contour of the heater's exterior for maximum heat transference. It rests on three L-shaped brackets and was made from a sheet of 16-ounce (one pound per square foot) dead soft copper.

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