Do-it-yourself potbelly stove from a gas cylinder: diagrams, drawings + step-by-step guide

In many private households there is an old liquefied gas cylinder.From this object you can make many useful things, for example, a simple heating device.

If you have the desire and a welding machine, then you can make a potbelly stove from a gas cylinder with your own hands without any problems. Of course, you will need some additional materials.

Operating principle of a potbelly stove

Potbelly stove - a primitive version of a metal wood stove. This device works extremely simply: firewood is placed in the firebox, it burns, the stove body heats up and gives off heat to the surrounding air. Smoke gases are removed through the chimney, and the ash is poured through the grate into the ash pan, which should be cleaned periodically.

One of the main advantages of a potbelly stove is its simplicity of design. There are no strict dimensions here, the main thing is that the body can withstand heat and the chimney works properly. An experienced craftsman will make such a stove in just a couple of hours. And you can burn almost any dry wood in it: logs and sawdust. There is an article on our website with a detailed description of the manufacturing process DIY potbelly stoves.

A potbelly stove is also heated with other flammable materials: diesel fuel, coal, peat, household waste, etc. If desired, you can cook quite successfully on such a stove. This point should be considered before the construction begins in order to create a smooth cooking surface.

A potbelly stove is a combustion chamber made of thick metal with a loading door, a chimney, a grate and an ash pit. You can use an old gas cylinder as a housing

But one should also take into account the disadvantages of such a heating solution. For starters, there is a high risk of burns and fires.

For the potbelly stove you need to choose a special place, decorated with fire-resistant materials. It is advisable for it to stand to the side, where no one will accidentally touch the body and get burned.

If desired, the upper part of a vertical potbelly stove from an old gas cylinder can be turned into a modest-sized hob

Such a metal structure weighs a lot, so we are not talking about any mobility of the device. It will be difficult to move a potbelly stove to heat different rooms.

Such stoves are usually used to heat utility rooms where there is no electricity or where it is supplied intermittently: garage, barn, workshop, etc.

From two gas cylinders connected perpendicularly, you can make an improved version of the potbelly stove, which allows you to retain more heat and get high efficiency when burning fuel

Another problem is low efficiency, since part of the thermal energy during the combustion of wood literally flies out into the chimney. There are various ways to retain heat and modify your stove slightly to make it work more efficiently.

Finally, you need to take care of good ventilation of the room in which the potbelly stove is installed, since such a device burns a large amount of oxygen during operation.

So, a potbelly stove consists of a metal body, the role of which is usually “invited” to be an old gas cylinder.It is necessary to make two doors in the case: large and small. The first serves to load fuel, the second is needed as a blower, through which air enters from the combustion chamber to ensure the combustion process and draft.

A drawing of a stove-stove from a gas cylinder allows you to make a device with specific parameters and calculated power, but such accuracy is not required

Below, at some distance from the bottom of the structure, a grate should be welded. It can be made from thick wire or simply take a sheet of thick metal and cut long slits in it. The distance between the grate rods should be such that the combustion material does not spill down into the ash pan.

If the potbelly stove will be heated only with wood, the gaps of the grate are made larger, but when it is intended to use wood chips, the grate should be made more frequent.

A curved metal chimney installed on a potbelly stove made from a gas cylinder allows you to retain more heat in the room and increase the efficiency of the structure

The ash box can be welded from sheet metal or take a ready-made metal container of a suitable size and resistant to strong heat. Some people prefer to do without an ash pan altogether, simply scooping out the ash from the lower section as needed, although this is not very convenient. Usually, chimney for potbelly stove pulled up to provide the necessary traction.

The standard design of a gas cylinder stove can be modified to increase productivity by turning a solid fuel heater into a heater or hob:

Manufacturing recommendations

A potbelly stove made from a cylinder can be different: the container can be placed horizontally or vertically. You need to choose the right size case and then use it correctly.

You will need sheet material made of steel that is resistant to prolonged heating, thick wire for the grate, an angle for the legs, etc. During the manufacturing process, a number of nuances should be taken into account to make the stove convenient and efficient.

Stage No. 1 - selection and preparation of the cylinder

Gas cylinders are very different. For a potbelly stove, a container for liquefied gas of 50 or 40 liters is best suited. If you need a small oven, you can take a cylinder with a volume of 12 or 27 liters.

But this will be a device for heating small utility rooms. Similar five-liter containers are practically useless. Such a small potbelly stove will heat up quickly, but will soon cool down, so the heating effect from it will be very insignificant.

An interesting option for a homemade potbelly stove is a freon container. Such a cylinder has thick walls and an elongated body. The container needs to be cut so that the length of the body is approximately 70 cm. Thick walls, of course, make the structure heavier, but retain heat better. The potbelly stove will take a long time to heat up, but at the same time it will heat up longer.

Before starting work, it is necessary to properly prepare the gas cylinder: bleed the remaining gas from it, drain the condensate and fill the container with water, which can then be poured out

When the cylinder is selected, you need to prepare the welding machine and remember the safety rules. Even in a very old cylinder there will always be some residual flammable gas. If you immediately start cutting it using welding, a life-threatening explosion is almost guaranteed. For those who have not yet used a welding machine, we recommend reading this article.

To begin with, it is recommended to open the cylinder and vent the remaining gas. Of course, this needs to be done outdoors, not indoors. Then you need to drain the remaining liquid that has condensed inside the cylinder. This substance usually has a strong and unpleasant odor, so it is best to prepare a small container with a lid for it in advance so that you can immediately carefully pack it and throw it away.

There are no particularly strict parameters requirements for the design of a potbelly stove. The larger the combustion chamber, the more spacious the room the unit can heat.

If condensation is accidentally spilled on the floor in a room, the specific aroma can persist for a very long time. After all these operations, the cylinder is still not ready for contact with the welding machine, because residual gas vapor remains inside.

You need to fill the balloon with water to the very top in order to completely displace all the gas from it. After this, the water is drained, now the cylinder can be cut without problems.

Stage No. 2 - manufacturing and filling the case

Next, you need to choose the type of potbelly stove from the cylinder, whether the cylindrical body will be located horizontally or vertically.

All other operations are carried out taking into account this orientation. If a horizontal position is selected, then one of the ends of the cylinder will serve as the rear wall, and on the other you need to install a loading door and a blower.

If you plan to make a vertical potbelly stove from a gas cylinder, you will need to make two holes: for loading fuel and for an ash pan with an ash pan.

For the grate, you can use thick reinforcing wire. In order not to cook a lattice out of it, you can bend it with a frequent zigzag, a “snake”.This structure is welded to the inner walls of the metal body.

The front wall is made of metal sheet as follows:

1. The metal must be applied to the front of the stove to apply the markings.
2. According to the markings, cut out a round part.
3. Apply another marking on it: for the rectangular door and the blower.
4. Cut holes according to the markings.
5. Make doors.
6. Weld hinges and latches to the front wall and hang the doors.
7. Weld the wall with doors to the body.

Both doors along the contour should be sealed with asbestos-cement cord so that they fit well to the body. There is usually no need to create a back wall in such a potbelly stove; its role is played by the bottom of the cylinder. In the upper part of the body, close to the back wall, you need to make a hole for the chimney.

The pipe must be made of thick metal, since the lower part of the chimney will come into contact with heated smoky gases. Thin metal in this place will quickly burn out. Now strong legs made of reinforcement, pieces of metal or pieces of metal corner are welded to the bottom of the stove. They must withstand both the weight of the structure itself and the fuel that will be loaded into it.

Approximately the same technology is used to make a vertical potbelly stove from a cylinder. The bottom of the cylinder will become the lower part of the structure; at the top you need to make a cylindrical “roof” with a hole for the chimney. Usually the top of the balloon is cut off. Once installation is complete, you can weld it back. Doors - for loading and blowing - are made in the front part of the cylinder body.

Such a potbelly stove will take up less space than the horizontal version, and it will also be taller.If you intend to not only heat the room, but also cook food, then you will need to adjust the height of the stove taking this into account and ensure a flat cooking surface.

But usually the diameter of the cylinder is not large enough to provide a full cooking opportunity. Although boiling a kettle is a doable task.

This drawing allows you to get an idea of ​​​​the design of a horizontal version of a potbelly stove made from a cylinder, to the bottom of which an ash box is attached

The grate can be made in the same way as described above: from fittings bent like a snake along the diameter of the pipe. It is welded between the loading and blower holes.

Some try to reduce the amount of welding work by leaving the top of the cylinder virtually untouched. But then all other work will be more difficult to complete.

In a horizontal potbelly stove, you can not weld the grate, but turn part of the body into it by drilling holes of a suitable diameter and attaching an ash box at the bottom

For example, the grate will have to be inserted not from above, but pushed into the fire door and somehow held in the correct position. Now you need to make doors with hinges and locks and weld them to the body of the potbelly stove, having previously sealed them with asbestos-cement cord. All that remains is to install the chimney pipe at the top and weld the legs at the bottom.

Stage No. 3 - making the door and ash pan

Doors for a potbelly stove can be made from those parts of the body that remain after cutting out the holes. Hinges and latches are welded to them. These are simple elements. Loops can even be made from thick chain links. The second, more expensive option is to purchase ready-made cast metal structures.

To install a ready-made cast door on a homemade potbelly stove, you should weld a frame made of a metal corner to the loading hole

You can choose two separate doors: a large one for the loading hole and a narrow one for the blower. But there are also kits in which such doors are combined into a single structure.

The holes for such doors must be cut exactly to size. After this, you need to weld a frame from the corner to the edges of the openings.

Several links of a thick chain, similar to a bicycle chain, can be used as hinges for a homemade potbelly stove door made from a cylinder

The frame of the cast doors is attached to the resulting frame using bolts. It is recommended to pre-weld a small side so that there are no gaps and the oven is closed hermetically.

In small potbelly stoves, you can, if desired, do without a grate altogether.

On the left is an inverted body of a horizontal potbelly stove with an ash pan welded to it, and on the right is a general view. The ash pan is pulled out to regulate the flow of oxygen; there is no need to make a blower in this model

Finding a place for it is difficult if the stove is made small or low, for example, a horizontal version. In such a device there is no vent; air access is provided using the loading door, which is simply opened slightly. Grate bars are easy to make from rebar, but they are not particularly reliable.

Over time, the fittings burn out and have to be replaced. An alternative would be a piece of sheet metal with circular slots or holes cut into it. To collect ash, you can use a special box - an ash pan.

In the horizontal version of a potbelly stove made from a cylinder, the grate can be installed in the lower part complete with an ash pan, since the lower part of the body will have to be cut off to facilitate installation.

Step-by-step photo guide

To make a homemade potbelly stove, you will need one annealed, empty gas cylinder, a Ø 108 mm pipe for installing a chimney (the footage depends on specific technical conditions), trimming a steel strip and corner, and three hinges for hanging doors.

The construction of the body of the future stove is carried out in the following sequence:

The potbelly stove made from an empty gas cylinder is almost ready: the finishing touches remain:

The height of the chimney depends on the shape of the roof and the presence of nearby objects that can interfere with draft. It should be at least 0.5 m higher than a flat and low-pitched roof. If there are tall trees or buildings nearby, then the mouth of the pipe should be placed higher than them.

How to increase efficiency?

To make your stove more efficient, there are several simple ways. First, you should insulate the chimney pipe to retain some of the heat that escapes with smoke gases.Various methods can be used to increase the area of ​​contact between the heated metal and the surrounding air.

The installation of a kind of cap from an additional gas cylinder will help to significantly improve the thermal performance of a potbelly stove built from a gas cylinder:

Some craftsmen recommend making the chimney not strictly vertical, but curved. This will increase the path of combustion waste and allow some of its heat to return to the room. But it should be remembered that the complicated design of the chimney can negatively affect the draft, so you should not get carried away with excessive bends.

Sometimes metal wings are welded to the body of the potbelly stove, for example, made from a corner or any suitable strips of metal. If the size of the stove allows, you can weld a horizontal sheet of metal on top and make an additional hole in it not for the chimney, but for a pan or kettle.

The hole is closed with a special composite lid made of several concentric circles. By removing or adding circles, you can adjust the degree of heating.

Another option for upgrading a potbelly stove is a brick case. The masonry is done around the stove, leaving a small gap between the metal body and the brick. The brick will absorb some of the thermal energy and then gradually release it to the surrounding air.

If you wrap the chimney with a metal mesh and place stones in the resulting gap, you can increase the heating efficiency. Even after the wood burns out, the stones will continue to give off heat for some time.

An alternative version of this modernization is a metal mesh around the chimney, into which pieces of brick or stone are placed. This is a popular solution for stoves installed in a bathhouse, a variation of a heater. But it should be remembered that only river “pebbles” of uniform color and without inclusions are suitable for this. If the stone is made up of layers of different types, it may rupture when exposed to high temperatures.

If you need a stove of substantial size, the master has two gas cylinders at his disposal; you can combine them into one design. One of them is installed horizontally, and the second is installed vertically as a pipe for the chimney. The heating area increases, such a potbelly stove will work more efficiently.

Metal pipes built into the body of the potbelly stove in combination with a fan allow you to increase the rate of heating of the room, but to achieve this effect you will need electricity

Finally, you can insert pipes inside the upper part of the body through which air will circulate.If you place a fan at the end of these pipes, the air will move faster. This equivalent of a fan heater will allow you to warm up the entire room in a few minutes and distribute thermal energy more efficiently.

Conclusions and useful video on the topic

Here are recommendations for safely disassembling an old gas cylinder:

This video describes the procedure for making a stove from a gas cylinder:

An original potbelly stove with the function of pyrolysis afterburning fuel can be made from two gas cylinders:

A potbelly stove is a simple device that is not difficult to build and can be used quite widely. If the work order is thought out in advance and carried out correctly, such a stove can last quite a long time.

Please write comments on the article, ask questions, share your experience if you have already assembled a potbelly stove from scrap materials.