Mine is ~150 CFM. I would like to try smaller though as I believe it is plenty to stoke the fire, and may be too much once the fire is going. A quick check of some of the commercial OWB's should give you a good idea what common sizes are.Quick question, how many CFM is everyones draft fans? I'm thinking 100-150 cfm should be adequate, but I don't want to go too much...
Mostly stick welded because stick is easiest out in the field. Plenty of wire feed FCAW setups used too.
I'll be honest, for an experienced pipe welder it's pretty bad welding in those pics.
Couldn't you use an air knife?Not sure what size my blower is but I also felt it was putting too much air into the fire. I spent hours on fabrication of a restrictor plate over part of the blower hole to reduce the air. Mainly it's a piece of duct tape that covers about an inch of the hole. Works for me. What I would like is a blower fan that has the ability to come on at full speed and then about 5 minutes later (when fire is going good) it slows down to about half speed or even just shuts off but leaves the damper door open for natural draft to slow the burn down to make for longer cooler burns. I think I'm loosing a lot of heat out the chimney especially in the summer when I'm running the owb at lower temperatures.
No its a manual operated guillotine used on turbo charged diesels to shut them down if they run away, the same idea could be used for limiting air flow.Is that like an air guitar?
What I have works, might use a little more wood but I like cutting wood so it's ok with me. I like to keep things simple, much easier to keep working and if it stops working I am capable of fixing it with things on hand. Computerized things are for nerds not hill billies like us.
Not sure what size my blower is but I also felt it was putting too much air into the fire. I spent hours on fabrication of a restrictor plate over part of the blower hole to reduce the air. Mainly it's a piece of duct tape that covers about an inch of the hole. Works for me. What I would like is a blower fan that has the ability to come on at full speed and then about 5 minutes later (when fire is going good) it slows down to about half speed or even just shuts off but leaves the damper door open for natural draft to slow the burn down to make for longer cooler burns. I think I'm loosing a lot of heat out the chimney especially in the summer when I'm running the owb at lower temperatures.
Mine is a similar tank in tank design. I pull water from the top near the rear of the firebox and return it at the bottom center. It seems to work well enough and I don't know if different locations would be any improvement. The only caution I would say is not to make the feed line to the house too high so as not to run the pump dry if the water is low - 25% from the top would seem sufficient. I chose not to draw from the bottom in case there was any sediment in the tank. Don't put your aquastat probe too near to the return. Use valves on every line so you can shut them off if needed for service. Oh - and put in multiple inlet/outlet ports in case you ever decide to heat another building/swimming pool/hot tub/etc.Anyone have any comments on where my supply and returns should be on the tank from my previous post of the rough drawing?