Yes, ANOTHER OWB build thread... (Tank in tank style)

[dave_dj1]

Very nice, keep up the good work.

 

[breymeyerfam]

Made the cover for the blower on the door. I'm not a sheet metal guy! This is the best I got with out a shear or a brake. Bends didn't turn out as good as I would have liked, but it will have to do.

Heavy 1/4" screen should keep out anything that could possibly get sucked into the blower and hang up the draft door. Don't need a boil over.

 

[breymeyerfam]

Any place where the firebox or flue could have came into contact with spray foam when applied has been insulated with rock wool. (Sorry for the fuzzy picture)

Made a little box over the latch mechanism to seal it up from the back side.

Tried to bend the rock wool around the flue, but quickly found out that it's too stiff and only rips. So I cut trapazoid wedges and zip tied them around the flue.

 

[breymeyerfam]

Last thing accomplished for the weekend was to install a second thermostat. Did lots of reading about using a single with dual heat stages, but the cost of a more fancy thermostat changed my mind. Went with another simple one. Wiring is easy. Pulled 24v from the first one to power the second. Heat relay from second back to fan relay in first. Seems to work. Fan kicks on when boiler thermostat calls for heat and gas will kick in if it gets down to second setting. Boiler thermostat will be set on 68-70 and back up gas thermostat will be set on 60.

 

[huntmaster86]

great work!! where did you order your blower and thermo wells from? I need to order mine up asap

 

[breymeyerfam]

great work!! where did you order your blower and thermo wells from? I need to order mine up asap

Blower and thermowells come from ebay.

 

[lindnova]

The two thermostat idea may be better anyway. I have a single and 2 degree differential for turning on the gas. I should figure out how to change the differential as I would rather loose more than 2 degrees before using gas.

 

[breymeyerfam]

Expansion tank / reservoir attached. Just need to plumb the over flow vent pipe on top and the sight glass and needed valves on the end of the reservoir. This thing will be ready to be spray foamed soon.

 

[Ted Jenkins]

Looks like a winner to me better than my early attempts with a water heater tank. Thanks

 

[huntmaster86]

i love the expansion/reservoir tank on the top! i may to steal that idea. I test fired my boiler 2 days ago and this could really come in handy, What size pipe connects the boiler to the upper tank? Are you making this a open or closed system? by the sound of the valves on the expansion tank i presume closed. Mine is open but i believe that the tank idea would work on mine too just to help contain boiler overs.

 

[breymeyerfam]

,What size pipe connects the boiler to the upper tank? Are you making this a open or closed system?

1/2" npt between the two tanks. I'd have liked to go larger, but the top tank is aluminum and already had all the fittings in it. (It's an old air tank from a semi) The top tank is to always keep the steel tank flooded in water.

This is an OPEN SYSTEM.

The other two valves I referenced are to make the sight glass be able to be flooded and then drained after checking the level, so water doesn't freeze in the sight glass, since the sight glass is outside of the insulation.

 

[huntmaster86]

Ah ok. Can't wait to see the finished product. I'm figuring out how I want to make my sight glass. Mine is inside my garage so I don't have to worry about freezing issues.

 

[breymeyerfam]

Boiler build is complete minus insulation. Hopefully the insulation will be on later this week.

Sight glass:

 

[breymeyerfam]

Ok, so at no point have I almost gave up on this project, until today that is. Yesterday got all the trench dug. Today was coring 2 holes in concrete and laying the logstor pipe. LOGSTOR PIPE IS HARD TO WORK WITH! It about beat me. Very stiff and hard to get around corners and stuff. Oh well, I got it finally. Here are the pics showing it all. First pic is the pipe strapped to trees to keep it from coiling right back up.

Next couple of digging. Took a while due to being real careful up close to the house.

Nice clean hole through my shop floor.

Going in the trench.

Didn't get a finished pic, cause it was well past dark before I got done.

 

[dave_dj1]

Nice! It won't be long and you'll be heating the house and nice and warm

 

[breymeyerfam]

Fully prepped for foam:

In process:

Done:

 

[breymeyerfam]

I forgot to share this sooner. I created a quick excel table to calculate water jacket volume when I was in the design stage. Figured I'd share it and save someone the math. This is based on tank in tank style(two cylinders with one spherical end on each). Just enter the diameters and straight wall lengths of tanks and viola!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6Twuj162plYQ0NOQ1dCV1VJT1I3WWpza2F2OXRTN19qcm0w/view?usp=drivesdk

 

[dave_dj1]

The boiler looks great and that little calc will be mighty useful to a few people in the future.

 

[benp]

Awesome job!!!!!

Sweet mini hoe!!!!! Awesome tool!!! Is that yours or a rental?

Fantastic with the spray foam!!!

That stuff holds up very well and does have a certain fire retardant quality.

What we have found over many years is that it in most abused areas it winds up separating from the metal aaaaaaaaand it will catch fire but smolders first.

Looking forward to your first fire!!!!!

 

[breymeyerfam]

Awesome job!!!!!

Sweet mini hoe!!!!! Awesome tool!!! Is that yours or a rental?

It's not mine, but not a rental either. Borrowed from my fathers work. VERY appreciative to my fathers employer to be able to use quality CATERPILLAR equipment now and then.