Island Time 1,235 Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 I have 3m on the longest section of heater duct on the propex, works fine. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest 000 Posted April 30, 2016 Share Posted April 30, 2016 Finally some pictures of the finished heater unit. Now i just need to fabricate a deck plate and Charlie Noble, and plumb it up to an old kero stove fuel tank that I have. The design was governed by the materials I had available and by what I could scrounge, and by my wife's requirement that it be what she terms 'fiscally neutral' which is her way of saying that whereas she quite likes the idea of a cabin heater, she doesnt want to be put to any expense by it. The core of the heater is a piece of 80mm I/D pipe with a 3mm wall thickness. There is a piece of split 25mm I/D pipe welded up the front to increase thermal mass and to provide attachment for the cover. The top is cut from a piece of 100 x 100 x 10mm angle. All of the above as well as the kero burner is stuff that has been lying about in my workshop for years. For what I didnt have, the flue is a piece of a mast base granny bar found in the rubbish skip at our local marina. The cover is cut from the casing of a microwave oven discarded at the tip, and the top plate is from the drip tray of and old coffe machine. The brass strips are cut from a header tank courtesy of my neighbour who restores vintage cars. Total cost so far is zero, unless you count consumables, welding rods, grinding discs etc. Next step is to fire it up here at home to make sure that it does in fact produce a bit of heat before I install it in the boat. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fujo 3 Posted April 30, 2016 Share Posted April 30, 2016 This looks pretty acceptable in the lounge! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
erice 732 Posted April 30, 2016 Share Posted April 30, 2016 brilliant! in honour of your smithery can i christen it chrisc chrisc bang bang? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
wheels 543 Posted April 30, 2016 Share Posted April 30, 2016 Cool....or hot but I mean it looks great. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Island Time 1,235 Posted April 30, 2016 Share Posted April 30, 2016 Great job! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
wild violet 38 Posted May 3, 2016 Share Posted May 3, 2016 Have you cranked her up yet am keen to copy your fine example if it puts out ample heat Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest 000 Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 No, havent tried it yet. Unfortunately a couple of little problems have arisen - I thought the job was going a bit too well.... You may have noticed from the photos that the burner does not have a cap on it. I was sure that I had one at home here in Whangamata but no, its on board and the boat is spending the winter on a mooring in Auckland. The other problem is with the fuel tank. After all these years I've only just noticed that it doesnt have a pump. I will either have to make one or perhaps modify and install a bike inner tube Presto valve and pressurise the tank with a bicycle pump. Either way, its a bit of a nuisance! I have almost completed the Charlie Noble and attach a photo. The body of the chimney is 34mm I/D pipe and has a couple of alloy rings pressed up the inside to centralise the 25mm flue pipe from the heater.The cap at the top unscrews sufficiently to enable the exhaust gasses to exit through the holes and is close to watertight when closed. Just need to weld on the deck plate and I dont have any suitable pieces of S/S plate for this, so may have to bite the bullet and spend a few bucks. Prior to building this heater, I experimented with a flower pot heater - the internet is full of plans for these things. Mine was a double pot job heated by three of those little tea lights. We have a small empty storage room of 11m3 at the back of our house and with a thermometer suspended at chest hight in the room and another outside the room at the same hight, found that the flowerpot heater raised the temperature by 1 degree C after 45 minutes. Not very good. Depending on their composition, tea lights put out about 230 BTU's, so around 700BTU's in total. The Primus Optimus burner in my new heater has an output of 25,000BTU's so I'm confident it will warm the limited interior spaces of the H28. Finally, as a word of encouragement, woodworking is my forte. I'm sort of OK with metal so long as its basic stuff. I only have a toy AC welder and all the welding was done with 2.5mm general purpose 316L rods. Had to spend quite a bit of time on clean up and polishing. I'm pleased with the way the heater has turned out and if I can do it with my limited skills then anybody can. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
wild violet 38 Posted May 5, 2016 Share Posted May 5, 2016 Looks sweet I have an old two burner kero stove am thinking of shortning the tank and leaving the pump and one burner attached to the tank.Then doing what you have done with the rest.dad used to have an old force 10 kero heater on a 35 footer and it kept the whole boat dry and warm only problem was used to get a dry throat,have to drink more I guess. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest 000 Posted May 12, 2016 Share Posted May 12, 2016 Finally finished it. It took a bit longer than anticipated but as with all make-it-up-as-you-go-along jobs, a few unexpected issues cropped up. A brief test run produced a pretty decent amount of heat so am pretty happy about that! The only drawback now is that I built the heater at home in Whangamata and the boat is in Auckland so I am hoping that no big unconsidered problems are going to arise when I try to install it in a week or so. If they do, it will be for sale on TradeMe. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Black Panther 1,586 Posted May 12, 2016 Share Posted May 12, 2016 A round of applause for that man!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
wheels 543 Posted May 12, 2016 Share Posted May 12, 2016 Great work Chris. looks like a bought one. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ScottiE 174 Posted May 12, 2016 Share Posted May 12, 2016 Oamaru steampunk got nothin on you! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DrWatson 375 Posted May 12, 2016 Share Posted May 12, 2016 looks great! Would you do a CO check after installing it? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest 000 Posted May 12, 2016 Share Posted May 12, 2016 Yes, I will buy a detector. I have discovered that they are quite cheap and I think my life maybe worth the $20 purchase price. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
wheels 543 Posted May 13, 2016 Share Posted May 13, 2016 Or get a Canary and have company at the same time Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest 000 Posted June 19, 2016 Share Posted June 19, 2016 Well, I still haven't installed the heater in the boat. It's a dinky little appliance and occupies no space at all in my workshop (where I'm using it to kick start epoxy curing) but in the limited space on board it seems to grow in size, and wife is not best pleased to have it as a permanent installation. I am thinking to make it a quick install/remove on the main bulkhead,that is put it up when needed, remove when not. To do this I need some of that 32mm ID flexible stainless exhaust tube to connect the heater unit to the Charlie Noble,but I cannot source any. If anyone has any ideas where to procure this tube....? Thanks Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest 000 Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 OK, ignore the above. The picture I put up a couple of posts back shows the 25mm ID chinmey with the flared end inside the 40mm ID deck fitting. This dangly bit of the chimney would be a bit of a problem inside the cabin if the heater was removed. However.... I'd forgotten that I fabricated it so that the thin pipe is threaded inside the thick pipe to facilitate removal so that the cabin would be uncluttered. There's nothing wrong with me.., really.. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
El Toro 97 Posted July 3, 2016 Share Posted July 3, 2016 We tried the pot on the stove over the weekend, worked a treat in the saloon, now just need to break a few laws of physics to get the heat to travel down into the hulls... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest 000 Posted July 3, 2016 Share Posted July 3, 2016 Did you vent the combusted gases to the outside? According to Mr.Internet, burning 1 litre of propane produces 0.8 litres of water, and burning 1 litre of kerosene produces 1.3 litres of water. You don't want to have that down below in the wintertime. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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