Cold weather wood worker? Read on

[reible]

I did not know they had such small wood stoves. I really wish I had the room for one.....

Back when I was a young lad I made a lot of good memories around a wood stove. Our home work shop was in the basement but there was no heat down there except for a barrel stove. We had a space heater upstairs but it was not enough to really heat the house when it was far below zero outside. We had a combination stove in the kitchen and that was the warm room in the house. On those cold night a warm fire down in the basement did a lot to make things comfortable.

A lot of nights I would go down and start a fire then come back up for supper while things warmed up. Then I could get some quality woodworking time down there. The scraps worked good for starters and then adding some large logs and set the dampers and it would go for a lot of hours, sometime even having embers in the morning. The radiant heat could really warm you up. And having a warm floor was certainly a comfort.

Ed

[RFGuy]

I did not know they had such small wood stoves. I really wish I had the room for one.....

Ed

Yeah, I was surprised when I stumbled on these a while back. I have seen rave reviews for stoves like this in tiny houses. If you put some shielding behind them, you only need 3" of clearance behind them supposedly. This combined with the very small size allows them to fit into some very cramped quarters. Often I see these mounted halfway up a wall, which is likely what I would do if I ever get one, then there is room underneath for storage, etc. Besides the price, I have held off because I can't legally burn most of the time here. Too much pollution combined with frequent inversion layers means we have too many "no burn days" here in the winter.

[jsburger]

I learned about wood stoves when I ws stationed in Canada. The heat is very very different from anything else. If you have been around wood stove heat you know the difference.

I grew up with fire places in our houses. They are nice but not the same as a wood stove. I bought a Lopi stove in 2002 and have never regretted it. It was one of the best $4000 I have ever spent. It is installed in the dining room/kitchen. I burn every day in the winter, 2+ cords of wood a year.

[BuckeyeDennis]

Maybe I am just soft, but surprised you guys can work in an unheated shop this time of year. I live in the desert Southwest and still need heat to function in my shop most days. I love hand warmers, but only use them for hunting and fishing, but I am glad to see electric hand warmers available now. My Dad got one of those heated Milwaukee jackets last year and loves his, but I haven't tried one yet. Might be a good combination of having an electric jacket and hand warmer.

Just curious if anyone has a wood stove in their shop? I have always liked the idea myself as you can burn offcuts/scrap in the stove for heat. They have some really small wood stoves now for tiny houses, campers, vans, etc. Because of the smaller size, clearances can be a lot smaller making it easier to fit one of these in a small, cramped wood shop.

https://cubicminiwoodstoves.com/collect ... 1416837252

Cubisobrassfire_1024x1024@2x.jpg

When we built our house back in 1990, I had a flue for the basement installed in the chimney chase, which is just outside a corner of my workshop. Originally the room was slated to be a wet bar, and a corner woodburning stove seemed like a great idea for the room. We also had a sink drain for the bar installed in the concrete floor. Many years later, after commandeering the unfinished space for my workshop (and hauling out some 20 years worth of accumulated crap), I ran freshwater pipes to a utility sink that uses that very drain, and is one of my favorite shop luxuries.

But back to your point, my shop is about 350 square feet. Being at the far end of the HVAC ductwork, and with a stretch of uninsulated exterior cinderblock wall, it gets a bit chilly in winter. But no way am I going to sacrifice woodworking equipment space for a woodburner. Even though I have the flue right there.