Subject: Re: side draft hood

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 1996 18:38:56 -0600

>Thanks for the info on side draft hoods.  I'm interested in obtaining a
>copy of the prints Lou Mueller made.  Would someone please post his
>address or some way to contact him?  Thanks.
>
>Jim Bodin

These hoods sound real good. When I put up one of my first forges there
happened to be an article in the Anvils Ring about chimneys. I looked thru
a bunch of Anvils Rings today but never did find the article. I did find a
lot of other neat stuff though.

Anyway the hood/chimney in the article was just a 10" black stovepipe with
a half moon shape cut out of the bottom on the side facing the fire. The
cut removes about half the diameter of the pipe and comes up about 10". It
sits right next to the firepot. This looked a lot simpler than making that
whole smoke shelf thing so I tried it. It works GREAT.

Over the past 20 or so years I have only had to replace the bottom section
of pipe every five years or so. The fire actually ROARS up the pipe. I have
never had a problem with cooling at the roofline and I live in Minnesota. I
do have a cap on top to keep out the rain.

Works for me.

Bob Schade

---

From: Michael Spencer <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 96 22:30:24 EDT

> Anyway the hood/chimney in the article was just a 10" black stovepipe
> with a half moon shape cut out of the bottom on the side facing the
> fire. The cut removes about half the diameter of the pipe and comes up
> about 10". It sits right next to the firepot. This looked a lot
> simpler than making that whole smoke shelf thing so I tried it. It
> works GREAT.

When I first moved into my big shop, I made one of these in my haste
to get a fire going and do somthing in all that empty space (now
filled with, well, stuff, alas) and it worked great for small
fires. Not so well for big ones. After trying a large smoke hood and
reading up on it (in that order -- the *wrong* order :-0 ) I went to
the tin box with a smoke shelf.

There's a book on constructing fireplaces written (I think I have this
right) by Count Rumford a couple of hundred years ago and now
available in reprint. The tin box forge widget is more or less his
fireplace design adapted. A friend of mine built a fireplace exactly
to the book's specs -- very shallow fireplace with a smoke shelf and
chamber above. I was there the day the mortar was judged dry enough to
try it. He lit off an old cement bag in the thing and every bit of
smoke went up and out.

- Mike