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Wood Stove Plans

If you've decided that a homemade heater is the way to go then the next step is to grab some wood stove plans. You can get them

A few years ago many stoves used to be homemade. However, in the 1980s new EPA certifications and an increase in safety regulations put a lot of the home stove building groups out of work. You can still build them though. We don't usually recommend them for the living room, but for a properly cleared area in a garage or shed it may be OK. Here are some of your options:

Thermal Mass

This is a stove that holds in heat in a material such as masonry. While there's usually not a lot of welding involved, masonry isn't a lot easier!

Masonry Wood Stove Plans

Now if you have some real masonry skills, this may actually be a good living room option. You can get a masonry heater installed, and the exterior masonry is the DIT yourself portion. The advantage here is that the heating technology is pre-build so you won't need to test that as much. A decent option if you having some interior masonry skills but don't want to necessarily re-engineer a heating system. Some custom home builders offer this option as well so its a little more "legit". You will lose some of the savings of a total do-it-yourself option though.

Camping Wood Stove

You can make your own camping or backpacking heater, usually out of common household items. Obviously, since they are portable and don't need to throw off a lot of heat, they don't need to be over engineered.

Barrel Wood Stove

Probably the most common of the wood stove plans, there are many ideas for barrel wood stoves. The advantage here is that a barrel is good for heat conduction and is already partially shaped for a good heater design. The materials are cheap to find in most cases. Some people have used them for decades in their shed or outdoor area