Alaska on my mind…

Mercy, it’s been a minute since my last Sourdough post. Fishing comes first, that’s my motto. So back to one of my favorite past times…

I’m always in the lookout for recycled projects. ♻️ Besides being good for the environment, and usually my budget, it’s fun to turn someone else’s trash to my treasure.

I found this set aside at the dump and figured I could repurpose it as a wood burning chiminea. Which will be just right this fall when it starts to cool down and we need to take the chill off whilst sitting outside.

I started by disassembling the pipe and then removed the tabletop. Once those were apart I struggled with removing the poly weight reservoir from the underside of the pedestal. The 4 bolts holding it in place were rusted and fused, two of them pulled right through and the other two wouldn’t budge. I swear the thing was made like Samsonite luggage. It took a minute… Or 20. Wish I’d had a gorilla.

I used a 4″ hole saw and cut out a larger hole to receive the new stovepipe. Side note: A 4″ hole saw is slightly larger than needed for the stove pipe but I didn’t have anything smaller that wasn’t too small, so 4″ it is!

I affixed a starter collar with machine screws and stove mortar.

Then I made a refractory mix with plaster of Paris and perlite to weight the bottom of of the chiminea to keep it from toppling over and give it some heat protection.

I decided to use a metal bucket as the fire chamber inside the stove to hopefully make it last longer. It was Dean’s idea and I went with it. For the bucket I poured refractory mix in the bottom about 2 inches deep and drilled air holes around the bottom. It fits nicely inside the unit.

I let it dry thoroughly before it’s first firing, about 8 days. First fire at the beach, it works!

The refractory mix in the bottom helps insulate the unit quite well. There’s no heat exchanged at all. I used a piece of white paperboard to close a central hole when I poured the mix in. The paper is still intact and not even singed. I honestly think I could use it on a deck. I’m very happy with my landfill rescue.