Drawings of steel furnaces. DIY sauna stove: installation of metal and brick stoves

There are many metal sauna stoves on sale, but good ones cost a lot of money. If you have sufficient experience in metal welding, you can make a furnace yourself, according to your own dimensions. Read more about how to make a stove for a bathhouse from metal (sheet), drawings and photos.

1 Metal stove for baths and saunas - what is the difference
2 Homemade stoves for Russian baths
- 2.1 Heater: what size and where
- 2.2 Drawings of homemade metal sauna stoves
3 How to make a sauna stove
- 3.1 Drawings and diagrams

Metal stove for baths and saunas - what is the difference

There is a significant difference between the steam modes in a bathhouse and a sauna. In the sauna the air temperature is very high - from 85C and much higher. At this temperature, the humidity simply cannot be high - you will immediately get burned, and the broom will crumble in five minutes. And it is really small, about 5-15%. In a Russian steam room, the temperature stays between 55-65°C, occasionally rising to 70°C. At such temperatures, the humidity “catch up” is high - 50-60%.

One of the options for a welded sauna stove

To achieve such different tasks, different approaches to constructing a furnace are required. A sauna requires the largest area of contact between the stove body and the surrounding air and acceleration of the passage of air flows along the walls. Everything is subordinated to the task of heating the air in the steam room as quickly as possible. There is a heater, but it is small, open, and is usually located above the firebox. The stones in it warm up to a maximum of 200-250°C, since they give off a lot of heat to the surrounding air. You can get a little steam from such a heater. But you don’t need a lot in the sauna - one or two ladle will give 15% humidity. I just can't stand it anymore.

In a Russian steam room, the task is different - not to overheat the room and achieve a large amount of steam. Moreover, the steam must be of a certain condition - it must consist of very small droplets. It is also called “dry” and has a high temperature - about 130-150°C. Under this condition, after soaring, the body feels light and energized. Such steam is obtained only from hot stones whose temperature is at least 500°C. To achieve it, the stones are “packed” inside the firebox - a box is placed in it - a closed heater.

Here the heater is located inside and a tank is attached on top

As you can see, there are significant design differences. They must be kept in mind.

Homemade stoves for Russian baths

What else should you keep in mind when designing a stove for the Russian steam room mode? The fact that having heated metal walls to keep the temperature within the required 60-65°C is unrealistic. Be sure to melt it. At the same time, hard IR radiation comes from the walls of the furnace and is difficult to be nearby. The problem can be solved in two ways:

Furnace lining. The inside of the firebox is lined with heat-resistant bricks (fireclay to fireclay mortar). You can put it on the edge, then the thickness of the lining is 6 cm, or you can find a narrow fireclay with an edge of 3 cm. In any case, the metal walls heat up slightly, the main energy is directed to heating the heater. In this case, it is necessary to immediately design a larger firebox, taking into account that a significant volume of it is occupied by the lining. The disadvantage of this option is the very high smoke temperature, and therefore a high fire hazard. The solution is to take away most of the energy from the smoke. The simplest option is a heater or a water tank on a pipe. The option is more complicated - a heating panel, into which smoke is supplied directly from the stove, and after cooling in the labyrinth of the panel, the output temperature is no more than 80-120°C.
Lining - line the inside of the firebox with heat-resistant bricks
A brick screen or sarcophagus around a metal furnace. The screen is made of ordinary ceramic bricks, windows are made in the wall or doors are installed so that it is possible to regulate the degree of heating of the air in the room. As you can see, this option is more convenient for maintaining the temperature in a given mode. But from a practical point of view it is worse. The fact is that behind the screen the walls of the firebox overheat (there is almost no convection and they do not cool down). As a result, after some time the metal burns out. The solution is to use heat-resistant steel or structural steel, but of great thickness. In this case, the greater the thickness of the metal, the longer the stove will last. According to statistics, the most problematic area is the top and rear surface of the firebox. Here, try to put the thickest metal you can find.
Cover the outside of the building with a brick screen

It's also worth talking about seams. In homemade metal stoves (in factory ones, too, in principle), burnout often begins precisely at the seams. In production, this problem is avoided using bent structures. In the upper part they try to avoid seams altogether. When making a sauna stove with your own hands, you are unlikely to be able to bend a sheet of metal 6-10 mm thick, so there is only one thing left to do - make the seams as high quality as possible.

Kamenka: what size and where

The required number of stones depends on the volume of the steam room (provided that the bathhouse is properly insulated). Different sources have different recommendations with more or less amounts - from 20 to 40 kg per 1 m3. In principle, the more stones, the easier it is to obtain the required amount of steam, provided that the oven has enough power to heat them.

The problem is that stones of different types have different densities, and, therefore, the same mass occupies different volumes. In principle, for an average steam room with a volume of 12-14 m3, the dimensions of the heater are approximately the following: 30*40*30 mm. The parameters can be changed slightly, made wider/narrower/higher - look at the design of the stove.

The heater can be of different shapes and sizes

The ratio of the volume of the firebox to the volume of the heater is a complex thermotechnical calculation that not even every heating engineer is able to master. It is much easier to use ready-made drawings or experimentally determined proportions. At a minimum, the volume of the firebox “free” from the heater should not be less. It’s better if it’s even about 30-50% more.

A little about what part of the firebox is best to place a box for stones. Everyone has long come to the conclusion that the highest temperature is in the upper part and at the back wall. This is where it makes sense to place the container. Firstly, part of the thermal load from the arch of the firebox will be removed, and secondly, the stones will heat up well.

Don’t forget about the maintenance of the heater and the fact that water must somehow get into it. The service hatch should be positioned in such a way that you can reach the farthest edge with your hand without any problems. And the water supply deep into the heater must be organized so as not to get burned. Typically, a tube or system of tubes is inserted, which diverge across the entire plane of the stone container. On the room side, this tube ends in a funnel. The pipe is lined with stones. When water is supplied to it, it is distributed over the surface of the heater/stones and evaporates.

Drawings of homemade metal sauna stoves

This stove was designed for a steam room 2*3*2.3 m. It was made from sheet metal 3 mm thick.

Metal stove for a bath with a closed heater

To activate combustion, it is possible to connect an additional air duct laid from the street. Other solutions include stiffening ribs (corners) welded to the sides of the firebox in the upper part of the firebox so that the metal does not bend during strong heating.

The following diagram of a metal sauna stove is made with air supplied to the upper part of the firebox. These are so-called gas afterburning furnaces. There is a metal plate welded on the back wall. Air from under the grate is supplied into the gap between this plate and the rear wall of the firebox using air ducts. This seemingly simple device solves two problems at once. Firstly, it cools the back wall, reducing the likelihood of it burning out. Secondly, the air is supplied to the upper part heated. Flue gases heated to high temperatures are concentrated there, most of which are flammable (up to 80%). When these gases mix with heated air, the combustible substances ignite, the temperature in the upper part of the firebox becomes even higher, and the stones heat up to higher temperatures. In this case (when using dry firewood) much less fuel is required. Many long-burning stoves are built on this principle, but it began to be used in sauna stoves only recently.

Furnace with secondary air supply

Approximately the same model, but without afterburning, made in a different format. The dimensions are not indicated here, but it is easier to understand the proportions and arrangement of the various elements.

Three-dimensional model of a homemade metal stove-heater

In this case, the volume of the firebox is about 130% of the volume of the heater. Normal ratio. The chimney is shifted back, which is not always good - difficulties may arise when installing the chimney - it may rest against the ceiling beam - you will have to bend the chimney, which is undesirable. So think about the location of the pipe.

Even among bathhouse lovers, there is a constant debate about whether a tank for heating water in a steam room is good or bad... Some regulate the humidity by opening/closing the tank lid. They are happy with this option. Others say that this steam is “heavy”, and take the tank to the washing compartment, and heat the water in it by building a heat exchanger into the firebox and connecting it to the tank with pipes. The following diagram is a stove in a metal bath with a water tank.

Drawing of a sauna stove with a water tank

The design is smart - with the help of a “spark arrestor” the path of flue gases is longer, it stays in the firebox longer, and heats the walls better. If you don't want a tank, you can put stones in its place.

An interesting option with a tank located at the back of the stove. The chimney is moved back and passes through the tank. The height of the tank is large, heat removal will be effective - the temperature of the chimney at the outlet of the tank will definitely not be high.

Option for a small stove with a large tank

The heater is interestingly designed. It is not very large, but its volume is enough for small and medium-sized steam rooms. It closes with a lid, which on the one hand is not very convenient: closing the lid after applying water to the stones will be problematic. On the other hand, it is convenient to maintain.

Furnace sections and dimensions

How to make a sauna stove

As already mentioned, the main task of this type of heating device is to quickly “catch up” to the required temperature and be able to maintain it. There is a simple solution - install a fan that will blow on the walls of the oven, accelerating heating.

The convector casing performs approximately the same function. This is the casing around the oven body. There remains a gap of 1.5-2 cm between it and the wall of the firebox. Air is sucked into this gap from below. It passes along the walls, heats up, and at the same time cools the walls. Then it rises upward, spreading heat throughout the steam room.

Working principle of the convection casing

If the furnace body is made of thick metal, then the casing can be made of thin metal. It rarely heats up to high temperatures, and burnout does not threaten it. If in a sauna stove the heater is located at the top, above the firebox, as in the photo, then holes can be made in the body to ventilate the heater. Then part of the air that rises along the walls will enter the heater, blow on the stones and heat up even more. This type of heater is called ventilated. It is good for dry air saunas.

Drawings and diagrams

The design of sauna stoves is simpler. You need a normal size firebox that can accommodate large logs. In the upper part, above the top of the firebox, the sides of the heater are welded, the volume of which is usually 20-25 liters. There may be variations in width/height/depth, but there are no special tricks.

Diagrams of metal sauna stoves

Installing a tank for heating water in a sauna steam room is not the best idea. You won't be able to control the humidity, and at high temperatures it's easy to get burned. However, there are several options for installing tanks in the photo above.

Another type of heater is inside the firebox. If desired, you can put a lid on it and this oven can be used in two modes - with the lid open for dry vaping, and with the lid open to produce more steam.

Heater inside the body

There are many metal sauna stoves on sale, but good ones cost a lot of money. If you have sufficient experience in metal welding, you can make a furnace yourself, according to your own dimensions. Read on to learn how to make a stove for a bathhouse from metal (sheet metal), drawings and photos.

There is a significant difference between the steam modes in a bathhouse and a sauna. In the sauna the air temperature is very high - from 85C and much higher. At this temperature, the humidity simply cannot be high - you will immediately get a burn, but it will crumble in five minutes. And it is really small, about 5-15%. In a Russian steam room, the temperature stays between 55-65°C, occasionally rising to 70°C. At such temperatures, the humidity “catch up” is high - 50-60%.

As you can see, there are significant design differences. They must be kept in mind.

Homemade stoves for Russian baths

Kamenka: what size and where

The required number of stones depends on the volume of the steam room (assuming it is normal). Different sources have different recommendations with more or less amounts - from 20 to 40 kg per 1 m 3. In principle, the more stones, the easier it is to obtain the required amount of steam, provided that the oven has enough power to heat them.

The problem is that stones of different types have different densities, and, therefore, the same mass occupies different volumes. In principle, for an average steam room with a volume of 12-14 m 3, the dimensions of the heater are approximately the following: 30 * 40 * 30 mm. The parameters can be changed slightly, made wider/narrower/higher - look at the design of the stove.

Drawings of homemade metal sauna stoves

This stove was designed for a steam room 2*3*2.3 m. It was made from sheet metal 3 mm thick.

Three-dimensional model of a homemade metal stove-heater

Even among bathhouse lovers, there is a constant debate about whether a tank for heating water in a steam room is good or bad... Some regulate the humidity by opening/closing the lid of the tank. They are happy with this option. Others say that this steam is “heavy”, and take the tank to the washing compartment, and heat the water in it by building a heat exchanger into the firebox and connecting it to the tank with pipes. The following diagram is a stove in a metal bath with a water tank.

The design is clever - with the help of a “spark arrestor” the path of flue gases is longer, it stays in the firebox longer, and heats the walls better. If you don't want a tank, you can put stones in its place.

How to make a sauna stove

Drawings and diagrams

Installing a tank to heat water in a sauna steam room is not the best idea. You won't be able to control the humidity, and at high temperatures it's easy to get burned. However, there are several options for installing tanks in the photo above.

A homemade metal stove is perfect for heating a greenhouse, garage, work space, and even a living room. To assemble the unit in question, you can use sheets of metal, barrels, pipes and even fire extinguishers of a suitable size. The procedure for making the stove remains the same. Differences are present only in the initial stages of corps preparation.

Advantages of a homemade metal stove

A homemade metal stove has a number of advantages over brick heating units. Among the main advantages of the structures under consideration, it is necessary to highlight the simplicity of their design and the availability of raw materials.

Making a simple metal stove will not take much time - there are usually no difficulties in finding (purchasing) metal sheets or iron containers of a suitable size.

The installation of a metal furnace will require many times less financial investment compared to the construction of a brick heating unit. At the same time, a metal stove does not take up much space and heats up very quickly during operation.

Homemade metal stove

Metal stoves weigh much less than their brick counterparts, which eliminates the need for a strong foundation. To further increase heating efficiency, a screen made of heat-resistant brick can be laid around a metal heating unit.

Main design features

A standard metal furnace consists of the following main elements:

Equip on top of the stove firebox. Install the tank at the minimum possible distance from the firebox. Typically, one part of the tank is installed on supports, the other on the furnace firebox. Make racks from materials that are suitable and convenient for you. The main thing is that they are strong and securely fastened as much as possible.

An option is often used in which a smoke exhaust pipe is passed through a water tank, heating the liquid. However, in this case, all welding work must be performed to the highest possible quality. Any gaps will cause the tank to leak. As a result, water will enter the firebox and extinguish the fire.

If you wish, you can make changes to the design of the stove yourself, placing additional elements at your discretion.

Weld strong metal legs to the bottom of the oven. Installation of such units, as a rule, is carried out on special flood sheets.

Place a fireclay brick screen around the stove. It is also recommended to line the section of the smoke exhaust pipe before exiting the street with bricks.

Where the pipe crosses the materials of the house, lay fire-resistant material, for example, based on asbestos. This will provide adequate protection for materials from fire.

The section of the chimney passing through the attic should not have valves, views or other similar elements.

The length of the horizontal sections of the smoke exhaust pipe should not exceed 100 cm.

Metal stoves are installed in accordance with the provisions and rules of current regulatory documents.

If the walls of the building are made of wood, the distance between them and the stove should be at least 50-100 cm. If you plaster or protect it with a thick metal sheet, the specified distance can be reduced to 20-30 cm.

The firebox and chimney of the stove should be at a minimum distance.

Lightweight stoves can be installed without a foundation, on a dense metal sheet. Relatively heavy units require an individual base made of concrete or brick. Recommended height – up to 200 mm.

Now you have the information necessary to make your own metal stove. Follow the provisions of the presented manual, and the finished heating unit will effectively cope with the tasks assigned to it for many years.

Furnace installation option

Good luck!

Video - Do-it-yourself metal oven

A certain number of people believe that iron sauna stoves are worse than brick ones, although not a single clear and intelligible argument is given about this; most likely, conservative thinking is simply at work. Moreover, the metal firebox is still lined with brick, and the upper part is covered with stones.

Now we will look at some models and methods of their installation, and you are also offered a demonstration of a thematic video in this article.

How it's done

Types of metal furnaces

Of course, the easiest way is to make an iron stove for a bathhouse according to the “potbelly stove” principle - it takes a minimum of material and just as little time. But, despite all the savings, there is little benefit from this either - too much firewood is consumed and the heat also disappears very quickly. As a rule, solid fuel units are lined with bricks, and direct draft is avoided in the firebox itself.
In addition, such heaters can be purchased in a store (online or offline) taking into account the square footage of the steam room. Of course, the price of such an acquisition will be slightly higher, but you will get rid of preliminary structural calculations and the welding and installation work itself.

The gas iron stove in the bathhouse is characterized by very fast heating - the nozzle heats the tray, transferring the temperature to the stones, and as a result they heat up to 200°C. Such extreme conditions (rapid heating and cooling) are well tolerated by pellets taken from the river or seabed - ordinary granite simply crumbles due to sudden temperature changes. Often units of this type are equipped with a boiler for water, which can be used for washing, and if it is not there, then it is very easy to supplement the design with it.

If we talk about the advantages of electric heaters, we can immediately point out that they do not require an exhaust pipe to remove combustion products. This will allow you to install the stove in the place you need, because you get a fairly mobile heater, which is also very light and easily connected to a power source. However, in connection with the connection, the instructions given by the manufacturer must be strictly followed in order to prevent force majeure situations and eliminate the possibility of electric shock.

Recommendation. To connect the heating unit to the electrical network, use a separate grounding circuit (not grounding). As protective circuit breakers, install an RCD that breaks both zero and phase simultaneously.

Metal solid fuel stoves

In such situations, a fairly reasonable question very often arises - what is better, go to a store and buy products there, spending a certain amount of money on it, or look for (make it yourself) drawings of iron stoves for a bathhouse, and then spend a lot of time on it manufacturing?

As they say, it’s a double-edged sword, and each option has its own advantages and disadvantages, and from the point of view of opponents, all of them are decisive and undeniable. Well, this is indeed true, but the whole point is that each person has his own preferences and what one does not like is quite acceptable and even desirable for another ().

For example, the main argument in favor of purchasing ready-made metal stoves is that the money spent on their purchase can be returned with interest in the time that you spend on making a home-made structure, and this is true.

The other side argues no less logically, assuring themselves and others that free time spent watching TV or drinking a glass of beer is better used for good and in this case they, too, will not sin against the truth. But we can remember that very rich and great people spent their time on embroidery or grew cabbage (of course, in the garden, and not in a jar) and no one suffered from it!

So we will not be categorical in making decisions and will leave the choice to the users and their personal preferences, but, nevertheless, we will still consider some drawings of an iron stove for a bath and the assembly of the structure itself. It’s just that the finished units do not need to be corrected, and the diagrams are attached to them by the manufacturer, so there’s nothing special to talk about them.

Units of the "potbelly stove" type

The simplest metal heater for baths, as mentioned above, can be called structures made of sheet steel, made like a “potbelly stove”. The device itself consists of a sealed metal box equipped with a combustion door and an exhaust pipe.

The very simplicity of the design does not allow for efficient transfer of heat into the room due to the fact that combustion products are drawn out into the street through a direct channel, and heat goes away with them.

This destabilizing effect occurs due to the fact that there are no planks or bends on the chimney, that is, direct draft requires a large consumption of solid fuel, which is more useful for combustion than for heating. Another problem is their unreliability, which means they are unsafe, which in itself cannot be a good condition for a comfortable stay.

To make a good metal structure yourself, first of all, you need to stock up on sheet steel with a thickness of at least 10 mm, so that it does not burn out when the temperature rises.

Of course, it will be much better if you use stainless steel for this, at least for the tray, which will receive moisture for evaporation - this will also greatly increase the service life of your product.

Recommendation. All stainless steel is manufactured according to GOST 5949-51 and contains from 0.15% to 0.45% carbon and 12% to 14% chromium, but not all of them can withstand high temperatures without consequences. As a rule, for such purposes, grades with a high chromium content are used, for example, X17; X25; Х23Н18; X12YUS and so on.

Of course, if you have a ready-made diagram of an iron stove for a bath, then it will be much easier for you to assemble it, but not for every room you can find a suitable drawing, because all steam rooms are very different, both in volume and in internal structure (shelves, window , door).

Please note that you do not have to strictly follow the parameters specified in any drawing - it is much more important to preserve the principle of the entire device, which will allow you to use the unit with maximum efficiency at the lowest fuel (wood) costs. A very important, one might even say, the most important point when carrying out welding work is the ideality of the seam, so that the tightness of the housing is maintained and carbon monoxide cannot penetrate into the room.

Advice. If you decide to assemble the unit yourself, that is, use your own drawing, do not try to complicate it. The simpler the design, the safer it is, or you can simply scale the design you like by reducing its size.

Before you start designing and/or installing a sauna stove with your own hands, you should know that such structures can be closed, open or combined.

The closed version is very convenient for small (family) steam rooms, where the unit itself is lined with brick with wire ligation of the masonry to increase the strength of the walls. A grate for pellet stones is installed or welded on top of the firebox - this design is convenient and heats up quickly enough.

An open design can also be used for small spaces, but it is also suitable for large spaces. Here the tank has a slightly smaller volume, but the heater turns out to be open, which allows you to “catch up” the desired temperature in the steam room within 1-1.5 hours.

The combined type is much more complex and consists of two valves and the same number of blowers for the firebox, as well as four pipes, but due to the complexity of this design, a separate topic needs to be dedicated to it, so we will discuss it in another article.

Despite the fact that they usually turn out to be more bulky and sometimes clumsy, they undoubtedly have their advantages, which are clearly visible during their use and installation.

Firstly, such a unit can always be made taking into account the volume of the room, which will lead to the most rational fuel consumption.
Secondly, there are practically no cases where such heaters allow carbon monoxide to pass through even in minimal quantities.

Of course, we should not forget that it is necessary to maintain a distance from the walls and ceiling of at least 100-120 cm, but if the stove can be fenced from the walls with brickwork, then for an open heater this cannot be done for the ceiling. This means that the unit cannot be installed too high from the floor, but, nevertheless, it needs to be equipped with a solid (preferably concrete) base.

Conclusion

In conclusion, you can pay attention to the shape that iron stoves for baths have, and these can be both factory-made and home-made designs. Interestingly, they can be curly, cylindrical, horizontal and rectangular, where the latter option is the most practical. The fact is that the corner zones of the rectangle do not heat up red-hot and this increases its rigidity ().

The stove in a real Russian bathhouse should be economical and produce healthy heat. According to these criteria, wood heaters outperform electric and gas heat generators. But there is a third, no less important advantage: you can make a metal stove for a bathhouse with your own hands, provided that you are good at electric welding. The brick version of the heater is also good, but not available to everyone due to the price of materials and the difficulties of laying in the finished steam room. So choose a homemade unit from the models proposed in our publication and start manufacturing, using step-by-step instructions and drawings.

Choosing a sauna stove design

Ideally, a heat source made of metal should meet the following requirements:

Warm up quickly and raise the temperature in the steam room. Iron stoves do this very well.
Keep warm as long as possible. Since steel heats up and cools quickly, you will need a heater that accumulates heat, or an increase in the burning time of the firebox. The third option is to cover the sauna stove with bricks after installation.
Occupy a minimum of usable space in the steam room. If the volume of this room is too small, then it is better to choose a vertical design with a loading door located in the dressing room.
The heater must be safe for people washing in the bathhouse. To protect yourself from burns, you can install a convection casing made of thin sheet iron on the housing or, again, build a brick wall around the housing.

Note. The duration of combustion increases with the volume of the fuel chamber of the unit. Here you need to find a reasonable balance between the size of the stove and the duration of its operation. A small firebox will have to be constantly loaded with firewood, instead of being able to wash in peace, and a large stove will take up half the area of the steam room.

Do-it-yourself iron sauna stoves come in the following designs:

with a body oriented vertically or horizontally in space;
heated directly from the steam room or from the next room (a remote firebox door is made);
with and without water tank;
with external or internal heater.

Vertical heater

The vertical body of the stove shown in the photo gives one advantage - saving space in the bathhouse. There are more disadvantages: short burning time (due to the fact that the flame covers the entire stack of firewood) and not too high heat transfer. According to these important parameters, a horizontal sauna heater outperforms a vertical one, but at the same time occupies a larger area.

Horizontal stove with heater and tank

If the bathhouse does not have an electric water heater, it costs nothing to install a tank for heating water intended for washing on the stove or chimney. It can be welded from ordinary metal, or better yet from stainless steel. There is also a more convenient way to heat water: the tank, located in the washing room, is connected by pipes to a samovar-type steel heat exchanger installed on the chimney pipe.

Steel heat exchanger for chimney

The open heater, which we inherited from the Finnish sauna, heats up to a maximum of 400 °C, but it can be watered with water in order to “give up the park.” Heaters closed inside the stove body accumulate more heat, heating up to 700-800 °C, but at the same time they become polluted by passing flue gases and therefore require periodic cleaning.

Reference. Some craftsmen assemble metal stoves with internal brickwork, the diagram of which is shown above. They serve for a long time without burning through the walls, but are difficult to manufacture, and fireclay bricks cost money. You can find out more about various sauna heaters by watching the video:

Preparation of materials

It is best to make a stove in a bathhouse from a steel pipe with a diameter of 300-500 mm or a gas cylinder. There are several reasons:

the pipe is a ready-made body of the unit, which simplifies the matter;
a cylindrical shape is preferable to a rectangular one for reasons of aerodynamics (air flow around) and heat transfer;
vaulted walls without seams will last longer than flat ones;
A round firebox is easier to clean from ash and soot.

Advice. It is more convenient to make an ash pan from sheet metal 2 mm thick, and 3 mm iron will be used for the doors. Try not to use high-carbon steel of a grade higher than St35, which can become hot from exposure to high temperatures, deform and burst at the seams. The correct stove is welded from grade St3.

Stages of door manufacturing

The grate can be made from corners or periodic profile fittings. The budget option is a sheet of thick iron with longitudinal slots, the purchased option is cast iron grates. It is advisable to make the doors double-layered with a basalt fiber gasket (pictured) so as not to get burned if accidentally touched.

Heater stove - manufacturing guide

We bring to your attention 3 common designs of metal stoves for baths:

a simple horizontal stove made from a cylinder, heated inside the steam room;
heater made of 530 mm pipe with remote firebox;
vertical sauna boiler “three in one”.

The first option is attractive due to its ease of manufacture, small size and mobility. For homemade products, you will need an old propane cylinder with a diameter of 300 or 500 mm and scrap metal. The second heater is distinguished by an additional section with a door built into the opening of the steam room wall, and an open heater. The third model is a whole boiler, consisting of three compartments - a firebox, a closed heater and a tank for heating water.

Advice. If you cannot find a good pipe or cylinder, cook the stove according to the drawing from sheet steel with a thickness of at least 3 mm (preferably 5 mm). First, you will have to perform a number of operations to assemble the firebox - cutting the workpieces and welding them together with strict observance of 90° angles.

The drawings show options for heating units made of sheet iron

We weld a simple stove

The first thing to do is to correctly cut the cylinder cap along the factory seam. To do this, unscrew the gas valve with an open-end wrench and fill the container with water, after which you can use the grinder.

Reference. Propane is heavier than air and therefore reluctant to leave closed containers. To avoid an explosion when cutting metal, it is customary to force it out with water.

Assemble the heater according to the presented drawing, observing the following order:

Cut openings at the end of the lid for mounting doors and in the housing for the chimney pipe. Make frames for the loading and ash doors from metal strips, and weld them to the openings.
Assemble the grate by welding and place it on the corners fixed inside the cylinder. Weld the cut cover back into place.
Make the sashes as shown in the photo. Place them on the hinges and attach the latches.
Attach legs and a chimney pipe to the body.

After assembly, the gas cylinder sauna stove is melted outside in order to burn off all the old paint. Then it can be degreased and repainted using the heat-resistant composition of the KO series.

Manufacturing a unit with an external firebox

To make such a stove, you need to prepare metal parts and cut the pipe to size, following the drawing:

Advice. When preparing the metal for the additional heater section, measure the thickness of the wall between the steam room and the dressing room. This way you will know the width of the extension part that will fit into the partition opening.

Perform further work according to the instructions:

Cut a hole in the top of the pipe, weld the chimney pipe to it, and weld the legs at the bottom of the firebox. Install the grates as described in the previous section.
Make the front section and weld it to the firebox. Weld a blank metal disk to the rear end of the housing.
Make doors with handles insulated with basalt wool and install them in place.

Important point. The lower plane of the remote firebox should be flush with the pipe wall for easy cleaning of the ash pan.

All that remains to do on top of the finished stove is to weld a frame for the heater from corners covered with a coarse metal mesh. After firing, staining and installation in the bathhouse on site, fill the mesh with special stones from the list:

basalt;
river pebbles;
gabbro-diabase;
Soapstone chlorite

How a similar sauna stove is made in practice is described in detail in the video:

Making a vertical boiler

The peculiarity of the round unit shown in the drawing is the presence of 3 chambers - fuel, heater and water tank. Their size can vary according to your wishes, for example, the larger the size of the firebox you make, the longer 1 stack of firewood will burn. Enlarging the heater will allow you to accumulate more heat, which is released for a long time after the fuel burns out.

Advice. You should not greatly increase the volume of the water tank, otherwise it will not have time to warm up by the time of washing.

The boiler assembly procedure looks like this:

Cut blanks for partitions, bottom and lid from metal with a thickness of at least 5 mm. Prepare the ends of the pipe and weld the round grate bars.
Make openings in the body for the doors and hatch for loading stones.
Make holes in the partitions for the chimney and install them inside the pipe. Secure the tank lid to the hinges.
Make doors from semi-circular cut out pieces and place them on the awnings.
Install a flue duct and a water drain valve at the bottom of the tank.

If desired, even in this furnace you can make a remote firebox. To do this, you need to increase the loading and ash channel by welding metal blanks of the required width to the side of the pipe, as shown in the photo above. The correct assembly of such a heat generator is shown in detail in the following video:

Installing a stove in a bathhouse

Since a proper steam room is always built of wood, the main requirement when installing a wood-burning heater is fire safety. To survive it, follow simple rules:

the stove cannot be placed directly on a wooden floor, but only on a sheet of iron protruding 70 cm in front of the firebox;
wall cladding made of flammable materials also needs to be protected from fire with sheets of roofing iron or mineralite;
when installing a heater with a remote firebox, the opening in the wooden partition is also sheathed with non-combustible materials, as is done in the photo;
the distance from the insulated chimney pipe to wooden building structures is 38 cm.

It is recommended to make a channel for venting combustion products outside from a double-walled sandwich filled with basalt wool. Often, the same square-shaped water tank, built directly into the ceiling, is used to insulate the chimney. How to properly install a stove in a bathhouse is shown in the diagram:

Important. Do not use sheet or cord asbestos for thermal insulation inside bathhouses; it emits dust that is harmful to health.

Conclusion

When a homeowner is faced with a choice - to build a stone sauna stove or install a metal one, the majority is inclined to the second option as it is more economical. A homemade iron stove will be even cheaper; in addition, it will be ideal in all respects, because you yourself will think over its design. Don't know how to weld? Save money otherwise by ordering the assembly of the unit in a specialized workshop.

Design engineer with more than 8 years of experience in construction.
Graduated from the East Ukrainian National University. Vladimir Dal with a degree in Electronics Industry Equipment in 2011.