primitive tech and barrel stoves

[Mac_Muz]

I am new here, and don't really see a place to just chat, to get to know folks.

So if this thread can be both getting to know folks and discuss old barrel stove rigs, that will suit me fine.

I live pretty well off the grid, and so things must be simple. I live in a Buck Skinner life style which emulates the old ways, and is interesting to me.

In the so-called modern world the only hobby I have is motorcycles and this is no place for that, unless it is talk.

I have had a few 55 gallon drum barrel stoves in the past. One had other uses, and all were on skis. Once with my wife we lived 1,095 days in a tee pee, that is 3 straight winters, or years as you call them.

That rig had a old wood cooking stove iron and a big farm mail box for cooking any time of year. When we had that we had choices of where to cook. There was a old wall tent roof from the days of the CCC. This place had 2 fire pits. One for starting fires and light and the other for raked coals from the first pit to cook in the 2nd pit.

We also had a fire in the tee pee, and the stove in there was the back stop for the fire pit, or a refelctor. In any case at -40 below the wood stove would have some coals in the morning. Note this stove had only 2 sections of std blue pipe.

And last that barrel stove. So 5 fire places in all.

THIS NEW RIG.

I could use a few fresh ideas on this new rig. This will have a pan as long as the barrel and so wide as is possible. The pan will be mild steel, some call it cold rolled.

I could use ideas on baffels and a better way to mount the stove pipe. All my other rigs had the stove pipe on the top of the barrel and made for a short 2'x2' pan, where the edges stuck out.

This new pan will be flat under the idea of keeping things simple. I have tools and plenty but the work shop has no wall, nor roof.

I plan to cut th pan flat and use clamps and boards to fold the sides up, and either gas weld with coat hanagars or plug in a mig welder. There is no sence in using inert gas in the wind.. So maybe gas welding is the better cleaner method.

The sheet steel will come from NAPA auto parts stores as a 3'x5' sheet in 20 gauge, which shouldn't be any too hard to bend, but might be a bit light in a total barrel span with out support in the middle.

I don't know what you call the internal pan dividers, and or how these work.

A lesson here might be inorder.

Being part of the dirt Earth is made of just about, I see almost no reason to SPEND much over 25 dollars the cost of the steel is.

I need spouts, and don't know where to find sumac in Tamworth yet.. My last spouts were home made ash with the pith burned out. I once had about 20 spouts like this with odds and ends of things I found or other gave me.

The most syrup I ever made in a season was 11 gallons. So for me it is a cheap hobby and I don't feel any need for stainless steel, since none of this is for sale.

Maybe next year i will build a little shack and get wood gathered near it, but this year the stove goes to the woods like every other year I did this.

Well this is enough to tell if even anyone will bother talking to me.

There are not many like me, and of those that are, why, their all dead!

All my smilie things are red x's.. or i would use one.

[tessiersfarm]

I use a setup similar to what you are talking about. My barrel was an old boiler tank so it is bigger than a standard drum but the concept is the same. I found a discarded cooler at the local transfer station and cut the two stainless steel sides off of it to get two sheets about 36" x 39" I ended up with two pans 24" x 27" which I bent on all four sides using no welding. The bends are similar to wrapping a christmas package. Try a piece of paper first to figure it out. The bends took a lot of work and sweat and even a little cursing but I finally got them. A small bolt through the top holds the bend in place and a handle on at the same time. Bottom line is I have no money in my 27" x 48" pan.

[maple flats]

If you can not find sumac you can use any sweet wood. Try a peice and chew on it, if it does not give you a bitter sensation but rather a sweet taste, you can made spouts from it. A piece of stiff wire pushed thru the pith works on many kinds but some need more work or a drill bit. Good luck

[andyp]

Mac
Elderberry stems make good spouts. Push the pith out with wire.

Andyp

[Sugarmaker]

Mac_Muz
Muzzleloader talk welcome here. We might have to start another thread not to disrupt the maple gods!
I have never thought about making syrup in mild steel pans but seems like it should work. The old Warren with English tin pans wasn't much if and better then mild steel. Cast iron kettles worked! They might rust a little between seasons? Welding with coat hanger might work fine for the seams?
Not sure how comfortable most of us would be spending 3 winters without some of the things we take for granted. Can't wait to here about general things and your maple season. ( put a red X we will figure it out).

At wind chill of 40 below tonight I am glad I am not in a tee pee.

Check Dennis H thread on the barrel stove he built . It may be a little moor than you want to do but the ideas may be there too. (redX)

Regards,
Chris

[Mac_Muz]

Thanks for the replies.

I scored free buckets this morning from a neighbor, and a 6" elbow! The elbow looks brand new and is galvi, but that won't stay that way long.

The buckets had Rv anti freeze in em once.. The non toxic kind, it says so on the lables. These need a rinsee no doubt, but they should clean up easy.

The first thing I did when I was peeking around here was try to figure how to contact Dennis H, but I had no 'speech'. As soon as that was granted, I fired off a PM hoping he would consider to reply; before that I couldn't see any pics either! talk about bumming out..

Anyway he has PMed me and I have read every post on the thread, and book marked that thread. WHAT a Royal rig that is huh!

And No my rig won't come close to his.. I expect to burn the barrel out in the next 6 weeks.. The wood I have is old pine slab wood, and the plan it to cut it as long as possible, boil off the sap, and get rid of this nasty ugly mess of old slabs.

The barrel I have currently to work with isn't very pretty either, and I have no need for a pretty stove rig. I don't care what happens to it, so if it is around next year, well it just is. If not, bigger and better.

I hadn't been planning to do this, until I recently was given permission to access the trees. That was about a 9 days ago. So it is mad scramble to say the least.

I made a mild steel pan before, and since it was new steel it was easy to wire brush and get cleaned.. After use, it got cleaned again, and coated with 'pam' and was stored in barn rafters upside down.. I just don't know where it is anymore. I was 'away' for a couple years and things are just lost..

I don't believe tin pans are pure tin at all, and are mild steel coated with tin, like some copper untensils also are. I would use copper if I could get it free, which isn't vey likely, and solder the pan seams with No LEAD solder..

Tin isn't galvi which is zinc, and I am not to sure zinc is all that healthy to boil in, but a galvi trash can, with just cold sap should be fine as storage.

Raw copper is fine for sap, and sugars but nothing with acid from citrus or other veggies like tomatoes should contact copper. That won't exactly make yer day!

If I can find metalic taps I will use them, but Clark's farm store hasn't any, and neither does Paris...

Wooden taps kind of need to be made as atleast air dry wood, for a few months.

I just like the old ways..

I cross dress these days :p Ho Ho Ho, umm meaning I will wear modern jeans and a shirt, maybe even LL Bean ducky boots , but wear a Scot balmora, and weskit (18th cent vest) I get less looks by 'moderns' this way when out.

There are days when I go out in an elk hide shirt, and the looks I get from other folks are just wild and wide eyed.

Now I don't know, but on that tv so far I have never seen any one in a elk hide shirt do much in the way to cause trouble.

Once I was getting a jug of OJ, and a woman was staring at me, so real quiet I said boo, almost under my breath, and she just about jumped out of her shoes!

Seemingly talking to strangers is said to be a bad idea, but I still do. I was told I would never make friends on line, but I did. I even stayed in some of their homes for 3 nights riding the cowasocky Nomad west. One was out, and left a note to enter his dwelling in Utah, but I prefered sitting on his lawn and waiting instead. I was on that trip 10 months.

The strangest parts of the trip were it only rained in the places no rain happens.

Where can we chat black powder? I see no area for just plain foolin around chats. I shoot 3 flinters, a Bess, a Nor West Gun, and a pistol I made from shop scrap to appear like a flinter a English officer might have circa 1740-1745, and 2 cap and ball six shooters. I mainly use the flinters most..

Cast iron: yeah Cast iron will surface rust if it isn't left greased in one kind of thing or another. Any tallow and bee's wax will work for long term storage. That tallow should be salt free, which is easy enough to get done. Add what ever the fats are in a tin with some water and boil it like sap.. The crudlings go to the bottom, the grease flows to the top nice and clean, and any oil goes on top of the grease.. I wish I had a 5 gallon cast iron pot..

So far as tha goes there is no reason a Brass pan, sterling silver pan or even gold pans won't work, but I doubt any one has one, and will ever get one..

I bet boiling in gold would be a great marketing feature though! I can see it now.. Liquid Gold boiled in Gold! This heya' snake oil, err I mean maple syrup bla bla bla...

Well sorry for the long post, but mad men tend to be long winded.. besides I gotta drive up my pathetic post count some how.. LOL Mac

[peacemaker]

walked from GA to ME in 6months 12 days 2160 miles with 28 to 49 ods on my back rained 23 out so days in april and rained 18 days straight

[Mac_Muz]

peacemaker, I have never done that, but knew just 2 guys in person who did.

One was way back in my high school days, and he wore out all sorts of stuff, had food cashes opened by wildlife as much as can be told, just about wore his own feet out.

Please feel free to say what ever you like in this post anyway about that.

I am not very good at keeping to just one topic.

I have covered some parts of the AT in many but not all of the states, but with years of time between each visit, sometimes on foot, sometimes by car and on occasions by motorcycle.

I have been at Maines Katandin and the "knife edge" there is awsum! I have been many times in the local to me Whites and covered many of the 4,000'ers, but not all.

I have worn out one set of Limmers and lots of moccasins around here.

These days it is getting hard to find guys willing to go the old ways and do "Frozen Toe" events. That is winter camping in buck skins with no modern anything.. Around such a camp fire then it would be nice to have someone willing to listen to camp fire lies.

I wonder.... Do you post elsewhere and use the same name and avatar? This seems familar to me and i can't place it.

I would like to read more of that trip, what ever seems fitting to you.

My bike trip is being worked on albeit slow. Maybe a day will come when a coffee table book with comic text and my wife's art will appear.. "we mostly saw rocks" or something foolish like that.

[Sugarmaker]

Mac,
Not sure I can keep up!
I just have a "modern" flintlock ( TC Hawken style) that I play with for white tail once or twice a year.
I once walked from West road to Larry Sherman's cause his CASE 930 tractor ran out of diesel:) ( seems someone didn't fill it), does that count?
I have a friend that is boiling on a barrel stove with a couple of steam trays for pans he taps 8 buckets, spends about as much time as I do boiling, and may have more fun? He definitely could be a throw back. He has made several flintlocks, many guitars, fiddles and a mandolin too. He also loves to have fires year round. Something wild and natural in there somewhere! Not sure if he cross dresses? I may ask him some time when he is not carrying a loaded gun.

Chris

[Mac_Muz]

LOL, yeah you just might wanna ask that question some other way! Ho Ho Ho.

Thar's nuthin' really wrong with me ya know, I just got a bad case of cabin fever..
I ran a mapquest, and I believe ya left the lights On, on that tractor, might wanna walk back and flippem off ya know.... Throw back? What is he trout?

Dennis H, says he got 6.5 gallons an hour on his rig.. I never did anything close to that, but I had fun. I will contiune the lenii I was building when the snow stopped me. I ain't the brightest bulb in the ol' shed, but I'll be dammned if I will shovel snow so i can move frozen in rocks around.

It is a sort of my way celtic thing, when done, err well right now under the snow is a fire place made of as big rocks as i can move with the help of a bob cat. I hope to lure young tourist girls to dance in warmer summer nights if I can talk my wife into visiting her girl friends. ;-)

As far as not keeping up, 20 year olds tell me that a lot.. I am always up to something even if it's wrong. Out on Lak du St Sacrement (lake george) on a NY map I get to play at French and Indian War, and have over years in ice in the bucket weatha'. I run with the French because there has to be someone as the enemy, and all the new guys are young, want to be on the winning side, not that there is one side winning anything now, but still they do. This tends to make it very target rich, and if you can bluff and bull like me you cause quite a stir! Indeed..

This leaves us old geezers who are perhaps more woodswise, and we don't make such good enemies after all. We have a few younger guys, and they are the ones who want to keep up with me. They find I know the lay of the land and the water, as we get some 15 miles north to south to play on, and about 5 miles wide across the lake on all the islands, and in the Eastern mountains, where I spend time hunting the English most all night long looking for their camp(s). Oh what hell I can raise in a camp of Englais in the middle of night. It just warms my creaton heart it does.. :D These young rascels become very eager to go with the ol' man.

I select who gets to go by how skinney they are, which means they can move fast.

ALL the French must come by some form of boat. I use a WW-1 vintage oldtown otka, which has the high stems, and is painted to look like the tan inner side of birch bark. making a real one is on my list of things to do someday, but untill then this is the best I can do.

I don't bring very much food as I don't need much. I might bring a few sqaush and some rock candy, maple of course, and after that it is what ever i can find, which is always enough. Getting older, the only item I can't lug far is the canoe.

My efforts with music are grim... I try, but a dog howling at the moon does rather a bit better I fear. The screech owls don't seem to mind but everyione else does.

[Mac_Muz]

Use caution I guess replying to me, and my non-sence. The intent was to get to know people, but in the gasoline post it seems I have committed sins here.

No admin has yet informed me, but that west VA poster has set me to boiling something other than sugar just now.

Perhaps i will be banned. Making maple is just one of things I like to do, and is related to me as I see it, to the old ways..

I suppose I could be on short notice and don't wish to cause anyone else any harm.

[peacemaker]

mac pick a state and i will tell u stories about it many people ask me what stae was my favorite and i say all but my least fav was ga cause i was still finding my rythm and its very steep my place i would and have gone back is maine 100 mile wilderness was amazing fly fished and hiked what a life ... and in sept maine is so gorgous va and its gracein highlands with the wild ponies and cattle pa s rocks and the views and rattlers was cool most people hate the trail in pa cause of the rocks sometimes you would go 2 hrs with out touching the dirt dance from rock to rock ... most people give jersey a bad rap but the tail thru the gap and up is breath taking ... the whites gave u the sense u where as small as a ant growling across your graveled driveway went went from doing 18 to 20 mile days with out effort to pushing hard all day to do 8 ... but i will admit the people in NH where the meaniest to us throwing beer bottles and yelling insults ... and maine the mouhasic knotch by the u could sustain 31/2 to 4 miles and hour got to the notch did i mile in 3 hours amazing ....the cool part is you walk a complete life cycle of a life when u start march 17 end sept 29 ... no leaves in the beginning and by time maine comes the falling big red carpet leading you to kattahdin ... well my fingers hurt as far as my name its all over thelace i also use to live in a intentional community we built out of cordwood and strawbale ... maybe from there

[Mac_Muz]

Peace, yeah I know South Mountain in Md into Pa some. Happers ferry area and north.

The worst trail I can think of that comes to mind in my past was the one on katadin covered with moving stones. I forget exactly what the name was, maybe cathedral, chimney?? I just recall these were like walking on a pile of broken bricks, all loose and tippy under foot.

I have 35mm slides of jaccobs ladder part of the cog railraod in dead winter, so no train, but it looks like a toy in the scale of the photo taken from the north looking south and I was some what higher.

I have never suffered things thrown at me hiking, but I have collected literal tons of trash from the woods.

In the woods I have encounters some folks that were pretty dangerous and would be violent, but in the long run things got sorted out and no one got hurt. Tales I don't believe are fit at this site however.

Does this place still exist? "intentional community we built out of cordwood and strawbale" Is it in New England? I would just like to see this type of construction, but never ever have.

I am not meaning we ever met face to face, but the avatar seems familar. Maybe Backwoods site, or another farmer site, perhaps a shooting site, and last maybe motorbikes if you are into riding them at all.

I am going to stay in my own post awhile untill things get sorted out. I don't want to be trouble fo lots of folks around here. I figure one thread can get banished easier than many... If that occurs..

Already in that other thread I see where I could respond, but I am not going to. But I will in this post, if asked.

[peacemaker]

the name of the community which it isnt much of anymore just a teaching facility its in cambridge ny... pompanuck farm .com should get u to the site ... and a little background they where after mr electrician he isnt liked much around here ... so believe me i wasnt u .. wv was refering to ... was mr e ..
as far as the whites ever take six husbands trail its off the washington loop bad trail dont do it unless you have a day pack on or none lol has ladders that stop 7 feet shy of the ground

fun i took a fall on the washington loop cracked my head on a large rock and smashed my knee eye was swelling hard to see out and knee ached ..lol to this day my head will itch and feel like its a scab but out comes a small piece of washington ... and not knowing till almost 8 months after i finished i had fractured my knee cap and tore my miniscus ... nevr hurt till i stopped hiking put 500 more miles on it ... as far as the cog its tradition to moon it by thru hikers ... we got lucky there was two passing so we got to moon both ..lol

[Mac_Muz]

I have never been on six husbands, but I might now just to see it..

I haven't been on line for the past 2 days because of snow. The barn here loaded up and the North side doesn't shed well. So I had no choice but to shovel it as more snow was said to be coming.

The south side sheds it with a hint of sun, so we waited for yesterday to see, and it did. When I was shovling it was also raining, and the work was miserable to say the least, but it got done. The snow was onver the top of my knee cap, so I had to throw the snow down hill and shovel is again and again to get if off the center areas.

At the end I fell off the roof and that was a neat trick as I slid and fell on the slick metal roofing to the edge where I then fell up hill 6 inches! That's no joke either.

And then yesterday I spent 10 hours driving a Bob Cat to make the drive into here car friendly... I have 5 more to go today, and oh my rubbery kneees!

Last night verison was down, so not on line chats for me in the past 2 days..

So later today i hope to see if I can even access the wood for the stove.. it is as buried and behind stored snow from all the other snows over winter, since I wasn't expecting to be boiling anything.

I hope to set taps on Mondy with my rig all set up, and none of it is built.

I still must get taps and a barrel to store in as well.

Wish me luck....

[peacemaker]

some pics maybe

[peacemaker]

or maybe now

[Mac_Muz]

Today is proving I am lame again.. Drove that Bob Cat another 6 hours yesterday. I hope to get started cleaning out buckets and may go buy a sheet of steel later today.

The time is getting near to get this set up ready and to work because sappin waits for no man.


I got a kick out of that first stove. You boiled off 17 taps with that rig????

I bet that was like workin'! Is that dryer pipe as the chimney?

I bet you like that bigger rig..

[peacemaker]

well that was the first day the next day we had a 2x2 pan on top and cut out the top and not dryer vent a old pellet stove stack a friend gave me it was fun and i was hooked ...

[Mac_Muz]

My wife put up some local pics from the last 4 days

http://www.mapletrader.com/community/showthread.php?t=3872&goto=newpost

Time to go get that steel I suppose. I want the steel on hand before i cut the barrel...

[peacemaker]

i added some more pics if u look close u can see the cordwood house

[Mac_Muz]

I can't tell which building is the wood shed, but the house seems round, and I can't make out if it is stone, cord wood, or what. Nice barn, and I see the double hooter between them. Nice place too! One day I might like to visit with permission of course.

I love odd homes. That one blends well with the surroundings..

There is a pic of you stretching line, and you have a satchel over your shoulder. I can't see that very well either, but it makes me wonder if you are a primitive shooter, and perhaps attend that sort of event?

This is the sort of event I mean
http://eaglewings-eyrie.com/beadwork_rendezvous2.htm

I have nothing to do with the site, but my wife, before she was my wife, a very long time ago, is in the far left colum, 5th pic down and the far left person in a dark blue ribbon dress. That pic has to pre date 1985. Some how it doesn't seem possible.

[peacemaker]

when ever you like let me know and i will arrange it .. as far as anything on my shoulder nope nothing i have always loved the old ways and before i met my wife i was gonna go spend atleast a year living off the land behind pompanuck .. but for now my muz is a inline tc plastic cracker as i like to call it ... but i try to shoot my deer with a bow .. or my 12ga ... my big disappointment is i lost my land and all my work ... i am now living in town ...
friends of mine just bought some replica 1857 army black powder pistols and joes is a 12 inch buffalo love crack that off ... and another has a 58 caliber kit musket ... she fun to shoot ...

[Mac_Muz]

Ouch!

Are you sappin' still anyway?

I once had a place north of here in bartlett, due north off the Kanc. I loved it there had trees in the dooryard and others real close. Close enough to not need a truck to gather, like here.

I live for the old ways and all I have when it isn't the old ways is motorcycles.

The old ways take the rest of my free time with ease. Garden, canoe that I made sail, BP guns and tools to make them speak. I plan to make round top boxes for sale, and i do make "Trade Silver", but have no site.... yet.. search it anyway.

Work? I wish I had work, for hire that is. I have tons of work and do lots, but most isn't for pay.

I repaired a 1851 Colt clone for a little pay but the postal system lost it, and I believe the guy's tale...

I am in deep conservation right now, and will be till there is work for pay... We dwell in a box, and in the box is a smaller box I can heat with 2 alladin lamps, which run most all day, going off at sleepy night time!~ It is a bit brisk in the morning, but you don't know it till the covers come off.

I am at number 6 for 5 gallon jugs of K-1 to run these lamps for all winter, and need another jug pretty soon. That is just about 90 bucks for heat so far this winter.

Rents are killer here, as is everything else. I do many tasks well, but I don't like being used like a slave much, so there can be problems with work for so called hire.

I sold loyalty cheap once, and got squat. My American Dream got busted, and so I call my own terms these days.

It might not be legal, but with 30 seconds and a desire I can live in the woods again.. After doing so for 3 years I know NO ONE Offical will even come look, AND that is with an invite!

I was busted up bad and getting divorced that first time. No one in the "System" believed I was where i said I was, and no one would come, at my request to show up anytime between the hours of 2 Am and 4Am, when I was sure to be there sleeping. The "System didn't like my soggy wet papers much either, but it made no difference to me. The papers they sent didn't arrive on time anyway, so if they don't care whu should I?

The only reason I don't go right now is my wife still has that ****ned dream, and I know i can do it again..

I once was a car tech for Saab and Volvo with smatterings of all other foreign tossed in.. I know theory, and have tools, but won't be driven for that lowly green back dollar, on the money mill. I can weld, and have a forge too. I can build from the paper up. But not for a little over minimum wages anymore.

On our ride west I stopped to fix cars and bikes as I found them. I only could not make one roadside repair but I knew what was wrong. A custom $60,000.00 chopper fried the ecu box, and I proved it. That guy had trailers and trucks at his command, so I told him what he needed and he got gone before I left..

There was just one regret. GVuy with a BMW bike had a flat on Rt 50 in the middle of nowhere. I mean nowhere, so no where the skeeter's didn't know enuff to bite, and that's a fact!

This guy was surrounded by wanna be bikers and they were trying to help the BMW rider too. I slowed to ask if things were ok, and was told we'er fine!. But I saw one guy reading something and as I passed by i saw it was a tire patch kit.

I said (still moving) So who has a air compressor? I could see by the looks No One, no one but me that is.

So I stopped and fixed that LAWYERS bike! I just took the kit and tore it open and fixed that flat. But in the doing I set some glue on fire and when i did that dammned lawyer demanded I put the flame out. So I wiped my hand ovewr the burning glue and sifted my hand in ther sand to put it out..

When I looked up tha lawyer had big $$ in his eyes! he was afraid I would sue!

The whole bunch were just human trash if you ask me. Not a one can do a lick of real work.. Oh and I didn't get burned any... When I get burned it is usually weld slag that cuts into a wrinkel in my jeans and gets down in my boots! Talk about OUCH!

My wife was like a wild creature laughing all the way out of there and into the next day! I am and was pretty fuzzy then as now.. :lol: