Smoke Shelf?

[maple sapper]

I just aquired a home made barrell stove all retrofitted with a pan. The barrell is laid on its side and top wide open with a rim for the pan. Would there be any benifits to making a smoke shelf? What I'm thiniking is to weld a sheet of metal about 6" from the top about 3/4 of the way starting at the back. my thought is to force the smoke and heat toward the front then up and all the way to the back before exiting the smoke pipe. Any ideas if this is a good idea or not? Am I on the wrong track? Thanks Maple sapper.

[barrelstove]

ive run a setup like that for my entire life on and off (we make syrup again when we run outa the last batch)

we just turn it into a small arch. make a stack of bricks about half way down. then just cut your wood short. my aunt ran it before me and she just stuffed it full of wood.

your idea might work. you could make it a bolt in design. then run it with and without and see if it works better one way or the other.

my 1/50th of a dollar.....

[dano2840]

yes a smoke shelf is what you want to do, make the heat touch the pan, i ran a out door brick bbq and all my heat went right up the short little stack, i put a 1/2 steel plait on the chimney to shove the heat back in, i then put brick in the back and put a bunch of ash on those to raise the heat up worked very well'

[maple flats]

What you use for a smoke shelf would need to take long periods of extreme heat. You will run an evaporator way hotter than any wood stove ever thought of running. It will not be a smoke shelf because it will burn so hot there will not be any smoke except when first starting the fire. I can not see any smoke on mine even just after adding wood, once it is up to temperature and a full bed of fully involved coals are formed.