A self-made brick sauna stove will be a decoration and a very high-quality heat source. But there are a lot of options for creating such heating devices. The classic way is brickwork. But this is quite difficult to do, because you need to have skills in furnace mastery. It turns out to be much simpler to make the boiler out of metal, install it in its place and revet it with brick. You can find out below how to build a furnace yourself. And also about how to make a heat exchanger and a tank for heating water.
Clay for masonry
The most important thing during masonry is a high-quality binder solution. The quality of your stove depends on how good clay is used in the work. It can be divided into three groups - normal, fat and skinny. For the laying of the furnace, the first is the most suitable, since it allows you to prepare the most high-quality solution. It will be so good that there will be no cracks in the seams during operation.
Do not forget that the furnace experiences tremendous loads: it warms up to a high temperature, and then cools down, and sometimes to negative values. And if not all, then a lot depends on the quality of the clay. For example, skinny will not give the seams elasticity. They will be very fragile, even with a small blow the solution will simply begin to crumble. And this is fraught with consequences - the penetration of carbon monoxide and smoke into the room. It is unlikely that you will like it.
How to check the properties of clay?
Before you build a stove with your own hands, you need to pick up good clay. And how to determine its properties is worth knowing in more detail. First you need to make a little sample solution: mix a kilogram of the test clay with water. It is necessary to fill in no more than half a liter. Mix your hands, carefully breaking all the pieces. After this solution, make balls with a diameter of 5 centimeters. Take two smooth planks that flatten one of the balls.
You will get a kind of pancake, its diameter should be no more than ten centimeters. Let all these preparations dry for three or four days. After this time, look for cracks. If they take place, this indicates a high fat content of clay. Do not masonry with its use. A sign of skinny clay is the destruction of the balls after falling from a height of 70 cm. This also can not be used.
Clay preparation
If you have a supply of lean and oily clay, then you can mix in order to achieve the desired parameter. If there is only oily, then you can dilute it with sand. The main thing is to constantly monitor the quality of the solution. And do not forget that the clay needs to be sieved so that debris does not get into the solution. For this purpose it is necessary to use a sieve. Its cells should have a diameter of the order of three millimeters. Regardless of what kind of brick sauna stove projects you are going to implement, you need to adhere to one parameter - the thickness of the seam should not be more than three millimeters.
For dilution of oily clay, quarry, river or sea sand is allowed. The first, however, shows itself much better, since it allows you to provide the best adhesion during the laying of a brick oven. Like clay, sand is cleaned of foreign objects using a sieve with holes of one and a half millimeters. But it is better if, after sifting, you also additionally wash this sand with burlap. Regardless of which drawings of the sauna stove you plan to implement, the sifting of all materials for the solution must be carried out carefully.
A method of preparing a solution for masonry
First, soak the clay and let it stand for about three days. Note that the container in which this is done must be completely airtight, without access of air from the outside. When the clay has stood, it is necessary to knead the resulting solution to the desired consistency. To do this, put on good rubber boots and tamp the mixture. It is allowed to add sand to achieve maximum uniformity. So that there are no large pieces of clay in the mixture, check it with your hands, feeling the resulting solution. If there are lumps, then break them or completely throw them out of the container.
Reaching the right consistency
And for testing you need a simple spatula. Type a little of the resulting solution on it. Pay attention to how it flows down the metal. If it does not stick to the surface of the spatula, then this is already remarkable, the consistency is almost normal. If the clay solution is prepared correctly, then setting of such an amount will occur in no more than five minutes. Fat can be easily determined with a wooden handle. Dip it in the mixture, and then see how much solution is left on it. If a small amount, then the mixture is normal, it can be used for masonry. Brick oven repair is carried out using a similar solution.
A 3x3.5 brick oven is ideal for a small bath
This is a simple design, you can do it yourself. The main thing at the same time is the ability to lay brick. Firstly, this brick stove has very small dimensions. Do it yourself with your own hands in a fairly short time. Secondly, it is very economical. Does not take up much space, does not interfere when visiting a bathhouse. Pay attention only to the order of the brick kiln, so as not to be mistaken during construction.
A variety of schemes of brick kilns involve the use of almost the same materials. So, you need casting, a door for a blower, for a furnace, and also a brick. For this furnace, the SHB-5 brand is suitable, no more than fifty pieces. A solid brick for the chimney is also needed - about three hundred pieces. In the chimney, you need to install valves. There are two of them, type 3V-3.
Bricklaying
During the work, make sure that the seam is the same. So, when laying fireclay bricks, stick to a value of 4 mm. It is most optimal, since a large thickness of the seam is a high probability that the formation of cracks will begin. Do not forget about strengthening the design of the furnace - rows 6, 8 and 10 are reinforced. As a material, either a metal tape or a mesh is used.
To increase the life of the combustion chamber of the bathhouse furnace, it is better to use stainless steel for its manufacture . Sheets must have a thickness of at least 4 mm. This is the optimal value; it makes no sense to use thicker steel: this is enough to operate the furnace for several decades.
The need for a water tank
In stores you can find many types of metal tanks that are installed on furnaces. You can use stand-alone - as the heaters used TENy, which are powered by AC power. Yes, this design is very simple, it allows you to quickly warm up the right amount of water, and you do not need to dock with the oven. But it also has drawbacks, especially if you are heating the bath with firewood.
In fact, a brick sauna stove with a water tank is a universal heating device. And the steam room produces heat, and heats the water for showering. If you do not like the shower, water can be used for the font. But only when designing such a furnace several questions arise, among which the main one is the volume of the tank. And you need to deal with this parameter at the design stage.
Tank selection
For the manufacture of tanks, both simple metal and heavy-duty cast iron are used. But the most suitable is stainless steel. Firstly, it is quite light. Secondly, the price is acceptable. Thirdly, durable. True, in comparison with cast iron, the resource of a stainless steel is very small. Cast iron is a poor conductor of heat, which affects the usability of the tank. Water will cool in it for a very long time. Cast iron tanks are rarely used for two reasons - high weight and high cost.
Therefore, preference is given to stainless steel, which has a high service life. And you can even find a finished tank at any enterprise. For a relatively low price, you can buy a tank with outdated equipment. If there are no options, enameled containers are suitable as a tank. True, they have very poor quality - with a small blow, the enamel exfoliates. And then - rust, destruction, the appearance of holes through which water will flow.
Tank volume calculation
This parameter must be selected based on how many people will visit the bathhouse at the same time. It should be roughly considered that for a normal holiday, 30 liters of hot water will be enough for one person. If it is planned that a maximum of five people will steam at the same time, then the tank should have a capacity of 150 liters, not less. True, the larger the tank, the more difficult it will be to mount it in the furnace, so you need to look at all the options for installing it. A do-it-yourself brick sauna stove with a water tank in the design is most suitable for small steam rooms - for two or three people.
The most acceptable way would be to install a brick kiln with a built-in heat exchanger. Such a simple design will allow not only heating the water in the tank, but also heating the neighboring rooms. In other words, there are a lot of options for mounting the tank, you just need to choose the one that is suitable for your case. But do not forget that there are many options for the furnace. For example, making iron is easier. Then the brick stove is lined with brick, which gives it an external appeal.
The most important thing for the furnace is the base
This is nothing but the foundation for a furnace. The base must have certain dimensions - the length and width are larger than the dimensions of the furnace by at least 20 cm on each side. The depth of the foundation of the furnace should be the same as the main for the walls. Particular attention should be paid to the mutual arrangement of the two foundations. They must not be in contact or connected. It is required to maintain a distance of 20-30 cm, so that the foundations can sit on their own, and not pull each other. Only in this case, a brick-built sauna stove built with its own hands will be able to last a long time.
To make the foundation, you need to dig a pit. At the bottom of it pour sand, pour over water and carefully tamp. If necessary, a formwork of a board or roofing material is installed at the edges. Then make a grid of reinforcement. Tie it with wire, it is strictly forbidden to use welding. Install the grate, now you can pour concrete. Try to do everything in one go, so that the foundation is homogeneous. The construction takes time for the concrete to dry.
Brick-lined iron bath stove
A variety of drawings of stoves for a bath can be found today. But you need to choose the one that is perfect. As already mentioned, a simple option is the manufacture of a metal stove. For this purpose, iron blanks, welding, a drill, a grinder will be required. In other words, all the tools that may be required to work with metal. As a basis, you can use a small barrel. The main thing is that the metal thickness is sufficient, otherwise the walls will quickly burn out.
But even for such a furnace design it is necessary to make a quality foundation. Moreover, brick lining of the sauna stove will still be carried out. Typically, these false walls are covered with plaster. It is worth paying attention to the fact that it is impossible to use cement for masonry and plaster. For this purpose, a clay solution is used, which was mentioned a little above.
Do it yourself or order construction?
Of course, a sauna oven with your own hands can not only please your eye, but also your wallet. The fact is that you need a lot of materials and accessories for the construction. But if you decide to use the services of a stove-maker, you will have to pay extra for his labor. And the cost of the work of a qualified craftsman is very high. A good brick oven, the price of material for the manufacture of which is 35 thousand rubles, will cost another 60 thousand - for the services of a company that is engaged in construction.
In other words, for at least 90 thousand rubles you get the perfect stove for a bath. Any company takes care of its name, so stove makers use only the best materials. It is worth noting that even brick for construction has a price in the range of 20-100 rubles per unit. And Russian-made castings are in the range of 300-400 rubles. Foreign manufacturers sell their goods at a price ten times higher. Based on all that has been said, it can be concluded: the independent manufacture of a furnace will not take you very much money. And in time - about one to two weeks, depending on the type of furnace.