On Wed, 24 Oct 2007 15:29:15 -0700, Butter wrote:

Guy at work is constantly talking about this now that its getting
cold and I had the idea that the place to find someone who had done
this was people with the skills to do it. What would be the point of
asking office people for example how to do anything. We have acess to
steel sheet from 12 ga to 3/8 thick.
He can get slabs from his brother-in-laws sawmill and wants to run
hot water from the outside furnace into the house. Then use radiators
to warm up the place. I know that there is more to doing it than just
a box to get it very efficient and thought he should find a book on
how wood stoves are constructed. Anyone here with any experience at
this or wood stove construction? I think I remember that if you use
steel plate that it won't last as long as cast iron for some
reason. ??
Rosce

I also wondered why cast iron was preferred in such applications. I
asked a lot of people about that, finally got a good answer from a
boiler and firebox design engineer.

But we were both office people, having only such skills as office
people might have.

Best of luck in your quest!