Square tubes

General Discussion
#1

Hello everyone, new here, don’t know how to use these sites very well, but will try.Has anyone discussed or thought of making fire tubes and outer drums out of plate welded square instead of round? Just a thought if drums and pipe is not available. Thanks for all the good info, Al

#2

Al: Welcome!

Wayne has tried making squared fire tubes but it caused problems, mostly from smoke/tary gas sneaking by the char around the corners.

There was a thread on non-standard firetubes here somewhere but I don’t remember the name/link. One person welded a series of narrow plates together into a 16 sided tube, and another welded a few dozen 1/2 pipes together into a circular tube. I never heard how well it turned out though.

I believe there has been confirmed successes in making the housings out of squared plate instead of barrels. I’m thinking it was Sean French, but I’m not positive.

#3

Good Morning Al,

Below is a comment from Dutch John

Years ago I tried a square fire tube and it did exactly as DJ says . The four corners would hollow out. The only way I could keep the motor running was to push char into the corners.

http://driveonwood.com/comment/3073#comment-3073

#4

Thanks for the info,didn’t think bout the corners being a problem, but a 6 or 8 sided tube could work. Al

#5

Al, check out the photos by Dave Bloom. He welded up a cylinder, including the fins as he went. Since you have worked as a welder… http://driveonwood.com/user/572/photos
Dave was just about ready to power his truck with the unit, but found out he needed to swap the engine for a better one that would run on all 8 cylinders.

#6

Thanks Ray

#7

Thanks Ray for pointing us in the right direction. That thread I’d mentioned was “Cooling Fire Tube” http://driveonwood.com/forum/966