Ponder..Another Outdoor Oven..How Cool is This!

[Crone]

This DIY, wood-fired, outdoor masonry stove can be used four ways: for baking, grilling, cooking and smoking. Whatever your cooking needs, this outdoor oven can do it, thanks to interchangeable grill grates and griddle surfaces. If you want to grill steaks or fish, use the grill grate. If you want to bake bread, slide on the steel griddle, stack some bricks on top to retain heat and add the door to hold in the heat. If you want to use the stove top, just slide the metal plate (or griddle) over the top of the firebox.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-You...z1XK7AD1In

[PonderThis]

I guess I wasn't looking for another reason to chop wood in my old age.

[Crone]

I guess I wasn't looking for another reason to chop wood in my old age.

Sorry

[PonderThis]

Don't be sorry, it looks nice. If I was with anyone that cooked and was interested, I'd build a clay oven. But really, I like things that the sun does all by itself. I plan on my house heating itself, too.

[Crone]

Don't be sorry, it looks nice. If I was with anyone that cooked and was interested, I'd build a clay oven. But really, I like things that the sun does all by itself. I plan on my house heating itself, too.

I think it's gorgeous...and cheap.
I have a vivid imagination...I can just envision a group of us standing around with cocktail glasses, munching on hors d'oeuvres while dinner is being cooked.
I have a rich fantasy life.

[illcommandante]

I think that's the one I saw in Mother Earth. I'm planning something along that line (Craigslist will probably influence my design). I have the pine all split.

[chuck white]

How about an old 10 feet satalite dish lined with Al foil
you could a metal box from an old stove where the feed horn sat
with a motor you could track the sun with simple analog circuits using a photo detector

[illcommandante]

With a ten foot satelite dish, you could boil a diamomd. And, I gave one away, without thinking..

[Crone]

How about an old 10 feet satalite dish lined with Al foil
you could a metal box from an old stove where the feed horn sat
with a motor you could track the sun with simple analog circuits using a photo detector

Those old dishes have multiple uses, eh?
My landords made a pond/water feature out of one.

[PonderThis]

I've seen solar collectors made out of old satellite dishes, and they work. The "focal point" ends up being higher than the dish, which means your food or whatever you're heating is sitting out there at that focal point too, which is kind of an odd spot to use, plus it's even potentially dangerous with all that light and heat concentrated on just that one spot too. But perhaps the worst danger with solar collectors with focal points outside of the dish is fire danger - a lot of fires have been started by this kind of collector when it's left at some odd angle, and later in the year the sun moves and something it ends up aiming at inadvertently starts fires (or, blinds someone). For those reasons, I prefer collector designs that focus inside the parabola instead; they're safer. Not that lots of people haven't experimented with these though.

[tvguy]

How about an old 10 feet satalite dish lined with Al foil
you could a metal box from an old stove where the feed horn sat
with a motor you could track the sun with simple analog circuits using a photo detector

Wow are you watching my house. I actually did make one of these. No aluminum foil. mylar instead.
And your idea of tracking the sun with a photo detector? what's that? Do you mean a photo cell? that was also my idea

[tvguy]

I've seen solar collectors made out of old satellite dishes, and they work. The "focal point" ends up being higher than the dish, which means your food or whatever you're heating is sitting out there at that focal point too, which is kind of an odd spot to use, plus it's even potentially dangerous with all that light and heat concentrated on just that one spot too. But perhaps the worst danger with solar collectors with focal points outside of the dish is fire danger - a lot of fires have been started by this kind of collector when it's left at some odd angle, and later in the year the sun moves and something it ends up aiming at inadvertently starts fires (or, blinds someone). For those reasons, I prefer collector designs that focus inside the parabola instead; they're safer. Not that lots of people haven't experimented with these though.

The focal point is exactly where the feed horn was when it was originally a satellite receiver which of course is in the center and a few feet feet out.
I don't see why you think this is so dangerous,unless the thing is pointing directly at the sun it doesn't work at all so leaving it unattended won't inadvertently start a fire unless you leave something flammable right in the exact focus point.That's pretty unlikely since the focal point is several feet off the ground.
Blind you? if that could happen I would already be blind

[tvguy]

Don't be sorry, it looks nice. If I was with anyone that cooked and was interested, I'd build a clay oven. But really, I like things that the sun does all by itself. I plan on my house heating itself, too. I guess I wasn't looking for another reason to chop wood in my old age. Smiling

You live in the woods and have property and you don't want to cut wood ? You do know that exercise is good for you? and that heating with wood can keep your carbon footprint low?

[PonderThis]

Not as low in carbon as using solar, body heat, and waste appliance heat to heat my house.

[illcommandante]

You can track in one direction with a double acting hydraulic cylinder, and in two, with a couple of them. That's from Mother Earth in the late sixties. I think you have to paint some of the ends black.

[illcommandante]

When I bring the wood cookstove down from huckleberry camp, it's going in my garage/shop. I have three cords of dry pine to play with. I let the trees collect my solar.

[chuck white]

How about an old 10 feet satalite dish lined with Al foil
you could a metal box from an old stove where the feed horn sat
with a motor you could track the sun with simple analog circuits using a photo detector

Wow are you watching my house. I actually did make one of these. No aluminum foil. mylar instead.
And your idea of tracking the sun with a photo detector? what's that? Do you mean a photo cell? that was also my idea

four photo cells at the bottom of a mirrored cylindrical tube pointed in line with the dish. when off axes the cells become unbalanced. this error signal drives the motor until balance is archived. read it in NASA tech briefs.

[Crone]

When I bring the wood cookstove down from huckleberry camp, it's going in my garage/shop. I have three cords of dry pine to play with. I let the trees collect my solar.

[tvguy]

How about an old 10 feet satalite dish lined with Al foil
you could a metal box from an old stove where the feed horn sat
with a motor you could track the sun with simple analog circuits using a photo detector

Wow are you watching my house. I actually did make one of these. No aluminum foil. mylar instead.
And your idea of tracking the sun with a photo detector? what's that? Do you mean a photo cell? that was also my idea

four photo cells at the bottom of a mirrored cylindrical tube pointed in line with the dish. when off axes the cells become unbalanced. this error signal drives the motor until balance is archived. read it in NASA tech briefs.

My idea, untested BTW and a lot more simple was to have a pipe pointed directly at the sun with a photocell in the bottom. When the earth moves enough that the sun no longer shines down the tube the photocell reacts and instead of turning on a light like they normally do it turns on the motor that runs the satellite dish.
The dish turns in an arc to match the sun and as soon as the tube is realigned with the sun the light shines down the tube and turns off the motor.

In order for this to work you need a photo cell that reacts instantly. Most do not but I know there are some that do, I've seen them before.