Wood stove fence

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Tiny folks coming to visit the cabin, two of them too young to trust around a really hot
wood stove.
So, I got a bunch of 1/2" square steel tubing, and 1/4 round rod. Cut and ground all the mitered
corners today, drill holes for the vertical rods tomorrow, and if time permits, weld it all together.
Going to use my friend's TIG, will leave nice clean welds.

Still have to get hinges for the two side panels, so it can fold up when not needed. As it stands
now it will be two pieces 16" long for the sides and the front will be 36" wide. Stood up in a
U configuration, it will be self supporting, can fold flat for storage.

Pix when done.

Bill
 

RBHarter

West Central AR
Neat solution for little bitties and really hard headed dogs .
I hope it doesn't get too hot from the radiant heat . I only mention it because the job I'm on has one of those propane blue flame brick heaters in it and there was a steel chair 3-4 feet away that was uncomfortably warm to pick up and move during a 20 warm up cycle . Not burn/hot pot holder hot but warm enough to have 15-30 seconds of second thoughts about having sat down .
 

Ian

Notorious member
RB makes a really good point, Bill. Black metal absorbs a ridiculous amount of radiant heat from even a few feet away....Some training will still be required.
 

Hawk

North Central Texas
Even absorbing some radiant heat, the metal fencing will be a whole lot more forgiving then actually touching the hot stove.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
I thought about radiant heating right off, and came to the exact conclusion that Hawk did. The stove is basically a
branding iron, the heated fence would be maybe an owie for a bit, hopefully not even really a burn.

The stove surface gets up to 700F or so, I figure the hottest the fence might get is 200 or maybe 250, enough
for a lesson, but not to leave a scar. Will have to see when we do it. The 15 month old has to be kept back,
too wobbly to be certain she won't just fall on it. The 3 year old should be kinda OK, but I worry about just
forgetting and touching it or stumbling into it. The 5 year old will be fine, I would guess. The fence is for
the littlest ones. We will be teaching them a new, important word....HOT!

Got to change the oil in my wife's car, then can start marking and drilling holes, cutting the vertical rods to length.

Bill
 
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Rick H

Well-Known Member
I made one for our cabin's wood stove out of 1/2"sq. and 1/4"hardware cloth. It was a cage that surrounded 3 sides with a front gate for loading. It was spaced about 4" from the stove surface and it never got so hot it was uncomfortable. The grandkids are all grown now and the "cage" is overhead in the garage.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Sounds similar. But mine will have vertical bars, and the kids can reach thru, so it will sit about 15-18" away, beyond
their arm's length. Will have to move it to load the stove, but they will only be visiting for a few days, shouldn't
be too bad.
Good to hear it doesn't get too hot.

Got the holes all drilled for the rods, and rods cut to length. Should be able to weld it up tomorrow, then
get some hinges, clean it up and paint it.

Bill
 

Ben

Moderator
Staff member
That is GREAT.
I am one of these that believes that an ounce of prevention is well worth a pound of cure.

Good time spent on that project.

Ben
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Thanks, Ben. We were out there over Christmas, and I was thinking that when the little kids
got there that stove would be a real potential problem, and how to keep them safe. Did
my rough design and measuring then, building it now.
Hope to put the pieces together tomorrow.

Bill
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
This novice TIG welder learned something today. I have been gas welding more than 50 years,
and am reasonably proficient. Lincoln Welders has a tent at Oshkosh each year, and I sat down
with one of their instructors a few years back and spent about 40 minutes learning the basics of
TIG welding. It has a lot in common with gas welding, and I did pretty well, liked the system, but
still not much actual experience with TIG. And a few years ago I inherited my father's Lincoln TIG
arc welding system.

I used a friend's identical model TIG unit about 4 or 5 years ago to weld the top rear corners of
some cracked 1911 mags. as much to see if I could do it as anything. I had it turned down to 7 amps
and got these really NICE little weld beads, mags are perfect. I was impressed with what TIG can do
if you get it right.

So, tday I went to the guy that has that same welder now to weld this frame together. DAMMM........ The arc
was jumping all over, and wouldn't stay stable, and then the lights flickered a bit and the machine
wouldn't respond to the pedal. WHAT THE HECK?? I'm no TIG expert but, heck, I can usually start an arc.:sigh:

So, I increase the current setting, up the argon flow, and try again. Same thing, arc won't go straight,
just bouncing around and won't stabilize, then goes out. I call my friend over, who is a fairly decent welder,
but new to this machine, he gets the same result. We are both a bit over our heads with TIG, and darnit,
it never did this before????? So he starts laying a bead on a piece of nearby scrap. Perfect. I try, too, no
problems getting a good arc, controlling it, and laying a bead. WHAT???!!!:headscratch:

Finally, after looking over our corner setup for about 20 min------I pull out the magnetic corner holder and just put a
couple of chunks of steel on the 1/2" sq tube to hold it down and set it square with a hand square. And laid
down a nice bead.

I figured out that the magnetic field from the corner magnet was driving the arc nutso and keeping it
from stabilizing, and eventually the (very smart, computer controlled) machine was shutting down and resetting
due to arc instability. :embarrassed:

Well, you can learn something every day, if you will pay attention. Had piddled away so much time on
this that I had to get home for dinner. Will finish it tomorrow, and probably just use my gas rig and
small Smith airline torch and be done with it. I have the TIG rig, just need to get the power outlet wired
fill the gas bottle and set up a place to start practicing, and get up to speed again.

Bill
 
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Ian

Notorious member
Interesting. I've welded many a steel part secured to the table with magnets and not experienced this before. My TiG machine is a Miller and all my magnets are shielded on two sides.
 
F

freebullet

Guest
That is interesting, Bill. Thanks for sharing your experience. Haven't had the fortune to tig weld yet.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
It is like a picture frame, mitered corners and the pieces each had a leg of a 90 deg magnet,
and the corner had a little bit of a gap, maybe 0.025. I theorize that the gap concentrated the field
in that area, and had field lines like little arches above the gap, redirecting the arc sideways. As soon
as I pulled the magnet, it stopped.

The magnet was like this.
https://www.harborfreight.com/4-3-4-quarter-inch-multipurpose-magnet-holder-1938.html

1/2" sq tube on each side, the large flat side of the magnet was laying flat. So a magnetic
path was from one magnet set on the side of the holder, thru one work piece tube, across the slight
gap, through the other square tube into the other side of the magnetic holder.

I have that exact HF unit, but my friend's were slightly different, but functionally the same.

Bill
 
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smokeywolf

Well-Known Member
Have a gas rig, but no ARC, MIG or TIG. Only used a TIG rig a few times and that was at work. Was just getting mentored into TIG welding at work by a true artist, when a massive layoff ended that opportunity.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Here is the current state of the fence. Need to get two sets of small hinges and attach, then clean up,
grind the welds a bit and paint it.

fence unpainted small.jpg

Pretty fussy to put together, too.

The price of TIG units has come way down, the advantage of affordable high power solid state devices,
transistors and SCRs.

https://www.lincolnelectric.com/en-us/Equipment/Pages/product.aspx?product=K1845-1(LincolnElectric)

Still not cheap, but nice units. Mine will do 200 amps max, a bit more than the one above. And it cost about
$1400 about 12 years ago.

Bill
 
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Ben

Moderator
Staff member
Bill,

You did a great job on that project.
If children are in the area of the heater and don't ( can't ) fall onto the heater, it will be well worth all of your $ and efforts you've expended.

Ben
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Agreed, Ben. I was just imagining the 15 month old tottering along and falling into the stove, or
just touching it intentionally out of ignorance. At that age, my USN officer father used the Navy
term "under way, but not under command" - works for little kids just learning to walk, too.
And even the 3 year old has never been around a wood stove, no need to learn a lesson that will
leave a scar when I can prevent it.

Happy with the look, too. Going to take a couple of large bullet lead bricks out with me about
3 by 8 by 2 and set them on the back corners across the bottom rail to help hold the fence
in place if they bump into it.

A dab of braze on each rod end where it hits the 1/2" square. You can see the shiny brass spots
at some of them in the picture. I realized that with them free, a hard push in the middle of a single rod,
it could bend enough to pop out of the end holes, plus being attached at the ends, rather than
just trapped in holes, makes the rods 5X stiffer when resisting bending loads (side loads), and that
is good, too. Overall, they are amazingly stiff, now that all is welded and brazed together.

The fence is sitting on my latest improvement to the lathe, too. The lathe stands were made for someone
about 4-5" taller than I am, so I had been standing on an old pallet while operating it. Worked fine,
but too small and easy to trip up on the gaps. So, I built up a stage. The foam squares are off of
it right now because of the hot metal when welding, but it normally has a 1/2 foam pad, makes it nice
for standing for long jobs. Way easier to see around the tool post and stuff now.

Bill
 
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Ian

Notorious member
We use bags of lead shot on each Christmas tree stand leg to prevent toppling in the event the cats get too "enthusiastic". Good call on the lead weights, I was going to ask how you intended to secure the frame but figured you had it worked out.

I would have been tempted to tack weld the center rod on both ends and let the rest float, but the added stiffness is good security. Nice job on the project.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Got the hinges mounted to the center piece today, and the corner welds ground and cleaned up.
Will attach the side pieces to the hinges tomorrow and then lightly sand it around the braze
joints and paint it.
Thanks to all for the nice comments. Like most of you, I am a "maker" and this was needed, so I
figured out how to design it, then built it.
It stiffens the rods immensely to braze in the ends, Ian. I know the 5X theoretical value for
bending stiffness between simply supported and built in, but it really is impressively better.

Bill
 
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