These look good fun and cheap to make has anyone made one or capable of making one?

Check out south20101/rohajamagic's efforts well smart!

home made wood burners

I had one in my camper van, worked really well, didn't even realise it was a gas bottle till someone pointed out how clever it was

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These are more as chimineas or barbecues. The main problem would be engineering air admittance control vents for inside use ( plus safe fluing.)

For most this is a safer and less skill- intensive alternative. Put mine in 2 years ago.... if you can get cheap local wood, there's nothing better.

Cast Iron Wood Burning Stoves - Machine Mart

Just had a thought if you had a decent sized van like mines you could fit a small radiator get a stove with a back boiler (seen them on youtube) 12vot water pump and viola small central heating system

SIL made one for himself from gas bottle. He then made other SIL one for his birthday. If I ply him with beer I might be next.

Built a couple. Dead easy to build with minimal welding skills, all you really need is an angle grinder, a drill and a mig welder. The one I use just now ( made from a 47kg gas bottle) heats a 10 x7m shed without problem. One piece of advice though, after removing the valve fill with water to the very top and leave for a few days. It displaces any residual gas and also does much to remove the gas smell that sticks to the inside of the cylinder.

I've done a couple of work related courses on woodburners and biomass heating. two comments;

Wood is about 80% volatiles (gas and tars) and 20% charcoal. The volatile components are mostly wasted unless you have a gasifier stove; gasifiers also have a huge increase in both efficiency and cleanliness in comparison a conventional '3 rock' open fire. There are a lot of plans on the internet for small gasifier stoves since woodfires are the main source of heat and cooking in the third world. There's a lot of 'tin-can' camping stove plans as well, e.g.; Wings -The Home Made Stove Archives - Index of Contents .

The other point is that solid fuel stoves can generate huge volumes of carbon monoxide; I can't recall the numbers off-hand but 4000ppm comes to mind. That could kill you, very easily. In fact there was a fatality fairly recently due to one of the cast-iron stoves (see link posted above) which had been installed in a cabin in accordance with the instructions provided. The instructions made no mention of fixed ventilation. I wouldn't put one of those gas bottle efforts inside an occupied building.

self build motorcaravan club members would be able to help. You only get 10 free posts though before you have to join and pay.

These wood burners are no different to other solid fuel fires. They are easy to build and pretty good for heating. The carbon monoxide issue is true of all boilers/ burners. Common sense when installing them will ensure that you have no problems.

oh don't forget you may have problems getting insurance.