Introduction: German Incense Smoker - Tiled Stove

By Tiny Workshop
About: Born in Berlin in 1985, engineer, contrarian, 'The Big Bang Theory' fan, my other blog: www.tiny-labs.com - find me on Twitter @pixelgeb and reddit u/Stishio

First of all this is a so called "Räuchermännchen". It's used to burn incense and it is very typical for Christmas in Germany.

My wife is a big fan of incense smokers. She has a lot of them in different shapes and colors. I wanted to create a special gift for her this Christmas. I decided to build a miniature tiled stove, which can be used to burn incense.

At first I made a quick sketch. It should have a upright format with a small ledge on top, a oven door for the air ventilation, some logs near by, a stovepipe with a curve, tiles and a small cat sitting on it. The cat is not part of this tutorial...actually I bought it on a Christmas market :) But the rest can be done easily at home. Enjoy.

### Disclaimer ###

I got a nice hint by esamosfet

But hey, isn't incense smoke a source of pm10 and particulate? This should be used with parsimony.

Regards, Max.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12756013

You might want to use the smoker with deliberation.

Step 1: Blueprint

I use two different hard wood slabs. One with a thickness of 6mm for the oven body, the ground plate, and the oven door. The second slab has a thickness of 15mm and is used for the oven platform, the ledge and the inner platform for the incense cone (which also stabilize the oven body on the base).

Step 2: Materials and Tools

What's needed?

  • Two hard wood slabs with different thicknesses. I use 15mm and 6mm, but you can use different size as well. The final appearance may differ, but that's the idea about DIY stuff, isn't it? :D
  • Small piece of log for the log pile. I use pieces, which still have bark on it for a better look
  • Copper pipe with a diameter of 15mm. You can adjust the size as well.
  • 90° curved copper pipe with the same diameter of your pipe
  • Measurement devices
  • Pencil
  • Saw
  • Copper pipe cutter
  • Wood drills
  • Electrical driller
  • Screw clamps
  • Clear lacquer
  • Brush
  • Wood glue
  • Cutting heads
  • A coin as a base for the incense cone
  • Grinding paper

Optional:

  • Chop saw for cutting all pieces. You can use a hand saw or jigsaw as well, but the finish is better with the chop saw
  • Milling machine for finishing the edges of the ground plate, the ledge and the platform. You can use grinding paper as well. I use the milling machine to mill notches for joining the body parts together.
  • Heat gun to darken the oven door, but you can use color or simply leave it unchanged

Step 3: The Oven Body - Cutting

I use my chop saw to cut the four body parts out of the 6mm thick slab. The front and back panels have the same sizes as well as the side panels. It's important to know which kind of joint do you want to use. I'll use my milling machine to cut small notches in the front and back panels. The width of the notch is 6mm (same size as the thickness of the side panels) and the depth is 3mm (half the size of the thickness). That's why I cut the side panels 6mm shorter than the front/back panel. After glueing together the body will have a dimension of 60x60mm. You can use another type of joints, but adjust the sizes of the panels accordingly.

Step 4: The Oven Body - Cutting Out the Oven Door

I use a pencil to mark the cutout for the oven door. I drill a hole in each corner, which can be used to cut the middle piece out. I use grinding paper to finish the the edges.

Step 5: The Oven Body - Shaping the Tiles

I mark the fugues of the tile with a pencil in 20mm spacing and use a even piece of wood as a guidance for my saw. I cut approximately 1mm deep notches int the wood. This will have the effect of fugues. I repeat this on all four body panels. Finally I cut the edges of the front and back panels.

Step 6: The Oven Body - Joining and Glueing

I cut notches with my milling machine to join the pieces together, but you can do this without notches. Just glue the edges together. Therefore I apply wood glue on the edges and press the parts together. I use two clamps to apply some pressure on the panels. The glue needs some time to dry.

Step 7: Cutting the Rest

The body of the oven is almost finished. Now I can measure the exact inner dimension of the oven. They can differ deepening on fault tolerance during milling, cutting and glueing. The dimensions are important for the inner piece, because the oven body will be pulled on it.

I cut the ground plate, the base of the oven, the ledge of the oven and the inner platform.

Step 8: The Oven Door

I measure the inner dimension of the cut out in the front panel. I mark the door with a pencil on a piece of the 6mm slab. Now I can drill small holes to achieve a wire frame look and cut the door out. Using a heat gun I change the color of the door. You can use color as well or simply leave it untouched.

Step 9: Finishing the Edges

I use my milling machine to finish the edges of the ground plate, the base and the ledge of the oven. You can use different shapes or techniques to achieve a same or different finish.

Step 10: Drilling Holes for the Pipe and the Coin

Now I need a hole in the ledge to insert the pipe. Therefore I use a 15mm drill at first (same diameter as the copper pipe). I drill into the ledge in the middle, but not right through. I stop some millimeters before breaching through. Now I can use a smaller drill (10mm) to finish the hole. This is important, that the pipe doesn't fall through the ledge.

The incense cone can get very hot, that's why I need a metal base for it. I drill a 1mm deep hole in the base. The coin can be glued right into it (I forgot to make a picture, that's why I've insert a photo of the finished base. Sorry).

Step 11: Glueing and Small Details

All pieces are cut out and can be glued together. I glue the base on the ground plate. On top of them I glue the inner platform. Finally the ledge can be glued on the body of the oven.

We have a chimney and I use a small piece of log to cut miniature version of it. You can use all kind of wood for this. I like to have barks on it to improve the illusion.

A small piece of wood can be used as a handle for the oven door. Just glue it on the door.

Step 12: Finishing

Finally all parts are ready and can be lacquered. I use two layers on all parts. The door and the logs are lacquered separately and glued afterwards.

I use the pipe cutter to cut a piece off the copper pipe for the stovepipe and stick the curved pipe on it. The stovepipe is placed in the hole of the ledge.

I glue the coin to the hole in the inner platform.

I bought a small cat figure on the Christmas Market. It is made of wood. I glue it on top of the oven. You can just drop this step or build something else on your own. Make it you own project and customize it the way you want it. My wife likes cats, so a cat it is :)

Step 13: Done

Finally my oven is finished and can be tested :D

It's difficult to catch the smoke on camera, but let me tell you, that this is working pretty good. It has a very good draught and exhales the scent to the whole room. I hope my wife will like it.

I hope you will enjoy building this. Please let me know your experiences and improvements. Please put photos in the comments :)