PDA

View Full Version : Saunaless Sauna?



MCBushbaby
11-07-2007, 11:22 PM
It's "Sah nah" not "s'ow nah", BTW.

Anyways, to my question:

Winters coming up and as any Yooper or Finlander is well aware of, it's the season of the sauna. Unfortunately my present living accommodations do not permit a sauna to be built (no room!) so I'm wondering if anyone has any idea for a saunaless sauna? In the basement I have an attached garage converted into a weight room (carpeted), a small workshop, laundry room, heavy bag room, stone-walled bathroom and an L-hallway connecting them.

Maybe some weird dryer exhaust redirection, fill the drier with wet towels and no Snuggle lint sheet (no fragrent exhaust), and run the new exhaust into the bathroom for steam? Seems a little Red-Green to me but dammit I want to jump in the snow after a steam!

Ok, maybe not a Red-Green setup but maybe someone has instructions on a 1 or 2-person outdoor sauna? Probably heated by electricity or wood stove, doesn't matter to me.

HOP
11-08-2007, 06:47 AM
I got one word for you Mitch Hot Rocks make a sweat lodge with a tarp make a dome with pvc .

carcajou garou
11-08-2007, 10:03 AM
I'd replace the PVC with willow saplings, PVC would leech toxins into the system with repeated exposures, smells bad to boot!
Be carefull with the rocks.

Beo
11-08-2007, 10:19 AM
Sweat Lodge, Mitch. your a wilderness freak like the rest of us.
The sweat lodge is a ceremonial sauna and an important ritual used by Native American peoples. There are several styles of sweat lodges that include a domed or oblong hut similar to a wickiup, a teepee, or even a simple hole dug into the ground and covered with planks or tree trunks. Stones are heated in an exterior fire and then placed in a central pit in the ground. Often the stones are granite and they glow red in the dark lodge. In the northern part of North America, the sweat lodge is a low dome-like structure built on earth (as opposed to grass or forest brush). Traditionally it is built with a frame of tree shoots or branches, which are long, thin and very flexible. The tree most commonly used is willow although many other species are used such as lodgepole. Lodges range in size, from diameters of nearly six feet to well over eighteen or nineteen feet. They range from three to five feet in height, as the participants sit or lay down during the ceremony. The lodge is aligned with the four directions, and room for a doorway is provided. The wood structure is then covered with either blankets, canvas, or sometimes animal skins, and the doorway is made on the east or south side. Sometimes permanent walls of clay are built over the wooden frame. The walls must be thick enough for the lodge to be completely dark inside and to keep in as much heat as possible. In some, a shallow pit is dug in the earth in the center of the lodge where the hot stones from the fire pit will be placed. The lodge is also known in Mexico with the name of temazcal.

HOP
11-08-2007, 10:19 AM
Wilow sticks are a good idea but pvc is a comon water line in the south both hot and cold and the leaching of plastics that have been approved for containers and such is apparently non exsitant.

Beo
11-08-2007, 11:10 AM
Totally agree HOP :D

trax
11-08-2007, 11:44 AM
A true sweat lodge is a specific spiritual ceremony to native people. As such, derivatives of a sweat lodge I'm not very comfortable with, a true sweat lodge ceremony involves very specific instructions regarding the construction and prayers which should be done during the construction and very specific activities, including a pipe ceremony which take place during the sweat lodge. Most people who are true pipe carriers out there (there're plenty who claim to be but come up lacking) spend a large part of their lives learning what they're supposed to know to keep that pipe and conduct that ceremony and a sweat ceremony. Please bear that in mind when discussing a sweat lodge.

However! You can, in the comfort of your own living room if you wish, make a small blanket dome and heat up some bits of rock or metal enough in a cast iron frying pan (obvioiusly keep something burn proof on the floor where you put the pan) take in a small container of water to toss on the heat and seal yourself in. You can make a pretty good "sweat/sauna" that way. YOu can do it in your backyard too, with tarps. The amount of firewood a real sweat lodge requires is going to mess up most people's yards pretty badly. The smaller you make the dome the hotter your going to get, just make sure your sealing the heat in once you get started.

Beo
11-08-2007, 11:52 AM
Go into your bathroom, turn on the shower to hot (all the way) and do not turn on the fan, sit on the crapper and wait for the bathroom to fill with steam and get fogged up, and there ya go.
Now don't poop or it'll stink :D:D:D

HOP
11-08-2007, 06:08 PM
You can heat stones with your propane fish fryer and put them in your sweat shelter or use a old hot plate inside the shelter with a pot of rocks and sprinkle water for steam.