Diane Monteil

Hi William:
I also was intrigued with the ingenious castable burn chamber videos that Matt posted. Like you I also wanted to integrate sodium silicate (aka: waterglass). I spent may days researching the subject, before I bought the supplies to start experimenting. A word of caution first wear gloves, sodium silicate is a lye solution, and it will burn your skin! Sodium silicate changes the properties of clay when added to it. Sodium Silicate allows for a great decrease in the amount of water necessary to get the correct texture. The advantage being, that there would be less shrinkage of the form, from water evaporation. The decrease in moisture, also in theory, reduces the number of cracks.
So far, in my first experiment, I diluted the sodium silicate and added it to a mixture of mostly perelite with a smaller amount of fireclay. The mixture dried in two days, and I was happy with the hardness and durability. I am waiting to do more experiments using a tank of CO2, or soda water ( which is infused with CO2). CO2 gas would harden the cast very quickly, using the lesser amount of water. I am still in the midst of experimenting. I will start to document more of my experimenting, and posting my results.
Best of Luck,
Diane

I got my DVD's yesterday evening - already watched them and some of them twice. They are invaluable. My money was well spent.

Barbara:

I should have mentioned I tried diatomaceous earth for about 4 months. I had it thick all over the place. It did not work.

Best of Luck Diane

Hi Barbara:

My condolences. I had bed bugs last year it took months, seven to be specific, of trying all different types of things to get rid of them. First thing I tried was Diatomacious Earth. I did not do the trick. I had the exterminator come in, and he could not find them. However, he gave me some very useful information. I finally got rid of them by taking all, I really do mean all, of my furniture out of the house and letting it set in the hot sun for a week, what I could cover with black plastic I did so that I could use it as a solar black heat absorber, to heat up the temperature of the furniture, even more. I put all of my clothes hampers everything out of the house. I then sprayed with some natural stuff for bed bugs. They can get into the electrical wires and go through the house. I refused to throw our my expensive mattress and box spring, so I encased them in a bed bug cover, which need to stay on over a year - the suckers are cannibals and can stay alive for a year in a closed environment. Even with all of this I still had bites - What helped the most was I used a thick track of petroleum jelly all around the bottom of the bed posts, all around the bottom of the night stands, around the electrical sockets and anywhere else I thought they my be living. The petroleum jelly was the thing that worked. They crawl into in and cant get out. My exterminator also told me when I go on any trip leave my suitcase outside for a few days before bringing it and it's contents into the house. Somehow the bed bugs have a problem with exposure. FYI - I got the bed bugs from a $400.00 a night fancy hotel in Pittsburg. Now I travel with a large plastic bag to keep my luggage in while I am in a hotel, or other room. Another trick is to keep you luggage in the bathtub. Write me back if I can help you in any other way. One last ditch effort I was going to try was getting ants into the area, they are a natural enemy of bed bugs. Thank gosh the petroleum jelly worked before I tried the ant trick.

Diane

Thank you for the quick responses.
Big Al, I am greatly appreciative for all of the knowledge you so enthusiastically share with the forum, and specifically myself. Yes Al, I do have a copy of the book, I can't imagine trying to figure out the measurements and mathematics with some guidance. I did order the full set of DVD's and I am very impatiently awaiting for them to arrive, I hope that it does not give me more questions, than answers. I mostly have just been using the summer to collect all of the things I think I will need for the build.
Matt, you are my hero!!! I got my streak of passion for rocket mass heaters from watching you. I did want to ask you a question about the riser. I realize you cast the riser out of the same material, that being about 14 parts of fire clay and perlite, to one part refractory cement, but have you experimented with sodium silicate (aka waterglass). I have seen the finished refractory products made from perlite and sodium silicate and remain very impressed with the refractory strength. I was considering trying a riser with the sodium silicate , and like you forming it into a round shape, like that of a stove pipe. I do have the materials to make the sodium silicate myself here at home, so I can experiment a bit first. I don't know if adding the sodium silicate to your formulation would enhance or devalue its abilities. I'll keep you posted.

With my heartfelt appreciation,
Diane

Hi David. If you want to put a thermoelectric module on a RMH, you need to put a heat sink under it. The high heat of the RMH has the potential of melting the wires of the module, unless you get a module that is made for high temps. Are you doing this to have a small electrical change going to a bank of batteries, or are you wanting to run a fan within the RMH? Anyway Good luck.

I am new to writing on the forum. I have been planning my rocket mass heater/stove/water heater build, for about 3 months. I purchased a generous amount of soapstone tiles, and pieces from a broken slab. I want to utilize the fantastic idea in the https://permies.com/t/21815/rocket-stoves/castable-burn-chamber. I wanted to use the soapstone as the liner for the bottom of the feed tube, and also wanted to line the entire burn chamber with soapstone, which I intend to cast right into the unit. I wanted to put a large piece of soapstone on the top of the barrel 3 inches larger than the diameter. I wanted to put chunks of soapstone in the bench/battery, I'm not sure I want to use cob as the other material with the soapstone. I will put soapstone tiles on top of the bench/battery. I also purchased 50 firebricks, although I'm not sure I need them. I would appreciate opinions. Thanks Diane