Stephen Loukin

Hi again, and thanks so much for the helpful replies to my previous first post.

Does anyone have suggestions how to beef up the structural integrity of the standard perlite/clay refractory insulation with a fiber additive?  I've heard of "cobbish" which incorporates lamb's wool, but it looks like a bit of a pain, and I don't have a good source.  I was looking at the fiberglass fibers in standard insulation, but they seem pretty tiny length-wise when pulled apart, at least in the sample I checked.

Has anyone found a decent, readily available refractory material to do this?

Thanks in advance,
Steve

Thanks so much for all the excellent thoughtful advice all...what a great forum.

Hello,

Simple (I hope) question: Is it possible to load cob into a wooden container to form a heater mass.  The "adobe" full cob bench just aesthetically doesn't work for me.

I was building plans for a gravel 6"system on a 2nd story (albeit well-supported) floor build.  Given cob's better heat retention, it all of the sudden struck me that it would be much slicker if I eschewed gravel, cut down on the wooden-boxes size and  filled it w/ cob instead. Has anyone tried this?

I figure that I could run the system w/o a top to drive the moisture of the cob fairly rapidly to avoid moisture damage to the wood.  

Thoughts/experience much appreciated,

Steve