Oiling the barrel

In the Hot Rocket DVD Ernie is shown oiling the barrel of a rocket stove, but I didn't hear any mention of what kind of oil he is using? Anyone know what oil works best? Just any cooking oil? (With most rocket mass heaters, it will be smoking in the house after all....) Right now I just want to oil the old water heater that my little 4" rocket heater is made from (sure, you can laugh) but will eventually build and oil the barrel of an 8" RMH.

Kelly Ravner : W.O.W., A 4'' system RMH on your 1st build? Working 4'' rockets are pretty hard to find, Generally Myself and most of your fellow members
will tell newbes to not even try to make a 4'' system as a 1st attempt ! Give yourself a gold star and Thank All the people who helped you ! Welcome to
Permies.com, our sister site Richsoil.Com, and the Rocket and Wood stoves forums.

With over 27,000 fellow members you should be able to come here 24 / 7 and find someone who wants to talk about what you want to talk about! They
will stretch your mind as you stretch theirs !

On to your problem, Membership has it's privileges, at the top of this page to the right of the Permies spinning sun is the permies toolbox, if you click on
the [search] space you will be taken to a new page to type in Oiling the barrel and select search in all forums you then select a search in the tens
of thousands of Threads here at permits, or Web wide!

In this case I can tell you that Ernie likes to oil the barrel just like a cast iron fry pan, and cook on the top ! There is an excellent post on that at
Richsoil.com you can also use high temp stove blackening or paint, and there are several high temp spray paints for engine blocks that will take the
heat and not drive you out of the house !

Send us some pictures of your working Rocket Mass Heater !

For the Good of the Craft! Think like Fire! Flo like Gas! Don't be the Marshmallow! As always, your comments/questions are solicited and Welcome Big AL

Allen, thank you for the info! I did try search, only results returned were for 'oil as fuel'. Will work on improving search skills.

Re: 4" rocket systems - "Where Angels fear to tread" right? When I put this together I had no money, no time, no wood, no clue, it was January and 20 below and I needed heat! And I researched it for....oh... at least a week and a half before building. It was only after I built it that I read that 4" systems are not recommended. There are certainly challenges and limitations to a 4" system, but this one did most of what I needed it to do. It was to be very temporary, so the first winter it had no mass. The second winter I upgraded a bit and added temporary mass. Going into the third winter it is getting major upgrades, including a real chimney and I'm contemplating adding more permanent mass. And while I have everything torn apart it is sitting outside waiting for me to fire it up and apply oil.

So, right now I have a fresh hole in my roof and many other 'get ready for winter' projects that are pressing. When the storms roll in and I move to indoor pursuits for awhile I will post up a new thread with photos and story and links to the original design that I worked from. BTW, just saw the 'portable 4" rocket" thread. Awesome!

Thanks again for assistance!

Kelly : It sounds like on the very bottom of our search page you had three places to look for information the 1st was the [web], the 2nd was [Permies]

and the 3rd was [java ranch] and instead of picking Permies you sent your self to the web ! This is really easy to do, like everything else it takes practice !

By the way whenever i am using Google to look on the WEB for a physical object after I type its name into the Search Field I now type in pictures after it.
This works so well for me, its like I found another Search engine !

And when the url is just there and is not a link -try a right click, often it will cut and paste to a new window, or start a google search on a new page !

For the good of the Crafts ! Big AL

True story - I have a memory like a steel colander. So, the information about oiling the barrel that I was trying to find (and never did find through searching) finally filtered back through my memory - it was a comment that I overheard Erica Wisener making during the RMH cob workshop last fall. She mentioned that you might be better off using a hardening or drying oil. Some oils harden or cure by themselves through a reaction with oxygen. Linseed oil is among these, though I seem to recall that she said she didn't especially like using linseed (not sure why.)

This all came back to me as I was watching my rocket heater glistening in the sun, staying oily hour after hour, after I had coated it with some old grapeseed oil I had sitting around. A perfectly good oil, but only semi-drying, creating a fine place to collect dust - not what i wanted in my house. I removed as much of that as I could, then coated it with walnut oil, which is a drying oil. With the thin coat of grapeseed oil underneath, it did stay wet and oily for a couple of weeks and didn't fully dry until it had been in use back in the house for awhile, but did finally harden nicely and is working well.

- Kelly : my mac does not play well with others, I fear the day it dies, i will have to get a refurbished unit and pray I can manage to learn its new quirks !

So- I understand if you can't send pictures but you did say you would try ! Big AL

Sorry, I just haven't had time to sit down and post the whole story (3 winters, 3 versions!) but I did just post a photo of the current incarnation here. beautiful rocket mass heaters

Briefly: burn tube is 8" high, 12" long, heat riser 48" high, 9' of 4" duct through cob mass, exits the house through a 6" chimney. The barrel is an old electric water heater. Biggest issue now is low chimney temp, with condensation and creosote, but my house is toasty. Cheers!

Watch the video again. I'm almost positive Ernie said he used Canola oil.