it's a work in progress.. i had a different mass configuration before but I took it apart. I had used dirt and filled it up above the exhaust pipes but it wasn't drying and I hadn't insulated underneath it so it was just staying cold. Not sure what I used - got it from a local mine/gravel place. They called it silt but it was their washstone byproduct that they said was basically clay. Easy to form and work with but had barely started to dry after a month. where it did dry was around the core. seems very insulative. I took it out and figured I'd try a mass that is mostly rubble and stone with just enough mortar and mud to hold it together. I also added a second barrel for fun. I was going to wrap it in stone as well. It's in my unfinished basement and I was trying to experiment with a few things before possibly building a permanent one next year.
I tried using some different wood and am still seeing steam coming out of the chimney but it seems to be burning better. Top of the barrel temps were around 670. I think some of the steam is from stuff around the ducting but I think some of it may still be coming from the wood. I have several different species of wood that I'm using in various stages of seasoning. Some of the stuff I thought was dry turned out not to be. Some of the stuff I thought wasn't dry turned out to be. I'm burning black locust, pignut hickory, white oak, red oak, rock maple, red maple... If there's any moisture that comes out of the wood, is that just water or might some wood just have resins in it that might come out through the grain when burning?
Thanks.
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