Tristan Vitali wrote:
I'd think it's best to go with as dense and homogenous of a material as you can - straight (finer but gritty) sand and good clay, a little heavy on the sand - for at least an inch or two right around the heat source as it will conduct the heat a bit better and provide a better seal (less chance of thermal cracking). I'm a complete newbie to the hands-on though, so I might be wrong on some things I know limestone does break down at a somewhat attainable temp but pretty sure that's not too much of a threat outside the burn tunnel and heat riserr]Will the chipped lime stone work for the inner cob?
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Too good
If you are referring to the chipped limestone in the cob. You are correct. It sets up so hard a 16 lb sledge bounces off with little damage. Pluss I had only one crack in the seat area. Where it was the thinnest. (about a 1.5 thick) I would recommend using it and will use it again on the next RMH.
Picked up the pavers from the creek. (need a few more) Washed them and put them in place. Now let the drying out begin. Been cool enough to run it in the morning with the windows open to let out the smell and moisture. Just need to add the wood in front of the cleanout and a few more bricks. Then it will be done for this winter. Next summer the real fun begins with pulling down the old fireplace and chimney. Then build a new sun patio and a bigger RMH with a batch box.
Moved a ton of brick today. My arms feel like noodles... Sides are painted. The first run of bricks are laid. Added cob around the heating tube. Hope it helps transfer the heat to the brick faster. Should have the 2nd heat tube installed in the morning. Then button up the sides.
Still debating on a door or just a hole in front of the J tube. I put the cleanout plug from the old rmh from NM. Need to be able to access it.
framed out the box today. Made it 24" tall (28' from floor to top) The sides have flashing between the 2x10s. The thought was it would radiate heat from there too.
Now paint...What ever Blondy chooses. Then fill it up with fire bricks. The bottom half will be firebricks the rest with paver's. Still got to go get the paver's from the river were the city dumped them. Free pickings. Going to get a big load as I need some for the front patio too.
@Santamax Antone A batch box would be nice for the convenience but I don't mind feeding the beast.
Got it lade out and the perlite cob mix around the riser. Even very wet it rocketed and have excellent draft. Going with another 6 inch and using what I have on hand. Had to buy a T and adjustable 90. The rest we had here. Also had to buy another bag of perlite @15.00 for 4 cubic feet. The ONLY place that had the big bag and cheapest was a grow store. They also had big bags of vermiculite too but I went with the perlite.
Pics are labeled... I'm off to a HOT shower. It's been a long day.
65f ATM as an early cold front just blew through with rain for 2 days. Back to the 80's for the next few weeks.
I mean, in the depth of the winter.
OH OK...lol It can be. Lowest I've seen it was -15f. Alminac is saying we'll be cold N wet this winter with lots of the four letter word SNOW... The average cold temps are in the 20's. So not to cold. This house has 2 types of wood heat. A brick fireplace that need new flue pipe. That hasn't been used in years. Would like to tare it down and put a sliding door to a patio. That can wait till next summer. The main wood stove is a old wonder wood stove. It works well enough but burns a ton of wood. RMH will cure that problem.
Well I no longer live in NM. We're back in my home state of Oklahoma. My dad passed and we got the house. It's on 17 acers of wooded land.
Now to build another RMH. Once again I'm lucky to have most of the materials already here. That includes about 1,000 + firebrick from a ceramic kilm we tore down in the late 70's. The soil here is red clay and the sand will come from the river up the road. Found a half of a bag of fire clay in the barn. That should be enough for the J tube. The only thing to buy is the perlite and a few T's for the cleanouts and maybe pebbles. Have enough of the 6" pipe for the mass. Will be using the barrel from the RMH from NM. Its a little rusty but still usable.
The only thing to decide is build a cobb mass or a pebble one. The ese of building a pebble mass looks to be the way to go, because the time is short before the cold sets in. That way there is no lag time waiting for the mass to dry. Pluss I have enough lumber to build one as big as we want.
If anyone has any cons against a pebble mass. Please speak up...
Three year update. Still haven't put a finish coat on it.
Only have one small crack in the seat area.
Last season here in SE NM. only used 100 pallets.
This season with a record warm winter only used 40.(so far)
Haven't had to do any maintenance other that cleaning fly ash out of the pipe.
The steel 6"x6"x3/16"riser I think will last another season. Seen some flaking but nothing to worry about.
Barrel is well cured, black like a cast iron skillet.
Overall It was the best thing I have done to cut down on the wood consumption and still stay warm. Sometimes to warm LOL
What I find that is cool about it, is the smell of the wood burning out side. Not a smoke smell but a sweet like smell you get from smoked meat.
I reduced 10' of the stack to 8" and did a burn. It helped.
I bought a 8" to 6" reducer and will reduce the top 5' to 10' of the stack and see how that works.
Before I move the stack inside the GH. Really don't want to move it inside if I don't need to.
Instead of putting cob around the RMH I'm using some landscaping bricks. They were given to me , by a dear friend who died last month.
He really wanted to see it finished. He loved sitting on the prototype. Fare well Roland.
They should keep most of the water off the core and double as a solar heat battery too. Only had enough to do one side, will need to buy more or find some thing else that will work for the other side.
Finished sealing it up to the mass today. Still haven't reduced the stack yet. That's next.
We're are having, what we call a tumbleweed event. 39mph winds with gusts up to 50 mph.
seen a 6' tumbleweed blow by today. yikes!
Had excellent draft you could say. Didn't take much to get it roaring. Only took 4 sheets of grocery store flyers with dry pallet splinters.
After it started burning good I filled it up with a full load, as many as I could stuff in it.
Big mistake. It went Nuclear !!!
To much draft. By the time it quit burning. I could not keep my hand on the pipe at the end were it connects to the stack. (14' away from rmh)
I'm thinking with some fine tuning of the stack. This mutt will become a full blown dragon.
I tore the core down and noticed that I'm getting moister from the ground.( Fixing that) A 6" is all I can do with what the bricks have.
The riser is a casted one (perlite and fire clay)
I looked through my air duct junk pile and I don't have enough 6" to go 15'. Do have the parts to reduce every thing down to 6".
The reason I went out side with the stack was I didn't want to cut a hole in the plastic. It looks now I don't have a choice on the plus side, wouldn't need to insulate the stack. Don't have the insulation or the monies to buy it.
So inside with the stack reduce it to 6" about half way up.
Also reducing the barrel from 55 to 30 to force more heat into the mass. That should also help with the stack problem.
thomas rubino wrote:Dan; I'm no expert at this but I am learning. I would say that yes, you can plumb your 6" into a 10" mass pipe, would be like a bell . You mentioned 15' long , is that all ? How many bends ? How is your fresh air tube going to be plumbed ? We need more info to help.
The GH is 30' x 18.
The RMH is in the center. The only 90 is at the stack. The chimney is on the out side.
Would reducing the size of the chimney stack down to 6" help with it flow?
It is single wall ducting on the N side and cools rapidly.
It's just for heating two aquaponic tanks. That will set above the mass/pipe.
Not looking for massive amount of heat. Just enough to keep the insulated tanks close to 65 f.
We live in sunny SE New Mexico. So we get tons of solar energy during the day.
The Daleks idea would definitely would be a conversation piece. Love it!
Would hammering designs in the drum cause a flow problem?
Hammering little dimples in the drum, you could make any designs you like. It would be a deafening and time consuming but some one with the gift could make some wonderful art.
Getting to the point of the purdies (not my strong point) and looking for ideas too.
it took 8 hrs. by my self to take it down. The cob mix I'm using need a rock hammer to bust it up. Every thing was reused. I like this mud. If you screw up it can be fixed with out getting more supplies.
The 2nd build took 10 hrs. to build it back in the 2nd pic.
First one is what it looked like. The 2nd what it looks like now.
Third pick it of the first test burn. Even wet it has a great rocket sound.
Well I tore it down to rebuild it correctly. Due to getting in a hurry, I skipped a crucial thing.
The insulation under the burn chamber. This heater is on a wood floor. A concrete board then brick pavers.(it was all ready here for a wood stove). Then the RMH on top of that.. Knowing the burn chamber temps could get the wood flooring hot. Don't think it would get to combustion temp but not going to take the chance.
This is what I did to hopefully remedy this potential problem.
I found 6 red mexican 3 hole block. I filled two of the holes in each block with perlite and clay mix. Leaving one hole open. This open hole will be out side of the burn chamber line. On the back end a channel was cut to allow air to flow around the insulated part of the block.
thomas rubino wrote:Looking good dan, have you run it yet ?
I've run it a few times to speed the drying up. The suction/draft is strong from the start. I assume it will keep getting better as it dries up.
We're getting the rain from the hurricane over the next few days. Here among the tumbleweeds So I'm using a propane flame thrower to dry it up a little faster.
The sound is like a blast furnace when I crank the fuel up.
I know limestone does break down at a somewhat attainable temp but pretty sure that's not too much of a threat outside the burn tunnel and heat riserr]Will the chipped lime stone work for the inner cob?
Mostly red brick and a couple fire brick for the top of the burn tunnel.