Tiffaney Dex

So the chair cushions get to stay on our chairs because they are filled with we what looks like waste fabric. And I doubt it's all natural. Thanks for the warnings that they will also off-gas if they don't have all natural fillings.

So if we don't want to sit on the mass, until I make the cushions, I'll fold up wool blankets; we can easily put them on the bench when we want to sit on it and then  pick them up whenever we get up..

Transfer station is the term I couldn't figure out. Thanks,  Donna!

We've pulled the wool away from the wall and wood posts, so there is air circulation now, and the wood posts are staying at room temperature; the thermometer doesn't move when stuck onto them just a bit above the rocket mass.
On Saturday morning, when the trash transitory deposit ( ? I have no idea how to translate that ) is open, we'll be dropping off the old couch cushions. For a temporary solution, we'll use chair cushions to sit on in the evening. And I'll slowly make cushions with the cotton that I got specifically for that, with wool on the bottom side, and buckwheat hulls for the filling. I can recuperate the hulls easily enough here, as the traditional grain is buckwheat. I'll make them smaller than the couch cushions, with the hope that that will make us pick them up. I am a horrible sewer, which means the chair cushions will be used for quite a while starting Saturday evening.

Thank you to everyone who replied and thank you, Jay, for putting this in the daily-ish. I'm realy grateful that you all made me realise what a hasard I was creating in covering up the top of the bench.

Joseph, we can't get grainger over here, unfortunately. But your post has made me optimistic about the comfortability of rock wool.

But I'm starting to think we need to not use cushions at all.

Glenn Herbert wrote:The ignition temperature of wood is 450ish F, but it is a known issue that wood continuously exposed to high heat for a long time (months/years) will slowly break down and eventually be able to char at lower temperatures, like 200 F or so. This is probably not an issue for a cushion, as the bench surface should not be getting near those temperatures.

Do you know how high the temperatures are that cause wood to be combustible at lower temperatures? Because there are wood beams at the back of the bench and I've been pondering over this statement, or worrying. There are four beams going down that support two windows above the bench and one load bearing beam between the windows. Have we created a fire risk with the wool and foam cushions?

It's late at night here and we're about to go to bed, but I wanted to post that the température under the wool and cushions right now is 56 degrees Celsius, which is 132 Fahrenheit.  But it's cooler than it normally is because we hadn't lit a fire for at least the last week, whien we had unusually warm weather. So perhaps we are making the problem with keeping the bench covered. And I really have to come up with cushions that would be very movable.

I guess melting isn't actually the correct word for what's happening to the foam and I'm sorry for the inconcise language. It was getting too hot and would start smelling before it was separated from the bench by wool. Nothing ever started oozing out of the cushion.

The weather is changing back to cooler temperatures here and we came close to lighting a fire last night. It's very probable that I'll make one tonight and I'll measure the temperature under the wool blanket to see if it is causing the bench to overheat.

I'm was very relieved to read your post,  Thomas. So our bench isn't getting anywhere near flammable temperatures. It's hot to the touch when the fire is going, but it doesn't burn us, like touching a hot casserole will burn us. It's just that we start feeling a burning sensation after a bit of time, more like the way sunburn happens.

Tereza, we're similar to you in what we'll pick up:  when we only had the couch cushions on the bench, we would pick them up when we weren't sitting on them. Once we started noticing the smell under us and put wool blankets between them and the mass, that stopped. So I'm hoping to make cushions that can safely sit on the mass, that will be picked up afterwards.

And I'm sorry to cause you trouble, Gerry.  Maybe the correct translation is marble dust, instead? It's used in tadelakt.

Tereza, the current cushions are just old couch cushions from the 70's and 80's. They're not even from the same couch. I got a cotton tissue that we like for the top and sides of future cushions and canvas for the bottom. But maybe Jay is right in that I should use wool for the bottom?  Wool would be less flammable? Daniel, I've always thought of the health aspect of the foam couch cushions, but not about whether they're flammable. Yeah, I really don't want a fire risk. I always wanted a smooth, clean finish on the mass. But I don't want to be sitting on something uncomfortable. We don't have a couch, just the rocket, and it's where we go to to chill, watch a DVD or take a nap. Perhaps if we did a lime and powdered marble plaster for the finish, with getting it a couple of centimeters higher?

And Jay, I'm a terrible sewer, even if I try hard. I always joke on the fact that I'm really, really good at UN-sewing. It's the sewing it back together where I start having problems.

Thanks everyone for the replies. Gerry, height is a problem and excavating isn't an option. So we can't add more mass, except for a thin, finish layer. But perhaps we could put something insulating in the finish and that would help it? If we put marble powder in the finish layer, do you think that might provide a little bit of insulation?

We have old bed springs, just because we like the look of rust and they're easy structures for vines to climb on. But using them would give too much height. I like the idea of a human sized cookie cooling rack, Jay, but I don't think I'd be capable of making them out of metal and my husband always has way too much to do already.

I love used, also, and the wool blankets separating the foam couch cushions from the rocket mass are old army blankets. If I was careful about folding them, Teresa, do you think I could actually use them as cushion cover filling?

Hello everyone,

We have the typical j-tube rocket mass heater, with a barrel for a bell and a bench. It works really well and we heat our home exclusively with it

So, the reason I'm writing!: the bench is really comfortable during the warmer seasons and during the day, when the fire died out early the previous evening. But it's too hot to sit on when the fire is lit in the evening, when we really want to sit on it. So, quite a number of years ago, we salvaged couch cushions to put some distance between us and the bench. And then we realized that we were melting the foam in the cushions. So I folded up a couple of wool blankets to put a bit more distance between the foam and the rocket. We still think the foam gets a bit too hot, but it doesn't smell like it's melting.

Anyway, the couch cushions are ugly and don't match, so they were always going to be temporary and I got a cotton canvas tissue to recover them initially. That they were melting eliminated the recovering them idea.

So I think I really need to come up with my own cushion material idea. Sometimes I think maybe wool, but that seems like too much work and I'd have to find wool. So I looked at the wood wool insulation and wonder about that, because I think it had to be fireproofed somehow to be on the market. Or rock wool? But would that be comfortable to sit on.

And this has been a thought for a few years, at least, already. So I've come to you all to see what you think, because I really don't think keeping the foam cushions on the rocket is a healthy thing to be doing.

What heat resistant material would be the most comfy, while not being too hard to fill a cushion cover?