Roak Wolf

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since Nov 22, 2018
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Biography
Bitterroot valley most of my life, currently in Missoula.
Building and repair of all things.
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Western Montana
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Recent posts by Roak Wolf

Mart Hale wrote:I have seen this before, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyRBSIGadacAkctGskHlAwM4bL8pdOzeN   Zero's rocket stove uses much the same method.     I have been thinking of how I can do this with wood chips...


Nice design, but WAY to much work to build in my book for something that gonna burn up. Wood chips would be hard due to there inconsistent size but not impossible. i think it would work in a 6+ inch system or bigger to help keep the wood chips from jamming up?

5 years ago

Graham Chiu wrote:it looks like the draft changes with the position of the pellet basket.  Does that mean at lower drafts smoke is generated?



Looking outside at the chimney i see no smoke depending on position. I think what is happening is as i move the basket back i am getting less draw thru the basket and that allows smoke up the basket. I do know that with the basket all the way forward, not allowing any air around basket i can almost leave the lid off the tube. Flame color also changes with position which tells me air to fuel ratio is changing also.  The basket is only about 1.5 inch off the floor of the burn tunnel iv never had any ash problem, i have alot of draft which pulls the ash down the burn tunnel and it gets trapped there intentionally by a necked down heat riser. I will post another vid here in about 30 min with some details.
5 years ago

Gerry Parent wrote:Hi Roak,   Thanks for showing us your stove in action. What kind of a slide would you develop to accommodate a hopper as well?


'
Your welcome! Anytime! Not sure on a hopper, maybe wall mounted hopper with a flex pipe to the tube? i am pretty happy with what iv got now, the hopper holds 3.1lbs of pellets and will run out as fast as 20 min or as long as 45min depending on the setting.
5 years ago
What i have done to control temp and pellet consumption on my rocket stove. Cool accidental effect with this is the tube heats up and starts gasification of the pellets before they are burnt which causes a pretty cool blue flame and lots of heat. A simple brick makes a easy lid and keeps 99% of smoke in, sometime if the brick is not good enough air will get drawn down the tube allowing the "wood Gas" to be ignited and it will burp out a flame lol. Also have noted allowing too much air around pellet feeder will allow smoke back only up the pellet tube, not anywhere else.

 
5 years ago

errol hall wrote:

Roak Wolf wrote: My stove Roars great with barely 2 inch between the barrel and riser. my riser is made of dense heavy fire bricks along with the rest of my stove. Has a gap of 2 inch between top of riser and top of barrel. My burn tunnel is 4.5 inch wide 6.75 inch tall and i am running a small brick mass/bell after the barrel and 8 inch chimney. When burning pellets i get an awesome Blue/purple flame!



Sure would like to hear (and feel) that baby roar!  Flame colour is gorgeous - any particular type of wood pellet?  Lots of MASS!

:-)

Ez



bag did not specify hard or soft wood, bought them at HomDepot currently running Fir Pellets atm. i do have more pics of the stove in the assembly process if you want.

6 years ago
I am finishing up my build in my 1973 65 foot by 14 Foot trailer. Granted this trailer is missing half its floor insulation i can comfortably heat the living room and kitchen area which is about 30 feet. Temps here are 10f to 30f at night. Things i personalty did was, position the stove directly over the frame of the trailer house to eliminate weight issues, installed a ceiling fan in the living room, i have my stove up on bricks and it is made of the HEAVY DENSE fire brick not the light insulation kind. i get GREAT radiant heat off the Barrel AND the Stove its self there is also a secondary bell/mass after the barrel. Other things to note are i am running an 8 inch chimney for great draft, i can feel the draw all the time even when its not burning.    

6 years ago
My stove Roars great with barely 2 inch between the barrel and riser. my riser is made of dense heavy fire bricks along with the rest of my stove. Has a gap of 2 inch between top of riser and top of barrel. My burn tunnel is 4.5 inch wide 6.75 inch tall and i am running a small brick mass/bell after the barrel and 8 inch chimney. When burning pellets i get an awesome Blue/purple flame!
6 years ago

thomas rubino wrote:Hey Roak; Have you considered building a brick bell instead ?  Small footprint and lighter weight?  With the I beam weight isn't a Biggy anymore. But it might work well in your trailer.



I am venturing into Missoula to see how many bricks i can get in my Geo Metro today  can i keep my current configuration and just run the exaust over to the bell? Or should i build the bell right next to the stove so i dont have any ducting and it can gather some radiant heat from the barrel?
6 years ago

Greg Mamishian wrote:Wow... that sounds like a kiln, Roak! I bet you could smelt aluminum. (lol)
A really handy tool to quantify temperature changes as you experiment on your stove's flow design, is an infrared thermometer gun like this.



They're around $20 and well worth it. They don't measure accurately on shiny reflective surfaces like your stainless steel flue, but they work great on everything else. If you want to measure your flue farther up, simply spray a small dot of flat black paint on the flue, aim the gun at it, and you'll get good temp readings.



Thanks for the Tip! i was unaware they where inaccurate on shiny surfaces, i will remember that!
This stove no longer sounds like a rocket it sounds more like one of those kerosene/diesel turbo heaters now and if you noticed i have the feed tube and a secondary air intake (5x2.5 inch) open lol. It did get to the point of the boards auto-igniting up the feed tube so i closed off the lower intake later on.
6 years ago