Batch Rocket 7" single bell build.

[quote=Glenn Littman

I like your shelf idea. It has me thinking that I could add a bracket at the bottom of my door frame where it hides the full size ref brick base that the firebox is built on. This would give me 2+" of space below the secondary air intake for a narrow shelf, maybe a scrap cut-off of soapstone. I was planning to research stone suppliers in Colorado Springs or Denver to see if anyone has reasonable prices on soapstone cut-offs for my next build.

Soapstone is great stuff for our rocket stove use, but cost prohibitive in my area.  But then again I am comparing it to free granite, so that is not fair.  Ha!

photos of the primary and secondary seal,

Simple but yet effective.

I was asked (privately)  to explain in further detail how I build the "rocket stove door-glass holding frame"  So with that in mind, I will detail a few photos and explanations of the

How's --Why's--and end results.

This not really how to build the door, but rather how to cheaply and reliably build into the door a window.  I have built with and without windows, and the window  IN THE DOOR wins every time.  And using this method, if you ever have to replace the glass or screws and if these screws are corroded, it is simply the matter of grinding off the nuts on the bolts.

The whole purpose of this is to allow use of the oven door seal that almost every oven has, and this takes about 15 seconds to strip off of a oven at the recycling center.

So first:  After measuring your door, give yourself some room knowing that all around the glass you need at least 3/4" of space

 If you had a 12" wide door sheet, make sure you don't order more than a 10.5" wide glass (this would be large and anything less will work fine and cost less to boot)   Same goes for the height of glass.  Remember that bigger is good, but there is a limit and nothing wrong with a smaller 7" tall x 5" wide glass.

When you have the glass, make the hole for the door 1/4" smaller all the way around the glass,  so a 6" tall glass would require a 5.5" tall hole, and like wize width cutting.

I am presuming you know this is not actually glass but a clear ceramic, made just for this purpose.  I have used Oven door glass, cut on the diamond wheel, and while it seems it should work, I have had it explode and was thankful I was not in front of it.  I no longer experiment with that.  Perhaps if your considering cook top glass, I have never had it explode or crack, but have never seen it in anything other than Deep Dark Red, and you simply can't see your fire well enough.  And for the most part, it can be a battle removing from the stove.  (it can be done)

With your hole cut under sized, we know the glass cannot fall out towards the fire, we simply have to make a frame to keep it from falling out the front, I use the very common 1/2 x 1/2 x .125" angle iron.

Lay this out so you have a 1/8" gap from the side of the glass to the inside face of the frame. ( simple math)  But you can make this flat side down and measure as you go along.  MAKE IT true and squared.   (not square shape, but equal corner to corner square)

With the frame done and corners ground nice, you can add your 6  bushings for the screws. These can be as thin as washers as there is NO real load on them, what ever your comfortable with.

When happy with these locations you can place on your door, and mark the 6 hole locations.  Before drilling, these 6 holes should all be the same distance from your glass hole in the door.   I use .250" because that is what I have,  but smaller is fine, there is NO strength requirement.

With the inside of your door facing down, lay on your glass, and then the frame, and install screws and nuts.

Carefully you can lift your door and observe,  Your glass will be loose ( it has to be if you did this correctly)  and these turn over door glass down.

I have painted all the parts prior to final assembly with oven paint ( bbq paint) (hi-temp paint)  Before assembly

Then with your FREE oven door seal cord, you can stuff in the gap all the way around the inside edge, with any dull tool (not a pointy screw driver)  

One oven door strip will be in far excess of what you need,  Cut to length, after you get it mostly stuffed into place. (tin snip works well)

And there you have it, a rocket stove door that is sealed, and things can expand/contract without worry of breaking glass. And relatively in expensive.   Oven glass cleaner works well if it gets smoked over. (do not clean when hot)