Rocket has to come back !!!

The main reason that I removed my rocket stove, was that I had too move the shed it was in....

Kinda hard to pick up a building and move it with a 3 or 4 tonne stove in it. . .

The shed has been moved, but I still want too have heat for the winter, so the rocket is coming back !

Trying to figure out how to build a rocket stove, that would heat nicely, but take up as little room as possible.
Then realized, that you can have the "J" tube, which burns nice and hot - without the mass - good for instant heat.
I reduced the amount of perelit insulation from 6 inches - down to 2 or 3 inches all the way around.  (3.5 inches on the bottom of the heater).

Then just for the hell of it, I put it on a heavy duty steel frame - with wheels.  

At first, I tried to limit the length too 1 concrete slab, but I needed extra room for the manifold.... so I added another 12 inch pad at the back.

Riser and base.

Burn chamber is the same size and shape as the first one, just alot less insulation around it, so hopefully, after a 2 or 3 hour burn, it will start too radiate heat, and help heat the space around it.

The tricky part, is too set up the chimney so it wont break off....

At first, I tried having it point up vertical , but it kept leaning over . . .  so, I laid it flat, on the body of the stove, and put a bunch of bricks on top.
Should hold it in place.

So, after building and test burning the heater (all on the same day) it did not surprise me that it did not get over 150 degrees F.  Since I added 8 small pails of water - too soften the materials.  All that moisture is keeping the stove cold.  I have not hooked up the chimney yet, so that would probably not help things either....
Once the moisture is gone, it should start heating up.

I really wanted to get this rocket heater done, since the day that I built it was 20 degrees with a humidex of 29.  The very next day it dropped down to 12 degrees.
I would much rather work with mud and wet hands in the warm weather.

That being said, there are a few items that I am going to have too change on this heater....

1. outer bricks do not have any mortar on them - kinda floppy.  Will have top let it dry, and either wait for a warmer day or heat up the shed nice and warm - pull them off, and mortar them together.

2. not much heat riser support - so I may have too remove the bricks at the bottom of the barrel, (the ones that are turned on their side) and lay them flat - more solid and secure, and easier to mortar the joints.

That's it for a while, keep ya updated !

Here is an update on the wheelie rocket . . .

I went to hook up the chimney, and as soon as I touched the thing, the stove and the chimney separated. ...  bummer.

After thinking about it for five minutes, I realized, that if you want a good sturdy stove, you have to start with a good solid base....

Too that end, I have started removing the outer bricks, and mortaring them into place - to make a solid frame too work from.

Also, while I have the heat riser off, I am going to be laying the bricks flat - instead of being on there sides, and very unstable and tippy.

Unfortunately, the weather has turned colder, so we will see how it goes . ...

great idea! like the mobile aspect.

After taking apart the hastily built mess that I made, I took my time, and mortared all the surrounding bricks with high temp brick mortar.

After that, it was just a matter of building up the surround for the manifold, and topping if off with a slab of concrete.

Added a few more bricks too weight down the chimney placement ... so it wont move too much, and did a small test burn.  Warmed up the stove, to help it dry out, and checked for leaks.

After a week of sitting in the shop, it was time for a full on burn.

No leaks, and very good draft.  6 inch pipe thruout the build.  The one thing I did differently is too make the entrance to the burn tunnel .5 of an inch smaller in one direction.  That increases the draft in that area, and I can now load up the burn chamber as full as it will go, and I have no smoke back or back burn issues at all (so far).

I also find, that the 4 or 5 feet of bare chimney pipe is losing almost as much heat as the mass was absorbing.  I know that I cannot tell what the inner temperature is on the stove pipe, since it now gets hot enough to melt the regular stove thermometer I was using, but the new chimney thermometer I picked up, is telling me that it does not get over 200 F . I do notice a difference at the top of the chimney outside, as there is no smoke, no steam, nothing to see - as if the stove is not even running.

On the plus side, with that large slab of concrete covering the manifold, my coffee stays hot ...

I had to urethane some window frames out in the shop.
So, I went out at noon, and fired up the portable rocket heater.
At noon, it was 28 degrees F.  By 1 pm, it was 40 degrees F.  By 3 pm, it was around 65 degrees in the shop, and I started urethaning the wood.
After that, it quickly reached 72 degrees, and I had too open the door too cool off.

In total, I used 8 pieces of 1.5 x 1.5 x 36 inches plus 2 - 2x4s - 48 inches long - as a test for back burn - there was none.

It works.

Edit.  After burning the stove full out for most of the afternoon ( 5 hours or so ), the outer bricks around the fire box ( the ones with 2 inches of perelite inside ) only reached 90 degrees F.  or so.  Perelite is a REALLY GOOD insulator.

After repeated firings, the rocket heater is now all dried out and burning nicely.
Since I have made the burn chamber .5 of an inch smaller in one direction - there is no smoke back, or puffing at all.

Loading the stove up with cardboard, gets the stove really hot !

This is why I warn people, when building one of these stoves, to leave plenty of room around the barrel.

Have you actually tried to get this thing on a dolly--or whatever it was you planned to move it with? What do you think the final weight is?

It has been a while since i have logged onto this site, been busy getting ready to build my Hobbit Home.

Daves Hobbit Home Build  - on facebook - @undergroundandlovinit
As for moving the portable rocket stove around....  I have demolished a couple of my buildings to make room for the new house, and the work shop has become a storage shop - so the rocket stove heater has been moved into a corner and buried with "stuff" ..... and yes, as expected - it is difficult to move, but it does move ...😁 Heavier, wider wheels with a larger weight capacity would definitely help with that.