Size matters!

Yes, guys & gals ... Size does matter!
When you build your new 6" batchbox with the 18" long firebox ...
Do not "assume" that the nominally 16" wood you cut split and stacked is going to work...
Chances are you will end up like me and a good friend up north...
You will find yourself cutting 2-4" off almost every piece !
Geez ! Thought I had this chore done for the year!

Yup, turns out that with a batchbox. It is VERY important that your wood stays back from the rear wall and the door end as well!
I watched the flames Stop one day when my new piece of wood got too close to the rear wall !  It just stopped! Pull the piece of wood back 2" and instantly flames were back!
Peter & Matt have both stated this many times ...  It took seeing it with my own eyes to understand just how correct they were!

So its out to the wood shed with my trusty EGO chainsaw. What a joy not to have a motor running!!!  I cut a piece and the saw is off.... pick it up and its running silently (sort of)again.
Each cutoff piece will still meet the same fate as its buddys , just tossed in rather than a neat pile.

When the day comes to rebuild this 6" firebox it will suddenly become 20" long!
This lengthening of the firebox (within reason) has been approved by Peter.
It is maintaining the same combustion results as the published design.

I'm in the middle of my own build and wanting to burn  20 and 24 " wood was the reason I 'm building an 8" rocket in a space that is probably too small for it.
Minimizing processing is a a worthy goal with any resource you utilize.
While I know pallet wood is not ideal, it is readily at hand and I aim to collect burnable slats with only a few cuts per pallet.

Hi William;  
Nothing wrong with pallet wood!
Quite a bit of it is green wood though.  Depends on the age.
What  are your plans for the side wood?

I highly recommend a 7" over an 8". Especially if your area is smaller. Just extend the firebox but maybe not 25%
I had every intention of making mine an 8" and at Peters suggestion I scaled back to a 7".
Glad I did, I just don't need an 8". Even out in my shop.
I wish I had made the studio batch a 7" instead of a 6"!

Those little end 'nuggets' at my place are all stacked in banana boxes behind the shop. At first, I just wanted to get rid of them by burning them in large quantities at a time, but found that sometimes the whole pile as it settled would launch a few pieces towards the front and block the secondary air inlet. Not good.
With a change of heart, I now have found that they come in handy for making small kindling to start a fire near the port to encourage startup draft.  

I put the finishing touches on my 7" DSR2 core last night and I'm stupid excited to slide it into the bell and get a test burn... but crying because it will be super windy today and I should probably wait!
The 20 inch fire box of a 7" system got stretched out to 24 inches in my design to match the standard length of the CFB. But all the cut wood I have currently was done before I had this design finalized so I'm left hoping the majority of it will fit. I think it's mostly cut to 20 inches (I hope anyway.)

So that brings up a question: How do you start a fire? Because in my head it's lighting some kindling mid-box and pushing it back as you load and then loading on top. But if your material is sized to the box that doesn't leave much room. Have you ever done or seen a video on lighting/loading a batch box?  

Ha Ha Matt;   Wait???   Are you drinking this morning???  How could you wait after all that work??? That dragon needs to stretch her wings NOW or they will atrophy... then your pucked!
Don't lay out a full burn, start small.  
Worse that could happen is smoking up your house... open a door and a few windows if that happens.

As far as how to light a fire in a batch?
Well seems everyone has a different way.
Peter lays in his wood and then uses kindling at the TOP of the pile near the port. His fire burns down.
Matt lights his fire back by the port so the fire burns from the port back to the front.
Another likes to build a log cabin of sticks middle to the port and add wood as it goes...

Then we come to me... I dare to be different... I build my fire the same way I always have... (did I say different?)  two chunks one on each side paper and kindling in the middle ... all the rest of the wood on top of that and light her off, rite back at the door... It burns great for me this way.  No startup issues.
Bottom line ... its a fire  build it and see what works for you.

thomas rubino wrote:Ha Ha Matt;   Wait???   Are you drinking this morning???  How could you wait after all that work??? That dragon needs to stretch her wings NOW or they will atrophy... then your pucked!

I build my fire the same way I always have... (did I say different?)  two chunks one on each side paper and kindling in the middle ... all the rest of the wood on top of that and light her off, rite back at the door... It burns great for me this way.  No startup issues.

Between the red-flag no-burn warning and the core not quite fitting (and me being tired of the angle grinder), it'll be tonight or Friday before I light her up.

But anyhow, you mean to tell me that you just light your fire at the door end of the box and what, it migrates back to the port because that is where the magic happens?!
I mean, I believe you. It just sounds too easy to be true so I'll be happy to try it. I struggled with J-tube lighting and figured I'd have the same issues with a batch box.

Thomas, another option to cut those logs shorter is to use a chop saw.  Might be safer as well.  Maybe...

Hi Mike;
Using the chop saw means setting up a table and running a cord back there.  
If I was using a gas saw then yeah chop saw would be easier.
The rechargeable saw is just the cats meow. Push button running... let go of button off... SWEET!
I should whip  up a quick sawbuck to set each piece in , that would be safer than using my foot.

Ease of lighting depends to a large degree on what your chimney and whole house setup is like. If you have a natural draft (feel air moving into the feed tube or port before applying heat), it is simple, just put in tinder and kindling and light it. If you do not have a natural draft, you will have to experiment and develop a method that works for you to get a draft going. There are many different ways to do this.

Thomas,  I'm not sure what I'll do with the 2x4s, I just can see burning them out of hand.
I'm a dimensional lumber hound,  to me it's like collecting Lego's .
For my purposes,  four 2x4s , each 48" long,  can become  one 96" 4x4 post.

The 8" rocket in the greenhouse is in part dress rehearsal for other installations.
I like modular, repeatable solutions(Legos!).
I figure I can easily tone things down by half fueling.