very basic rocket stove questions

I have Ianto's book and need to find it again.I watched some of the videos I found on the google search.I am pretty visual so there are some  details I didn't see or recall

I will be placing this on the compacted gravel bed of an earthen floor. The floor is not in yet.One video I saw had a concrete base. Is this necessary?Can I lay the fire brick out directly on the compacted gravel and build up from there?

The flue that exits from the heat riser.I am clueless on how this attaches or if it does.can someone please explain this?For whatever reason the diagram doesn't register with me here.

Cleanouts? are these T sections placed in the pipe?How does one make a cover for the openings?

Yes, basic. But I have a cob microcasita already built which I did do on my own and this is the finishing touch.

Thanks for any help

At the workshop, the one we built, went right onto an earthen floor. 

I'll send an email to Erica to see if she might be so kind as to be of more help than I can be.

As for the cleanouts - in the workshop the covers were caps designed for use with that sort of ducting. 

I sent Erica an email and got an auto responder saying that she'll be in canada, teaching a rocket stove class, until the 13th.

paul wheaton wrote:
I sent Erica an email and got an auto responder saying that she'll be in canada, teaching a rocket stove class, until the 13th.

Ah, but I have a 5-hour layover in Buffalo, and a Laptop.  (Well, technically right now I haven't left yet.)

Building right onto a compacted gravel pad works pretty well.  Especially if you are then going to lay an earthen floor, and can therefore sink the burn tunnel a little bit under the floor.  You can get extra height on the heat riser, and still have the top of the barrel at a comfortable height for heating a kettle.

Check out a new slideshow I put up on Picasa for this upcoming workshop.  There are several stove projects in it.  One of them shows a method for insulating underneath the burn tunnel by creating a brick box full of perlite, then laying the brick floor of the burn tunnel on top of that.  This insulation is optional - it tends to keep a little more heat in the system and not the ground.
http://picasaweb.google.com/eritter

There are also a couple of pictures of the junction between barrel (flue gas) and heat-exchange ducting.  We call this the "manifold." 
  There's one in the first step-by-step where we used a metal fitting we found in a scrap pile, and toward the end there's a picture of a dry-fit version of a "brick beehive."  Ianto prefers a deep dropout "ash pit," with a cleanout, and then just let your pipe pick up at the other end.  Basically, create a space that connects the opening at the rim of the barrel, and the opening of your pipe.
  It is the trickiest thing to explain, or to wrap your brain around, but the good news is you create almost any solution and it will work. (DO apply a little common sense - maintain the cross-sectional area of the opening, and leave room for ashes or a user-friendly cleanout.)

Cleanouts - the beauty of using T-joints is that they often come with caps.  You can see these in the slide show too.  You can also improvise almost anything.  The flue gas heat is in the 100-400 degree range, most metal fittings or even a wooden lid will work.  People who like plastering sometimes embed a string "coil" that they can pull to rip out that section of plaster, like a wrapper on a pack of gum. 
  We did ours with capped T-joints, and covered those with a hollow, plastered-in-place tile.  We left a little corner where you can get your fingers in there to pop the tile out, and set it back in.  So there's a nice air gap to keep the surface temperature down, a nice metal fitting to contain the flue gas, and a fun secret panel to show our guests that looks pretty when not in use.  Only down side so far: small children drumming their heels on it while sitting on the edge of the bench.

We've seen cleanouts made of cut-off paint cans (the lid facing outward), but if you get too creative people sometimes get curious and pry them off to see why there is a paint can in your cob bench.  Then when you go to light the stove, you discover the lid is missing and there's smoke in your house. 
So we tend to go with subtle, or screw-on / plaster-on fittings that are harder for visiting monkeys to mess with.

If you know anybody in Toronto / NY / Vermont who wants a wild experience this weekend, send 'em out to Flesherton to join our workshop.  There's still room, and not too many people seem to know about these things out there.  http://www.naturalbuild.ca/rocketstove.html

Thanks,
Erica

thanks for the reply. I will refind Iantos book and couple it with this.I have a lot of other work to do so there is time.I am sure I will have more questions

OK
I checked out the link and I will tell you what I have already done and what I think you are telling me to do.

I have about a foot of 1 inch gravel compacted on the floor.In the area of the bench I put urbanite level with the top of that layer.I dug out some gravel where the J apparatus is going to sit and will place fire brick in that area level with the urbanite/compacted gravel layer.

I will construct a J tube out of brick. I have a small hot water heater I will dissect and use the core of that  for the heat riser with a 6 inch pipe in the interior. Pack around it with the dry pearlite mix.

I have a large commercial quality cooking pot  I think I will turn upside down and cap the riser instead of using the 50 gallon drum.Most of those I have found are rusty and have holes in them.

An ash pit can be made of cob.The flue will be laying ?6 inches away from the drum and i will fashion a chamber of cob/ rock between the pipe and the exit of the manifold.

Sound right? I still have to find Ianto's book but sometimes it helps me to say back to someone what I am thinking about.

If Could I would attend a workshop but i have a lot of animals to care for by myself and cant leave.
thanks for your help

barb

Here is a link to Ianto's book.

Barb, wherabouts are you?

Las Vegas NM about an hour east of Santa Fe

Ernie and Erica are coming up here to do a workshop at the end of July.  And they are currently in eastern canada to teach another workshop.  It seems possible that you might be able to have a workshop at your place ....

excellent idea but i will be done with this by then I assure you. The exchanges have been helpful. I found the diagram I needed from ianto;s book in another post here.SInce i will fire up a mock up before setting anything in cob or stone I will fiddle with the height between the burn tube and the riser to make sure it has adequate draw before going further

thanks for the linnk Paul. I have the book and read it a few times. It is just in a box somewhere right now.

Did you build one?

Are you gonna upload some pics?

I am in the slo mo process of doing that. Will upload pics as I do it/am done.Digging out the irrigation ditch (half mile) shearing 17 alpacas and their daily care and waiting for babies have taken priority. Plus I am dead set on finding my book !!!

I am building in a real tiny space so am still fumbling to search for something smaller than a 50 gallon drum for the heat riser

nizhoni1 wrote:
I am in the slo mo process of doing that. Will upload pics as I do it/am done.Digging out the irrigation ditch (half mile) shearing 17 alpacas and their daily care and waiting for babies have taken priority. Plus I am dead set on finding my book !!!

I am building in a real tiny space so am still fumbling to search for something smaller than a 50 gallon drum for the heat riser

That's a lotta alpaca wool.  Hope everything's going well!

On one project, Ernie called around to local oil-change places, and asked if any of them have "a 20-lb grease can." It took the owner like 12 calls, and then Ernie made the 13th call and got one right away.  They sometimes keep old ones for trash barrels, and might charge you a few bucks but it shouldn't be much. 
  It's a lot smaller than a 55-gal. drum - maybe 15" diameter.  We also used a 35-gallon barrel on our living room stove.  It's about 17.5" diameter.
  You might be able to find one at a scrapyard, but sounds like you've been there already.  Keep an eye out at fairgrounds, too - if you see anybody using small barrels for trash or horse jumps, ask where they got them.

Your cooking pot idea will probably work, too, especially if it's a relatively thick pot.  You can always replace the barrel if you find something better, later.  If you know any local welders, they might be able to do you a capped cylinder of steel in a custom size.  (Or shape!)

There's a video on Youtube of someone doing an all-masonry "Rocket" stove, but it's more properly a miniature masonry stove. 

Yours,
Erica