compact 6" RMH hybrid with cook top and dutch oven

I've seen that mason rocket on youtube before. I love it. Its compact and there is a huge mass in the stove itself, like mine, but I could never afford all those bricks lol.

Brrrr! Well good morning to you too, mother nature! She's a frosty one, last night the low was -22 C but I woke up to -24 C around 8am here in Ontario Canada

John McDoodle wrote:I've seen that mason rocket on youtube before. I love it. Its compact and there is a huge mass in the stove itself, like mine, but I could never afford all those bricks lol.

Well, you can do it with cob. Adobe bricks might do too. There, a barrel covered with a fair bit of mud can well do too. You would need more mass afterwards. But it could still have an intresting flywheel.

While my lid/cook-top has been at the welder's, I had found this to be useful. Fits like a glove! That's why I'm having the outer ring part from one of these lids welded to my cook-top, it fits and centers nicely, and houses my gasket stove almost perfectly.

I didn't get the long-burn in today as I wanted to, I did not do any burning at all today because I was busy making a trial PELLET FEEDER! Yep, I made a trial piece that drops in my feed tube and allows the use of wood/bio/grass pellets! I'm super excited to do my long burn now . I think with this thin temporary lid, and pellets, I will have a nice long experimental burn, so I can't wait to fire it up again, hopefully tomorrow!

I just found this guy from NB, which is also eastern canada.

I don't know what goes on INside of his stove, but he got 100 degrees more and bigger flame using pellets, and 200 degrees more than wood when using hard-wood pellets

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1RjYyyEnMGo#

Awesome stuff he's workin on there

Well she's been burning on pellets for the last hour. I'm making some adjustments and learning the trial pellet feeder, but I've seen some blue more than once.

good to see you are still at it buddy. i hope this works out for ya. hows the metal holding up? i got a quick question... do you have a local brick and mortar, brick and mortar store? if you do, how much do they sell fire bricks and fire clay for? did you see the recent post of a guy using cat liter in place of fire clay? i have no idea how its holding up to the high temps inside and may be worth looking into if you can not get fireclay locally for cheap and his cat litter holds up?

Photo at 3hrs from lighting pellets. My feeder works, but I want to improve it, and/or try one like this design which has already been tried and tested and tweaked

1: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M_p1z4Fcf0Q#
2: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fUUz9doQ85g#
3: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=99UCVSl9nKA#

This burner idea in these links was designed based on a RC plane jet engine, designed by T2H, built by Rom (the guy from NB here in eastern canada) and it produces great numbers.

I will build one of these more advanced jet pellet burners later when I have time.

Fstyles:

I have a photo here somewhere of my firebricks I bought. They were about 5 dollars each! Not cheap by my standards lol.

Yeah I've heard of clay cat litter, and seen it used before. I do read a lot of other people's experiences and innovations. If it weren't for me reading about all these other guys and this stuff in general I wouldn't be here sharing mine. so far I'm learning and having fun, not winning any awards or anything lol. If I built the 2016EMBER2.0 6" burn chamber as I showed in my design drawings before, it would cost me about 20.oo to line the burn chamber alone. That's 4 bricks.

I get the feeling that this firebrick and cat litter suggestion has some purpose or meaning? Lol.

Also I'm finally considering smashing the concrete from my riser, as you suggested. My mass seems very large already, and I didn't use enough perlite on the top because I ran out, but yeah I'm still playing with this thing in my free time, absolutely. After today's long-burn, this stove should have a total of about 18 hours burn time.

Since you asked about how my steel is holding up, I should let everyone know that after 18 hours thus far, my steel is still in great condition, and its still out there burning away in the shop as we "speak"

Still needs many hours more testing and tweaking but it works, just don't try to cook on it, because I'm not producing the heat yet.

I intend to get much more heat outta this thing yet. Re-casting or re-desinging my riser, and building the new jet burner for my pellets should get me to where I wanna be, which is #1:food cooking temps on the external surfaces, at least 350-400. #2 smokless or more efficient, hotter burn. That's all I want fron this prototype. One tweak at a time. I still plan on building the 2016EMBER2.0, when I learn more from this one.

Yeah I tried getting fire-clay when I bought my fireplace mortar, but the said they didn't have it. However our land has natural clay here somewhere. I remember digging something or building the logging trail here in the last few years, and we hit tons of it. Its very red and sticky compared to the rest, alot the rock and rich earth here too

Fstyles:
Are you implying that I use cat litter and/or firebricks for something?

Photos of cracking-open and removing the cast custom concrete from the riser. Its much lighter and stronger than I thought it would be. You can see the perlite in it, but its clearly not 40%, some people use 80% perlite. I used 40% in the lower mass, and think that part should be fine for me to continue experimenting

More photos of me romoving the problematic custom casting from riser

i am not necessarily suggesting cat litter but only pointing to someone that is using it. if that person that is using it works out then maybe you may review it but just showed you so you can follow it. if his cat liter works and you are unable to dig up ground clay because of the cold then cat liter may be a solution? right? did you see my new thread "how fast can you start your rocket stove"

i was hoping you would have removed this concrete a while back and then wrap the outside with the refractory slurry... slurry, not peanut butter and jelly

if i had limited insulation resources i would wrap the metal heat riser with chicken wire and then mix clay (cat liter if it works) and saw dust. make a bunch of it and slip the next size higher duct size and i think that would be 8" to 10" over around the metal riser and fill the gap between the heat riser and duct with the clay and sawdust. then i would wrap the out side of that with standard pink insulation and then another duct and layer the top with clay to make it smooth. thats just my opinion and suggestion at this point with the known resources i think you could obtain and that should give you an awesome stove and would stand after your metal breaks apart.

where you will start to see the most damage to your stove will be at the 90 degree bend in the heat riser going up so make sure you have the most protection there with the most wire, clay/sawdust mix. im not telling you to do this but only mentioning what i would do if i had what you had.

i hope to see yo get something and show everyone you can save this dead horse... i believe in this and think it can be salvaged with those suggestions... and phewy to those that tell you to move on.

Thanks FStyles
Man I'm so happy after removing that cast from the riser and modifying my pelllet feeder, today I got phenomenal heat outta this thing. The most heat, hands down the hottest I've ever had this stove. I made some videos but the one today is like a forge going on.

what does that say?

Well this j-tube/stove has over 25 hours burn time in now, still burning as we speak, and I'm back to a hot smokless burn again. That's good news for me and my efforts, and my time and money invested so far. A bit of relief

I've got HD video from today and some HD photos from the entire build and development on my other action cam. I use my blackberry for most of this. I just gotta figure out how to put some of these videos up if anyone is interested. I will put them up regardless, as soon as I figure out how lol. I'm an old school guy but I do have a youTube channel, its been a few years since I've posted videos on there so I need to remember how to sign in and such...

My videos will require a pre-warning like an adult movie rating "R" , like an explict music album or video game. This is because I sometimes swear a lot, just having fun and goofin around, and today's video is no exception lol.

Maybe I will get it figured out tonight, who knows, stay tuned

Well here is one earlier video from today, it took 45 mins to upload a short HD video! Wholy.

WARNING! Mind a curse word now and then, this video is not bad, but be fore-warned now rather than offended later. Its all fun and simple show and tell, explainations, and purely MY personal experiences and opinions.

Episode #2 is out already! You don't even have to wait until next week to watch it lol

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IKOC2LQhvGk#

Well, find another tube, about as big as was your cast. May be a smidge less. And fit that with insulation between the two tubes. Then you will see an increase of performance again. Not as big as the previous one tho. As the hot gases going down in the "barrel" already act as insulation. For that second tube, you can even use sheet metal too, forming it by hand into a tube, holding it with rivets or wire.

Thanks for the help, suggestions and encouragement, I will figure out something hopefully.

I got a new battery for the laser temperature gun and I want to read my surface temps soon so I can figure out where I'm at for heat and such.

I think the pellet mod is very cool, so far I've burned for probly 6-8 hour on pellets alone, and I haven't even used a 1/4 of the bag of pellets yet. Average sized bag I think. So that's good economy

Fstyles:
The 90 degree bend between the burn chamber and riser is below the original line of concrete and perlite, there is lots of perlite in that orginal mix down in the bottom of the stove. I think the mix below will protect that part, and since it below the line of my "diy firebrick mix" I won't be able to wrap anything down quite that low. Most of my riser is above the mix, but the burn chamber and the riser intersection are buried a few inches in the internal firebrick mass there already.


More to come

i hate to tell you this but after the metal burns apart at that 90 degree it will turn the portland and perlite to powder and it will eventually eat it out like cancer if you can not get something to protect it at that hottest point. i did mention using a duct around your heat riser a while back and filling it with fiberglass insulation... it will sinter a bit and will only last until the metal breaks up. i feel that clay/sawdust is your cheapest and best option for available resources outside a layer of refractory cement on the outside of the riser. lets see an ember 1 revival!

Lol

Oh boy! Oh boyz, check these exciting treasures out I discovered today!

Also I let er burn last night, and this morning I found the top half of my 100LB LP tank had all the paint burnt completely off in the shop. That's a good thing. Maybe soon I can paint er with proper hi-temp paint

Hold on to your pants boys! I got more to come for all you watchers out there

Some more photos of development.

that 3'' nickel is an awesome find! have you thought about this idea i have to design and build the first double barrel 3'' rocket stove design no matter what the pundits say and im sure you will here the "CSA" pundits flocking the moment i post this idea? i say if its all that you have you work with what you got no matter what the experience thats all you can do is work with what you can use and afford. sounds kinda cool listen to how that sounds! 3'' double barrel pellet rocket

double feed, double intake, double burn tunnel, double heat riser all made of high temp nickel woohoo!! i cant wait to see more of what you decide!

I've heard of the double barrel concept, but I would have to see your particular personal design.

The 3" is only for the new horizontal fuel nozzle, a more slightly advanced pellet burner to fit inside my burn chamber. I also have 4" and I might build a larger 4" burner to play with. Secondary air passes by the square coreners, hopefully. I tested secondary air with my original pellet feeder, and it burned slightly faster and hotter.

Personally, I'm excited about this stainless insulated transport stack I found! You have no idea how excited I was when I realized it was 5" stainless and insulated. Perfect sub-compact riser for another project, perhaps my 2.0 model?

or maybe insert a section of the nickel inside your current system to protect it with the higher temp nickel? the air gap with the smaller pipe inside the larger pipe will provide a bit of insulation.

Yeah I think the hi-temp exhaust pipes will help there for sure,

the new burner will be about 2/3 - 3/4 of the length of the burn chamber, the rest should be incased in my mass mix deeper in, so yeah it should keep my steel safer for sure.

Today I got 290 F, 2" above my riser, the sweet spot, where my lid sits, that's like 550 C, broiling oven temps right? That's more than I was expecting.

I got no smoke and food cooking temps today. This is exactly what I wanted.

Today's select photos

John McDoodle wrote:Today I got 290 F, 2" above my riser, the sweet spot, where my lid sits, that's like 550 C, broiling oven temps right?

Maybe it's the other way around? 290 F equals 143 C, not 550 C. I think you mean 290 C, which equals 554 F. According to this temperature converter.

brother, just remember all stainless steel is not the same check the low end stainless operating temps post i made a while back. i hope you dont get any hotter if you want your steel last. i could almost forge mild steel on my heat riser and i had to cut an inch off my riser because it was causing my lid to turn bright red and sag.

Stainless will take the heat better than steel I guess, and this liner could be easily replaced anytime if need be, so it would be like a vaccuum filter in the aspect that you can change it whenever you need to, if ever at all.

The video someone shared from bigelow farms, that guy has some stainless parts that have over 200 hours burn time.

I'm not worried too much but I'm just doing this for the longevity of my steel, just incase, and to experiment with "insulative air gaps" and liners

Everyday I seem to make some progress, and I will be making my new pellet burner soon, so stay tuned for more

Thanks peter for the clarification. I couldn't figure out how to switch the laser temperature gun to celcius, but later on I aimed it at the pellet burner, and it was reading 608 degrees F then my gun maxed out, so I guess my laser gun only goes to 608-609 F... ? Anyway I had at least 608 in the burn chamber, on the surface of the original pellet feeder, and I didn't have time to really warm the stove up today, that was just a quick test about 15 mins from lighting.

This weekend I will have time to build my jet style hi-nickle pellet burner, and make a trial stainless liner from this stuff I got here today. See if I can melt the trial liner lol.

Cheers

John McDoodle wrote:Stainless will take the heat better than steel I guess, and this liner could be easily replaced anytime if need be, so it would be like a vaccuum filter in the aspect that you can change it whenever you need to, if ever at all.

The video someone shared from bigelow farms, that guy has some stainless parts that have over 200 hours burn time.

I'm not worried too much but I'm just doing this for the longevity of my steel, just incase, and to experiment with "insulative air gaps" and liners

Everyday I seem to make some progress, and I will be making my new pellet burner soon, so stay tuned for more

Not a bad idea there, stainless steel liner in another metal tube. Your protecting the structural steel from the stream of corosive gases, with a material which can whistand thoses gases and temps longer. Providing you can change the liner completely, every now and then. Even better adapted to a two piece construction, cast or firebrick burn tunnel, and insulated steel heat riser. May be this could work.

Well, again, this video is also from Bigelow brooks farm.

- This video is also from Bigelow Farms Bigelowbrook.com showing the complete failure of a section of stainless shell used as an interior liner for a Heat Riser .

// See Link Below :


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RyvsZD1_CU&list=PLtIuZ9K-UzcNnCmoKicRLzYQndplSkUuR&index=11

Rob T. Reports that it had~1000 Hours~ of burn time before failure! This is in a Large Greenhouse with Aqua-ponics so we are probably talking little more

than a single heating season ! Rob must be satisfied with his research on metal in the Combustion core, he has since rebuilt with Fire brick and should have

at least as much time on it !


Someone needs to ask Rob T. for an update, he occasionally posts here at Permies.com ! Big AL

Thanks Satamax, I agree, I'm think I can make this stove work for long term, if need be. I know it works, and I have more heat to make yet, I just want it to last also.

I believe that's the first same video that Paul Wheaton shared, that's how I learned about bigelow farms using stainless steel, and I learned that he had over 200 hours burn time on some of his stainless parts, and they were in great condition, compared to the regular steel

HELP?
Can anyone tell me what kind of insulation/fireboard/firebrick is being used here?




Since I'm learning that other people have had steel degrade consistantly, I will use titanium in my riser if this new pellet jet burner makes a lot of heat. I made some progress on the jet-style pellet burner today.

I really want to know what kind of thin firebrick/fireboard this is if anyone can help please?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vMMO65b8y6k#

Cheers

John McDoodle wrote:HELP?
Can anyone tell me what kind of insulation/fireboard/firebrick is being used here?

https://youtube.com/watch?v=vMMO65b8y6k#


Since I'm learning that other people have had steel degrade consistantly, I will use titanium in my riser if this new pellet jet burner makes a lot of heat. I made some progress on the jet-style pellet burner today.

I really want to know what kind of thin firebrick/fireboard this is if anyone can help please?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vMMO65b8y6k#

Cheers

brother its IFB and can be bought here

Are those different than the ones I have on page 3 of this thread? I bought 3 of them, 2 are dense and heavy, from one store, 1 is lighter, from a different store, but all 3 seem hard/stiff, rather than soft or cut-able...

Byron mentioned in my "insulation help!" thread that the insulation in that video looks comparable to "ceramic fiber board". And I agree, it does look like some kind of fiber board, because I see the lower right corner looks like the fibers/layers are spread/split a little...

:/