new here with some moderate EXP.

Old army, biker, mechanic, trucker,  prospector (gold), crappy welder fussy with the milling machine and 72 year old lathe, old tools up the hoop, cheap but thrifty, yard full of junk metal
I'm 3 months older than the lathe but it's in better shape but I'm working on it.

I have a question on casting a batchbox rocket lower and riser combinations made with crushed fire brick sand and refractory mortar, I also have a jaw crusher for prospecting for gold extraction from rocks. So the fire brick pot liners I have more than 30 of would be easy to convert to fire brick sand for free except for my sweat equity.

I do like the glowstove 2 design batch box, with full ceramic batch box and riser but 900 lbs is a bit excessive in my mind.  But you can't deny the full use of fuel to all but micro fly ash and 12-14 hundred F.  
Another is the liberator 2 with ceramic fire chamber and riser and UL ratings for home use and mass heater use.  And a larger than I want to pay price tag (Did I say Cheap, yes)

Welcome,  Joe! This sounds like a call for Thomas is in order!

Hi Joe, Welcome to Permies.

Casting makes sense, especially if you're planning on building more than one core. But the time in making forms, and dealing with a homebrew mix of refractory to get it just right, and procuring or building a vibrating-platform to settle the mix into the forms, is for most folks a great deal more time consuming than say, just picking up a couple of boxes of insulating fire brick (i.e. IFB, ~2300° F) and building an all brick batch box with heat riser.

An example of Peter van den Berg's "batchbox" in brick is attached below, a 6-inch system-size constructed from fire brick. I built mine with standard (dense) fire brick for the firebox, and IFB for the heat riser. Makes for a very rugged trouble free stove that takes a beating and keeps on going for years and years.

But it depends on what you're after, as to what you build, and what you're intending on heating -- shop, out-building, living quarters, etc.

Byron Campbell wrote:Hi Joe, Welcome to Permies.

Casting makes sense, especially if you're planning on building more than one core. But the time in making forms, and dealing with a homebrew mix of refractory to get it just right, and procuring or building a vibrating-platform to settle the mix into the forms, is for most folks a great deal more time consuming than say, just picking up a couple of boxes of insulating fire brick (i.e. IFB, ~2300° F) and building an all brick batch box with heat riser.

An example of Peter van den Berg's "batchbox" in brick is attached below, a 6-inch system-size constructed from fire brick. I built mine with standard (dense) fire brick for the firebox, and IFB for the heat riser. Makes for a very rugged trouble free stove that takes a beating and keeps on going for years and years.

But it depends on what you're after, as to what you build, and what you're intending on heating -- shop, out-building, living quarters, etc.

I'm very interested in the performance of the glow stoves ultra high heat retention in a cast batchbox to a cast riser with 2 inch refractory surround crushed fire brick sand or  volcanic rock crushed and mixed with high heat refractory mix for heat retention and the 100% use of my wood or as close as possible, think glow batchbox riser one piece, casting would be the best way and one off could change very quickly to open source plans, eventually for use in house with approval of local inspectors and insurance requirements.  END GOAL