Ely, MN RHM build

Well after much wait, and wait, and waiting some more. The time was finally right for my mad scientist friend Tom and I to put Ernie, and Ericas plan into action. We made our ducting a little smaller after deciding the extra piece of bench just wasn't necessary. I'm also throwing in there that we in the back of our minds are hoping to maybe build these for clients once this version is tested through the winter. Keeping this in mind we decided to actually build a box instead of cobbing. Some people look at cobb as being too "hippy". What do you expect when most people just can't do anything else than marketing tells them to do. So, with a truck full of supplies... The mad scientist and I headed north to Ely, MN to begin a 3 day long 12hr day project

The Floor Plan




The Box is built..time for bricks



The Puzzle Pieces...coming together



We Have Ourselves a CORE!



The Mad Scientist, and Insulated Riser



Ernie, and Erica Manifold Option...Tight Tolerances!!



Little Dragon Fired Up, and Drying Out Mass and Cobb.



What!!! We're Out Of Beer, and Have More Gravel to Haul!




It was a loooooooong tiring weekend, and we worked hard, drank lots of beers, and worked some more. We kept cool heads when decisions had to be made, and had fun. Tom is a recent friend whom I met through a 20yr friend. The dude RIPS! and has the eye of the tiger when it comes to getting sh!t done. Especially watching him raise the cabin up an entire inch to make sure it was level! WtheeeeeFah! It's a solid build. We found ourselves stumbling around with a wheel barrow on very rocky ground looking for stones at 11pm at night to finish the mass off. I have some finish work to do, but my RMH is ROCKIN! It's pretty exciting firing one up in your house, and having it perform flawlessly off the bat.


Another Fine Northwoods Sunrise To Enjoy

Hey Don, this looks great! I have a few questions -
What type of insulation is around the riser?
What kind of brick is good to use? I've found this 'k23 straight "greenlite" insulating soft fire-brick' on Craigs List, but I don't know if it's the right type. Looks like it may be for kilns. Do you know if this would work, or if not, what should I be looking for?
What is on the bottom of the barrel, holding it up? Sheet metal? It looks like a nice tight cut to fit the burn chamber.
What did you use to seal the brick where it meets the barrel base?

Congrats on a great job. Must be gratifying!
Please post more pics if you have 'em...

Lisa

What type of insulation is around the riser?

The insulation is "Roxul". Ernie gives it a good endorsement. It's much quicker than perlite.

What kind of brick is good to use? Look for brick that's rated for 2200 F. I have a Firebrick place here in Minneapolis, MN. All the bricks I bought were new.
The riser are "half" bricks

What is on the bottom of the barrel, holding it up? Sheet metal? It looks like a nice tight cut to fit the burn chamber.

That is another barrel cut to fit into place. It's the newer design that Ernie and Erica have came up with, and the design they recommended to us. It can be a pain in the ass to get the barrels to fit together. Otherwise go with the method described in Ianto's book.

What did you use to seal the brick where it meets the barrel base? That's Cob. I'll be cobbing in a bunch of local ledge rock into the base. What you see here is an unfinished aesthetic thermal mass, but the functionality of it is there.

Thanks for taking the time to reply; all very helpful info!
The firebrick I found is new also, and it will work.
Hope your build works well this winter, it looks like it will rock.
Looking forward to seeing the finished product, if you find time to post the pics.