RMH Batch Boxes

Greetings,

Recently I've been doing some remodeling and in doing so disassembled a cast iron woodstove that I haven't used in 10 years.  The stove is a rectangular shape of assembled cast iron panels, they're bolted together and have tongue & groove channels filled with fire-mortar.  The stove has a double front door for loading and has some glass panels, but the face holding the door is the largest panel of all panels.  I also have a side panel with a door that is used for side loading the wood.  I was thinking of using one of these panels/ door assemblies as a RMH batch box door.  The side panel is attractive because of it's slim profile, but does not have any glass in the door.

Attached are some pics of the cast iron panels that hold the cast iron doors with some tape measures to show approximate dimensions.

I've been told the door can be larger than the batch box opening, so that shouldn't be a problem.  I'm wondering if anybody else has recycled woodstove doors for batch box doors?  I also welcome the discussion and ideas that stem from topics like this, I enjoy reading the thoughts and experiences of others in this forum.

Thanks,
Dan

Are you able to add hinges?

That opening reminded me of this thread:

https://permies.com/t/71575/Casserole-Door-innovative-door-batch

I hope you will get an answer to your question.

Hi Dan;
The frames look like they could work.
Show us pictures of the door that fits those frames.
It appears the backing plate has air intakes.
The door in front of the box opening needs to have the intake.

The air intake size on that door has to be large enough.
Most cast iron box stove doors have too small an opening for supplying a batch box.

thomas rubino wrote:Hi Dan;

It appears the backing plate has air intakes.
The door in front of the box opening needs to have the intake.

The air intake size on that door has to be large enough.
Most cast iron box stove doors have too small an opening for supplying a batch box.

And the beauty of the forum data,  is ALL of the primary air opening sizes have been calculated for you, based on system size  i.e. 5" is 2 x 2", 6" is 2.5" squared, 7" 2.75" squared and so on.

I've added a couple pictures of the doors with the frames.  They are on hinges, but the air openings are inadequate.

The stove had a burn box inside with an air jacket all the way around, hence the rectangular holes at the top and bottom corners of the wider panel with the double doors.  Below the double doors is a separate door for the ash tray.  Otherwise there are no openings intended to feed air to the fire in this panel.

The side panel has several holes for different tools that were attached to axles that extend through the openings.  Below the door are two holes for ash agitators that help drop the ash below the floor of the burn box into a tray.  The larger hole above the door is for a secondary air inlet that fed tubes below a catalyst honeycomb.  The small hole above the door operated a bypass damper, after starting a fire and getting it up to temp the damper can be switched to exhaust through the catalyst for a cleaner burn, in theory.  

I'd prefer to use a secondary air tube that runs on the floor of the batch box.  I wouldn't try to cut a new air hole in the cast iron, but rather try to weld an extension to the air feed tube that brings the fresh air opening to the side of the batch box.  So far I haven't read anything that indicates a limit on length of fresh air feed tube, just about the material type of the secondary air riser tube itself and how using regular carbon steel is inadequate.