Hi all; Just an update on my rocket heater. Progress has been slow but steady. After i removed the old
wood burner, I was able to move my cast core in to place and remove it from the form box , it sure looked small compared to the old stove. Then the real work started!!!
COB making is a lot of work ! I had no clue ! Way more sand was needed than i had thought. I found that drying my clay then pounding to a powder worked a lot better than throwing clumps of clay, sand and adding
straw. also I learned that cutting that straw down to 2" is important. After a batch or two I had it down. After I had several inches over the core and it was not cracking anymore, I started looking at my pile of free fire bricks and the cob covering my core... I decided that I would probly be the first person to run my clod hopper clad foot into the side and break a chunk of cob off so ..... I'm sure that to some folks this is a waste of good firebrick when plain red brick would have worked , but its what I had and it was free. I will bring the cob up flush with the bricks. Next comes the all important transition to the horizontal pipes ... more pictures then. tom