My first Rocket

Hi folks and especially Erica I"m excited you're on this week! I am a newbie and am building my first rocket stove! My husband tried first and we got a lot of smoke back - the intake feed was I guess too tall and was acting as a chimney , also his burn tunnel was 4" and heat riser only 3", so I guess the fire preferred the 4" intake to use as a chimney. Lucky this wasn't in the house!
We used all steel pipe, insulated the riser with a fiberglass wrap meant for racecars(his buddy's idea!)
So, learning hopefully from the past, I am planning out my attempt and would love input.
So far - I have a 6" steel well casing 2 feet long I plan to use 1 foot of it as the burn tunnel. I am going to buy a clay flue liner 6 inch round diameter and 2 ft long and a clay fire proof elbow, I'm going to cement these all together with fire clay (I don't think my soil here is clay-ee enough but tell me if there are other options please.) and I have a reclaimed 30 gallon barrel that I am going to clean out and maybe put a fire liner around the lid (like goes around the door of a wood stove?) and that will be my outside burn chamber.

I have not gotten to the mass part yet - and was going to use rigid duct work as my exhaust/base for my mass bench.
Thoughts? and THANKS in advance~!
will post pix if that would be useful - let me know!

Karen Peters ; Too many cooks spoil the broth ! It is o.k. to have multiple cook books from great chefs but not multiple good cooks in your kitchen !

In my own gruff old goat way I am strongly suggesting, goto>rocket stoves.com, to download your PDF Copy $15 of Ianto Evans' great Book 'Rocket Mass Heaters'
with over ~100,000~ rocket mass heaters RMH, built world wide, mostly from ' The Book ' and 95% of all the First builds (that worked) made following ' The Book ',it STILL
contains more Rocket Mass Heater information than any other book in any language !

After you and your husband have a chance to absorb the language, come back here if you have any trouble with keeping a constant cross sectional area, or understanding the
ratio in the heights, widths,lengths and depths ! If there is a RMH in your future we will help you build it! For the craft ! as always, your comments and questions are solicited
and welcome ! Big AL

Hello Big Al! Thanks for caring enough to post - Guess what I did already download the very same book you recommended and both my husband and I have most of it. Since it is not in paper form, reading on the computer is a little slow, but its amazing that my post made you think I had not yet read the book. All I can say is that there is a big new world out there and its going to take awhile to sink in. That's why I posted on this forum, to try to understand more. I guess it would help if I had purchased a paper copy, but I was eager to get started so I downloaded it. My husband is having a hard time understanding the ratios and so on in the diagrams - and he is good at this sort of thing. But we're trying!!!
So, I may not have the perfect language or design yet, but if I did, I wouldn't need to ask for help! Thanks again for caring enough to post - youi're the only one so far!
Karen

OK, right now I don't have the money to buy the DVD set, but I have gone back and printed out the previously mentioned book ("The Book") and reread it in more detail and carefully. I may have not retained every detail, so cut me some slack if my questions seem stupid.
So, two new questions.
1) I have obtained a 30 gallon drum to use as my heat riser barrel. It previously held industrial oil, and is painted inside and out. Do I have to do what would be a huge job of sanding and or pre-burning off all the paint? If I don't, will it be dangerous or release toxic fumes? The barrel is about 14 inches diameter. I also have access to a 10 inch 3/8" steel well casing. I was thinking this might be less toxic and hold some mass itself, although less diameter means less inside area in the barrel. How important is the large barrel? Which material would be better?
2) I priced out a ton of sand at $29 and a 60 pound bag at $3.75. How much do I need, money is important to reduce here.
Any helpful thoughts are appreciated.
Karen

Karen Peters & Permies Cloud : Sand first ! Usually you buy sand by the cubic yard, 27 qu. ft. in a cubic yard, dampish sand ~2700~ pounds~,your quoted price is nether
good or bad,with the cost of trucking, make sure that it is sharp sand and not beach(rounded) sand rub some hair between your fingers up by your ear! when you squeeze
and work the sand in your hand that grity sound should be there and louder! How much sand depends on your clay, the clay which is the binder can be any where between
10 % ( with boughten bags of dry powdered fireclay 60 ) or 30-ish % depending on how good your clay is , google soil sediment test or settlement test, and do a search
here at Permies on how to make test bricks ! then figure your total are of your thermal mass bench as though it would be solid, this extra is enough for your Rocket burner
and a 10% fudge factor, I would hate to call it any closer !

Barrel, part one, Goto>richsoil.com , our sister site, click on rocket mass heaters RMH, and view the whole set,specifically you want the preparing your barrel video,
here you could make a pocket rocket see 'The Book', the wrapping in clay ma`che is required, you are burning the paint off and the gunk out,if possible wrap the outside
with chicken wire to concentrate the mess, ( the ashes can be buried for the mushrooms mycelium to remediate) You will notice that you should have 2-3 feet of flame
coming out of your pipe, this heat energy changes how the zinc coating bonds to the steel stovepipe as it become gray the change has been made and there will be no more
out gassing ! this pipe is ready to be used for the first 5' off your thermal bench !

You need to measure the inside diameter of the Barrel, subtract 4'', 2'' per side, 2Xs 2 and that is the outside diameter of your heat riser ! If you build a 6'' heat riser out of
2'' of clay slip and Perlite your outside diameter is 10'' if you have that by even a small fraction you can use that barrel !

Forget using metal in the combustion chamber or Heat riser Ever, accept as a sacrificial form that will be destroyed by use ! also ceramic or clay tile, they will both slow
down the creation of the freakishly hot gases you want to see and possibly allow some 'smoke back' ! Keep coming back for more, some one will answer !Big AL

Thank you Big Al!~ Alot to absorb - will be studying all you referenced today. Thanks! Karen