hmm, old barrel stove

Hey folks, I am renting an old farm house. In the shop is an old barrel stove. 55 gallon drum style. The old chimney needs replacing, its rusted but I think the structure of the barrel is good but I am wondering if I should line the bottom with fire bricks? I think that it would extend the life of the barrel so that I can use it until I get a new one either built or purchased. Thoughts?
Kind regards
James

James Barr : Treated right your fire bricks should last a looong time, so just budget for them and add them as you can, in the meantime 4''-6'' of wood ash will serve you about
as well as Fire brick will work, and they will last longer protected by a thin coat of Wood ash. You will want the light weigh ones 28-30 OUNCES rather than the Harder denser
F B weighing 7-8 POUNDS a piece ! Big AL ! late note try very hard to keep your wood stove and stove pipe dry, the wood ash liberates Caustic lye if it gets wet and can destroy
stove pipe and barrels ! Rocket stoves burn so intently that we end up with a mineral ash will only trace amounts of lye A. L.

ok, so these rocket mass heaters, can I make one in a crate kind of thing? I dont want to build one to have to destroy it should I move from here (the plan is to buy it later, but if that plan falls through). Im imagining a long box on a long pallet, to be able to pick it up with a tractor. The heater would consist of the burn box and barrel with the exhaust running inside the box. Maybe sand for the thermal mass and a wood top? Sand would be removable should I have have to load it on a truck and move it.

Thanks for your input.

James Barr : Yes you can ! Find the search button in the permies Toolbox at the top of this page and from the next page enter 'Portable Rocket Mass Heater' in the search field
and do a Google search within Permies > Our 'pCloud' ! there you can read up and join a general discussion !

Actually a bucket of dry sand has lots of air trapped in it, which you can prove to yourself by slowly pouring in water, lots, and lots, and lots of water! All that air is insulating
where a bucket of pea sized gravel will have less air and not be so insulating, more prompt heat , but nowhere near the amount of heat energy storage as Cob ! Bricks laid in
sand or pea gravel works well for a top and gives instant heat 100*F -ish to your backside as soon as you sit down where wood would be insulative !

To understand what your fellow members are talking about, The ratio of Heat riser To Feed tube and Heatriser to Burn tunnel and the need for a constant Cross sectional area,
and agenerally unbreakable requirement to keep it Wholey ! This plus the little bit of knowledge of Brick laying and Cob you need to communicate with your fellow rocketeers can
best be dealt with by going to rocketstoves.com for a PDF Copy $15. of Ianto Evans' Great Work 'Rocket Mass Heaters', with over 100,000 RMHs built world wide
most of them have been made following 'The Book' and over 95% of all the First time Builds (That Worked ) were made following the book!

With that investment in your rockets productive future, you will soon be able to grow to the point where you are the one answering newbe questions in the Rocket Stove forum
threads ! Good luck ! For the good of the Crafts ! Big Al !