Moving Old Friends again, & again, and again

So you want to build a masonry stove...
I suggest eating your Wheaties before you begin, you are in for a workout!

A few weeks after completing the Shorty core last October.
Much to Liz's surprise, I started buying more clay bricks and bringing them home... fifty bricks at a time.
One year and 940 clay bricks later, I had enough on hand to start building the new Dragon in the art studio.
At the same time, approximately 200 firebricks also arrived.

These bricks are like old friends; I moved them from the store to the cart, then from the cart to the Subaru.
Then from the Subi to an out-of-the-way pile.
And now I am moving them to a staging area outside the art studio, seven bricks at a time, in my trusty oilcloth firewood carrier.
@ 5lbs a brick, each carry is another35lbs, there are a lot of seven-brick loads in 940 bricks.

At the staging area, I will have a soaking tub and my brick guillotine.
The sliding compound saw with a diamond blade will be nearby for custom cuts.
I'll also have a mortar mixing table set up.

When laying bricks, it is helpful to have a competent person supplying all the necessary materials.
Known as a hod carrier, their job is to keep the mason concentrating on laying bricks straight, level, and square.
Soaked bricks, cut to size. Mortar mixed and steadily supplied, a hot water hand-wash bucket kept filled.
The job of hod carrying is every bit as important as the job of a bricklayer.

I am lucky to have Canadian Rocket Scientist Gerry coming down to assist with the upcoming build.
With the two of us working on it, I expect to have this completed within ten days.

Takes a lot of 'friends' to keep you warm all winter long  but each one will pull its weight in gold when its below 0.

Yes, nothing like having a thousand friends just hanging out in the living room on a cold winter night to keep the place warm..
I expect the finish weight of Studio Dragon to be between #6000 and #7000.
That is a whole lot of friends, keeping us toasty warm, and a whole lot less wood that will get consumed.

Before building my first Studio Dragon, Liz's studio had a huge conventional wood burner.
That first winter, I estimate we burned over 12 cords to keep it above freezing overnight.
The second winter was slightly better @ 10 cord, but still unacceptable.

And then in 2013, I discovered Rocket Mass Heaters and Permies!
It was Love with the first build!  That J-Tube reduced our wood consumption to less than five cords!  With no fire all night long!
How cool is that!

The new Dragon will be a 6" first-generation Batchbox sitting inside a double skin bell.
I hope to see the wood usage plummet this winter, perhaps down to 2.5 cords.  Come spring, we will see how full the woodshed remains.

Hi Tom, is there a reason to choose a 1st gen batch box over another shorty core?

There are several reasons.
However, the main reason is that I have a fully functional first-generation model sitting there, ready to install.
Next is the extra labor during an already busy summer.
I removed the entire old piped mass, and I relocated the chimney.
Gerry and I are about to build a double skin bell.
My brain says enough is enough, and by the time the new build is finished, my body will agree.

To build a new Shorty, I would need to purchase castable. (mail order & expensive)
Shorty is not as powerful as a first-gen (Peter reduced her ISA numbers by 10%.)
To compensate, I would want to increase to an 8" version, requiring new forms for the slabs, and more labor.
I can always swap out cores in a few years, when... if... I ran out of new projects. Ha Ha Ha (fat chance)

Shorty is a superior design, with more versatility and lower costs.
In this case, it is just expedient to stick with what I already have built.