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.

thomas rubino wrote:
Shorty is a superior design, with more versatility and lower costs.

Do you explain this comparison in your book? I'm about half way through...

I'm sorry, but there is no mention of Shorty in my book.
Peter was still in the development stage when I published.

thomas rubino wrote:

Shorty is a superior design, with more versatility and lower costs.

Can you say more on this?
It's not more efficient , and you have to buy castable,  so the advantages are not clear to me.
Even the height doesn't seem too amazing, as it's said a batch box can have a riser as low as 3x system size.

Shorty has the same efficiency as a first-generation Batchbox
She has no internal metal parts, so there's no need to buy a Dragontech secondary tube :(, nor any need for expensive RA tubing.
Her unique riser design is significantly shorter than a first-gen, and it keeps the hottest temperatures much lower in the bell, eliminating the need for expensive firebricks as a bell above the riser or as a roof.
She is easily scalable to larger sizes.
The cast slabs can be eliminated with angle-cut firebricks, retained by a tension frame.

The shorter profile, lower heat range, and the lack of specialty metal parts make Shorty the newest bestest dragon in town

From my prospective I see one major benefit over a standard batchbox and that is the Shorty can re loaded without overflueing but I think, like other riser less or short riser cores, you need a very good chimney and a bypass.

Thank you Thomas, you are a great teacher!
Reducing the need for firebricks in the hell is by itself a game changer.
When I read the Airframe thread, I found the construction daunting:(https://permies.com/t/254292/Airframe-Construction-Shorty-Core)

I've had a lot of time to figure out how to build batchbox parts without welding, not so for shorty core parts.
Looking at it again, the cuts are simple, and the frame itself shouldn't ever get very hot, so something like a high temperature silicone could maybe be used to seal the joints.

Anyway thanks again for the explanation!

I suggest cutting the airframe to size and then taking it to a welder to be done properly.
The door and glass on shorty, gets plenty hot, I would never trust a high temp silicon to hold an air frame and door together.

Finding a welder seems as daunting as getting the equipment and learning for myself.
Im certain I could hold an air frame together with mechanical fasteners.
I was only considering the silicon for air sealing, not structural integrity.

With the air flowing through it, how hot does the airframe get?
There could be  a hand full of ways to seal the airframe, depending upon how hot the airframe gets.

Hey William;
Absolutely, where there is a will, there is a way.
You could certainly "MacGyver" the metal together and seal it up with high-temperature silicone.
Temp-wise, I'll guess the metal stays in the 600°F range, but I have never checked.

You can build and run a Shorty (or any Batchbox) with no door at all, if sparks are not a concern.

William Bronson wrote:
Finding a welder seems as daunting as getting the equipment and learning for myself.
Im certain I could hold an air frame together with mechanical fasteners.
I was only considering the silicon for air sealing, not structural integrity.

With the air flowing through it, how hot does the airframe get?
There could be  a hand full of ways to seal the airframe, depending upon how hot the airframe gets.

Hi william
I just measured the frame temperature on my 190 Shorty. This is the hottest spot.

Thanks for even more clarification Thomas, and thank you for your numbers Cedric!

William Bronson wrote:

Im certain I could hold an air frame together with mechanical fasteners.
I was only considering the silicon for air sealing, not structural integrity.

With the air flowing through it, how hot does the airframe get?
There could be  a hand full of ways to seal the airframe, depending upon how hot the airframe gets.

I have been welding 50 years or more, and I think that a tube air door/frame such as the shorty uses, will be a tough task to be somehow mechanically sealed, not saying it couldn't be done.  It sure has potential to move a fair bit, no matter how you do it.

Unless your really in the sticks,  a short notice in facebook markets place, might turn up a handyman welder.  Someone who would take it as a challenge. If this person does a search with in 40 miles, then the two of you are close.  So-   The whole works (metal parts) could be made ( cut ) at home before any welding.  And I would say- should be.  

A sheet of plywood, could be used to form a jig, with border strips on all sides.  after tacking, pulling out of jig and turning over to place back in the jig.  If it don't go back in, something is NOT SQUARE. Best to correct, before any more tacking takes place.  This can easily be done if sheet rock screws are used to hold the jig pieces.

Depending on plans, and if you feel confident on your measurements   I could make and weld for most anyone--"if you say, 6 and 7/8's" wide, and 12 high, that is what it is going to be " I would not be able to tell you what you need, you would have to tell me what you want. ,, just know shipping has really gone crazy.  And with our crazy govt. actions, I no longer ship out of the country.  Having hard enough time within.   My welding time is only late november, Dec and Jan

Best of success.