Rocket Stove's

G'day,   I'm hoping to findout how to find some clay for my new rocket mass heater I'd like to Build for my shed.. the heating space is that of 10m x 8m or about 33ft by 30ft what size stove should it be is there somebody who might beable to guide me in the areas I need. Thanks for your time with this matter.

please can you give me complete knowledge about this Rocket Stove's....

Did you ever have any luck in getting a reply

I bought clay at the local art supply place. Probably not the cheapest solution but if you go and find out who their supplier is, you might be able to get a larger quantity for a more sensible price.

Otherwise make friends with someone who has heavy clay soils and get to digging!

We had a property in Queensland, between Brisbane and Towomba, part of Laidley Shire the area is called Brightvieu on Redwood dr. The earth was as clay as you would want. If you're close to that area, Larry's yer uncle. There is also good clay in Goonellabah, NSW.

I am moving this to the wood stove forum

what part of Australia are you in? I would say look around ponds and lakes. the lee side of islands is a good place as is the lee side of hills. the clay for a rocket stove is not all that special so any clay with the right amount of sand and straw will do. Clay tests are get the dirt wet and work it a little if its getting stickier as you work it its probably clay. Take another sample and put it in a mason jar fill to one inch from the top with water and add a drop of dish soap. shake it up and let sit for a while. you might want to observe how fast the layers of various things settle out. generally it will be gravel, sand, loam, organics (if they sink) clay. the band of clay is the important thing if you put 4 inches of dirt in the jar and you have a clay layer of one inch and a sand and gravel layer of three inches you have what we call ready mix. generally sand to clay will be 3 to 1 for a good cob mix.

if you have to little sand add sand if to little clay add clay. the organics should be removed if you can but a little wont hurt. after the cob is mixed add straw till it is well mixed in then build. if you are doing the core of the stove/bench Erica and I like to do what we call thermal cob. its just a good cob mix without straw. I would suggest you do test bricks to see if the mix is right the bricks should be about 1 inch thick by 2 inches wide by 4 inches long. dry the test bricks in the sun or if you have no sun and heat you can dry them in the oven. the batch of cob you want is the one that cracks the least. very small cracks are ok but the fewer the better. Try for a batch that will not crack at all. when you have a good batch mix all the rest of the batches to that set of proportions.

Reginald Morgandorfer wrote:I bought clay at the local art supply place. Probably not the cheapest solution but if you go and find out who their supplier is, you might be able to get a larger quantity for a more sensible price.

Otherwise make friends with someone who has heavy clay soils and get to digging!

Sand, silt, and clay make up up to 80 percent of ALL soil on earth. In places like Texas Clay makes up over half and up to 90% of some soils in many areas. Paying for clay seems ludicrous to me since it clearly makes up a huge percentage of the earth we have all around us. Here is a video about how to extract clay from earth.
http://www.ehow.com/video_4946364_using-natural-clay-pottery.html
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