Nick Sellick

You are absolutely right, Andrew, On the first serious firing the plate bent up and then went back down as it cooled. I am taking it to get some extra bits welded on to strengthen it.
I made the area under the left hand side of the plate wider and shallower and made the burn chamber and heat riser slightly smaller.
So far all is standing up to the heat. I have bought some fire cement to firm things up if they start to wobble.
I am really chuffed with it. It burns so cleanly, virtually no smoke at all after a few minutes.
All I need to know now is how to regulate the hot plate temperature so that I don't cremate everything.
In the UK the blocks are made by Celcon, Thermalite and Durox. try the websites.
Cheers
Nick

Pictures as promised.

I most certainly did. After a couple of test firings and tweaks, I cooked on it for the first time last night. Brilliant. Only problem appears to be the "plancha" is not thick enough so needs beefing up a bit to stop warping.
It will taek a few goes before the plate is seasoned, but it's all looking good.
I will post some pictures when I get home tonight.
Thanks for your interest.
Cheers
Nick

Hi Roger,
Don't apologise, I'm loving all this interest in my humble project.
I haven't tried it without a chimney, but I am particulalry keen to get any smoke that I do produce up and out of the way. Given the pictures that you have seen, how would you suggest I change to a J tuibe. You are absolutely right, it is a hassle feeding fuel in.
I guess that I would also need to change the fuel/air feed tube in some way.
I get the fact that the more hot air that touches the undersidde of my hotplate the better. Can I slow it down more with baffles or something without affecting the airflow?
Thanks again.
Nick

Andrew, Sorry, I'm probably being a bit dim here, but what do you mean by the 1" gap for the flu gases?
If it ever stops raining here I am going to make the whole thing smaller and see what happens. I can always make it bigger again if it's no good.

Hi Guys,
Thanks for all your input. I'll try and clarify what I have built and answer various questions at the same time. For the last few years I have been cooking outside over an open fire with a grill over the top of it. Whilst this is great fun, the food tends to be a bit charred, there is too much smoke and you get through loads of wood.
I wanted to use wood as my fuel, not charcoal, reduce smoke as much as possible, have more control and enjoy building my project.
initially I thought of a lo trau, but I don't have access to a suitable fuel.
When I read about rocket stoves, RMH, lorena stoves, etc, I thought I could probably combine a bit of all these beasts and end up with something approaching what I want.
My stove is built from standard 100mm thermalite block, this is an insulation block that we use in the UK. The cross section of the feed tube is 10" x 7" split between fuel and air at 5" so the fuel area is 10" x 5" and the air 10" x 2". the fuel/air tube is 15 1/2" to the start of the burn chamber. The burn chamber and heat riser is 7 1/2" x 9 1/2" in cross section. from the bottem to the top of the fuel/air tube 7" and then the heat rise is a further 15" giving an overall height of the burn tube/heat riser of 22". The cross section of the area under the second hot plate is 5" x 6" and a total of 34" long. I can easily make cross sections smaller if it will improve things, I'm not quite sure about all the technical stuff. I sort of assumed that if it was slightly larger it would be bigger and hotter. This seems not necessarily to be the case. Much of my dimensions were dictated by available materials,
I have attached some more pictures so you can see more deatil. I have removed the hot plates as I am hoping to get a purpose made griddle or plancha to fit the top.
Pic 1 is looking along under where the hotplates would be if I hadn't removed them.
Pic 2 is looking into the feed/air tube.
Pic 3 is looking down from where the first hotplate would be looking down the heat riser into the burn chamber.
The chimney is about 6' tall and 5" in diameter.
As always I am grateful for our comments and suggestions. Putting it basically if i cut down the cs of the whole unit to that of the channel running under the hot plate, ie 5" x 6", would I improve my stove?
Cheers
Nick

Hi All,
I have finally got around to a test burn on my rocket stove. Pretty pleased, good flame, not too much smoke. I did get a bit of flame and smoke blowing back out of the fuel/draught opening. Would this be because the chimney is too low, about 2.2m, or is the fuel/draught hole too short?
Does the principle of the rocket stove mean that as everything gets hotter it works more efficiently?
I have attached a picture. Once I have finalised the design I will "pretty" it up.
Any comments, suggestions really welcome.

Hi All
Are there some basic starting points for a J Stove? I have been reading as much as I can, but still don't seem to know a fat lot.
I am building what I think will be a J stove, in that the fuel hopper has built up sides, rather than being fed in horizontally. Is that correct?
I am using the bricks from inside a storage heater to form the stove itself and then insulating around them. The cross section will be square rather than round, does that matter?
Is there a ratio of cross section to height of burn tube, fuel inlet length, etc, etc?
Thanks again for any help and advice.
Cheers
Nick

Hi All,
I have pretty much decided what I am going to build, but have a few final questions. If anyone can help, I'd be really grateful.
I am hoping to construct a rocket stove heating two hot plates, one dire3ctly over the heat, the other on the left and thus slightly cooler. Both plates will be sealed and the exhaust will then travel up a chimney and away.
I am thinking of building a thermal block stove and insulating with sand. Then building in brick around it to finish off, support hot plates, chimney, etc.
I was going to use stainless steel flue fittings for the sctual stove, combustion chamber, etc, but it is really expensive, so I thought I would try and build it from thermal bricks. My questions are:
1. Is there an ideal length of pipe where you put the fuel/ air intake, before it reaches the elbow?
2. Also is there an ideal length between burning chamber and hot plate?
3. Is the diameter of the tube important? I would like to do one of about nine inches.
4. Is the inside of the tube better smooth or rough. I can sand the bricks I'm using so they are really smooth if necessary.
5. Any other comments and suggestions extremely welcome.
Thanks
nick

Hi All,
I am wondering if the oven is a little adventurous, I love the idea of an oven, but wonder if I would use it much. I think what I should aim at for this project is two hotplates fed by one fire.I think I could then add a separate oven at a later date fed by it's own fire I have looked at brick as an option, as I am in the UK and cob, clay, etc is fairly scarce.
Everytime I start looking I find something different, it's great.
As before all help, suggestions and ideas gratefully received.
Cheers
Nick