Gerry Power

I was looking at 1/2" carbon steel. I think carbon steel has a melt point around 2500F.

Once the tubing goes is the perlite mix going to suffice?

If I use a thick carbon steel tube for my burn tube and riser, will they eventually breakdown/melt?

I would uses a perlite mix as the surrounding insulation. Would I eventually have to rely on that as my riser?

From what I have read to both questions is “yes”. Right?

I was thinking of a small area use for such a stove. If it could work, the thermal mass would envelope the barrel and there would be virtually no horizontal run for the exhaust.

Would I be correct to assume two things:

1] Even with a lower draw, the gases in the riser would still mix and burn the residual gas from the combustion.

2] The temperature, BTU, output would be reduced.

The first point is the primary concern, but the second point might mean that the temps in the riser would not reach the levels needed for complete combustion.

Can a RMH be built with a small 10 gallon [17 inch H, 14 inch D] steel barrel?

How big [small] would the J-tube have to be?

Here in New England everything is a tad soild this time of year. However when I start working on these containers I will document, with pix, what I do.

Unless I hear from folks here that its a bad thing, I will surround the wood I put in the containers with a mix of manure and blood meal.

Rion,

What kind of wood did you start with? How has it been working for you?

This spring I will experiment with Hugelkulture in my containers. They are 20 inches deep and I plan to use vertical fire wood about 8 inches long. I will fill in around the wood with composted manure. The holes at the bottom will be sealed and I will drill drain holes around the sides about 4 - 5 inches high to control moisture. The rest of the container will be filled with last years soil that has been mixed with compost, bokashi, straw, and perlite.

My real question is about the need for nitrogen for the first year or two. Should I consider blood meal or urea in the soil mix I add above the wood?

julian,

That is a good idea. Easy to do, easy to find. I assume it needs to be the wood char to avoid odd chemicals. It goes on my Xmas list!

Living at the coast in New England Lobster meals happen. You always have the head/body section and the shells left to dispose of.

I am wondering if the body, minus the outer shell, could be added to bokashi. Even with the shell off the body has lots of harder structure such as gills and small legs. I thought if I ran it through a food processor before adding it the the bokashi bucket, the final "product" would break down in the soil. What do you think?

As to the shells, would a food processor grind them fine enough so they could be added to the compost pile?