Donovan Atwood

Adrien Lapointe wrote:Much smoke coming out of the exhaust?

At first, yes. But then once the tape all burned off and everything stopped smoking there was no "visible" smoke coming from the exhaust. If I put my hand over it, there was plenty coming though. Had the thermometer saying it was 275*F. I ran my hand around all the joints and could not find anywhere to which the gas was escaping.

Im going to also try and burying the bottom of the combustion chamber in dirt so only the feed tube and the combustion chamber are seen. I will also insulate the heat riser on the combustion chamber with either a 4" or 5" tube lined with dirt. Not sure which will work best so Ill start with 4" and see what happens.

Unfortunately not yet. I built it about 7:00 tonight. Fired it at 7:30 and roasted it till 8. Pictures are coming tomorrow when there is day light and its easier to see what I did.

On the plus side even with no insulation at all, as in just the metal ducting, I was still able to hit 417*F on the top of the combustion chamber. So I have high hopes that if I add a 4 or 5" pipe on the heat riser pipe filled with either sand or dirt I can get that number even higher on that combustion chamber. Maybe even a more even temp across the top as apposed to a single spot on the top of the combustion chamber.

Hey!

So im new to the site but ive been into these cool things for a while. Never built one till today. It worked pretty good. I have 3" piping with a two foot heat riser thats 6" in diameter. Then back to a 3" exhaust pipe that goes out two feet then straight up two feet. No insulation yet as I lit it today to see if it would even flow right. I like to start small so I went with this. Ill post pictures in the day light. The thing got so hot only using twigs it melted all the glue off my metal tape and it the heat riser fell a bit. Tomorrow im getting a 4" section of pipe and insulation the 3" heat riser with dirt. ill try that and see how it goes. I couldn't boil water since my heat riser slipped a bit and got messed up. but before it all shifted I scourched my hand by touching the top of the heat riser 30 seconds after a flame was lit. Why did i touch it you ask? I didnt think it was working. I can guarentee you. it was. Hottest was 417*F when my thermometer would just display "---" for freaking hot!

Why am I posting this? To simply say it can work. will it work as well at the larger ones? I doubt it. Especially after 45 minutes and slapping it together but it still works.