Prescott H. Paine

Hello Dale.

I live in Wesley but work in Calias in the mornings and then split my afternoons up between Lubec and Pembroke. I drive more than I like, but it's working for now, a busy winter with school calendar breaks here and there.

Are you from the area, live around Wash Co somewhere? If you have a functioning rocket stove I would love to see it!

Drop me a line

Thanks Al.

I won't reply to everything in your multi-tiered reply (THANK YOU!) but will shoot off some instant-gut responses

I am in DownEast Maine, it can be dark and cold and bitter, and while I can't smell the ocean at my house, it's only 20 miles away. It's brutal here, but not as bad some of our northern interior brethren...

My RMWH is front and fucking center, as it were, not master piece like, but "this is the heartbeat of the house" (the 'plant) and all about ease of wood delivery, splitting and feeding, sitting on bench/nearby rocking chair dragon feeding care, or so I am visualizing!

Ianto speaks of a 1.5 to 2" gap 'tween the HR and Barrel and that just seems so tight to me, thus my posit, query...

p. 23 (hard copy thanks...) specifically mentions 1.5 inches and I am looking at that with wonder. I can plug those numbers into my equation, do the math, but I am looking for direct feedback from those that might have tried one barrel and had smokeback, or another and had entirely too much draw, or the top of the barrel melted but the lower sides never blued, or the stove only putted along until....

So thanks for your comments, I appreciate them, but I am looking for more specific details. Bigger isn't necessarily better in my book. Barbie is a mutant, Zucchini with a wilted flower on it and no seeds is just right for me, and well, anymore than a mouthful is wasteful.

I'm into efficiency and delicacy, not blunt and burly. I'm fine with moderation, but don't use a 10# hammer when a gentle whap'll do me...

Howdy Gang!

Dialing in measurements and materials (I may have, after finally abandoning all hope, landed a local source of gray river clay ) and interesting in some barrel perspective...

I am casting an insulated core and heat riser. The latter being 14" at it's widest (filled with all sorts of insulation due to creating a 6" system) and rethinking the 50 gallon barrel. It's just HUGE, and the 32 gallon barrel really fits my space so much more naturally.

So the details and questions that arise are thus:

The 50 gallon barrel will yield a 4 1/2 in gap all the way around the heat riser.

The 32 (it might be 30, to me what matters are the measurements...) gallon barrel will yield a 2" gap around the heat riser.

I am running less than 20 feet of pipe in my bench, with three elbows going into a sound/solid/reliable chimney inside the living space, the first four straight feet of pipe is a highly insulated water heating element right after the plenum and first clean out then elbow. I am more interested in the heat getting to the water heater (in an open system, no BOOM+SQUISH here) and bench than the barrel, and know that insulating the barrel is a no-no...

What are the advantages, disadvantages, pros and cons of the barrel sizes for this system?

With my (rather busy winter) work schedule I am looking at only a couple of hours of burning about 14 hours apart.

I am willing to take the pains to make the smaller barrel fit uniformly over the heat riser if it will be enough cooling, pumping and pulling.

Thanks for having a look and weighing in! I'll be casting the core in a couple weeks and will soon be creating a thread to document the process. The latter only being fair, as I have learned so much from others doing so, and hoping to hear from the like!

Rocket on~p

At long last I have tracked down fire clay.

Any feed back appreciated on this recipe and ratio scheme to cast a core and then heat riser.

For simplicity sake I am looking at a volume ratio of vermiculite to "the other stuff" (which will be gently nudged and beholden to the mixing process and that consistency of "dryish-pop apart" clumps versus mooshy)

My "other stuff" is simply going to be, in a 1:1 ratio, fire clay to firestop50.

My goal is to make a bombproof core at a moderate price. I don't have access to local clay and I was hoping to not spring for premade castable refractroy products, thus I feel I am working the middle here, and hope to add something to the community.

This is all the brain child of Matt W's cast core video, and when he said "I throw a handful of furnace cement in to toughen it up", I immediately thought, what about way tougher?!

Thanks so much for posting any thoughts, ideas, questions or comments.

This craft is blossoming because we are making it so! It's good for us (to be cozy) its good for the trees (maximizing their potential and minimizing our consumption) and good for the environment (by minimizing emissions). WHAT'S NOT TO LOVE.!

Good day gang~p

Wow, that is a huge riser!? What kind of space do you have once the barrel is over it?

Insulating the core increases the efficiency but is hard to do once you are set on the fire bricks. You must have an insulated riser, so you have a serious start in the right direction!

Thanks for the photos, it's great watching others progress

Hi Mike.

Sorry I didn't make it clear that the core I am speaking of is on the RMH DVD set.

I too wondered why no bottom but have inferred many things...

-to keep weight down
-so the end user can create a base of their own easily and cheaply with different materials
-maybe that would ship separately if one wanted one
-perhaps they hadn't though out the structural integrity of it

Dunno really, and very curious!

~p

Hello E&E

It was great really cool to watch you trouble shoot and then assemble the shipable core RMH in Paul's outdoor garage kitchen(?)!

I am preparing to cast a core myself and like you, feel some firebrick around the feed tube makes a ton of sense. My thought was to cut them at 45 degree angles so they keyed together (seams radiating out from each corner) and then using 1/4" of Roxul around them to give a little "breathing room", since they are different from the core in regards to expansion and contraction. (I am going to make a wooden "core core" that has the outside measurements of the inside of the FT/BT/HR to hold the bricks in place and create tripwires for turbulence and then burn it out.)

I noticed you guys just built right around your firebricks, how's it holding up? Expansion/contraction issue?

Have you any thoughts as to solving your bottom issue? How much heavier would it be with a bottom, or could that be a separate piece? Popping fire brick?! That's just plain awesome!

Keep up the great work, looking forward to seeing your evolving process~p

Oh man Matt, you and the Dragon Burner gang in the same room, soooo cool! Can't wait to explore the links and info and such. Best of luck to you, it's so important for regular wood stove types to see this paradigm shift!

So many folks I talk to about this just glaze over. They need guidance and our patience...

Keep up the great work~p

Nice work Helena!

I was dubbing around out back, similar to your shots the other day and learned a valuable lesson. I stuck my barrel over the heat riser and was not getting great results. It eventually dawned on me that, much like a candle snuffer, putting a lid on it would only hurt the draw. The barrel needs to have draw too, as it will once finally installed! I was pleased that I could figure that one out myself and was instantly not confounded and re-inspired!

Are you cobbing your core? They draw so much better all sealed up!

Keep at it~p

Thank you Erica! So really then what I hear you saying is that the portions of the core overlap, like so...

I am working on being patient and dialing in my measurements and ingredients BUT I am so eager to build and burn...

Thank you (and everyone else here) for making this so informative, helpful and inspirational!