kevin Davis

Hi Brett, once you do a longer burn and get the heat riser HOT, your top center barrel temps will be hot. Real hot!. I'm guessing you'll be hitting average 6-800f. In order to get those temps though, you have to have a FIRE! Not twigs and pine needles.....real, serious burnin' stuff. Your Dragon is all growed up....you have to feed it a real meal. Those temps can be deceiving cuz when you aren't looking they will change. The second your fire slacks off the temps will drop dramatically.

Glad things are working out.
Kevin

Brett, you have a PM

Hey Brett, I live in Edgewood and have an operating system with many experiments under my belt. Working with water heating currently. PM me if you would like to discuss the project.

Kevin

Robert, can you do it like this?

By the way, if the door has "Vogelzang" on the front, it is a kit. You can take it apart and replace the barrel. If you do get dull thuds while tapping around , I would replace the barrel.

Hi James. The sparks are normal for this stove because there is nothing to hinder the flames and sparks from going straight up the stack. Take an object or just use your finger and tap all around the stove. You'll be listening for the sound of steel...not a dull thud. The dull thud means it's probably burnt out at this section. Pay particular attention to the area around the stack and the bottom of the barrel. I would put fire brick in the bottom of the barrel.
As for the sounds it is making, I think that it is just the thin metals expanding and popping.....the tink,tink,tink is to be expected. Build a small fire, one that is in your control, and let the stove do it's thing. By all means don't leave it unattended until you can trust it. Big fires are dangerous. I took mine out years ago when the whole thing glowed red and threatened to melt down.
After a season of using this stove you will most likely be gathering materials for a RMH way before spring.
Good luck and be safe!

Now for my brain fart... What about an exhaust recirculation back into the burn chamber,

Allen. I like that concept. I think I know what you mean by the turbo concept but not in this situation. I'm thinking you mean to re-plum the exhaust into the feed chamber like a closed loop. I would think also that O2 would still need to be introduced also.
My shop is so leaky that it wouldn't hurt the human and cat if oxygen was taken from the room, but in a tight house, a way would have to be found to find more combustion air .
So, if there is just co2 coming from the flue and not combustible, why bother? Now my little brain is scrambled.

Paul, at fire out I use a plate of steel over refractory wool covering the firebox. Climbing up to the roof I can feel no heat coming out of the flue. Seems to work just fine. Over an 8 hour no burn my bench gives up maybe ten degrees.

Tristan, don't get discouraged. Don't cover the cob. Keep a fire lit and use a fan on the cob. It will dry out but it takes time. The moving air will help immensely, you'll see it start to dry out on the surface very quickly but the inner core of mass will take time. I stuck a candy thermometer into the bench as far as it would go and left it there to monitor the temps. Finally after about a week the temps started to rise, that's when I put the blankets on. Don't use the blankets until the moisture has evaporated out.

John, you are a craftsman! Now I could be totally wrong, but I think the area in red should not be connected to the barrel exhaust The cooled air in yellow is getting mixed up with hot air going up the riser. The area in red should be solid so that the heated air goes up, gets cooled and drops down the sides of the barrel and "pumped" out.

Hi ya Pack, do one thing ....use smaller pieces of wood. About 1"x1" and see what happens.Also, put about 4 or 5 pieces of this smaller wood into the feed.