jared jerad

Ok so long story short my new drawing thanks to advice from you guys should work? Just make the T an elbow (90 degrees not a curve) and its good to go? So I do use thin cheap steel on most of the steel like in my drawing but it will all burn up quickly? How many burns before it is all gone? And I MAY (I stress the word may) do some sort of portable mass heater live in the video but only like two feet wide and four feet long. Not sure yet what I want to do. This heater will be heating a two car attatched garage. I know that the mass means more efficiency but it also means takes longer to put off heat. I can see myself wanting to quickly heat the garage often. Then again I know that if I do some more mass that will give me my best shot of setting a fire before bed and waking up to a warm garage. I'll want that garage warm 24/7. What do you think?

And yeah I do want a nice built in rmh heater eventually. But I'm not going to settle down for a decade give or take so.

Ok so what you are saying is that steel simply cant handle the head of the interior of the combustion chamber. I'm not against using other materials, I just don't have much space. Can I encase the bricks used for the j tube in steel? And are you saying that the thin sheet these guys (see video) used to encased the perlite clay in will all burn away?



Does the steel in the mini rocket cookers hold up because it doesn't reach as high of temps?

would a design like this work for some sort of a low mass heater? And what would be the durability of something like this? I want maximum portability. Can I drop it on its side? If not that's ok, just want to know what I'm working with here.

What is the thickness of steel you used for the heat riser?

So you said that they usually fail, in what way do they fail? And honestly with something like this where there isn't a lot of people talking about the failures and success's then I surely do expect many to fail. Hence why I cam here. Does the heat riser and j tube need to be really thick? Do I need to make the heat riser and j tube from a different material?

I understand the purpose of the mass. But I also understand that without the mass rocket stove cookers can boil a large pot with little wood. It was my understanding that steel rocket stove heaters were a step up from wood stoves and a step down from rocket mass heaters.

So what you are saying though that I would be better off buying a cast iron wood stove?

A rocket mass heater is just absolutely out of the question at this residence. If I would really be better off converting my 55 gallon drum to a wood stove VS a steel rocket heater then that's what I will do cause I barely have the space for that even. Still trying to figure out where I'm going to put what I have now.

As far as the mini rocket cookers, I built an experimental one from scrap metal in my garage. Looks like crap but is solid. I used straight perlite as insulation. I was impressed with what that did. I'm going to cut it up and throw it out this weekend. It's just that ugly. But hey didn't cost me a penny to build. Just wanted to experiment with one and see if they were good before I put more time and effort into excellent craftsmanship. I'll post the video, dont laugh though. The stove looks like complete crap cause it was built in a hurry from my scrap steel pile. I didn't want to put much time and effort into one if they weren't what they were cracked up to be.

One feature I might add is adjustable legs, cause in survival/camping the ground isn't always level right? Also I could make the cook top height adjustable so you can adjust the distance from the flame to the pot. So yeah some nuts n bolts easily adjustable by hand and you can cook on unlevel ground. What do you think? What features do and don't you guys like about rocket stove cookers?

Two questions.

Construction of heat riser/j pipe for 55 gallon steel drum heater.
Not a mass heater but instead an all steel heater for my garage. I have been reading for a couple of weeks now and I just can't figure out it the thickness of the steel pipe really matters or not because everyone uses something different it seems like. I will do eight inch pipe and would like to use at least something 1/16" thick if not maybe 3/32" thick and may be willing or even need to as I need 1/8 inch diameter pipe for another project and not exactly sure yet the thickness I need for that. I'm a welder by trade (factory production mig) and am bound and determined to build this from all steel so don't try to take me into a mass heater. This will just be a heater for the garage as I work on projects in there.

Question two
About the market for mini rocket stove cookers. Like I said I'm a welder. And those mini cookers that go for 120 on ebay I could build for probably less than 15 bucks a piece and am thinking about building a few and trying to sell them. Just wondering what you guys think of that. Would it be an easy buck? And on portable mini cookers, what features do you guys like and what features don't you guys like.