Gavin Phillips

Learn Crosscut saw sharpening with Duncan Hill and Gavin Phillips in Dalbeattie, DG5 4BE in South west Scotland.
£85 includes meals and tuition.
More details at http://www.shedtherapy.com/courses/ or download the pdf

Here are some videos of a May 5th 2016 training event we ran at Bodgers Ball, Tyntesfield:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O567C5rMzUE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rb2U3WHCjY

( Note to Moderators: I am not quite sure of posting etiquette here, so please tell me if the above offends any local rules, or if I should have posted in some other place on this board)

William Bronson wrote:Thought I posted it before!
Here yah go:

http://permaculturenews.org/2012/10/16/rocket-oven-a-permanent-wall-mounted-kitchen-oven/

Thanks v much for that -
here is the image of that oven as new build

and then it was coated in cob:

The writer comments:

I can honestly say I’ve never done an experiment that went so smoothly and which easily met and surpassed my expectations. With only slight modifications and tweaks, this oven was in near daily use for approximately two years.

- so I wonder what happened to the metal shown above? Either temperatures were cool enough it could survive, or the metal burnt away leaving the cob?

Michael Scott,
Am I correct in thinking you want to quantify the thrust ( is that in Newtons?) of your rocket stove? And to predict its thrust under varying parameters of fuel load and fuel moisture content?

R Scott wrote:You can convert a gas-stove fairly easy. Pull out the gas burner, put in a rocket. Done. It already has the baffles. You may have to set it on a few blocks to get it a little higher off the floor, but it would be at a good working height.

Temp control is another matter entirely!

Sounds good to me - have you any images of this? Have you done it yourself?

John Adamz wrote:How about using it for a batch feed rocket stove? You could see the fire thru the door window

Thanks for that suggestion - obvious to me only because you suggested it . I will now only accept such discarded ovens if they have glass door.

William Bronson wrote:
There is an oven in use which is a conventional oven with a rocket exhausting into it.

Oooh - please provide pictures or URL please!

William Bronson wrote:
Use a double wall oven and cut a hole between chambers if you want to contain the rocket itself inside an oven.

When you write 'double wall oven' do you mean one side-by-side where rocket would go in one side and cooking chamber in the other side? i.e. I'd use something like:

William Bronson wrote:
I intend to do something similar but make the bottom half of the oven a bell and bake wood on top of that.
Wood gasses would be piped back into the combustion chamber.
The exhaust from the bell part of the oven would be channeled into a bigger bell or a bench.

William, In that case I suggest you look at this link. I have seen this retort in action and it is v impressive. Google "charcoal retort kiln" and or "James Hookway"

Satamax Antone wrote:Gaving, for the sake of the art, turn this into a pocket rocket with a pizza stone on the bottom.

This is EXACTLY my intention.

Assuming the dimensions work, is it feasible to fit wood-fired rocket in an old discarded oven or similar shell?
e.g.

Has anyone tried?

connie me wrote:how about this... build a mold for your core and ship that(along w/the formula for ericas mixture).

I am a newbie.
Nonetheless, I am intrigued that - as far as I can see - this idea of shipping just the mold only has not been explored further.

Such a mold could be sacrificial or re-usable i.e. pass on to next person wanting to build, and very likely lighter than 50lbs.

The only other thing needed is the recipe for the cob mix - is it to have straw/ wool/ perlite or what added to it?

Since good-enough clay is usually available for free in most places in the world, sourcing clay itself should be no problem locally and so would save nearly all shipping cost.

As for recognising suitable clay - refer Build Your Own Earth Oven: A Low-cost Wood-fired Mud Oven; Simple Sourdough Bread; Perfect Loaves

Logan Jonker wrote:Why isn't your burn chamber or flue insulated?

Because I have only just discovered this site, and had assumed the youtube videos of rockets from metal I had seen were the only way to do it.

Logan Jonker wrote:
Smaller/thinner pieces of wood would burn hotter and faster.

Agreed.