Steve Shelby

Yes Steve - 5" refers to the diameter of the riser. All the other measurements are in proportion, see Peters  Batchrocket.eu site    Batch Box Dimensions

Thank you, and thanks for the link, an excellent resource!

Hi Steve. Over here in the UK I've had my 5" Batch Box lit for around 40 minutes and recently added a 6" diameter very dry ash log to the fire. It's burning well and I could probably fit a few more in the firebox. Your 'large' pieces should work fine - provided they're very dry of course  

In my particular BB (5" sidewinder) it seems to perform best when using different sizes of fuel and also a mix of hard and soft wood. We've mainly got oak, ash and sycamore but larch and sitka spruce burn very well in the system. Broken pallet planks work well, especially when mixed with the hardwood.

Thank you John. As a newbie here, I need to ask, when people refer to a rocket stove or heater with a single dimension (in this case 5"), what is that referring to? The diameter of the riser?

Thanks for all your responses. You have encouraged me to want to continue with my experiment. The video was enlightening. To clarify, when I said "large" wood, I meant round pieces up to 6-8" in diameter, and anything bigger than that would be split.
A little background: I live in northern Indiana where the emerald ash borer has killed most of the ash trees, so I have more dead wood available on my land and the neighbor's land than I'll ever be able to use. I heated my house with an Earth Stove for about 35 years. When I had to replace it about four years ago, I got a Voglezang Ponderosa stove. Big mistake. Although it was rated the same BTU's as the Earth Stove, the firebox is so tiny i can't build a big enough fire to heat the whole house like I could before. That's what got me started with designing my own stove. I think maybe I'm on the right path.

I am new to this forum, and have been reading a lot of the threads with interest. I have wanted to build my own wood stove for a few years now, and recently discovered rocket stoves. What I like most about them is that they are capable of burning wood completely, without producing creosote. I have lots of good wood to burn, but it's mostly big logs. Has anyone experimented with applying rocket stove principles to burning big logs? I want to try building one as an experiment, unless someone can convince me that it can't possibly work. I have ideas on how to do it, and wonder if anyone else has tried.
Thanks,
Steve