Rex Holliday

Coydon Wallham wrote:

Rex Holliday wrote:The build is complete.

How did paint removal off the barrel go just filling it with rubbish?

I had to do a few burns to get all of the paint off. I wrapped the barrel in wet clay-soaked newspaper like in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpCu7aG3fgI And I burned cardboard and sticks in the barrel. I did not make a pocket rocket but that would probably be the most efficient way to burn all the paint off.

The RMH exhaust is working well. I haven't used a RMH anywhere else to compare but the draw seems quite strong. The vertical exhaust being very close to the barrel likely helps a lot with that.

I haven't fired up the blaze king since building the RMH but I don't expect there to be any issues with it. The horizontal pipe has a gradual upward slope until it connects with the "tee", so it's unlikely to act like a competing chimney when running the blaze king. If I were to continue using the blaze king, I would probably have the chimney cleaned out every year to remove any creosote build up, which I shouldn't have to worry about if just using the RMH.

That's a great and simple solution. Does that rocket mass heater get cleaned out yearly? If so,  can the cob hat be lifted off with the top of the barrel or would the cob hat have to be rebuilt yearly after the barrel is cleaned?

I built a box. A big box. A box worthy of a... rocket mass heater. The box is 125" x 38". The part for the core is 19" high and the part for the thermal mass is 15.25". The frame is made from 2x4's and the bottom and sides are 1x4's. It is made from untreated wood without glues, paint, stains or oils.

The build is complete. As previously mentioned, I followed Walker Stoves Superhot 8 inch core plans for the core. I lined the bottom of the box with perlite clay for insulation and filled around the core with sand. Added some extra brick to lengthen the wood feed and used super wool for a five minute riser. For the thermal mass I covered the stovepipe with cob, rocks, and brick to form a cobglomerate. I used a cement board for a heatshield. Will likely add a stone veneer to it later.

It starts really easy and has a strong draw. The vertical stovepipe is pretty close to the barrel. The top brick layer in the thermal mass has gotten up to around 80 degrees and seems to warm up better now that the cob has dried out some but doesn't really get hot to the touch. Will be interesting to see how much wood I need to use to keep the house warm this winter.

Interesting. Doing some touch up paint/coating with zircon once a year doesn't seem too bad. Thanks for sharing that.

That's a good point. I plan on using a respirator whenever opening the system. You're talking about coating the inside of the core? What would you coat it with that can withstand the high temps?

The wooden box for the rocket mass heater is complete. I'll put bricks underneath the bottom to lift it off the wood floor.

I've decided to follow the walker stoves superhot J eight inch core plan for my core(https://walkerstoves.com/product/superhot-j-eight-inch-core-cut-plan/). Once I get the ceramic fiber board and superwool I'll build the core and test it outside. Already picked up some firebrick for the wood feed portion.

Picked up some used barrels locally, was going to get some from Azure Standard but every time it got close to delivery that month they would switch from in stock to out of stock. The blue barrel used to have honey in it, the outside is a bit rusted. The white one had paint in it. I need to clean them out and burn the paint off. Will have to figure out which one I want to cut up to fit around the core and which one I want to put on top.

Found some cheap 8 inch stove pipe tees, one will be a clean-out spot and the other will connect to my current chimney. Still working on sourcing the rest of the stove pipe.

Also picked up some flattish rocks. Will likely mostly use flat rocks with cob in between for the thermal mass instead of pea gravel.

Slowly but surely, making some progress.

"Note: same pics as incomplete post above"

What is incomplete about the post? The post above it was edited to include the picture with the measuring cup after the post was originally flagged as incomplete because the evaluator said they were unable to judge the quantity.

I resubmitted because there was no response to my edited post for days and I figured the edited submission just wasn't going to be noticed.

Two cups dry rice which turned into about 6 cups cooked rice. Cooked on the stovetop in a stainless steel pot.