Tuesday, December 13, 2011
More testing...
The exhaust port on the side of the barrel has a clean out port as well. This makes it easier to clean out any ash build up that may occur inside of the barrel.
Assembly and first test!
I was able to find a really good welder for the rocket stove project and got the completed parts back tonight.
I had obtained the barrel from a neighbor who runs an auto repair business. The barrel was used for antifreeze and was free!
The steel plate that the barrel sits on I had at the house from the prior owner. I thought this was better then having the barrel site on top of the brick work and having to be incased in a lot of cob. This way the barrel sits flat on the plate.
The holes in the plate (1/4inch thick) were cut with an acetylene torch. The steel plate was utilized to form a nice flat surface for the barrel to rest on. It still will be sealed up with refractory cement to completely seal it. Also, the refractory cement will be placed around the top of the brick work to seal the connection between the plate and the brick work. While the plate is flat, the bricks are not all uniform and some gaps are present.
The metal plate (2 x 3 ft) is placed on top of the brick base that forms the burn tunnel.
The opening on the right is the feed tube. The wood is placed into this opening and ignited in the burn tunnel. The tunnel is formed by the 4 bricks standing on their sides in the middle. There is a small ledge running around the interior of the tunnel that the bricks rest on. The opening on the left is for the insulated riser tube.
I also had heavy steel angle brackets welded on around the 6 inch hole to help support the riser.
This way the steel riser pipe is held securely in place. Also by having the steel plate with a neatly cut out hole to match the diameter of the riser, the riser does not have to sit on top of a square opening formed by the bricks and then sealed over with cob. This is how many other rocket stove designs work. I wanted to eliminate as much use of the cob as possible and provide for a more machined solution.
This riser pipe, which is a scrap insulated furnace pipe, I was able to locate at a metal scrap yard for 10 bucks. It's heavy duty, well insulated and just the right height to sit properly inside the barrel. Its about 2.5 inches shorter then the top of the barrel. This allows the heat to properly spill over the inside of the barrel.
Here is looking down the riser pipe into the burn tunnel:
One of the first tests of a riser tube utilized plain thin walled heating duct. The kind you can get at Home Depot that has a crimped edge running down the sides. Just placing it in a barrel turned right side up for about 3 hours produced this:
The thin aluminum metal simply melted rather quickly. It would never survive prolonged use an the high temperature environment of a rocket stove! Either use a riser made out of brick as some designs do or locate one of these heavy duty insulated stove pipes.
The Exhaust fitting was welded onto the barrel instead of having the exhaust exit under the barrel in a cob tunnel. The hole in the side of the barrel I cut out quickly with a jigsaw and a fine metal blade. The hole is 8 inches in diameter. I just swept out a circle on paper and cut it out for a template.
This is the exhaust hole cut out with a basic jigsaw. Went very fast and easy. Very loud though!
This is the weld seam on the 8 inch exhaust fitting at the base of the barrel using "stitching" to weld the two together.
I had obtained the barrel from a neighbor who runs an auto repair business. The barrel was used for antifreeze and was free!
The steel plate that the barrel sits on I had at the house from the prior owner. I thought this was better then having the barrel site on top of the brick work and having to be incased in a lot of cob. This way the barrel sits flat on the plate.
The holes in the plate (1/4inch thick) were cut with an acetylene torch. The steel plate was utilized to form a nice flat surface for the barrel to rest on. It still will be sealed up with refractory cement to completely seal it. Also, the refractory cement will be placed around the top of the brick work to seal the connection between the plate and the brick work. While the plate is flat, the bricks are not all uniform and some gaps are present.
The metal plate (2 x 3 ft) is placed on top of the brick base that forms the burn tunnel.
The opening on the right is the feed tube. The wood is placed into this opening and ignited in the burn tunnel. The tunnel is formed by the 4 bricks standing on their sides in the middle. There is a small ledge running around the interior of the tunnel that the bricks rest on. The opening on the left is for the insulated riser tube.
I also had heavy steel angle brackets welded on around the 6 inch hole to help support the riser.
This way the steel riser pipe is held securely in place. Also by having the steel plate with a neatly cut out hole to match the diameter of the riser, the riser does not have to sit on top of a square opening formed by the bricks and then sealed over with cob. This is how many other rocket stove designs work. I wanted to eliminate as much use of the cob as possible and provide for a more machined solution.
This riser pipe, which is a scrap insulated furnace pipe, I was able to locate at a metal scrap yard for 10 bucks. It's heavy duty, well insulated and just the right height to sit properly inside the barrel. Its about 2.5 inches shorter then the top of the barrel. This allows the heat to properly spill over the inside of the barrel.
Here is looking down the riser pipe into the burn tunnel:
One of the first tests of a riser tube utilized plain thin walled heating duct. The kind you can get at Home Depot that has a crimped edge running down the sides. Just placing it in a barrel turned right side up for about 3 hours produced this:
The thin aluminum metal simply melted rather quickly. It would never survive prolonged use an the high temperature environment of a rocket stove! Either use a riser made out of brick as some designs do or locate one of these heavy duty insulated stove pipes.
The Exhaust fitting was welded onto the barrel instead of having the exhaust exit under the barrel in a cob tunnel. The hole in the side of the barrel I cut out quickly with a jigsaw and a fine metal blade. The hole is 8 inches in diameter. I just swept out a circle on paper and cut it out for a template.
This is the exhaust hole cut out with a basic jigsaw. Went very fast and easy. Very loud though!
This is the weld seam on the 8 inch exhaust fitting at the base of the barrel using "stitching" to weld the two together.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Getting Started links
Here are some great links that helped me get going on a rocket stove:
Excellent pictures of the steps in building a stove.
http://ilovecob.com/archive/construction-of-a-rocket-stove
Making Cob... the clay that is molded around the stove and used as a thermal battery.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i1cHHJAguA&feature=related
http://www.richsoil.com/rocket-stove-mass-heater.jsp
Must have book!
http://www.rocketstoves.com/
Excellent pictures of the steps in building a stove.
http://ilovecob.com/archive/construction-of-a-rocket-stove
Making Cob... the clay that is molded around the stove and used as a thermal battery.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i1cHHJAguA&feature=related
http://www.richsoil.com/rocket-stove-mass-heater.jsp
Must have book!
http://www.rocketstoves.com/
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Starting the rocket Stove project...
I have been doing tons of research into rocket stoves for their much higher efficiency and substantially less wood they consume. I love the radiant heat of wood stoves, but the typical wood stove burns way too much and produces too much pollution.
This project will hopefully address these issues...
This project will hopefully address these issues...
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