Brick Body Batch Box w/S-Portal
Jan 26, 2015 7:31:04 GMT -8
morticcio, AlexHarpin, and 2 more like this
Post by pinhead on Jan 26, 2015 7:31:04 GMT -8
I've recently been graced with a girlfriend who loves working with her hands and especially likes working with clay mixes. Rather than wasting our time going to movies or out to eat, she thought it'd be neat if we worked on the shop stove over this past weekend.
And work we did. We spent all day Saturday and most of the day on Sunday putting together a Peterberg Batch Box for my shop. I decided to use an S-Portal to feed tertiary air into the throat of the stove.
This is what we came to Saturday morning, the remnants of the old PBB:
The first thing we did was lay down cinder blocks and brick to put together a basic layout to match the dimensions of a 7" Batch Box. We wrapped the 7" heat riser with cardboard to make it easier to extract once everything is good and dry. Also notice the S-Portal.
Unfortunately at this point we got busy and didn't take nearly enough pictures to show the process. It was really fairly simple - laid out the cinder blocks, covered them with a level layer of about 2" of firm clay/sand, and then laid the brick on top. The bricks were tapped with a mallet which squished them into the clay/sand while leveling the bricks. Each new course of bricks were put up in the same way, leveling each brick, itself, and leveling each brick with its neighbor. This ensured the walls would be the same height when we got to the last course of bricks.
This is what the contraption looked like at the end of a long Saturday, after we packed around the heat riser and lightly coated the roof:
We started a bit later on Sunday, having gone to Mass in the morning. I came home and grilled some burgers and she came over shortly thereafter. Our next project was to build the transition from the primary bell/barrel to the secondary half-barrel double-bell bench. Since I had a huge pile of bricks specifically for this project, we decided to brick the entire transition up to the level of the roof of the PBB.
That is how it sets as of this morning. The one thing I wish we would have changed is the front of the stove - I wish we would have moved the stove forward, flush with the front of the cinder blocks. This would have made the front "wall" flush with the front of the stove which would have made it look a bit more "professional." That's not worth tearing it down and rebuilding it, though, that's for sure!
The next step will be to burn out the cardboard around the metal riser form and remove it. Once that's done we'll heat the inside of the riser with a torch to help dry. The top will be a monolithic "slab" of clay/sand of probably a couple of inches thick, maybe a bit more, which will cover the roof of the PBB as well as fill in the gaps around the barrel.
One thing I should note: I had no idea the 7" batch box would be so much bigger than the 6" box I had previously built. The numbers just don't do it justice. I have a feeling this will be much more heat than my small shop needs!
And work we did. We spent all day Saturday and most of the day on Sunday putting together a Peterberg Batch Box for my shop. I decided to use an S-Portal to feed tertiary air into the throat of the stove.
This is what we came to Saturday morning, the remnants of the old PBB:
The first thing we did was lay down cinder blocks and brick to put together a basic layout to match the dimensions of a 7" Batch Box. We wrapped the 7" heat riser with cardboard to make it easier to extract once everything is good and dry. Also notice the S-Portal.
Unfortunately at this point we got busy and didn't take nearly enough pictures to show the process. It was really fairly simple - laid out the cinder blocks, covered them with a level layer of about 2" of firm clay/sand, and then laid the brick on top. The bricks were tapped with a mallet which squished them into the clay/sand while leveling the bricks. Each new course of bricks were put up in the same way, leveling each brick, itself, and leveling each brick with its neighbor. This ensured the walls would be the same height when we got to the last course of bricks.
This is what the contraption looked like at the end of a long Saturday, after we packed around the heat riser and lightly coated the roof:
We started a bit later on Sunday, having gone to Mass in the morning. I came home and grilled some burgers and she came over shortly thereafter. Our next project was to build the transition from the primary bell/barrel to the secondary half-barrel double-bell bench. Since I had a huge pile of bricks specifically for this project, we decided to brick the entire transition up to the level of the roof of the PBB.
That is how it sets as of this morning. The one thing I wish we would have changed is the front of the stove - I wish we would have moved the stove forward, flush with the front of the cinder blocks. This would have made the front "wall" flush with the front of the stove which would have made it look a bit more "professional." That's not worth tearing it down and rebuilding it, though, that's for sure!
The next step will be to burn out the cardboard around the metal riser form and remove it. Once that's done we'll heat the inside of the riser with a torch to help dry. The top will be a monolithic "slab" of clay/sand of probably a couple of inches thick, maybe a bit more, which will cover the roof of the PBB as well as fill in the gaps around the barrel.
One thing I should note: I had no idea the 7" batch box would be so much bigger than the 6" box I had previously built. The numbers just don't do it justice. I have a feeling this will be much more heat than my small shop needs!