The stove at home..

[swizzlenutz]

I guess I should have mentioned that this is to save him on firewood and would be his backup or "night stove". Fire it up in the afternoon and by evening it should be putting out a little extra heat throughout the night. The flooding only occurs in the spring so hot concrete cracking due to water wouldn't be an issue. As soon as he sees water the sump pump comes on and he'd switch to his stove upstairs. I'm assuming by heat shock you mean cracking. Can't this be remedied by adding more cement to the cracks? This would be in the basement so it doesn't have to be pretty just functional. Oh I should also mention that the heat from this stove would be used to warm the second floor of the house at night and most likely be concentrated on the master bedroom. Swizzle

[Donkey]

If you fill the cracks with more concrete, chances are pretty good that the stuff you fill with will expand and shove the cracks wider.
Ya'know, since the Clean Air Act of 1975, industry has been using fly ash from industrial stacks as an additive in Portland Cement. The stuff is chock full of toxins, heavy metals and crap. I try to stay away from it as a general rule.

[swizzlenutz]

What can I use? I have no idea where to even get clay around here. If I could just dig up a couple wheelbarrow loads I would. I'm fairly new to this area so I don't even know where to begin to look for clay. I've got crushed dolostone and I can get all the sand I want, even some salt. I tried typing in clay for my area and all I find is modeling clay. Swizzle

[Donkey]

Just go looking.
Clay can almost always be found around water. If you got an area where water stands around after a rain, you've got clay rich soil.
Dig up some likely stuff, get it wet, do some tests, if it passes you got clay soil..

[woodman]

Hay Donkey did you take any assembly pics. that would show the insides to that ausome stove.

[Donkey]

Err... There are some pics somewhere in my stuff.. I've got no idea where.
I'll look for 'em sometime in the not too distant future..

[yesimag]

Very nice job on the stove. You have really accomplished something great here. I'm considering building a multi-function stove also. I'd like to take it a step further and use it to heat water as well. To make matters even more complicated I'll be constructing it inside a treehouse. While the treehouse will be overbuilt in terms of weight handling, I'm still going to try to keep the mass down somewhat. I'd like to connect the water to a hydronic radiant floor heating system.

All this is still in the research/planning stage, as is the treehouse. I hope to learn a lot from you folks here at these forums, and hopefully contribute something useful back, if nothing less than a well-documented record of my mistakes.

In fact, I might as well start a planning thread about this now. =)

[woodman]

Donkey you quoted from another thread about you're 3' clean out: (It was supposed to be a big ash clean-out/reservoir in the back of the stove. Turns out I can start a fire in it, get it going, shove it all the way forward and pack cord-wood behind it. I discovered that it runs best with the air intake constricted, so I guessed on the size and made a sheet metal plug-with-hole to close up the end of the (new) feed tube. Seems that I got the air hole sized pretty close (close enough) and it burns full out, as clean as ever.
I suppose I should post images of the back side of the stove there.. I don't think I've done that yet. )


Be nice to see the pics. And what is the dia. size of the feed tube?
The hole in the cover plate: is in the center or toward the bottom?
So this is an elongated L stove only without a shelf for the air to pass under the wood?

[Donkey]

Woodman,
Page one of this thread..

The arch of the tunnel is about 13" tall by about 12" wide, though it tapers inward slightly as it goes in. The hole the sheet metal plug is roughly 4" X 4" .

[woodman]

Sorry about that.
Be nice to also see how the exhaust is routed through this.

[strivin]

Really beautiful stove! My husband was wondering what the
cob "handle" is sticking out on the top part?
It is making me think about not doing the wood cook stove we were
planning in the kitchen and just trotting down the stairs to cook
some stuff in the rocket...
We will probably have a lot of questions over time--
my husband and I are building a timber frame home here in
Downeast Maine--it gets very cold in winter, windy and rainy
at times too--we have lived in a 16 X 16 cabin for 7 years and
after cutting and milling most of our own wood, my husband
designed and put up the frame this fall.
It seems huge right now, but with a rootcellar, sauna and
japanese bath on the bottom, it isn't as huge as it seems.
we are building as we go, with no trust fund and no mortgage.
Originally I wanted to go with a masonry stove, but when
we heard about rockets, it really seems the way to go for
DIY. I guess the initial questions I have for you are:
how much space do you heat with your 'double' rocket?
we would like to heat water for the radiant tubing that
is already installed...do you have experience with that?
Were you mostly working off the Rocket Stoves book,
or did you use a lot of other information in creating your
double situation? what are the pros and cons of the
two running through the same exhaust? Do you have a
bench also that radiates the heat? If the stove was central
in the house could you still do the big load in the back, or
does that part have to be outside.
well, thanks for your time, we can send pictures if that
would be helpful, or if you have any other places to send
us, that would be appreciated (go piss off with all your questions, probably!)
Becka and Jeff Gagne
Schoodic Hollow Farm
Franklin, me

[Donkey]

The "handle" is actually a little shelf for matches and whatnot.

I heat around 1800 square ft. with it.
I don't have any experience doing hydronics. Personally, I have my doubts about it.
I built my stove before Ianto and Leslie's book. I had a copy of Aprovecho's cookstove pamphlet and a good deal of theory from Ianto.. I had seen a working model and knew what the guts had to be... So I just went for it and did what seemed right at the moment.
I don't generally run both stoves at the same time, though I have and occasionally do. They both slow down a little when the other is working. Both run better when the other's door is closed.
The main heater does have a short bench, It can be seen in the image, foreground to the lower left. If I were to do it over again, I'd either make a larger bench or some kind of bell/bench setup that can be sat upon. Too much heat goes out the chimney and I would do better with larger storage. Also, it think that I would provide a better initial radiator, it would be nice to get a little more quick heat into the house. Maybe something like the metal barrel but more attractive, not as tall, perhaps some kind of custom steel welded thing.
Another of the changes that I would make would be to place the stove more in the middle of the house (since you mention it). I would look for a way to bring air in from the outside, it's nice not to have the draft inside my living space. I SHOULD have placed the stove inside and wrapped the stairs to the second level around it (maybe in embedded stonework or tile), as well as more heated seating.

Back-loading was a happy accident.. We could probably think of a couple-few other ways to accomplish the same thing, with piped in air, large load space, glass to see the fire, yadda yadda and etc.

[strivin]

Thanks, Donkey for all the thoughts...So on the unconventional side, have you ever heard of anyone doing
a rocket on the bottom floor with a connected rocket on the kitchen level? We just thought it could radiate the heat throughout the floors better potentially, but i don't know. with your knowledge of the 'guts' what would your thought be on that?
thanks,
becka

[hpmer]

Donkey,

I notice in the pictures that the heat riser looks to be made of stove pipe. Has it held up well, or does it burn out and have to be replaced periodically? I ask because I have made several cook stoves with metal cans and they only last 20-30 hours of burn time at best.

[Donkey]

The heat riser for the cookstove side was stovepipe and it's completely wasted now. I've pulled it out, but first I insulated around with pearlite/clay which has fired hard around the edges.
The pearlite/clay is quite brittle, so I've been thinking of slipping a new pipe inside. Just haven't done it yet.