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Post by matthewwalker on Nov 14, 2015 6:33:45 GMT -8
Thanks Trev. No, no steel. I did that in 2013. That is one of the challenges for sure with doing this, using material so far from the normal use. It's going to take a long time for people to trust an aluminum wood stove. It doesn't radiate, has low heat tolerance, has low mass, and so on. On first blush, it looks like a terrible material for stoves. But, if you go back to my 2013 video of my steel versions I'm preaching insulation and holding my hand on the cool side of the fire box, but the damn box was 350 pounds! Old habits die hard!! These materials will do just fine with a barrel. I think that's one of the coolest things about this construction. It solves a ton of issues with trying to share these burners, as not only are these perfect stand alone burners, they are fabulous cores in a masonry build. The composite structure means they are strong enough to support their own masonry skins, at least during the build, making things super easy to throw together without sweating the masonry trade details, and easily changed. I'm thinking I'm going to bust up my cob/cast burn chamber in my main heater and just drop one of these into the hole, plug and play. Switch back and forth between the J and the Batch, etc. Oh, and it would be super easy, although not cheap, to work these up in any configuration to drop into a masonry box. Like, a Vortex box, for example.  |
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Post by patamos on Nov 14, 2015 8:12:33 GMT -8
Matt, i drive a gen 1 dodge cummins. Are you telling me those pistons are aluminum?
Next to the old toyota 3-B s these are the most durable engines on the road.
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Post by matthewwalker on Nov 14, 2015 9:12:41 GMT -8
Yeah man, that's why when people turn up the fuel pump or tweak them from stock at all, the first thing to do is get a pyrometer on the exhaust as close as possible to the turbo and cylinders. Sustained temps above 1300°F and the pistons melt. The old ones like yours the fuel pumps were wound way, way down so there's no way to ever get close to burning the pistons.
My exact numbers may be off, but that's the gist of it. I've had my First Gen. for over 20 years and not half a million miles yet, but well over a quarter. Best rigs ever!
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Post by Vortex on Nov 14, 2015 13:18:06 GMT -8
Well, I'm surprised. I wouldn't have thought it could withstand the heat, but it seems you're not the first to use it in 'rocketry'  Wikipedia: "The low melting point of aluminium alloys has not precluded their use in rocketry; even for use in constructing combustion chambers where gases can reach 3500 K. The Agena upper stage engine used a regeneratively cooled aluminium design for some parts of the nozzle, including the thermally critical throat region." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium |
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Post by matthewwalker on Nov 14, 2015 16:56:37 GMT -8
Ha! That's awesome. Cummins, Corvettes, Walker Stoves, and NASA. I love it! So, here's the first accessory. I don't need to tell you guys how one might use this....  |
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Post by patamos on Nov 14, 2015 22:01:20 GMT -8
makes me want to slather the whole thing in old bricks and cob…
on that note, how much does that metal want to expand from cold to hot?
And what is the surface temp once warmed up?
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Post by matthewwalker on Nov 15, 2015 6:54:28 GMT -8
I'm going to assume you are talking about the Aluminum. The Primary Radiator is steel.
The aluminum moves quite a bit, but a little expansion joint and it will nestle perfectly in a masonry skin. Surface temp can be as high as 300°F or so. Aluminum is weird, you can have your hand right next to it and not feel any heat coming off, but it conducts so well that if you touch it it will blast you with heat far in excess of the temp, seemingly, relative to touching hot steel. So, uh, the skins are cool, but not cool. If that makes sense. Good for clearances. Once coupled to masonry though, it should just sorta disappear thermally since it is low mass/high conductivity.
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Post by ericvw on Nov 15, 2015 12:57:41 GMT -8
Looking great matthewwalker ! It's no wonder I haven't seen much of you, especially on the firewood hoarding site! You've been super busy, I'm loving the results. Huge kudos to you sir- very inspiring, indeed! Eric VW |
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Post by talltuk on Nov 22, 2015 13:45:41 GMT -8
Super sweet dude. You are an inspiration as ever. Keep up the good work mate. Will be experimenting with the walker tube in my outside batch bench. Can't wait.
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Post by Donkey on Dec 15, 2015 22:36:36 GMT -8
Oh my god!! I just saw this!!
That's great!!
How frigging cool is that? Just about perfect portable demo model!
Want!
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Post by pinhead on Jan 11, 2016 8:40:50 GMT -8
I'm going to assume you are talking about the Aluminum. The Primary Radiator is steel. The aluminum moves quite a bit, but a little expansion joint and it will nestle perfectly in a masonry skin. Surface temp can be as high as 300°F or so. Aluminum is weird, you can have your hand right next to it and not feel any heat coming off, but it conducts so well that if you touch it it will blast you with heat far in excess of the temp, seemingly, relative to touching hot steel. So, uh, the skins are cool, but not cool. If that makes sense. Good for clearances. Once coupled to masonry though, it should just sorta disappear thermally since it is low mass/high conductivity. Aluminium has high reflectivity and conductivity but low emissivity - which is why you can hold your hand close to it and not feel the heat. Radiant barriers are generally made of aluminium for this reason. |
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Post by matthewwalker on Sept 19, 2016 8:32:14 GMT -8
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Wikipedia: "The low melting point of aluminium alloys has not precluded their use in rocketry; even for use in constructing combustion chambers where gases can reach 3500 K. The Agena upper stage engine used a regeneratively cooled aluminium design for some parts of the nozzle, including the thermally critical throat region."
