Vortex Stove

[patamos]

Just checked the link. might be glitching, so i have loaded it up on my website: amosclayworks.ca

I'm hoping to wrap that backrest sometime this week, so am keen to hear what y'all think

[fuegos]

Pat i can't get the link to work - could you check it out ?

[Vortex]

Try: THIS VIDEO

Also here are the pictures I uploaded for Pat:

[p1]

patamos,

Thanks for the info, I'll see what I can find around the Kamloops area, sure beats freight from back East. Noticing shortages on a lot of stuff lately.

Pat

[patamos]

Hi Pat,

The fellow who runs the masonry supply Shop in Kamloops (Frank D'something Italian...) is a great guy, but will charge you all the freight and then a mark up. So you are better to source from Alphatherm and get it shipped to someplace near you that has a forklift. For doors and hardware i go to either Alex Chernov who distributes Pisla in Canada, or Max Edelson who distributes 'fireway' from China. For years now I have been planning to get an qxy-acetaline rig and start carving off the front sections of defunct metal box stoves... but that is still hovering on the list...
For clay bricks i'd suggest putting an add in the Kamloops paper looking for old chimney bricks. If someone is pulling down an old house you could probably offer to haul a few hundred of them away for free.
We can PM to discuss other things you might need and where you might find them.

Trev, thanks for uploading those pictures.
Tiny 300sq ft cabin. Super tight manouvering cuz it is already full of furniture and stuff.
Fairly dense mass walls (scotch-broom light clay) so lots of harvesting mass.
Previously had a barrel rocket with the beginnings of a bench, knowing we were going to extend it out to a two seater with decent cookstove.
Also had a 2" slope in the as-yet-unleveled floor in the mix.

I love working with clay and clay brick, and do so in areas that i know it will never reach 500c. All of the knowledgeable old timers I have asked say that'll be about 5 feet downstream from the firebox... but I err on the side of caution.

Where hotter than 500c, and/or occasionally cycling above 250c, i switch to firebrick or clay flue liner core.

With firebox i go double wall with ceramic blanket.

Exhaust mainfold i use firebrick lined with splits of IFB, glued with super 3000 (sodium silicate and talc putty).

The whole heater is covered in cob plaster. And most of it also has 4.5 oz fiberglass mesh embedded in the outer 1/4" of browncoat.
Thinner wall sections (like the backrest on this one) I also embed the fibermesh on the inside channels, and include about 25% S-3000 in the mud.

All in all this is a hybrid technique between
- cob mass,
- old school single-skin clay-brick and clay-sand mortar,
- 'double skin' with fibrous parge coats, and
- modern double wall...
with 2 or 3 stages of transition from one end to the other.
The trick is knowing where to expect thermal expansion and let things move around within a shell (double wall with padding)... and where to snug things up tight...

[tferr]

Thanks for all the jam packed info in this thread. Trev do you have any pics of the mold that was used for your bottom piece of the firebox
Tom

[Vortex]

Hi Tom,

The V-shaped floor used now was cut from a spare 45mm thick firebox side with a 4" hand grinder. I have a drawing of how to cut it, I've scanned it and uploaded it HERE for you.



If you were referring to the previous grate:



Then it's the one on the bottom right of this picture:

[marcios]

Hi Trev,
what do you think about the overall combustion efficiency between the 4" design with and without top chamber?

[marcios]

Nov 15, 2021 20:07:31 GMT -8 patamos said:

Hi Pat,

The fellow who runs the masonry supply Shop in Kamloops (Frank D'something Italian...) is a great guy, but will charge you all the freight and then a mark up. So you are better to source from Alphatherm and get it shipped to someplace near you that has a forklift. For doors and hardware i go to either Alex Chernov who distributes Pisla in Canada, or Max Edelson who distributes 'fireway' from China. For years now I have been planning to get an qxy-acetaline rig and start carving off the front sections of defunct metal box stoves... but that is still hovering on the list...
For clay bricks i'd suggest putting an add in the Kamloops paper looking for old chimney bricks. If someone is pulling down an old house you could probably offer to haul a few hundred of them away for free.
We can PM to discuss other things you might need and where you might find them.

Trev, thanks for uploading those pictures.
Tiny 300sq ft cabin. Super tight manouvering cuz it is already full of furniture and stuff.
Fairly dense mass walls (scotch-broom light clay) so lots of harvesting mass.
Previously had a barrel rocket with the beginnings of a bench, knowing we were going to extend it out to a two seater with decent cookstove.
Also had a 2" slope in the as-yet-unleveled floor in the mix.

I love working with clay and clay brick, and do so in areas that i know it will never reach 500c. All of the knowledgeable old timers I have asked say that'll be about 5 feet downstream from the firebox... but I err on the side of caution.

Where hotter than 500c, and/or occasionally cycling above 250c, i switch to firebrick or clay flue liner core.

With firebox i go double wall with ceramic blanket.

Exhaust mainfold i use firebrick lined with splits of IFB, glued with super 3000 (sodium silicate and talc putty).

The whole heater is covered in cob plaster. And most of it also has 4.5 oz fiberglass mesh embedded in the outer 1/4" of browncoat.
Thinner wall sections (like the backrest on this one) I also embed the fibermesh on the inside channels, and include about 25% S-3000 in the mud.

All in all this is a hybrid technique between
- cob mass,
- old school single-skin clay-brick and clay-sand mortar,
- 'double skin' with fibrous parge coats, and
- modern double wall...
with 2 or 3 stages of transition from one end to the other.
The trick is knowing where to expect thermal expansion and let things move around within a shell (double wall with padding)... and where to snug things up tight...

Hi Pat,

What material for the afterbunner chamber floor and roof boards?

Could you give details of the mortars for joining bricks?

[tferr]

Thanks Trev I just realized I will have to rejig the size a bit for a 7 inch box

[Vortex]

Multiply the 6" dimensions by 1.166 for a 7" system.

Nov 22, 2021 4:56:16 GMT -8 marcios said:

Hi Trev,
what do you think about the overall combustion efficiency between the 4" design with and without top chamber?

The main difference is the lack of an insulated afterburner roof in the cooktop stove. I cant see it making a huge difference, maybe a bit at the start of the burn, but once the hotplate is up to cooking temps it's going to be radiating heat back anyway.

[tferr]

Nov 22, 2021 10:55:07 GMT -8 Vortex said:

Multiple the 6" dimensions by 1.166 for a 7" system.

Thanks again...so that should work for all of the openings and ports correct?
I am having a bit of trouble understanding the afterburner overhang was that necessary for length of the afterburner chamber.?

[Vortex]

Yes, multiply by 1.166 for everything. In the sketchup it's the top chamber that is deeper so there is an overhang on the back. Just make the whole stove that deep and then you have the option to extend the firebox and/or afterburner if you want.

[Vortex]

Apologies, all the videos on this thread have been temporarily blocked until I can find somewhere else to host them. They're using 4GB of data a day on my server at the moment and my hosting company want another 100 euro a year.
Trev

[hof]

What ISA should be for 150 mm vortex stove?