My first rocket stove

This was the first rocket I built for my workshop.

Great little stove! I like the air intake mod!

Kevin Bacon wrote:

Great little stove! I like the air intake mod!

Yes I think the air intake is quite ingenious.

Thanks fellas, Im going to increase the size of the firebox in the next week or so to get longer pieces of wood in. Going to keep it the same size but extend it up to around 18 inch. Be interesting to see the burn time with it loaded and damped.

Looking forward to seeing how that works out.

Love the big glass on this stove. The secondary air feed is really clever. Do you fancy doing a bit of stainless welding for me?

woodrascal wrote:

Love the big glass on this stove. The secondary air feed is really clever. Do you fancy doing a bit of stainless welding for me?

Whooooahh you aint seen my welding mate, I wouldnt ask me to weld anything :shock:

hi Loz! i also made a quite long feed chamber and caotrpheos put my attention about smoke that will come out as i open the door on the top, so i moved the door to the front side..
thought it might be interesting for you

ppotty1 Admin wrote:

Thanks fellas, Im going to increase the size of the firebox in the next week or so to get longer pieces of wood in. Going to keep it the same size but extend it up to around 18 inch. Be interesting to see the burn time with it loaded and damped.

Loz, This is also my favorite RS design build video of yours. I am going to try duplicate some of your design ideas into my multiple fuel RS, but only different.

I started a Simple RS automation topic, in the attempt of generating ideas on longer burn times, Via simple automation.

I know a larger feed tube will give a longer burn time, what about thermostatically controlled devices to automatically control even longer burn time out of your fuel?

Maybe this type of automation isn't possible with an RS, because of the drafting design of the RS ? Once the rocketing burn effect is started, maybe it cant be fire back up once the burn has been slowed down ? Kind of a high-low, high-low burn rate in the burn chamber.

I often reference back to the automation designs on the old hopper stoker coal burners.

Maybe this type of automation isn't a realistic option with these types of RS designed stoves? I just thought I would throw this out there. :?:

I believe the beauty of a larger firebox holding say 2 gallon of timber is that once the timber is alight you can slow the burn down to almost nothing, just a whisker of air is all it needs to stay alight and give off heat, once the room needs more heat open the vents a little add another log and away it goes. You are not going to pull the same heat once you slow the air down obviously, but you get a really good heat transfer directly from the fuel box. you could fit a thermostat or bi metal strip affair to a vent intake and control it that way, yes it would work I had a wood stove 25 yrs ago that had one fitted, that stove would burn for 12 hours on a fill.

Loz,

Since I am new to this RS design and the concept behind the cleaner burning of the fuel. I am sure once I have my first RS build completed and running I will be able to answer a lot of my own questions from there on.

I am not trying to reinvent a proven working design, maybe put my own little twist on things to be able to squeeze a few more BTU out of it and longer burn times.

Before I start any of my first time fabrication projects of anything new, I find the build to be much easier for me to first have a completed model upstairs before I fire my cutting torch. Unless I have the use of new steel for a project  for someone else, I would say 90% of all my own personal project I us scrap iron. More times then not, I don't always have the perfect sized piece or gauge of iron at hand, so this is when my creative juices need to start flowing. This design phase of mine can sometimes put a delay in the start of my projects, in return making my finished project well worth the wait.

One interesting design twist I built into the BFH stove I am standing by is this, other then poking the hot coals in the burn box. I never had to think about cleaning ash until I hit the 4 week mark,this was with wood only. I would run a constant forced hot air duct temp anywhere from 100F-350F, even during the coldest parts of the winter. My 28x32 with 9'side walls workshop has only one walk in door and one overhead door and is insulated.

It was nothing for me to have 80-90F  in shop constant air temperatures, more times then not I would have to leave the doors a crack to help cool the place down.

This is why I was wanting to incorporate some kind of air intake automation to help regulate my burn rate, over having to do it manually.

Almost finished the new big momma firebox looking good so far. Moved the secondary air to have it independent on this one.

Hi ppoty1,
   Almost perfect and it looks a beast from any angle. Have you considered at the front of fire box, on the inside above the cleanout door, adding another s steel plate to add more hot air not as a glass wash but as holes, as you may see gas ignition from them. just thinking out loud, I'm looking forward to the sawdust burn 

Nice Stove Loz

Three things, first you did not show us temperature readings after you opened the secondary air at 18:32 min;
second, setting the thermometer for Celsius will not hurt;
third, did you install a chimney dumper? if not try it, you will see that it helps to maintain wood burning for longer periods and still achieve high heat output, specially in stoves with secondary air.

Could you please show us on the next video how do you load wood and if there is any smoke coming out? thanks

2ndburn wrote:

Hi ppoty1,
   Almost perfect and it looks a beast from any angle. Have you considered at the front of fire box, on the inside above the cleanout door, adding another s steel plate to add more hot air not as a glass wash but as holes, as you may see gas ignition from them. just thinking out loud, I'm looking forward to the sawdust burn 

Thanks mate, Suppose that could be worth a try good idea.

caotropheus wrote:

Nice Stove Loz

Three things, first you did not show us temperature readings after you opened the secondary air at 18:32 min;
second, setting the thermometer for Celsius will not hurt;
third, did you install a chimney dumper? if not try it, you will see that it helps to maintain wood burning for longer periods and still achieve high heat output, specially in stoves with secondary air.

Could you please show us on the next video how do you load wood and if there is any smoke coming out? thanks

Thanks Caotr Will explain my thoughts on sec air in Explaining Rocket stoves, as Im often asked that question.

I hate working in Celsius also hate metric measurements and kilos etc, They just don't register with me 67 centimetres for example means nothing but I can measure out 28 inches with my hands and be within half an inch.
My butcher and greengrocer still sell in pounds rather than kilos so I cant be the only one. I only read out the shop temp in C because I cant change it to F.

Much prefer to limit the air intake than restrict the flue with a dumper, although not yet tried it on a rocket.

Loading firebox is fairly simple I just start with a few sticks dropped on paper when alight I drop in a few small blocks then load 2 or 3 big logs to fill the box. 4-5 hour burn today on one load of timber and the shop is red hot...too hot really! and that was on a slow burn. Now using less wood than before with the smaller box crazy!!
Zero smoke from flue just condensation, I put my nose into it and it had a very mild smell of wood.

Part 2 the sawdust burn is here...

Perhaps you touched on this previously, but what is the purpose of the fireboard on the front and back of the firebox? Is it a performance thing? If they were not there what would you expect?

I dont think I saw which heat riser you are using in this stove, is it the one with the square front that gets taller and more rectangular as it enters the heat riser to create the vortex?

Really fine build!

Hi Loz,
          I'm surprised at the burn time, and I was expecting you having problems when it started to draw that the sawdust would be drawn up into the riser. At the end of the burn you say that there is a small amount of sawdust that is unburned, maybe adding shavings or kindling and sawdust mix at the bottom when you pack the fire box to help at the end of the burn. Or it maybe due to the shape of the fire box, this must be a first, I'm impressed because I have access to sawdust. you have me thinking. well done.  

Very impressive videos Sir!! I like the idea with the sawdust burn.

Welding gets better the more you do it. And some days it just doesn't work lol!!! Just the way it goes I guess!!

Sure am learning a lot from this stuff, I really appreciate your openness with your ideas.

Bill

ievolve wrote:

Perhaps you touched on this previously, but what is the purpose of the fireboard on the front and back of the firebox?  Is it a performance thing?  If they were not there what would you expect?  

I dont think I saw which heat riser you are using in this stove, is it the one with the square front that gets taller and more rectangular as it enters the heat riser to create the vortex?

Really fine build!

The reason for the fireboard was mainly to keep the inside really hot and also to protect the outside steel from the heat.
I changed this riser from the tall complicated one to the rectangular one, only reason was that I made the taller one too narrow which slowed down the air flow too much, it worked really well for conserving fuel but I wanted more heat from the stove so went back to the square design.

2ndburn wrote:

Hi Loz,
          I'm surprised at the burn time, and I was expecting you having problems when it started to draw that the sawdust would be drawn up into the riser. At the end of the burn you say that there is a small amount of sawdust that is unburned, maybe adding shavings or kindling and sawdust mix at the bottom when you pack the fire box to help at the end of the burn. Or it maybe due to the shape of the fire box, this must be a first, I'm impressed because I have access to sawdust. you have me thinking. well done.  

No mate I maybe was not clear. After 2 1/2 hours there was still sawdust left and it was still burning, just pointing out what was left, that carried on slow burning for another 30 mins then I dumped a couple of small logs in. the temps inside the box was off the scale hot which is why I could not re-fill with sawdust. 12 hours today on two boxes of wood!! Exchanger got to over 1000f for the first time ever.

billandlori wrote:

Very impressive videos Sir!! I like the idea with the sawdust burn.

Welding gets better the more you do it. And some days it just doesn't work lol!!! Just the way it goes I guess!!

Sure am learning a lot from this stuff, I really appreciate your openness with your ideas.

Bill

cheers......Only a dummy would forget to turn the Gas on   

ppotty1 Admin wrote:

billandlori wrote:

Very impressive videos Sir!! I like the idea with the sawdust burn.

Welding gets better the more you do it. And some days it just doesn't work lol!!! Just the way it goes I guess!!

Sure am learning a lot from this stuff, I really appreciate your openness with your ideas.

Bill

cheers......Only a dummy would forget to turn the Gas on   

forgot to turn off the gas bottle to my mig welder under pressure one week = MT bottle.. ££££

ppotty1 Admin wrote:

I changed this riser from the tall complicated one to the rectangular one, only reason was that I made the taller one too narrow which slowed down the air flow too much, it worked really well for conserving fuel but I wanted more heat from the stove so went back to the square design.  

The square one still incorporates the vortex right?

Sorry to be so inquisitive. When you start the stove, do you put in some wood and paper, then close the lid? If you do, do you find that smoke comes out the air intake? How long does it take before you are generating a good draft?