Permaculture Our Urban Design Part 8 - Rocket Oven Pt2

[mrsadoisland]

What a Happy Family Great work Mate all the Best..

[MrChrisTowerton]

@mrsadoisland Message me if you post clips of your block in Japan... I'd be keen to see how things are done there...

[xWintermutex]

Hi there, thanks for your excellent high quality video! You inspired me to build something similar too. The only thing that makes me doubt is that you are reaching only such low temperatures. For pizza's, I need about 500'C. Is it maybe that your rocket stove is too small to heat up the whole mass? By the way, I am considering to use rebars and chicken wire to reinforce the construction, does that sound smart or stupid? Thanks again! It was a pleasure to watch!

[MrChrisTowerton]

@xWintermutex Hey there... Ta... Your right, for us the temperatures are good but more similar to a normal oven... lately we are growing accustom to cooking at 200 deg C because the oven seems to hover there with the lest amount of monitoring… The original posters… DateFarmer have had theirs up to 1250 deg F! Either way, so long as you are able to make the stove removable it can be easily experimented upon… It also seems logical that a larger rocket stove should produce more heat… Chris

[MrChrisTowerton]

@xWintermutex Secondly...If you build the cob as thick as we did I don’t believe the dome itself needs reo…But I would strongly recommend reinforcing the doorway in some fashion…We used 50mm by 3mm flat bar, it was pretty cheap and really easy to work with…We originally put single pieces of 12mm reobar above the doorway but with out a solid reference point they gave little strength…Our flat bar on the other hand had its foundation in the preset cob base and worked like a treat…Chris

[spiritualinsight]

Forgive me but I believe there is linseed oil that is placed in cob to make it water sealed.its a all-natural alternative to other sealants and such.

[MrChrisTowerton]

@spiritualinsight Hey there... I've read that linseed can be painted onto the cob, we did consider this but we also wanted to try lime render...Maybe we could have sealed the cob first, then rendered it? But I guess the linseed would need to be reapplied some time in the future? Whereas the driveway sealant will probably last two years and can be reapplied directly to the render.... Any other location and we would have just built a roof over it....:-) Chris

[AOHCalgary]

Awesome Video!

We need to move our old Cob oven and this gives me a great idea for our new outdoor kitchen. My question is how did you get the metal drum out when you were ready to remove the sand?

cheers

[MrChrisTowerton]

@AOHCalgary Ta... The barrel was made of plastic. We cut it with an angle grinder in two locations, one each side of the door aperture... Some sand was then dug out leaving the rest of the drum easy to removed...As stated in the clip though, the doorway needed to be quickly supported, as it began to sag straight way... Hope this helps... Chris

[EKOSMUNiDAD]

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...OOO... O ...OOO...

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[okhomestead]

@MrChrisTowerton You do such a great job of instruction! I had never thought to do this, nor had the desire, but your wonderful video has given me the urge to build one. I will keep you posted on how my efforts work out. Thanks for turning me onto another project. Love your videos!

[MrChrisTowerton]

@okhomestead Thanks Steve... Wish you the best with your version... Checkout the links in the description of this video to the original posters clip and web page... It is much better explained there… Updating all... We did end up coating the outside with driveway sealant… We have had some heavy downpours since and all is well... We have now reached a new max of 300 deg C... Chris

[GuardianofDivinity]

Perfect! Great work.....

[MrChrisTowerton]

@GuardianofDivinity Thanks... To Update... We have opened the hole to the oven's fuel feeder by around 1 inch. Before we were getting 200 Deg C max and now we are seeing a sustained 250 Deg C...

[DateFarmer]

Chris,

I tried responding earlier but apparently I clicked the wrong button. Great job on the oven and video. We and Larry Winiarski are wondering if you installed a deflector plate on the roof of the oven. If you didn't that may be part of the reason you aren't getting as hot in the oven. Also the fact that your oven is still probably not completely dried out would keep things cooler. We turned ours into a kiln again and got it up to 1250 F before we cut the fire. Email us for more conversation

[MrChrisTowerton]

@ DateFarmer Hey there - We are using an old tin plate as a top deflector. It has around 1" clearance from the roof and is 10" in diameter. We've tried it with the plate removed but it didn't seem to make much difference to the temperature however it did seem to increase the draw. I'm guessing that we have more thermal mass than you guys, as our sidewalls never seem to be warm to the touch, even after 10 hours up time. Or maybe the vermiculite is just working really well as an insulator?

[StarcraftAlphaBeta]

This is great!

[MrChrisTowerton]

@StarcraftAlphaBeta Thanks... I'm been playing around with it today and have cut out the opening to allow more wood in the rocket stove under the oven by about an inch... Previously we had only been able to get a maximum of 240 deg c (450F) but generally only around 200 deg c (400F)... Now capable of holding more wood we are hoping for something hotter...

[rawutah]

so beautiful!!!

[MrChrisTowerton]

@rawutah Thanks Jake...

[tractorman4207]

Thanks chris it seams like you have the clay mix mastered ...

[tractorman4207]

It looks really great, :-)... how did the door hold up? the weight of the final door, it looks heavy

..

[MrChrisTowerton]

@tractorman4207

Hey Tractor Man!... The Door came up pretty good. The cob did shrink away from the steel frame about 2mm... Steel makes for greater durability and more accurate tolerances. In the end we had steel boarders to the door and on the oven - inner arch, outer arch and two skids . A lot of time could have been saved if I had know that we were going to configure it as we did. I would still install the metal arches and slides post cobbing though. The door weighs 15.5Kg (34.2Pounds)!!!

[catfish222banjo]

awesome!

[MrChrisTowerton]

@catfish222banjo Ta

[dalecalder2003]

Great looking oven congratulations.

[MrChrisTowerton]

@dalecalder2003 Hey Dale... Thanks.. Well our resent weather answered your question from part one... Definitely a roof required, as any water in the clay would probably crack it apart come the freeze... I must also thank you, as I realised from watching "Confessions of a Gageteer" that I had been incorrectly filling my coffee pot... :-)

[mhpgardener]

That is an awesome looking stove Chris. Beautiful from a visual standpoint, as well as effective. Nice job.

[MrChrisTowerton]

@mhpgardener Hey Bobby, Swap you one of your hoop houses and a flat piece of ground to put it...lol

[MrChrisTowerton]

Hey all,

The three-hour burn would have used at a guess less than 1 cubic foot of wood...

It took around 800kg of clay to build both rocket stove and the oven... Most of the "1 and 1/2 inch" layers were more like 2 inch though... and because of an offset to the port hole in relation to the base, the camera side of the oven is around 8 inches thick in order to have things look even... Two metal slides were included in the base protecting the render from the door sliding in and out…

Chris

[baconsoda]

Excellent! I love your methodical approach to a task.

Best Wishes, Brendan.

[MrChrisTowerton]

@baconsoda Wow speedy viewing... I've only just posted... And always quick to encourage too!!!! Thanks