Rocket stove

The plans are pretty much finalized in my head for the rocket mass heater.  This afternoon when I went up to the neighbors to move the trees, we were talking about the project at hand.  I said that I needed a tank from a water heater.  Low and behold he had two old water heaters that he said I was welcome to.  It will need a good cleaning as well as a hole patched.  Tomorrow I will cut off the bottom of the tank then a parallel line 7 or so inches off the ground taking out the rusty part.  We will then weld the bottom back on, add a new temperature and pressure blow off valve and be cooking with gas.  I mean wood.

In the driveway now sits a mocked up version of the stove.  It was getting dark and I was really just playing with bricks and fire.  Every brick is different depending on where you get it.  So every rocket stove is unique.  The key is having the right dimensions.  After playing with the blocks, I got the puzzle figured out mostly.  It is smart to do the initial conception outside.

After much deliberation the rocket mass heater will be located inside the workshop where I currently have scrap wood stored.  It will serve more functions and require less change to the current everything.  It is top priority to organize the shop again and move some tables around making ample room for the heating unit.  The project workload has definitely scaled up from my initial mental conceptions.