So yesterday, I got to play outside a bit more. I worked on my Pocket Rocket Heater some more. I tore it apart, to see where it got hot, and where it did not and to add 1 more can to complete a burn chamber. I also insulated it with perlite.
The 4 cans, wire and perlite to rebuild the Pocket Rocket StoveThe cans all come together to form a single burn chamber
I couldn’t find my baling wire (old timers will tell you it’s duct tape 1.0) so I used a bit of floral wire. Not as sturdy, and I expect it to be too light, so a good burn will melt it enough that it will break, but this is just a test unit, right?
I also poured perlite all around the inside cans to insulate the stove burn chamber area. Of course, I forgot to take a photo of this step. Bummer.
With the lid back on, I now have an insulated Pocket Rocket StoveThe wood tray is KEY to the workings of this stove, it allows the air to come in from underneith and thus through the fireThe wood sits on top of the wood tray.Shiney!The whole unit as it currently exists.
I am quite happy with how it all works. I like fire, and I like making things from junk.
My future plans for this particular unit is to either run a longish near horizontal 4″ exhaust out a window or maybe do the full on inverted chimney. This involves a 2nd, much larger chimney placed around the current one with a cap on top. A horizontal exhaust is then attached to the bottom of the outer chimney to vent the gasses. This allows the whole thing more time to release more air into the space that it occupies. It’s worth trying to play with, that’s for sure!
I needed to make something today… so I decided to make a “pocket rocket heater”. These are a small sized high air flow wood stove that sounds like a rocket as they suck so much air.
I decided to make mine “right” so I used an old, dried up paint can that was in the basement when I bought the house and some speghetti sauce cans. Ok, the “doing it right” ment I went out and bought vent pipe. I got a double walled gas water heater pipe, a 3″ to 4″ reducer, a variable elbow and a length of 4″ pipe. Dang is that stuff spendy! $40! Well, a bag of perlite is in there too.
I initially wanted to make a downdraft gravity fed unit, but that’s going to be really challenging to pull off in a paint can. So I made a simpler side feed unit.
Tin snips to cut out a whole in the side of a paint can.A big hole for a speghetti sauce can for the wood inlet part.The inside of the Pocket RocketTwo cans intersect, so I cut a few tabs so they interface wellThis bit of can gets marked, cut and bent as wellLooking down, you can see that the 2 cans interface cleanly.
Its not done, but I decided to fire it anyhow, if only using cleaning out the paint as my excuse. It needs a fire shelf so air can flow under the wood and then up through the fire. It also needs the fire area enclosed so I can insulate the can with the perlite.
It burns even when missing the fire shelf and the burn chamber not being enclosed inside the can.The safest place to test the Pocket Rocket heater is on my grill.It's tedious to keep feeding the wood. It needs the fire shelf to help it burn better too.
I guess if you can insulate the burn chamber, these things can burn so hot that they burn clean. Just carbon dioxide and water. This is my goal. If I melt the stove pipe, its all in the name of science. Maybe next time I will get the right kind of pipe.
Hopefully tomorrow I can take it apart, see where it got hot, etc. and then finish the Pocket Rocket Heater. I want to add 1 more can to complete the burn chamber, and then pack perlite around it inside the can. I also want to set it up inside the garage so I can heat the garage. I will run it out one of my windows. Stove pipe out the upper part, flexable dryer vent for an air intake coming in the lower part.
I need one of those temperature guns so I can see what the temp gradient is on the stove pipe. I want to run enough length inside the garage that I actually can heat the garage.
We tried to hang a curtain rod on the living room window. The blinds made it challenging. The mounting hardware was too short to allow the curtain rod to be hung, so I needed to shim it out. I figured it was a good time to break out the new router bits a good friend bought me!
The finished curtain rod bracket.Gotta love raw materials and tools!I screwed the block to the wood and clamped it. This way didn't work - no support for the router. I had to do it another way.The finished shim. Notice the inset for the metal bracket. It would have been too thick otherwise and not fit behind the blinds.Good thing it's behind curtains and blinds. Not a very good job.A lesson learned about routers, they ought to be named wood wanderers.All that work to make 3 brackets, and it looks like hell. The curtain rod is too short.
Get everything put up, and the curtain rod is too short and looks all wobbly. We are going to try to find something to make the rod longer. The curtains will hide any ugliness that may ensue.
This last summer, I hosted a Primitive Skills Meetup in my backyard where we made AtlAtls, or spear throwers. It was a blast! I just found a video of it today, so that’s why this post is 6 months later.
An AtlAtl is basically a stick that is used to throw a spear or dart. Now, my back yard isn’t really big enough for such activities, and we did bounce a few off my garage siding and through the open door. All in all, it was a blast!
Alan, I STILL have your water bottle – next time I see you, I shall return it to you.
It’s an interesting enough project that I felt that they needed a bit of blog press about it, even though I am not really saying anything at all about it. I just really enjoyed hanging out with fellow computer geeks and doing some brainstorming. Always fun!
