norishouse.com

I stopped in at Olympia Salvage, one of our local reuse places, yesterday.  I came away with a few things.  I got a Jennair cooktop I’m hoping I can convert to lp, 38 used fire bricks and a few length of stove pipe, two of which are copper.

I’ve been measuring salvaged windows.  I have almost 3 houses worth.  I plan to use them in like single direction dimension arrays for the sun porch which will keep the cold off the sliding glass door and provide an out of the weather space for the burn chamber of our rocket mass heater.  I have one more stack of windows to measure, then I’ll input all the measurements and sort them according to width or height.

I can use all like dimensions for a single bay . . . say for example I have windows that are 34″ in a single direction.  It doesn’t matter if the window is 70″ or 22″ in the other direction, it will fit in a 34″ bay.  I should have enough windows to build enough bays to go around our small porch area, including the roof.  I don’t want the light reduced in our living space, I just want a buffer to the winter weather.

I’m researching butyl and glazing tapes.   I haven’t got the final details worked out.  I need 2″ glazing tape.  I don’t know if that’s available, but I’ll check.  Then I need 2″ aluminum/butyl rubber tape for the outside seal.  I’ll shop locally if I can.  I’ll try and get into town and see what the hvac place and Eubanks Glass has available.  With some flat head wood screws and some hangers, I should have all I need.   I’ll hang the upper edges on the adjacent buildings and will set the outer edges on a small grade beam/rubble trench foundation.

Charmaine Taylor had an excellent post on the Organic Architecture list today regarding the sustained viability of some building mediums.  She was talking specifically about straw bale, but her words of wisdom can be applied to any perishable medium.  Will the method/medium survive?  For some mediums there are centuries of proof . . . stone, brick, adobe, cob . . . the same can’t be said for straw bale or papercrete.

Charmaine’s post brought other rumblings to mind.  For a while I’ve been pondering the failure rate of self-built homes.  Not after they’re complete, but the number of partially completed subsequently abandoned projects.   In the papercrete world there have been two in the last couple months, one in the just-getting-started stages and one in the almost ready to move in stages.  The projects weren’t abandoned for the same reason, but it does bring to mind some questions.

If the first home you’re involved in building is alternative architecture, do you already have a significant strike against you?

Yesterday we got a lot of little things done. Terry and I got the fittings installed on the solar water conditioning tank. We also picked out the window for the insulating box. I’ve got to retrieve a loaned tool so Terry can build the box. Unless I want to make the box out of papercrete . . . that would be a hoot.

We also got the flap cut for the mixer’s exit port. Terry cut the flanges for the inner tube that will make the snout. He should be able to get the holes cut in the tank today. I’m short the necessary hinges for the flap. Terry thought he had a couple appropriate hinges in his stash, but no joy.

I ordered 100 feet of shade cloth yesterday. I still have to get concrete lath, rebar, cement and a pipe to use for a drive shaft extension. The shaft on the gearbox is 1 3/8. The receptacle on the business end of the universal drive is 1 1/4.

Terry’s working to get the double universal drive line off the auger. It’s been attached since we bought it, so it’s going to take a little bit of fussing to get it loose.

Terry and I brainstormed on the papercrete forms and we have a method we want to try. It’s a little complicated, so we’ll test it. If it works like we think it will we’ll take pics and post the result.

I have been interested in rocket stoves for some time, even researching the operation and construction of simple bench-top stoves using cans and/or pipes. During one of my research forays I came across a reference to a rocket stove mass heater. With great interest I sent off for, and subsequently received, a copy of Rocket Mass Heaters, Superefficient Woodstoves You Can Build (and snuggle up to). Though the book arrived in a far less than pristine condition, it was definately worth the money spent.

Ianto Evans, pyromaniac supreme, and Leslie Jackson, the book’s illustrator and co-author, have presented the rocket stove cum mass heater for those of us who find such science fascinating. The forward says it all.

“ . . . revolutionary concept in wood burning stoves that ensures almost completely clean combustion with high efficiency use of the heat produced.“

My interested in the rocket mass heater has as much to do with my need for the technology (and warmth) as it does my interest in the science. Even though we’re doing PAHS heating, there will be a many year lag before the the system can adequately heat our home through the winter. In the interim I need a way to keep us warm at little to no cost. Part of the “keeping warm” bit has to do with NOT having a smoking beast in my house. I don’t want the wood and its related debris, I don’t want the ash, I don’t want the smoke. I think I can manage the warmth AND all the rest with a rocket mass heater.

So here’s what I’ve learned.

The rocket mass heater can be built inexpensively and can be constructed largely out of recycled bits and pieces. For comparable square footage heating, a rocket mass heater uses less than half the wood of a conventional “efficient” wood heater. It even uses less wood than a masonry heater. In my mind that’s pretty perfect.

The technology of the rocket mass heater is fascinating. The magic trick the rocket stove performs is routing the heat (and smoke) back down to the level of the horizontal burn tube and out through the thermal mass. The key to getting the flow moving in the right direction is to start the draft before the fire is started. This is accomplished by lighting a crumbled sheet of newspaper in the base of the chimney (not shown in diagram).

The exhaust piping can be routed beneath the floor, which is what I’d like to do. Because our initial new living space is going to be quite small, I don’t want to dedicate any of it to the classic cob bench normally used with a rocket mass heater for holding the heat produced by this mass heater. I want to use that space for other things. And, if I route the exhaust piping through the floor, I can heat multiple rooms with a single heater.

Here’s the plan . . .

I want to strip our living quarters down to just the 12×24 we use for a living room which will get the addition of a small open kitchen. I want to build a 12×32 addition attached to the back of this existing building. This new addition will have a bathroom (Airstream goes away) and bedroom (construction shack becomes Terry’s TV room). The jog in the west ends of the buildings will be a glassed in sun porch. In the corner I’ll install the rocket stove which will protrude into the bathroom. The face that protrudes into the porch will be insulated. Installing the feed tube in this location will allow me to feed the stove outside our living space, keeping the smoke and debris out of our house. The sun porch will act as an airlock for our slider, which is our greatest area of heat loss.

All in all, I think this is a good plan.

My sister worked her magic and I was able to mount the gearbox into the fully welded gearbox frame yesterday. The full dimension cured fir supports which hold up the mixer deck are all fastened down sans 4 bolts. Using wood instead of steel will provide a bit of flexibility and help reduce hard shock vibration/wear and tear.

Wad cut the hole in the plywood deck for the gearbox nose, but we can’t fasten the deck down yet as we need a few more bolts for a couple of the supports (one of which you cannot see). As soon as the remaining bolts are installed we’ll prepare the deck for the snout flap and get it fastened down. (Reminder to self - pick up piano hinge today.) If the deck seems abnormally long, it is. The front of the deck has room to hold the trash pump we will need for getting the mix into the forms. The trashy looking lower deck (plywood due to be replaced) will support a safety cage to protect workers from the PTO drive shaft.

We still have to collect a car inner tube (hopefully used and free) and build the flanges to hold the snout to the tank. Once we have those we can cut the holes in the tank for the gearbox and snout drain.

I’m considering mounting stopper blocks (this trailer will tilt to facilitate draining) around the perimeter of the tank to help take the strain off the four bolts that will hold the tank down. I’ll let you know how that goes.

One of our issues with this mixer will be the existing suspension. We aren’t making the classic tow mixer, so we didn’t consider changing the auto frame/suspension/axle a value added activity. To put it another way, we’re leaving all the original suspension items in place. This mixer is designed for stationary mixing (we live on a slope) which should greatly reduce the wear and tear on the mixer and trailer. At this point I’m not concerned about clearance for the tires during mixing. The deck can sink down and set on the tires during loading and mixing. If clearance proves to be an issue (having to move the mixer when it’s full <winces and covers eyes at the mess this will cause>) we’ll install spacer blocks between the axle and the frame before we start mixing. We will have to do a little experimenting to see what works, what needs cut off, what needs additional decking or supports, but for now we’ll leave things as they are until we’ve mixed our first batch or so.

I still have to get a pillow block to carry the tractor end of the section 80 drive shaft pipe that will bo between the tractor’s PTO drive shaft and the mixer gearbox shaft. The pillow block will mount under the full dimension lumber support which holds up the front edge of the mixer deck (upper plywood facing you in the photo).

I’ve still got to get a couple grade 5 bolts to use as shear pins on the pipe shaft, but I won’t do that until I’ve got the pipe. And I’ve got to get the original mower head trimmed, drilled and tapped to accept the mower blade. I’ll take the assembly in to our local metal shop and get that done some time next week. And at some point in this process Wad will replace the old plywood deck on the front of the trailer.

Progress!