Innovative Rocket Stove Designs

Matt Remine love’s to tool on rocket stoves. You can tell, look at the Rocket Mass Heater Half Barrel System video. Matt shares some ideas like: front loading batch configuration, windows!, reducing costs while using ubiquitous 55 gallon barrels as structure. I can imagine many outdoor star-gazing parties on this toasty rocket!
Look for more of Matt and his innovations building rockets.

One Comment

  • Bob Campbell says:

    Matt, re: the stiffness of the coil @ the solder joint.

    I’m not an expert but I do have some insight. As a long time cartridge re-loader, I learned (well known among reloaders) that cooperous alloys react the opposite to work-hardening and tempering than do iron based alloys.

    Where quenching red hot carbon steel in oil or water to harden it, quenching hot copper softens it. This not only for work hardening but also because of the reaction to your soldering heating.

    With steel, to soften it, heat it and surround with ashes or better lime, to cause it to cool very slowly. Obstinate copper just gotta’ be differen’t. When you brought it to a high heat, then didn’t quench it, it hardened. I know, sounds weird….

    When I’ve reloaded a cartridge case several times, if I don’t soften the work-hardened neck, it will split.

    The solution: quench from high heat. I stand a bunch of work-hardened cases up on a cookie sheet filled with water. With a rod in one hand and a propane torch in the other, I play the flame on one at a time, (passing flame pre-heating the next) until the neck glows, then tip it over in the water. Quenched dead soft! A hundred cases in minutes.

    Because of this, I believe that when soldering, had you played the flame on a slightly wider section across the coupling joint while soldering, then dumped cold water on it, it would have softened the pipe on both sides of the joint, leaving only the coupling stiff and even it would be a little softer.

    Might be worth an experiment. A tiny flat just at the coupling would be nicer, ‘specially if the coil needs to be slipped into another tube on the outside, as when placing a water coil between the insulated chimney and the outer shell of a Rocket Stove..

    Love your stuff Matt,

    Bob