Rocket Stove Research

Leyland Rocket Mass Heaters

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Papered

Yesterday me and my dad papered around the timber of the barrel. We worked into the dark as its winter and the sun doesn't stick around long. Working from the bottom upwards so the over lapps would allow any condensation to run straight off and down. We used synthetic warp **stuff, and hammer tacked (staple gun but held like a hammer) it on. Helps having a dad who's a joiner around :)

Research on Reciprocal Frames

The type of reciprocal frame we have constructed:

Other reciprocal frames: 

Grinding off the Crust

Scott grinding the crust of what ever is inside the barrel. Very fine dust comes off when you use wire brushes on an angle grinder. We have to wear a boiler suit, that catches the fragments of wire brush, and to avoid the dust, gloves and a respirator mask to prevent inhalation of dust. 

Its really slow work at about a square meter per hour. Your whole body starts to vibrate and hands feel like they will shake themselves off. We are using a 9" angle grinder so its pretty arm wrenching after a while. 

Its such a satisfying job to brush off the crust and come through to the beautiful contours of oak wood underneath. 

Note: Daft punk is great music to listen to with a whizzing power tool in hand. 

Picking Up from where Dad Left off

Having graduated from Glasgow school of art in 2014 i have come back home to set up a life. I learned so many things at university and wanted  to incorporate them into my future. The ideal life i could lead would be to be carbon neutral and have a job that involved the community local to me. I want to give to my community and teach people what i have learned at university.

So, our home, "The Whisky Barrel" is a working in progress construction started by my father in 2010. It has been standing a while with no work taking place on in for some time so Scott, my boyfriend, and I have taken on the challenge to make it into our home.

Currently the barrel looking like this :

You can clearly still see the previous function of the barrel; shape of the barrel, markings left by the iron rings to hold the shape of the oak timber together. 

My dad did all of this work mainly by himself. Laying the foundations, blocks of concrete salvaged from a local building being torn down, the floor which is the base of the barrel, so oak timber. then the walls of the barrel, fitting together the beveled edge lengths of oak timber (that you can see from this photo), additionally he cut the door and window holes. Finally, he constructed a 4 layered roof. First, laying a frame of peeled round wood and laying unpeeled smaller poles across those main poles to bridge the spaces left in-between the larger poles. Then laying a tarpaulin like sheet over the wooden frame to prevent the following 3rd layer of straw from coming through the frames gaps. Fourth, is a heavy weight butyl pond liner held on by nailed on blocks of wood. The building is crowned with a simple gable shaped window allowing the water to be shed either side additionally becoming a skylight for the space inside. See photo below: