Permsteading.com

Yeah, that's why I always burn them dry against all better judgement. They just don't seem to let go of the water at all without the fire to drive it out. You can wait weeks and it won't change much.

Finally did a burn on the Dr Seuss core. The clay was totally wet at this time. Wet to the touch even.



And then it all went sideways:



Luckily, after that I pulled off the broken, bread-loaf sized chunks, resculpted it, and now the thing is completely dry, crack free, and very hard. I have moved it into the shop to its final location. This summer I plan to make a bunch of adobe bricks, then cob those around the core and either weld up a boxy radiator or find some barrels and do that thing. Very happy with it.

One interesting thing, the stove pipe I used for the feed tube/burn tunnel/riser is already showing extreme signs of wear. I probably have less than two hours total burn time on the thing but it is clear the metal will not last. Any doubts I had about the "metal is doomed" mentality have been put to rest.

Edit: I should add, when the stove is the shop it never got dry, but after a few days in the Texas sun that thing was fully baked. Sunshine ftw.

Your first video is set to private, but the second one...yep. Sideways. I'm really stoked on your attitude man, just pick up the pieces and stick 'em all back together...Bam! Better than before. So glad to see you are moving forward, I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with to build around it.

Gah! Video fixed.

Yeah, fixing these things is pretty easy. And I have to say, if someone wanted a no-form approach to making one of these things, the "sculpt around a stove pipe J" is super simple. I have no idea how the performance stacks up against something with a little stricter attention to dimensions, but it seems to burn ok. So yeah, if you don't have the means or the interest in building forms, you can get started immediately by just laying a foundation of 3 or 4 inches of clay, setting the j tube on that, then packing around it until you have sealed the whole thing in 3 or 4 inches of clay. Burn it. Where it cracks, pack in more clay. Repeat until the thing is burned dry with no cracks.

Of course it is already hot here in Texas and I won't be using this thing until next fall, so I have plenty of time to come up with something cool for the shop.