Sunday, I was beat, and mostly rested and worked on drying the stove by burning, and planning the next step. A friend came over and we played with burning it different ways. Tall feed tube, short feed tube, covers, no covers, choked air, etc. It was fun, and without the mass the barrel alone had the house as warm as the box stove could ever achieve, and with a lot less fuel, for sure. I was pleased.
In this shot you can maybe make out the thermometer. 600* there.
Monday, I was back out in the clay, digging and moving it in buckets. Oh man, it is a lot of work. I can't imagine building a house that way. I made another batch of cob, and last night started hauling it in and forming up the first bench. I got it roughed in, although I'm a few inches shy in all dimensions so I can do a final shape and level and all with some finer screened material. There's a clean out there in front which I will recess a bit when it's finished, and a small air intake port that mates with the original brick wall. The wall has large openings all along the top row, and a few small inlets along the bottom. I plumbed a four inch dryer vent to the wall's intake, and after firing it for a while it will suck a match flame into the intake! I'm thrilled about that.
So, here's what I have at this point. The area around the burn tunnel is unfinished, and, well, there's still a lot to be done, but it's coming along.
There's some more pictures here:
http://photobucket.com/Rocket_Mass_Heater