Brill bit of kit. I could here the roaring OK.
Just a few questions:
1. Does it use loads of wood as it roars so much?
2. If you fit a damper in the pipe, will you need to have a solid door on it so it is controllable?
3. Could the pipe be made smaller so it fits in the V of the ash pan?
Just a few thoughts but a real
there
Kev,
I've done a bit more work on it since then - Added a moveable flat plate bafflewhich can be pulled right forward to allow direct exhaust up the flue (as in the original vid) - but can now be right pushed back to cover flue & force all the heat forward & round before going up the flue. also added a solid door to the bottom inlet tray & a closure flap over the grille on the main door - don't want a full solid main door if I can get away wtih it as I like the option of seeing the glow of the coals & logs once I have it lit & running smoothly. I've also brought the flue size down to 5 inch - a lot of the original roar was due to the massive hollow flue...
I've decided not to fit a damper in the flue pipe until I find out more about the subject as I think this would require a solid main door.
I've found if I close the top flap - making the the main door solid, open the the bottom intake door, & open the baffle, I force it to draw all its air in thru the bottom inlet below the coals - this makes for rapid (smokey) lighting - the smoke dies down & the coals eventually glow white hot & flames shoot out the top of the flue 8 feet up!! -If you just throw in loads of wood when it's still set for lighting, It demolishes it fairly quickly whilst roaring like hell.
Once the coal reacton has kicked off, I can arrest it & bring it under control - slow it down, by closing the baffle, closing the bottom inlet & opening the closure flap on the main door grill - this reduces the glow on the side pannels down to a blue - cherry red - Better - it's then just a case of chucking in the odd split log or trowel full of coal.
If I want to speed things up agian, I open the bottom inlet - seems to act like the old coal housefire - which is what I was visualising when I made it.
You can choke the air & make it emmit black smoke, You can give it mega air & make it belch white smoke or you can regulate it & make the exhaust almost totally clear.
I've found it not to be too greedy on either coal or wood when controlled in this way. I'ts still a bit rough around the edges, especially the new mods - which I've just cut roughly to experiment - I intend to do another vid showing the new mods & all the cause / effects & smoke/control options in practice.
Unless I can come up with a collapsable flue, the pipe/flue is always goin to be a the bulkiest part of the setup, my new flue comes in two four foot sections!
