Coydon Wallham

thomas rubino wrote:Sweet score!  
Are they heavy, dense bricks? Or are they light, insulated brick?

You want your very best-looking bricks in the riser.
Next best on the lower side walls of the core (batchbox).
Your roof is best as a cast slab or custom-cut firebricks in a rafter design.
In the core, you can use fireclay mortar to smooth rough edges, but you will be reapplying it once a week or so (not a big deal)

You can also use a paint-on ceramic coating (ITC-100 HT) to speed flow and seal the brick.
But rough edges are not going to slow your dragon.
If she is a J-Tube, then she will roar. A Batchbox produces vast amounts of heat, but not a lot of roar.

They are dense. Taken from a kiln at the Kohler Company where they used to fire their porcelain fixtures I gather. I'm curious if this could have been an original structure from the 19th century. The bricks are the standard 9x4.5x2.5, but many have manufacturer names stamped in like I've only ever seen on old pavers.

I'm still not understanding what problem is caused by the edges. The bricks have solid sides and fit together as well as new ones over almost the entire surface. I can see where a couple bad edges connecting could cause a leak in the riser (maybe a good incentive to make an octagon riser where the bricks need to be cut anyway). Wouldn't be a problem in the firebox where there is insulative material on the other side of the brick, right? Smoothing edges in the core with clay weekly would be a big deal in my book, but sounds like it wouldn't affect performance either way?

thomas rubino wrote:You would not want to use edge-chipped firebricks in the core or riser.
Away from direct flame contact, used firebrick is perfect for the inner skin of the bell.

Being the proud new owner of a pallet of recycled firebricks, I'm wondering what specifically I need to watch out for with using them. What first occurred to me was aerodynamic drag (or is it turbulence/flow disturbance at the wrong point?). An irregular surface in the firebox will lower the limit for velocity of air flow and muffle the beast's roar. Can fire clay or refractory mortar be used to fill in those edge gaps?

Are there other reasons?

Dave Bross wrote:I'll also second what everyone said about fat lighter houses being a huge fire hazard.

All the old houses around here were built with that wood and it burns like gasoline if ignited.

The only thing I've seen burn faster were those old mobile homes with the highly flammable glue used in the wood paneling.

Were you referring to the Northern Florida location currently in your profile? From my awareness of Floridian history with regards to the people there, I'd pictured more of a creative, 'bohemian' culture. Use of a chronologically embedded, seemingly obscure European practice like ringbarking/blaeking wouldn't have been high on my expectation list...

Kevin Olson wrote:After that, the deer flies will start, but so will the wild blueberries.  Swattin' season!

Another fascinating old world tradition I've never heard of. Would you care to share any of the background on this 'wild blueberry swattin' practice?

Derek Thille wrote:Awesome.  The first time I read "gate plate", I didn't quite understand where that fit in.  Seeing it in the video unconfuddled me.  In essence, it is a lintel.  Egyptian doorways had heiroglyphs on the lintel, so having the Bark Park sign up there makes perfect sense.

Good to see someone has the lintel intel. I think Egyptian hieroglyphs would be more appropriate for a 'meowsoleum' than a 'bark park' though...

thomas rubino wrote:I have 80 brand-new firebricks @ 2.45 each, $200
I also have another 50-80 used firebricks that were free.

Are there drawbacks to used firebricks besides aesthetics? Designs where the tolerances would be needed such that chipping around the edges could make too large of a gap?

paul wheaton wrote:

Surprising that field pennycress is growing around the labs as wikipedia says it is a water hog and doesn't grow well in arid environments. Then again, the reliability of wikipedia is demonstrated here as the article says it isn't fit for consumption because of the erucic acid content. This is a significant component of rapeseed (canola) oil, so seems to be a matter of convenience for food scientists whether this is good or not?  Sam Thayer has talked about making flour out of the seeds. I'm thinking it is a matter of how medicine/poison is all about dosage...

Catherine Barnes wrote:What was the most recent thing you ate while walking about your garden or town?

A few days ago had dandelion blossoms (with some sort of light batter) fried in coconut oil- amazing!
[edit: the batter had Almond, hazelnut, sorghum, coconut flour, coconut milk, baking powder, salt, vanilla, and cinnamon.]

Any chance of an update?

Kaarina Kreus wrote:There are four air inlets two on each side, close to the floor,  with a fist-sized pipe. They connect behind the root cellar into a looooong pipe. The idea is that the inflowing air travels 30 feet deep underground before entering the root cellar. We need to stabilise temperature. We have hot summers and deadly winters.
Seems that the vent on the roof did not suck air forcefully enough. The 30 feet long underground pipe being the problem, probably. But problem solved now.

I'm wondering if this could be implemented using some passive circulation tricks. Would anything from the passive greenhouse work without the pipes being exposed to sunlight through the glass...?