As-Built Drawings, Plans, and Instructions:

Please note that we are teachers, not licensed engineers or architects.  So these drawings don't come with any official warranty or license.  Purchasers make their own decisions about the suitability for any particular purpose, or may consult a licensed building professional.  

We are happy to respond to questions - in fact, 1/2 hour of free consultation is included with any of our plans ($20 and up) below.  

Built over a concrete slab floor, this was the only heat for our Portland rental for 3 years. Small system for a converted garage, or storage area.  The low, L shaped bench doubles as day-beds, or add a pull-up bench and mattress to make a heated double-bed.  Photo essays show the build at: http://picasaweb.google.com/eawisner
PDF 13MB prints 11"x17" 3 pages, 300 DPI -- $35

Coming Soon: The Poor Man's Driftboat (original design by Captain Ron Wisner), approx. 20 pages.  A 15-foot boat for pickup or trailer launch, built with 4 sheets of plywood and assorted small lumber.

If you like these drawings, we can also draft your custom design to scale in this style.  Prices for custom drawings start at $75; with design consultation* expect to pay around $300 *which can include on-site consultation or other assistance, see below for more details. 

Free Downloads:

These printable downloads are suitable for workshop flyers, starting a conversation with land-mates or building experts, or just sharing inspirational post-cards.

*Custom Design Consultation:

    A typical project consultation goes like this:
You call or email us about your project. 
    We take a deposit or agree on an hourly rate.  (Typically starts around $300.)
    We ask you a lot of questions about your building site, have you take measurements, discuss your climate and desired performance features, consider your proposed layout, and advise you on a workable design for your situation. 
    We exchange thumbnail sketches until we both like the design. 
If you need a scale drawing for building planning, we provide it as a PDF or JPG file, or paper copy.   Some owners prefer to draw or CAD their own designs, or choose a standard plan from our gallery, and use our consultation time for advice only.
    As you build, we continue to be available for advice on materials, planning, and other details; in some cases, your design consultation serves as a deposit to schedule a site visit or workshop for help with the installation. 
    After you are done, we continue to be available throughout the following year, as you operate and maintain your new creation.  If needed, we help troubleshoot performance of experimental designs.  We recommend, and can provide templates for, an owner's manual and logbook where you fill in the details of your designs, materials, and first-year observations.
    You can over-rule our advice and have us draw a scale plan for an experimental design; the ultimate decisions are yours as the owner-builder.  In some cases, we have worked for owners at hourly or day-rates when we could not endorse their preferred design, or refused to consult further on a project we considered too dangerous.  (Pressurized rocket water-heater systems are a prime example.) 
    We do not recommend hiring us and then ignoring us, but it's your money.  Our experience is substantial (600+ test-bed systems, research collaboration with a wide range of experts, and dozens of owner-builder installations and consultations) and we do tend to get results.  We are not lawyers, engineers, or architects, and can only offer our personal experiences and opinions.  This especially applies to questions of building permitting, insurance, or liability.  If you want an insurable mass heater, you may need to hire a licensed building professional as well.  Our advice can save you a substantial amount of their time, and yours.

    We are willing to prototype most experimental designs on our test-beds, prices vary according to costs of parts and labor.  We reserve the right to refuse any project at our discretion.
    To save time and money, and improve your results, visit the wood burning stove forum at the Permaculture Forums, and read the book Rocket Mass Heaters, before we begin our consultation.

Parts and Accessories:

Most parts are literally dirt cheap, but there are a few things you may want to buy when making cob or rocket stove projects. The following links may help you find them.

Parts in a typical project:

Barrel
Ducting or stovepipe
Bricks
Earth (clay, sand, quarry fines, rock, subsoil, fill dirt)
Perlite (or vermiculite, or refractory insulation, or DIY high-temp ceramic foam)

Hardware / fittings (cleanout cap, tap screws, tape, chalk, gasketing (optional))
Other refractory materials (optional)
Fiber or straw for cob casings (recommended)
Decorative materials (tile, mica, pigments, facing stone, stove enamels, etc)

Tools:
Shovels
Wheelbarrow
Tarps
Buckets
Masonry tools (trowel or float, brick-set or cold chisels)


Barrel / Bell: We have a design contest open to the public, to create a 'better' bell for the heater, that works well and looks beautiful.  Attractive examples will be listed here, with source/ordering info.
  For standard barrels, try scrap dealers and junkyards, Craigslist, or your local Jiffy Lube (smaller grease cans, often used as shop trash cans).  Steel buckets for pocket rockets can be had at paint stores or fireplace shops.

Two more versions of the barrel: (reclaimed barrels, polished and oiled.  The copper version is simply a flat sheet of copper wrapped over the steel barrel.)
Ducting, reclaimed brick, tile, and other recycled building parts: the ReBuilding Center, Portland OR (great prices and folks, random selection, you can get lost there).  If you don't live near Portland, or if RBC doesn't have it today, try Habitat for Humanity's ReStores all over the USA (sometimes higher prices, approx. 1/2 to 2/3 of retail, but often stocks new donated stuff).  I believe NZ's SuperShed outlets also have a building section; and there's the Kiwi Swap site too.  Please feel free to recommend other sources you love. Hit Craigslist early and often, and don't be afraid to post in the 'Wants' section; people don't always list old bricks, unsaleable ducting, crappy pottery clay, fill dirt, or oil drums when they are trying to make a buck, and sometimes you can haul it away for free.  Expect to pay for metalbestos chimney parts and other spendy-when-new items, even if only at 'scrap metal' prices.

Perlite insulation: your local garden center or building supply, there's not much to choose between places, but don't buy bags smaller than 2 cu ft.  Vermiculite is OK, but we prefer perlite for cobbing.

Natural plaster colors, tints, and additives: Our favorite is Georgie's Ceramic Supply; they cater to hobby potters and have a lot of naturally-colored clay, extenders like grog or mica, and non-toxic clay-compatible paints for surface murals.  Avoid glazes as they may be toxic, and rarely tint well if unfired.  Also a great source for kiln brick, weird tools, and refractory materials.
The Green Depot has premium ingredients at premium prices; they source natural and recycled decorator materials from Oregon Clay, Ochres & Oxides, and other suppliers. 
Local masonry suppliers will have concrete pigments at a fraction of the price, which are suitable for lime and clay plasters but may not be as 'naturally' sourced.  Also a good bet for lime, high-grade masonry sand, and colored sand. 

You can also take a suitable container to most local hardware stores and get paint pigments sold by the 'squirt' (the ochres, white, and black, they are more heat stable, but you can try other colors if you like).  Ace Hardware and Do It Best stores are run by good local folks in most cases; we've had good experiences in various locations.  Home Despot and Lowes are a crapshoot; you get great expert helpers, and clueless salesgerbils, and have to watch more closely for inferior products.  But the do tend to have a little of everything.  We prefer to go first to the oldest local hardware store we can find, they tend to be awesome, and they will stock the best and the cheapest decent version, no crap.
Hardware stores are also good for gasketing, masonry tools, tarps, a wheelbarrow, grinders or tinsnips, ducting screws, buckets, and other miscellaneous ... hardware.

Refractory ceramic insulation: You probably don't need it, but it's fun. 
We have had good experiences with Western Industrial Ceramics at their Tualatin, OR location (they cheerfully do business with anyone: aerospace industrial giants, foundries, pottery studios, amateur glassblowers; and they can custom-cast refractory parts at reasonable rates.)  Many of the standard materials like board, brick, and felt can also be found locally - search for suppliers under foundry, masonry, industrial, ceramic/pottery, and woodstove/fireplace.  LaGrande Industrial Supply Co (foundry specialist), and Masons Supply, are two examples in Oregon.  Both have treated us right when we know exactly what we need; ask for a catalog or sample if you're not sure.
Industrial suppliers generally cater to tradesmen, not retail, so expect early hours, and don't be high-maintenance about small orders if you can help it.  They often stock superior masonry tools, powdered fireclay, kiln brick, fire brick, gasketing, sand, perlite, etc., sometimes at lower-than-retail prices.  If they sell only to licensed contractors, you can ask a tradesman friend to pick things up and offer a percentage for their trouble.


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