Walker Riser-less core

[mannytheseacow]

Haha, jeez, Drew, am I that predictable? Naw, actually cooking with wood just doesn't really make sense for me. My electricity is free so my electric range works well. It's simple, and replacement parts are cheap if I ever need them. I already have a cook stove that I don't really use because I can't justify burning more wood. It's just whatever works for your system. My RMH does a great job as it is and I'm trying to simplify things, not get more STUFF!

Seriously beautiful stove, though, Matt. I haven't posted any comments yet because I haven't had time to look at what makes it different from the Firespeaking stove or other masonry stoves, and what makes it a "Walker". Either way, nice build, and thanks for sharing. Definitely would like to see more details and have some follow up questions when things slow down for me.

[matt walker]

The stove is my take on the Firespeaking Cabin stove, which is light years beyond mine in terms of the masonry work and overall aesthetic design and attention to detail. The big story to me is the core, which is my contribution to the format. It doesn't need a riser, overall height is 20" or so, and it burns like my J did. Just absolutely smokeless, pretty much all the time. I'm really just plain floored by how good of a burn chamber it is, I can picture a lot of configurations for heater builds with this core, a cook stove is just one of them. No more super tall heaters!

[pa_friendly_guy]

I would like to see some detailed drawings of your design Matt, or pictures of the building process, to get a better idea of how it all ties together, and how it works the draw etc.

[matt walker]

I'll try to get some more details up soon Guy.

[matt walker]

Guy, here's a shot inside the oven of the first one I built in my shop. You can see where the gases come in and out. Couple this with the core layout photos I linked to above and that's the whole thing, not much to it!

[Bobwieser]

Matt, do you get smoke back when you open the oven? My guess is that you close the oven damper and open the bypass damper before opening the oven door.
Are the dampers home made and are they both at the top of the stove?
I see 2 rods on top. More guessing they are to swing the dampers individually.

From the last picture is the entry and exit to and from the oven at the bottom?

You say you used insulating bricks because you had them. If it were built with dense bricks would insulation around be necessary?

It looks like a dead end riser (1 brick high) before the riser, after the window along the gas stream. Is that something important or just a way to support the ceiling above and leave the cavity?

How do you hold the seam between the bricks over the window?

[matt walker]

I deleted the damper Bob, it's not necessary and the oven doesn't get too hot, and there isn't any smoke to come out the door so it doesn't matter.

The damper was a simple single drop guillotine between downdraft to oven and chimney. Looks like a double because I used a dead leg as a detent for the open position.

Yes, that photo shows the entry/exit to the oven.

I think it's crucial to build the parts after the walker tube out of insulating bricks or similar. Dense would work eventually, but would take too long to come up to temp in my opinion and I doubt the thing would have anywhere near the clean profile. I could be wrong about that. I think in the firebox itself it doesn't matter much, although warm up time and retained energy in the wrong spot are still issues that lead me to recommending as low mass as possible all the way through until it's out from under the cook top.

Yeah, the layout is important. There are two of those "gates" and they are very intentional.

That seam over the window is just there, cantilevered and kinda stuck with mortar so it doesn't really have anywhere to go without levering a lot of stuff up. You need a helper or some weights when you assemble it, but once the mortar sets it's solid. I used angle iron over the big span for the oven door, and the large lintel stones over the door and window to help things out on the outside.

[Bobwieser]

Matt,thanks for the answers. I hope I'm asking questions that are important and will help others along with me.
Nice looking food your cooking there.
No need to bypass before opening the black oven. You have a good drafting chimney and don't need a bypass for startup either.

I know your experimenting and don't expect hard and fast answers. You are saying dense material for the fire box, like a PVdB batch. No need for insulation at that point.

After that Insulating bricks, cob or refractory, like a riser should be.
You have 2 mini bells after the port, before the short riser. Are they for turbulence and mixing air and wood gas?

I did see the lintel stones and it looked like they only supported the outer layer. And had a nice look too.

Told you I had so many questions.

[matt walker]

Yeah, it's good, that's exactly what I was asking for on the website there. What do you need to know to "get" this thing. This is perfect.

You got it all correct. I think dense material would be fine, but I will reiterate, my opinion is that you will realize better performance if the entire core is built as low mass as possible. Thin casting backed by insulation, dense splits backed by IFB, etc.

Re: the two little shapes, yes, all of the above.

[rjdudley]

Ugh, I HATE being out of the loop! Matt you frickin' insane man, that thing is da bomb! I'm thinking I have some nice summer projects to look forward to now
I'm gonna put some screenshots (with full credit of course) of this in my small booklet I'm putting together. I'll link back to your Walker stove site as well.
Dang, it was worth gettin' outta bed just to see that!
Ray