Thank you Pepe, lots of good info in there.
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Hi All,
Jim, you’re welcome.
Brian, Your Lumber Maker is in the mail.
Bill, I do appreciate your offer, but this was a feel good moment for me.
Pepe
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Mike, before I moved up here, all I had planned was water, a building, shipping containers, food, time and some money. The other stuff are ideas or solutions to issues that faced me.
Although my solutions can always be done a better way, I feel if I at least start something, improvements can follow. Back to some basics has been good for me. A lot of people here on DOW have done what I’m just learning to do, so this is a good sounding board for me.
Everything thing I do, build or make brings a level of appreciation that can’t be purchased in a store.
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I went to bed last night thinking I was going make lumber for the chicken coop. I woke up this AM and decided to make a rocket stove.
I welded 3 bolts to the top so I can attach a grill to it. The bottom is hinged to let the ash dump out. I plan on mounting it to my deck with some angle iron. Then we can have a way of cooking outside and use all the twigs that are laying around. I brewed a pot of coffee just as fast as on the cook stove with a lot of wind outside.
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Bill, are you sure you are allowed to have that much fun? ? ?
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Don,
The wife was away so I had to have this kind of fun. What made it more fun was I had all the materials right here. I can’t believe I haven’t made one of these a lot sooner.
Maybe I have to bring this to Argos and bring some pancake batter with some syrup I just made?
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I was skimming the thread and noticed the washing machine and water tower parts.
I have something to add.
When I was a kid we had a Wash machine up at the camp ( hunt camp originally so the place was primitive )
It was powered by a Johnson Iron horse and was lot quieter than this.
But as proof of concept I think a smart fellow could repower a more modern unit with a gasoline engine and simply use a belt drive clutch system to start and stop it ( switching from wash to spin )
For hot water we use a a very old stone lined hot water tank that was original oil fires ( an old Gulf oil rental unit from ??? well its old so you tell me ).
I welded up a fire box for it and lined it with fire brick in the 80s.
Its not even inside, but out in the rain and snow ( not used in winter ) and it has lasted all these years.
For fuel it requires nothing more than a handful of scraps and more if needed added later in the day.
It is VERY easy to over fuel something like this.
Keep fires small or you just boil the contents of tank ( heat stress and wasted fuel too ).
Done right you can have hot water all day with little more than a couple of handfuls of wood ( kindling nothing bigger than your wrist or you will be sorry )
In year one I made a good fire in the box anticipating a long warm up time.
15 minutes later I have a roll ling boil in the tank within the hour the contents of the 3 45 gallon drums 10 feet above in the water tower was also to hot to handle and the PVC pipe and coupling softened and started to leak.
Here’s another video of what appears to be an electric conversion of a 50s wringer washer.
But you get the idea…
Now run it on wood…
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Just about to leave and thinking about this…
Having a gas powered wash machine in 2016 is asking a lot of your wife.
Alternatively I hatched this idea a few years back also related to the washer.
You can buy relatively cheap 90v dc motors these days. ( relative term you have to search for used ones )
7 * 12 volt batteries in series yields enough voltage to run one.
To charge use the same process, in fact the charger generator is now self starting, you just need to spin the motor a little harder to make it generate and charge the batteries.
Motorized tread mills tend to have a 90 volt motor in them too.
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My wife actually wants one of those washers but electric. Instead, I bought her this one. It was cheap on Craigslist. I am going to try it out today. We are supposed to have a full day of sun. That should make up for the electrical use.
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A chum of mine at work caught in one of those manglers as a boy.
In fact lots of kids were killed by those machines
Okay, I’m sure everyone has seen hundreds of rocket stoves. They work great for boiling water and cooking with a cast iron pan but a grill option is amazing. All the heat with no flare ups. I laid a 4" metal disc on top of the three bolts that secure the grill on so it deflects the heat off to the sides. It also is small enough to allow adequate air flow for the chimney effect. Burgers were done in record time. The meat drippings fall down inside the tube and also feed the fire. The best supper up here yet. Don’t tell my wife.
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Looking good, Bill
Bet they tasted even better
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You can eat 3 hamburgers all by yourself??
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I play pretty hard when it’s nice out. No, I ate two and the third one will be crumbled up in my eggs in the morning.
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Wow, that was quick from all the way across the country. It was all Pepe. That why this is the best Internet community.
Buy some ripping chains or file the ones you have to 12° and have some fun. I ordered some ripping chains from a chainsaw repair shop in town and he gave me a talking to about using my small chainsaw on an Alaskan sawmill. I told him I was cutting small logs and this chainsaw was only $150. He said, “For Pete sakes, go buy the lumber, it’s cheap enough, it’s just a chicken coop”. I told him it was the principal. He sells used Stills and I will purchase from him in the fall.
Go cut some lumber and show us pictures. Good on ya Brian.
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I need to find logs that I can cut. 
I live on a forested plot, but my mom owns the trees. She’s a hippy/consumed by fear: “we must save all the trees and you’ll just crush yourself or the house anyways!” 
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Brian, I know of several trees you could get some logs out of. They were just blown over by very high winds. Unfortunately, the trunks are about 3 feet in diameter, and are not laying flat on the ground. Oak trees, too. So, perhaps ask around for someone that needs help removing blown down trees.
Pepe: I noticed you used the USPS Medium Flat Rate Box. If you print your own postage, you can get a commercial discount from PayPal and Etsy. If you print from USPS.com or go to the Post Office you pay full price. For short haul shipments, order some USPS Regional Rate Box A containers which are just a bit smaller than the Medium Rate Box, but ship for much less. You cannot get that box at the Post Office, and you must print your own postage.
Bill: Nice stove that uses junk wood. The Rocket Stove has a good turn-down ratio. With my addiction to Charcoal, I’m probably forever stuck on TLUD biomass stoves. There is a new 174 page book that was announced last week by the Aprovecho Research Center in Oregon. It is called, “ARC R&D on ‘Tier 4’ Stoves” It includes Detailed factory production drawings of five new high performance stoves. The download is free. (The research was paid for by our tax dollars.) Get it here: http://aprovecho.org/
I’ve been reading the free digital copy of the book all morning, and I’m itching to see what I can do to improve my stove.
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Bill
I was reading backwoods magazine last night an article on raised bed garden log cabin style. Made the bed like the walls of a cabin. Didn’t worry about gaps between logs just lined with feed sacks. Anyway was thinking about you as I was reading it. Do you have a use for lumber wraps I can bring to Argos if so. Cheap tarps. Picked up one today 5 ft wide by 53 ft long
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Yes I do.
I need to make a lot of wood piles. I could cut them if needed. If you have no use for them, I will use them.
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