That’s interesting. I wonder what the engine size range for the 1" was. Probably small 4 cylinder engines.
Also I bet the crushed firebrick is acting like an aggregate and giving the mortar something to bind to.
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Cody,
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I have some old commode lids that I could break up as an aggregate filler for the insulating hearth. They’re already damaged so there’s no real use for them.
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I have the benefit of experience. In the first photo you can see that the lid is cracked. I knew it would. But the stainless wires from a piece of cable have been holding the lid of my furnace together for 11 years now.
Rindert
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Alternatively I could use ceramic wool and coat it in Satanite or surface harden with water glass. I think the ceramic hearth was more for tar vaporization via heat flywheel effect than for just insulation though.
So @r_wesseling do you just toss the strands in with the mortar or is there more strategy to it than that?
Also it would probably help to weld in some anchors I think.
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There was a little bit of strategy especially around the exhaust port, that’s the hole you see in the lid. It was more common sense than anything.
Btw @KristijanL put a ceramic wool lining with watergas lining in his char gasifier for his MBZ e230.
Rindert
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Hi All,
These two popped up on my interests lists.
Direct wood fired “tools”:
Note on this one that it cannot be sold into my state of Washington.
Much, much to be learned in the three different users reviews. Read these and think. Then re-read and think some more.
“Tips” are there.
(Horizontal you really need a draft inducer blower. Vertical fire pathway you can use natural draft. Semi-insulate the enclosed fire-box like the Garn does; J.O. does to get the combustion zone heat up for complete efficient combustion. Water heat primarily with the hot combustion gases. For safety and effectiveness thermostat pump the water circulation. Chant, “Enclosed systems must be made to flow. Open systems can boil circulate.”)
Now this one is very interesting. At the hottest time of the year is when you have to make heat to ripened fruits and vegetables foods preserve.
A buy-it, use-it tool to do this outside of the house.
Also a time of the year here when we have the summer dried pick up wooden sticks for the easy firing too. A user Tip.
Regards
Steve Unruh
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I’m not sure how the one guy is using the waste vegetable oil. Seems like you would need to inject it with air to get any real heat out of it.
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Mini wood fired boiler, but open draft control. In my research it would well warrent a blower and aquapod thermo switch to hit and maintain perfect water temps for a chosen use. Kinda wish I had one for the next month before I move… Always something else to build I guess 
Lord bless me with a place I can stockpile scrap metal for cool things like this
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“Although they don’t plug into the electrical grid, many Amish people use generators and pneumatic tools to work faster. Not every Amish person completley shuns modern technology.Mar 4, 2013”
Popular Mechanics-
I had to look it up. I couldn’t believe the Amish were welders…
Why not get a Humble, with an ASME stamp, then you would know what you have?
Still hard to forget watching these guys bale hay. They had a team pulling a wagon with a stationary engine powering a hay baler pulled by the wagon.
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Yeah there’s only a few select Amish like the Scwartzentruber sect that shun modern tools entirely.
The rule is as long as you’re making that electricity it’s alright. I think some even own trucks but they hire an English to drive for them. Others will drive a truck if it’s for work.
Amish even have a winter vacation area in Florida for the elderly where they can ride golf carts.
I used to go to school with some Mennonite kids so I was interested in it.
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Amish colonies can’t take hold here. They have tried but it’s too hard dealing with the snow. We have Mennonites to the south. We shop at their store. They are very nice and gracious.
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Here in western Pa. we have both Mennonites and Amish communities. We attend a church where its past came from Mennonite traditions and people who had left the Amish a generation ago. We like the church because to us it is just a conservative non-denominational fellowship where anyone is welcome. we have learned that each Amish communities elder or leader sets the rules to live by for that community. a mile north of us is a new order Amish community where they have rubber-tired tractors, but no cars, but e-bikes and electricity in their homes. A mile west is an old-order Amish community where I have several friends. They have cordless tools for their construction businesses, but will not use them at home, no electricity except that Mike does have a portable welder but will not plug anything into the 120/240receptacles. I have helped his sons learn manual machining on a lathe and mill that have been adapted to run off of line shafts driven off of honda engines. I do some heavier, larger machining for them in my shop. Good people just have a different lifestyle.
Kent
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There are some Amish farms between TC and Cadillac Bruce. I see the people in Menard’s at times and they go to the Buckley Old Engine Show. A lot more further downstate. Some of the stuff doesn’t make sense but I am fine with anyone living whatever life suits them best. I know people down in Indiana and if you have a mobile home or RV made there chances are good it was mostly made in “English” factories by Amish men. The thing that really cracks me up is seeing pictures of Amish teens with sound systems in their buggies and an I-phone pressed against their face.
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that was a fascinating video Cody, I’m watching part 2 now
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Your " I’m on fire video" needs to go here on the Tools , Tips, and Tricks thread. lol… I use the same type of pants that have the knee pad pockets, they are great when you have old knees like mine.
Bob
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I do most of my grinding waist high on a work bench. I could show you a fine collection of hooded sweatshirts all burned out across the belly. Remind me how much a leather apron costs. I’m sure it’s less than one sweatshirt.
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I have several with the front pocket in pretty rough shape from grinding and wire wheels snagging into them, but was working with some 16’ sticks of pipe so I couldn’t get them up on the welding table
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