RE: GAS-L: Re: Papercrete insulation

["Carl Carley (EML)" <Carl.Carley@eml.ericsson.se>]

Keith
One thing I noticed when I chucked a bag full of old newspapers in my cement mixer is it took lots of water (30 + litres for a regular shopping bag full of newspaper) to get the paper suitable wet and mushy, is this normal? 

Back to my stove, I acquired 2 208litre oil drums which I cut the top of one and the bottom of the other. This project is basically a scaled up inverted down draft gasifier.
The top drum I cut a 6" hole in the top, this is for the chimney, I took an old domestic water tank and cut the bottom of. The water tank has a coil in it which I'll use to pump water through as part of my space heater. The copper tank is about 3-4 inches in diameter smaller than the drum and about 2 inches shorter so it fitted well inside the oil drum. Again I cut a hole in the top of the copper tank for the chimney and holes in the side of the drum for the water pipes. The papercrete is the insulation between the drum and the copper tank. I'll shape the papercrete at the large opening to give a smooth gas flow into the combustion chamber.
As for the fuel hopper or bottom drum, I'm still making the grate. The air control is via the hole you normal empty the drum from, this is about 2" in diameter, I wonder if it's big enough? any ideas anyone?
A simple  frame spaces the drums about 1" apart, crikey the whole thing is about 7ft tall!! should have heard what the missus said!!
I've yet to make a proper mix of papercrete as it's either frosty or raining with no inside facilities. I was going to line the outside of the bottom drum with papercrete too that should help??
It'll be interesting to see how long 200 litres of wood will burn for.
bfn

Carl 
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