We have flames! Woohoo! We had a small vacation preplanned which interrupted progress a bit, but we are officially burning now. Dan's been working on the wall patch, drywall is up and taped, mudded, and ready for sanding. Today I finished wrapping it in insulation blanket, and we started our first fire. We've been "curing" it all week with a heat lamp, which got it between 250-300F so I figured we were in good shape for the first fire. It's drawing beautifully, minimal smoke in the room (YaY!) and it seems to "work"
The outside looks like a giant stovetop Jiffy-Pop popcorn or a baked potato
but it's staying cool so far - we've been burning over an hour, inside is 400-600F, and outside is still cool to touch, as is arch in wall. That was my big worry, but so far so good. As soon as we know it's staying relatively cool outside, Dan will put up the enclosure walls and we'll fill them with perlite for more insulation. Hoping to be cooking our first pies this weekend! Now if I can just decide on a recipe or 3...
John: the chimney pipe is ICC insulated:
http://www.icc-rsf.com/en/icc/insulated-stainless-steel-chimney and there's 6 and a half feet above the roof, I think the total length is about 16'.
Craig: We ended up not needing an actual adapter because the bottom of the inner ss lining of the ICC elbow had a sealing bead rolled into it and Dan's fabricator friend was able to put it on an anvil, tap the bead flat, and buff the exterior of the cast iron transition piece, resulting in a perfect fit, for the cost of a bottle of bourbon.
This is a serious low dome - finished height at tallest interior point is 10" on a 38" deck. Learning to cook in there will be an interesting experience!
