[Cob] Re: Rocket stove question

[Raduazo at aol.com]

    Has any one ever heard of a cob oven attached to the stack of a rocket 
stove? The problem with the rocket stove is the small size of the fire box. I 
was thinking of building a cob oven with a 6 inch chimney attached from the back 
to the vertical stack of a rocket and then through the bench in a 
conventional manner. 
    The cob oven would have a ceramic door perhaps with chicken wire 
reinforcing and a 3 inch diameter air hole. This way you could charge up the cob oven, 
light a fire in the chimney to get the draft started, then feed burning paper 
through the air hole to ignite the charge in the oven.
    When the burn was over you could remove the door using a projecting 
section of the chicken wire and the air hole as a handle, plug up the chimney with 
a ceramic plug which would set on the end of a broom handle, sweep out the 
ashes and start baking with the residual heat. The ceramic door would be replaced 
during baking and the 3 inch hole would be plugged with another ceramic plug.
    The ceramic plugs and doors can be made from sand and clay using a piece 
of 6 inch pipe and conventionally made openings in the oven and door as forms.
    I was wondering, 
    1. If the cob ovens are subject to catastrophic failure during normal 
use? I would not want the oven to fall apart inside the house when it is fully 
charged and running.
    2. Does it take more than one charge of wood to reach operating 
temperature in a cob oven.
    3. Has anyone ever tried to make the door in a cob oven from cob?
Ed