(This was taken from the work of Steve Bailey in 2014. Thank you Steve!)
Those of you who have been making Tower Stoves for a while have probably been asked more than once if a larger model is available. The answer has always been “Not yet, but I’ll let you know when I find out”. Now you can tell them that there is a new design.
In the primary school in Chepo they needed a new stove to cook outside, so I offered to design a larger version of the tower stove. I designed it to make use of the existing Tower Stove molds, with a couple of metal bars for extra support. Here are the sizes needed, with the number of each.
4 bricks – 5 x 5 x 4
7 bricks – 8.5 x 4 x 3
5 bricks – 10.5 x 4 x 3
4 bricks – 15 x 4 x 3
1 brick – 20 x 4 x 3
Three of the sizes (5 x 5, 10.5 x 4, 15 x 4) are made using the existing molds. The 8.5 x 4 bricks are made by cutting off two inches from the 10.5 x 4 bricks. I made the 20 inch brick by combining a 15 inch and a six inch brick, and then cutting off an inch. I don’t think that is necessary. The 20 inch brick is very fragile. A better idea would be to use one 10.5 and one 8.5 brick. The bars underneath will support them (I added two metal bars in between the second and fourth layer.)
Here is a closeup of the bars. I used 3/8 inch diameter bars. The mortar was thick enough to cover the bars so that all of the bricks were the same level.
I used a mixture of three 5 gallon buckets of anthill dirt (from arrieras) and three quarters of a bucket of dried horse manure. I pulverized the manure and strained it through a metal screen before mixing it. With the ingredients already broken up quite well, I didn’t do the mixing with my feet. I mixed one bucket of dirt at a time in a wheelbarrow and it went quite quickly. For the mortar between the bricks, I used the same ratio. It took about a bucket and a quarter of dirt mixed with slightly more than a quarter bucket of manure.
Here is the finished product.
