On Wed, 03 Jun 2015 14:26:12 -0400, Ed Huntress
wrote:

On Wed, 03 Jun 2015 11:06:00 -0700, wrote:

My brother and I are welding up a couple of replicas of a "Klamath
Stove" See this link:
http://www.foresthistory.org/ASPNET/...amp/sec4-6.htm
The first picture of the stove shows a man standing by a stove with a
square chimney. This is the stove we are replicating. However, the
original Klamath Stove just had a metal top and front whereas ours are
complete steel boxes that will be set into some type of concrete. By
the way, the article is quite old and mentions that the stoves haven't
yet had the test of time. The stoves were built by the CCC during the
depression. So they are about 80 years old and still work very well.
So I guess they have now been time tested. When the stoves are done
and ready to be put in concrete what should we use? Will plain old
post mix work? Do we need special cement in the concrete mix?
Thanks,
Eric

I don't have a clue, but if it were me, spending that much effort, I'd
use a refractory concrete, just in case. Google "refractory concrete"
and you'll find a bunch of products.

My dad built a big outdoor grill from brick and firebrick (for the
firebox) about the time I was born, using a mix of regular concrete
and crushed firebrick ("grog") for the mortar, I saw it about 40 years
later and it was still going strong. But I don't know if he was just
lucky, or if he got it right.
Re-reading the article it says, as Ned pointed out, that a 3 to 1
mixture of sand and cement is what they used and these stoves are
still in fine shape 80 years later. The Klamath Stove has the concrete
directly exposed to the fire. The stoves my brother and I are making
will have steel against the concrete so I don't think it will be
getting all that hot.
Eric