Casting of First La Mazateca GEN2.1 Stove in Chiapas

Here is a blog post that didn’t make it to our blog when I was having posting issues.  This news was current on Friday, September 28th, but it got published to nowhere.  Now that Ralph has me back in business, I resurrected this one because this was a significant milestone for the community.

The community of Aldama has cast the first complete stove in Chiapas.  It was done over a three day period.  The first day everything was new for the promoters and the right and left parts of the first combustion chamber were cast.  Once they experienced the texture and feel of the refractory, the side mortar, the insulation/fill and the top mortar, they knew exactly what to expect for all the other castings.

The second day all the other castings were made, except the second combustion chamber.  Because there is only one set of wood forms for the combustion chamber, the promoters need to demold CC1 and reuse the same molds to cast CC2.  The last step for the day was to fill the molds with insulation/fill material, but it was getting late.  So, everyone went into overdrive to mix the material, pack it into all the molds and clean up.  It was dark by the time we left the community, but everyone was happy the way we worked together to get everything done.  (We couldn’t leave the molds half done overnight.)

The third day the promoters put the finishing touches (top mortar) on the exhaust top mold, demolded CC1, cleaned the CC forms and molds, and cast CC2.  By now they were just about experts with casting and were able to do these two molds with very little oversight.  All of the castings are now curing and the stove will be assembled as soon as its brick base is done.

Attached are some pictures of the community working on the castings.