Rehab kitchen wood cookstove and stovepipe
July 2020 - The stove is beautiful and the new stovepipe is ready. We'll try it out soon. High tech meets low tech: the firebox grate was warped & cracked so Darren created a cad file for it then Keith had a new one CNC'd. It will melt at a lower temp than the old cast one would, but I hope no one torques the stove like that again! We were told that burning manzanita (Grandma Agnes' favorite) was a common cause of woodstove melt-down. We think it's ok to burn manzanita if you control the temp. If you use the woodstove, please use loving restraint!
11/24/19 - We have sourced nearly all needed repair supplies for the cookstove (see below expense list). Unfortunately, Home Depot beat all other suppliers by 30-40%. Maybe we should have asked BCL but HD made it very easy to order. Sorry.
Experienced users of cookstoves are encouraged to read, critique & provide edits for the instructions. It's been a VERY long time since I've used any woodstove!
11/4/19 - In 2012, we cleaned & blacked the stove but believed the flue was not quite functional. After 7 years, we finally had time and a dry day to tackle this project! We disassembled & cleaned the stove & pipe and removed about a cubic foot of soot, ash & a little mummy not to mention some interesting foil hole-plugs! We both looked like classic chimney sweeps after all this fooling around!
The stove had been obviously over-heated at some point as shown by the hole in the oven and cracked & warped castings. A fair amount of rust from (old) water damage inside the stove is also evident but the exterior is in decent shape. The single wall stovepipe is very thin & rusted nearly through but the double wall chimney is fine & has very little creosote build-up. After repairs, we believe the stove will be fully operational as long as appropriate burning temperatures are maintained. Ellen provided $300 to fund this project but we expect to spend less than that.
Project description:
- Repair lower left oven wall hole (2"x 7") with steel bar & high-temp furnace cement
- Fabricate 2 round flap-doors for back vents
- Repair cracks in firebox grate & heatshields (not shown)
- Wire-brush & clean oven rack and interior
- Replace stove pipe, stove-top to ceiling per diagram, single wall pipe
- Black stove exterior
- Seal/trim/weatherproof the double wall section of stovepipe in the loft
- Screen the top of stovepipe (exterior)
4/8/19 Yay! Ellen provided $300 in funding - we'll get it done asap. This is a straight-forward if rather messy project. We'll black the stove again, too.
Project description:
- Need new single-wall interior stovepipe - the old one is rusted through in several places, fingers can poke through it and cabin users have expressed concern.
- For better draw, we'd suggest 2 45 degree elbows with a short length of pipe slanted at a 45 degree angle between them. We plan to refurbish & re-use the damper handle.
- In 2014, Duane examined (& painted) the exterior stove pipe - roof & up - and said it looked fine. Looks ok in the loft as well.
- The woodstove SHOULD NOT BE USED until the stovepipe is replaced.