Andy, your TIG welding is looking great, practice makes perfect..
I trust you are feeling better..
Regards
Thank you! It is better, but still not good. But I'll keep practicing.
I am feeling a bit better. As you seem to be too! Of course mine was just a common cold, or bit of one. Thanks for taking the time to stop by.
First, Your wood burner chimney turned out great. I have a question about your set-up though. I would have thought the chimney would have retained heat well and therefore be placed inside your building. (extra free heat) I realize this would need to have you make a hole in your roof, which requires a good seal. Just wondering did you consider this?
Thanks for the good words.
A couple of reasons. Primarily avoiding a hole in the roof and ceiling, which at 15 ft is hard to get to and not much space between the ceiling and roof. Along with a single wall pipe, a chimney fire would be devastating. That's why the standpipe is outside. It's not complete protection against a chimney fire, but it is at least accessible if you are there.
Also, this is an airtight firebox. The fire should smolder with limited air so the amount of heat in the flue is diminished. The big chimney should draw pretty hard even though it will be relatively cold.
Thirdly (you know there are three types of people, those who can do math and those who can't) I want to pull the flue out to put in the A/C as it gives me an opportunity to inspect both the flue and the chimney.
Andy welding looking better. I am concerned about the long chimney set outside. This length will make the chimney prone to creosote buildup as gases will cool rapidly even if the fire is kept hot. Be one massive Roman Candle! Be sure to clean it more often.
Thank you sir! Still a ways to go on the TIG. Got my MIG set up, first weld on scrap:
There is a hole in the middle.
My goal is to burn dry wood to minimize creosote. With a tight firebox it's hard to keep the chimney hot so I expect a lot of creosote even if I had an insulated chimney. However with a tight firebox a chimney fire is limited by the air it is getting. I want to keep a tight flue so I don't get excess air in the event of a fire. I'm not planning for a fire, but I don't want to ignore it, either.
If it looks like this will be a long term addition to the shop I may take the chimney back down and put an 8" liner in it which would give a 2" insulating band around the liner. I definitely intend on putting an access door in below the flue entrance but need to make it airtight.
To answer your question, no I didnt put any sort of a cleanout on my heat exchanger portion of the stove. We talked about it, but decided it would be just as easy to just torch the end out and reweld it, if it ever came to that. Its been 20 years, and I havent needed to do it yet.
The only thing I wish I had done was put a damper in the single horizontal run to the chimney. That way I could have stoked it up at night and shut all the air off, and it would hold most of that heat in till morning.
My old stove is home made, another guy built it, I took it on trade. He just had a single stack coming out of the middle, I modified it and added the two big pipes. The air intakes are in the front, they are just a pipe cap, drilled and tapped in the center and sitting on a stud.
Your stack is looking good. Pretty good job welding that thin stuff outside in the open with the TIG. I didnt think about it till later, how much cutting/welding/ burning did you do on that galvanized pipe? Enough of that will make you feel bad, kind of flu like symptoms. Drinking milk is supposed to make it better, but it mostly just takes time.
Hope you feel better today. Good Luck
I don't want a stack damper, I want to be able to shut off all the air going into the firebox. You should be able to control your fire that way unless your doors don't seal. I like your double pipe. Have you looked from inside the firebox to look for creosote blockage?
I was surprised I burned through the stack as much as I did trying to weld it.
I hadn't thought about zinc poisoning. Very familiar with the milk antidote. However for many years I've not had a problem. Usually grind the galvanizing back and stay out of the smoke religiously. Your comment got me worried so I went back and checked. I welded the stack on the ground on Thursday and got the sore throat suddenly Monday night. Then I welded the nozzle in on Wednesday so I doubt it was zinc poisoning even though it occurred quickly with no warning, like zinc poisoning.
I'm feeling better, thank you!
Only just spotted your lovely 72 and i gather youre not feeling well.. i thought these pics might cheer you up a bit..
I'm feeling much better. But my eyes are burning. Did you have to pull the picture of the Chevelle looking so dirty?
I love the tag on the last one.
Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk
I noticed that too, can't tell if it is Candy SS or Andy SS though.
Apologies for the photobombers btw.. quite why some people think its acceptable to walk over and sit on a car when youre trying to take a photo of it is completely beyond me.
I had to go back and look, sure enough, there were some people in those pictures.
I get used to looking at the cars and missed them. I hope it was warm that day, they look like they could take a chill.
with the stove that high, how warm is it at floor level
If a good natural convection flow is set up the air on the floor should be drawn up as the cool air falls on the far side of the room. Old time radiators weren't designed to be particularly low. Just my thoughts.
Thats funny right there, I dont care who you are. Thanks for the pics of the cars. It made me feel better, whether it helps Andy or not.
