Did the cleaning, made a custom baffle gasket, shes cooking now.

Did my cleaning this past Sunday. Even took off the surround, side grilles, top shelf & ash shelf.
Painted the air fins on top black and the front inner corners of the casing black. Spent some time on her, now its humming along and I am enjoying.
First off, about screened chimney caps. Here are photos of mine last cleaned New Years last year, burned until almost up to May last year and started up evening fires last week. Burning most of today & yesterday as it has been chilly here. So much for the build up theories. I say it comes down to the wood you burn, how dry and how it is burnt!
Cap before & after. NANANANA

Now on to the brushing.
I use a metal brush, oh myyyy look at all those scratches! "It will never last 20 or 30 years"...................
I'll run right out and grab a "poly" brush,,,,,,,,,,,,,, uhuh right.
A shot of my cleaning weapon of choice & how low can it go?

Makes for good weanie roasting too

Oh yeah, while your up cleaning, make sure the storm collar is sealed well.
And hers a few shots of my ladder set up. I do have it made for cleaning I must say.

Here is the massive amount of soot I gathered from sweeping.
I just spread it in the bottom of the firebox with. No fuss no muss.

On to the baffle.
All you PE Summit & Aldera owners here is what your baffle is comprised of:
S.S. shell, insulation blanket on top, s.s. heat shield on top of blanket. Another S.S. heat shield on underside of stove top also.
Last shot if it comes in right order, is the secondary air opening in the bottom rear underside of the baffle. THis sits over the vertical channel at back of the stove. And rests on the gasket.

UMMM, UGGA UGGA whatum be thatum red word above your name?????????????????

And now the piece de resistance.............
The Neanderthal style Summit baffle gasket.
Hand semi braided/ semi tied and itchy fingers afterwards.
Secondary channel naked..................
Secondary channel newly clothed with the Custom Caveman gasket..................
And a shot of the pc of crap gasket PE sells.

SCI here! (stove scene investigations) I see a few scratches from cleaning that cap RHS pict. :coolsmirk:

Re-install baffle on new improved gasket,
sets down nicely no gap in back, confirming its seated and not raised any more than the normal gasket. And don't forget to RE-INSERT THE BAFFLE PIN!
And a shot of PE's replacement gasket. You be the judge.

And a shot of the painted top casing air deflectors & the corners also painted. I should have painted all the visible casing inside when the surround was off, but oh well next time.

You sure do. Have to leave something for all that creosote to grab onto

I did slide the screen out a tad to get the wire brush where the screen sets. Knowing the whole time the end of the screen was going to puncture a finger.
Welp, my left thumb took one for the team. Maybe I should have gotten updated on my Tetnus shot??? Oh well, I guess I'll know if things start locking up.

And lastly for all you speds out there...........
While I was sitting on the peak of the roof, looking around and reflecting on all the zen and sheet up there.
I took a few fall shots around the cave. Fall really is a great time for a few hits of windowpane.

Nice spread there Hogz. If there was anything on that cap just blame it on that piece of pine you burnt last December. ;-)
N of 60

That pile in the driveway is pine the neighbor brought over. I have no problem burning pine mixed in and shoulder burning.
In the dead of winter, Its mostly Oak for me though. I got a nice load of about 2 cord of red oak I just split for next year.
This year I have about 4 cords or so of mostly white oak, some soft maple, and one was the gnarliest maple I ever split. Its all being burnt, heat is heat.

Just finished sweeping my Chimney this past Monday from the inside. My roof is way too high and pitchy for me to go up there again, unless its an extreme emergency. I had to nail down support for a small ladder to reach the top of the chimney, similiar to what you did when I installed my full liner.

It was kinda weird sweeping a chimney under a Wind Advisory....


Keep us PE Summit folks posted on how the gasket performs..

When a few more leaves come off the trees, I'll get ya some shots of the cloud makers just over the way. Can see it from my home.
Till then, heres some glow action for ya. For those this year about to ask how to get a good, long, hot, overnight burn here is how I do it.
Damn I could only fit 5 splits in the stove. What am I doing wrong??? UGG UGG

Secondary burn

Thank you BB
the way the vertical channel runs through the back channel, at the front there is a small step down where the two meet, it still lets some out there, which I don't mind the secondary back there either.
Just wondering why its designed that way. Unless they want a secondary going on back there also.
I have a feeling I won't have to replace the custom gasket for a long time. That was my main goal.

Hogwildz:

Great post . . . shows the noobs and born-again woodburners what we need to do to properly clean the stove.

Also, loved the pics of the secondary fire . . . and now I realize why I'm not getting overnight fires . . . I'm not using the biggest splits and rounds that I have . . . just loading it up with small/medium splits.