Well this is my first wood stove, and also my first firing--it went as expected and very smooth. I will upload some pics later for sure!
I started with about 3 lbs of black locust split down. Fully seasoned and extremely dry. I split it into 1/2" thick slats, 3" wide by 12" long, probably about 8 of them and got the stove rolling. Started some cardboard to pop the flue with a burst of heat and off she went!
She was already pullin a good draft. Outside temps around 60, so warm, but I wanted to try her out. Very windy, and no down drafts inside at all.
I think I about wore the batteries out of my infrared tonight and checked obsessively for what seemed like every 5 or so minutes for the three hours I was in the shop! To say I was closely monitoring the burn would be a gross misrepresentation! I had fans going to pull the initial smoking off from the paint on the single wall. After about an hour or so, I shut the shop up to keep in the heat.
Temps fluctuated and finally settled in after an hour or so, all of the case and metal came up to temperature. 18 to 20" above the stove top, hit as high as 430 tonight...at which point I simply opened the front door, and watched the temp settle to just above 300 F. I think I already found the stove's happy spot, and never really filled much past the bottom of the door, and she would stay at around 315 at the stack, and about 285 on the stove top.
The base was hot...as I would expect it to be.
I checked the pipe at various heights, and especially at the roof penetration where the single wall transitions to my Cathedral box and chimney pipe.
Some questions for you all:
1) What are normal temps for the cathedral box? I was in the neighborhood of 85 to as high as 98 F.
2) What is normal for the chimney pipe that is below the cathedral box? I was around 145F at its highest.
Despite the rain, I climbed onto the roof just to see what was happening, and found no smoke, the flashing temps were around 68 F chimney was warm to the touch, and the cap was around 115 F.
Pics tomorrow as this ol boy is beat!
have a good night all,
Red
I started with about 3 lbs of black locust split down. Fully seasoned and extremely dry. I split it into 1/2" thick slats, 3" wide by 12" long, probably about 8 of them and got the stove rolling. Started some cardboard to pop the flue with a burst of heat and off she went!
She was already pullin a good draft. Outside temps around 60, so warm, but I wanted to try her out. Very windy, and no down drafts inside at all.
I think I about wore the batteries out of my infrared tonight and checked obsessively for what seemed like every 5 or so minutes for the three hours I was in the shop! To say I was closely monitoring the burn would be a gross misrepresentation! I had fans going to pull the initial smoking off from the paint on the single wall. After about an hour or so, I shut the shop up to keep in the heat.
Temps fluctuated and finally settled in after an hour or so, all of the case and metal came up to temperature. 18 to 20" above the stove top, hit as high as 430 tonight...at which point I simply opened the front door, and watched the temp settle to just above 300 F. I think I already found the stove's happy spot, and never really filled much past the bottom of the door, and she would stay at around 315 at the stack, and about 285 on the stove top.
The base was hot...as I would expect it to be.
I checked the pipe at various heights, and especially at the roof penetration where the single wall transitions to my Cathedral box and chimney pipe.
Some questions for you all:
1) What are normal temps for the cathedral box? I was in the neighborhood of 85 to as high as 98 F.
2) What is normal for the chimney pipe that is below the cathedral box? I was around 145F at its highest.
Despite the rain, I climbed onto the roof just to see what was happening, and found no smoke, the flashing temps were around 68 F chimney was warm to the touch, and the cap was around 115 F.
Pics tomorrow as this ol boy is beat!
have a good night all,
Red
