OK so will this thing ever stop stinking

[pybyr]

Scott, you got a hand-held electric heat gun out in your shop...you know, the "industrial strength" hair dryer looking type? No flame, plenty hot, no scorching (if you're careful with it)...lots of patience (but we already know you have that). Just a thought. Were I in your shoes, I might think about giving it a try. Rick

Was thinking the same -- though maybe a couple of them, borrowed, plugged into separate circuits, pumping hot air thru the *inside* of the stove to heat the whole thing up. Maybe rent a propane weed burner or some other oversized torch as the heat source? I would be trying to flow heat through the inside the stove, evenly, rather than flambe' the outside bit by bit -- much lower thermal stresses on the castings that way. Can you rig a temporary grate and burn some charcoal briquets down inside the lower section of the stove, where it's not getting hot now?

All kind of a hassle... I bet a couple more good burns on warm days with windows open will see you past the worst of it.

Eddy

If I were in your shoes, I'd leave it in place, throw all the windows open on a warm day, with some fans blowing out one batch of windows to assist the ventilation

and then

git myself one of those propane-fired weed burners. they throw a lot of heat, but it is spread out, so you could wave it all around the inside lower regions of the stove (keep it moving, because sudden changes in temp of different portions of the same piece of cast iron spell fast cracks)

they also have rigs for pipe thawing that might do a similar job of throwing a lot of heat relatively quickly and over a broad area-- got any acquaintances in the plumbing field who might have one or know who would? or a tool rental place?

hope this helps

 

[RedRanger]

Charcoal briquettes on top of the bricks and cover those briquettes with a flat piece of iron to hold the heat down. buy a couple of bags in case you have to do more than one or two burns.

And keep the stove door closed and forget about the marshmellows and weiners. %-P

 

[kd460]

Propane weed burner is what I was gonna say, but....somebody beat me to it! Good luck KD

 

[woodburn]

Never fear. Mine took a very long time too. You should be good after a few more fires. Get her hot and let er cook!

 

[Jimbob]

http://www.houseoftools.com/product.htm?pid=170928

 

[kd460]

Or this one: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=91033

I would just make sure to keep it moving around to evenly heat things up. Try to simulate a fire heating up slowly, then maybe starting a small fire and letting it cool down naturally. KD

 

[ScottF]

OK well thanks for all the posts and the information . after about 3 nights of burning and 3 full days around the clock the smell has finally gone away.

The stove runs great and keeps our 3000 sf at 72 degrees all the time. Even with the last few nights in the mid 20's we still woke up to a 70 degree house. The brick behind holds so much heat and is still hot in the morning. It heats the rooms after the stove goes out. This stove puts out lots of heat and uses 25% less wood than my fireplace. SO long to the oil man. Last year house was 62 degrees all winter and burned 1600 gals of oil. This year it will be 72 and we should only use about 300 gallons of oil.

Not bad for a stove over 110 years old.

 

[crazy_dan]

glad to hear it
I was just about to tell you to buy a few bags of pellets and fill the stove with them then light it. Of course this would also include the plan for worst hope for the best contingency plan

 

[Beanscoot]

Well I recall that there's special stove polish for refinishing stoves. I have an old jar of it, and the instructions say to add a few drops of water if it gets too thick. So hey- it's water based!

I would think that the genuine stove polish doesn't have the plasticizing polymers which are present in regular paints, that burn off with a nasty smoke evolution. The stove polish will produce much less harmful smoke.

In summary, why not use the stuff that is specifically made for this purpose?