Wood Gun fresh air intake valve/flap

[muncybob]

This flap is what cuts off the air intake into the loading box and essentially stops the fire. Upon learning the extremely high cost of getting one of these from the manufacturer I decided to make my own. The disk/flap is basically a rubber piece of silicone type material sandwiched between 2 stainless steel discs....one of the disks is about 1/2 the diameter of the other disc. After 2 heating seasons I had to replace my original flap.

I need to glue the silicone material to the discs and am wondering what type of adhesive to use? I need a good adhesive that can withstand fairly high temps during the burn cycles.

I expect the finished product to be as good if not better than the ones AHS will send us at about $52+postage each. Once I assemble one of these I'll run it for a season. If it holds up well I'll be making more for the future and any WG owners out there wanting one can PM me and I'll keep in touch on this small project.

 

[711mhw]

Hey Bob, I think that they just use the same silicone caulking stuff. After fooling around trying to find "high temp" silicone to seal up my stove pipe, I think that all 100% silicone caulk has the same temp rating. ($14 v/s $6 tube) Did you find the silicone "sheet" to make the seals with? I just had the pleasure of replacing my disk.... after one year!

 

[Duetech]

Whe I was first made aware of silicone glue it was kind of new and was for the purpose of gluing pyrex bakeware back together after it broke. It was supposed to withstand temps of 450*f before all the "improvements" for other applications. It's good they came up with other applications because it wouldn't hold pyrex together very well when there was a load in the dish. I thought it was great stuff for fishing lures then somebody marketed rubber worms and I had to get a job..... :roll:

 

[Gasifier]

Hey bob. What should I watch for to know that this seal is going bad? How did you know? Thanks.

 

[Singed Eyebrows]

Bob, If the silicone glue/calk doesn't work well try 3M 847. This will hold on chainsaw crankcase gaskets that are exposed to hot gas/oil mix & pressure. This will hold when rtv's & silicones wont, on the chainsaws at least. It's a bit hard to find, Ebay should have it or you can send me some of the parts & I'll glue them for you as I've got that in a quart can, Randy

 

[mark123]

Just use the high heat orange silicone, it will bond to silicone and the metal. I had to repair my lower door gaskets which are the old silicone style ones and that is all I used. I used the spray cleaner for wood stove glass doors (potassium hydroxide) to clean my air intake gasket as well, it will clean off the caked on creosote and make it like new again.

 

[muncybob]

Hey bob. What should I watch for to know that this seal is going bad? How did you know? Thanks.

I would not have known that the "inside" ss disc was failing if I had not taken the disc assembly off it's arm. There was no swivel left in it so I figured it was gunked up and just needed a good cleaning. I probably could have gotten another season out of it but since I had it off I decided to replace it. I think the ss I'm using on the new ones is a bit thicker so hopefully I'll get more seasons out of them.

Thanks all for the replies!

 

[muncybob]

Randy, the same seller on Ebay wants as much for a small tube of that as he does for a quart! Also found it and other high temp glues by 3M (such as the 1300Y product) on Amazon for reasonable prices. Looks like I'll be making a few of these at a fraction of the AHS prices.

 

[Gasifier]

I would not have known that the “inside†ss disc was failing if I had not taken the disc assembly off it’s arm. There was no swivel left in it so I figured it was gunked up and just needed a good cleaning. I probably could have gotten another season out of it but since I had it off I decided to replace it. I think the ss I’m using on the new ones is a bit thicker so hopefully I’ll get more seasons out of them.
Thanks all for the replies!

Oh, thank you for the information. I appreciate it. 22 Degrees on the back porch last night. I think winter is coming.?