Moving these hunks of lead...

[pegdot]

Anyone have any tips on how best to move a stove away from the wall for service or cleaning? I'm a 120lbs, the stove is 375lbs so it's really no contest. I can't budge the thing! :grrr:

I sort of like the way my temporary hearth looks but.....I'm now seriously thinking about replacing it with something that will make it easier to move the stove. Anyone have any ideas? Some type of homemade rails perhaps? I'd really just like to be able to pop the back off and get in there to vacuum without it turning into a three man job!

I'm thinking something along the lines of a tile hearth with U shaped metal tracks inset below the tile and casters under the stove so you could unhook the flue and OAK and simply pull it forward to the front of the hearth. Anyone done anything like that? Or is there an easier way to move the stove other than brute force?

 

[freebird77]

I was wondering the same thing. While I do weigh a bit more then you, quite a bit actually, I know I can turn the stove around myself but am afraid of scratching the expensive hearth pad I have underneath it. Im thinking maybe I can lift a corner at a time and put a thin piece of board or something under each corner then spin it around for cleaning the back side. Any other ideas greatly appreciated. Good luck.

 

[Shane]

Freebird has a good idea. Get some thick cardboard and place it under each leg or two bigger pieces under a pedestal and move it that way.

 

[smirnov3]

I don't know what the shape of your stove is, but if it has legs (instead of a pedastel), maybe you can lever it up onto a doily & wheel it out.

 

[Philip]

I have lifted mine up one leg at a time and slipped a piece of carpet (upside down) under each leg then I can slide it around on the hearth. But since your hearth consists of steping stones and your stove has a pedistal base, your only real option is some kind of non-combustable lazy susan that would allow you to swivel the stove without having to physically pick it up and move it. I like your idea of rails to pull the stove out and then swivel it around. That's the way my entertainment center is designed and it's real handy to be able to pull the TV out on the tracks and then swivel it around to get to the jacks on the back of the TV. You'd probably have to go to a welding shop and get one custom made. The only problem I see is how to attach the rails to the hearth especially if the hearth is made of individual stones that aren't fastened together. Maybe you could design something that would allow you to pull the hearth out and swivel it around while the stove stays fixed on the hearth. If your stone hearth is on plywood, you might use some of the rollers that are made for moving refrigerators around and put them under the plywood so any time you wanted to move the stove out you could just roll the hearth out from the wall unless your floor is carpeted.

 

[BrotherBart]

I get a version of these things for four for a buck at the dollar store. Put one under each corner and you can slide a stove, mine is 455 lbs., with no scratches or problems.

(broken link removed to http://www.spacesavers.com/magicslider.html)

 

[littlesmokey]

If you have a plastics supplier close, buy some HDPE squares. say 2 X 2 inch for each corner or each leg. You can use 1/4 thick stock. put a little epoxy on the tops and set the stove on them. The epoxy will not set too well on the HDPE, but it will prevent the stove from sliding off. HDPE is high density polyethylene. It is really slick. You will only need help getting the pads down, after that it will be a breeze. The pads described above are the same material, but in a more expensive package.

I get mine from a company that sells scraps by the pound so it would cost about $2.00. You can cut it with a hand saw, so if you want to get creative, go for it. It's very heat tolerant but I do not know it's rating.

 

[webbie]

I have also used those magic sliders - they are available at Home Depot, etc.

 

[pegdot]

Phillip, you are right, the loose cobblestones I've currently got make it nearly impossible for two people to move the stove so I guess I'm going to be building a totally new hearth out of tile during the off season. Even stuck down I think the surface of the pavers is too rough to allow it to slide.

Good idea about the plastic sliders! I'll have to give that a test and see if I can make it work before I go hog wild designing a new hearth. Would definitely be easier than what I had planned.

The problem we have, even with two of us, in trying to move the stove now is that even with the vent pipe loose it wiggles or even bends the vent pipe until the stove is completely clear of it since we have to sort of "walk" the stove to move it. Getting it lined back up with the vent to hook it back up is even more of a pain. :down:

What I had visualise was two metal three sided tracks set down into a new tile hearth so that the top of the side walls were level with the tile surface and then either casters under the stove to roll on the tracks or even two metal rods mounted on the bottom of the stove to slide on the tracks. Sort of a beefed up version of a drawer slider.

Ours is a pedestal base and I have no idea what, if anything, is under there as far as cross bracing so that was my next question. Corie? You around dear?

 

[krooser]

I moved my stove into my house with a two wheeled dolly and some friends but I didn't have any help once I had installed my flue and wiring. So I bought a 12' section of wood clothes rod from the lumber yard, cut it into four 3' pieces and simply lifted one end of the stove onto one "roller" and rolled the stove onto three of the "rollers". I could now roll the stove around pretty easily.

I believe the great pyramids were built like this so it's pretty old technology...

I must add that my St. Croix does not have legs but a flat bottom...if our stove has legs this won't work.

 

[smirnov3]

I have also used those magic sliders - they are available at Home Depot, etc.

be carefull with the magic sliders - I have used them, and if a grain of sand or something gets under them, they WILL scratch your floor. Badly.

 

[smirnov3]

I believe the great pyramids were built like this so it's pretty old technology...

Nah. The Pyramids were made from cement. Poured in place.

Seriously. Archeologists have been puzzled for decades about the lack of stoneshaping tools buried near the pyramids. and a geologist took a look at some of the pyramid stone, and found that the water content was a factor of 5x higher than in naturally occuring stone of that kind, and the structure of the stone was all wrong for natural stone.

so the geologist hypothosised that the stones were made from a primative cement

the archeologists all agreed that he was wrong. "these people lived long ago. they were too stupid to do something like that. they heated their homes with FIRE, for goodness sake."

(ok, I made that last part up, but I get really annoyed at how archeologists always assume that people with primative technology didn't make the best use of it that they could. So what if they only had stone tools. These were people just like us. Some of them were stupid, but some of them were REALLY smart)

 

[freebird77]

Sliders sound like a great idea to me