right forum area to start a discussion on repair? I have a 3 year old Regency 5400 duel catalytic wood stove that appears to have a manufacturer defect. on the back of the fire box, just above the brick (about 2 inches) there is a failed horizontal butt weld seam, its seems that there was no penetration on one of the plates because the bottom plate looks like a factory edge or perfectly straight surface and the upper plate shows the weld which has separated with roughly a 1/16 inch gap. I plan on rewedding the two plates with my mig and thought I would first start a discussion as to possible direction. My thought was to obviously prep the two surfaces by grinding and beveling weld area, I was also thinking that preheating the stove prior to welding would be a good idea, of course forcing me to weld from the outside back of the stove itself as apposed to welding from the inside. seeing as how this is simply just two plates that have separated horizontally and not a physically cracked plate, would this be enough to effect the repair? or should I laminate/weld a two inch strip over top of the separated plates after first welding them together? I welcome any thoughts or suggestions, thanks!
