Quiet day, good time to clean the T6 and chimney

[begreen]

I've been putting off cleaning the flue. My gut feeling was that it was ok. We only burned 2.5 cords last year and the wood was nice and dry. But today was quiet so I got out the Sooteater and got to work. I picked up some 3/8" stove gasket over the weekend to make a custom baffle gasket too.

All went well. I cleaned out the ash first. The firebrick is still in good shape. There's one cracked brick in the rear which I'll watch but it appears to be holding together for now. I know exactly it happened too. It was an oversize piece that I was trying to squeeze in on a hot bed of coals. Moral: Don't force or slam wood into the back of the firebox! The baffle is fine too. Looks like a simple cleaning.


I pulled out the baffle and brushed thoroughly. As suspected, I could have skipped this year. I got less than 6 ounces. I may skip sweeping next year.


Now on to the custom Hog Gasket™ . I've wanted to try making one for a few years now but still had leftover factory gaskets to use up. It was pretty straight-forward thanks to instructions left by Hogwildz. I flipped the baffle over and measured out the perimeter of the secondary inlet then added a couple inches on each end and cut the rope. Then I marked the perimeter length on the 3/8" gasket rope with a sharpie and proceeded to unbraid the rope to the marks. Then you just tie the two end strings in some knots, one at a time voila, a custom gasket. This should last quite a while.


gasket in place on the secondary tube


The old gal is ready for her 9th season. I was a little leary about getting a painted stove after having the beautifully finished blue-black Castine, but that was unwarranted. The cast pieces don't get hot enough to bake the paint dull. It still cleans up very nicely. It's too warm today to warrant a fire, but maybe tomorrow morning. I want to check out the new gasket.

 

[pen]

I burned less than my normal amount last winter but did the sweep as well. Using past experience, I knew it'd be fine. But, if the opportunity presents itself, it doesn't hurt to prove oneself correct.


pen

 

[Woody Stover]

Good job on the gasket-weaving. That could be used about anywhere, I guess. I could use that on the Buck ash pan gasket, where I can't afford to have any air leak into the stove. Last time, I cut the gasket, then worked a small amount of silicone into the ends to prevent unraveling.
Nice results on the brushing too...not even enough to fill a small Led Zeppelin yogurt cup. I got more like 1.5 qts. on the external masonry chimney.

 

[mol1jb]

Thanks for passing on the info for that DIY secondary gasket. I will have to remember that in the future once my Super 27 is up and running.

 

[begreen]

Your welcome. Thank Hogwildz for the idea. I just followed his steps.

This morning it was 48F. It's going to be nice and the house will warm up with the sun, but I wanted to make sure the gasket is working ok so I started the stove up. All looks ok and we have fire!

 

[Highbeam]

It's been 9 years?! I remember when you brought that thing home from Tom's place.

 

[begreen]

We got the stove in March 2008 from Tom's shop. It's a 2007 floor model that they ran in the winter of 2007/2008.