Rebuilt the Defiant.

[SpaceBus]

This also happened, which I'm not pleased about. This was a brand new thermostat as well. I thought the threads in the sotve were a bit deeper. Thankfully there was enough left to put it in the other threaded boss. I'm about to try and turn the broken piece out wiht a screwdriver and a mallet after the stove warms up again.

 

[fbelec]

couple of things. i too start my fires from the top. the cook plate will say hotter than the stove. with the stove still being cool i've had my cook plate say 900 you still need to run it about a hour before flipping the damper to light off the secondary fire. since this is new to you check your chimney every month til you get the hang of it. if it looks like someone tarred the chimney then you are either burning wood with to much moisture or you are burning the stove to cool and if not careful will have a nice chimney fire. you also need to save your 5 to 6 inch splits for over night. burning small sticks and splits 3 inches you'll never have a over night fire.

 

[peakbagger]

Nothing wrong with using the hole you did as long as you arent using the rear heat shield. Most folks do use the heat shield as otherwise the rear clearances are hard to meet. it really helps with pushing the heat to the front of the stove.

If you are going to be rebuilding any cast iron wood stove, snapped off bolts are to be expected. The trick is cobalt steel left handed drill bits and a sharp center punch. Left handed drill bits are mirror images of regular drill bits but you drill using the reverse setting on your drill. Most automotive stores sell them or you can buy them on Amazon. They frequently are paired with screw extractors which are designed with a left hand thread and are screwed into the hole you drilled with the left handed bit.

Several hours before, spray some of your favorite penetrating oil on the broken stud and casting. Next take a sharp center punch and find the center of the broken off screw. Then use a left handed drill bit that is a smaller diameter then the broken off screw. Carefully drill through the old screw giving a squirt or two of penetrating oil while drilling. The trick with a left handed drill bit is while its cutting its turning counterclockwise and vibrating the screw. Frequently the drill bit will catch the broken off piece and then it will screw out.Worst case is you end up with a hollow screw in the hole. I usually just use a small chisel and can tap the stud so it turns counterclockwise and it spins out. If there is nothing to tap on then screw in the extractor and the stud will spin out. If it doesn't, then its time to use a regular drill and try to hollow out the stud and use a thread tap to clean out the remains.

 

[SpaceBus]

Nothing wrong with using the hole you did as long as you arent using the rear heat shield. Most folks do use the heat shield as otherwise the rear clearances are hard to meet. it really helps with pushing the heat to the front of the stove.

If you are going to be rebuilding any cast iron wood stove, snapped off bolts are to be expected. The trick is cobalt steel left handed drill bits and a sharp center punch. Left handed drill bits are mirror images of regular drill bits but you drill using the reverse setting on your drill. Most automotive stores sell them or you can buy them on Amazon. They frequently are paired with screw extractors which are designed with a left hand thread and are screwed into the hole you drilled with the left handed bit.

Several hours before, spray some of your favorite penetrating oil on the broken stud and casting. Next take a sharp center punch and find the center of the broken off screw. Then use a left handed drill bit that is a smaller diameter then the broken off screw. Carefully drill through the old screw giving a squirt or two of penetrating oil while drilling. The trick with a left handed drill bit is while its cutting its turning counterclockwise and vibrating the screw. Frequently the drill bit will catch the broken off piece and then it will screw out.Worst case is you end up with a hollow screw in the hole. I usually just use a small chisel and can tap the stud so it turns counterclockwise and it spins out. If there is nothing to tap on then screw in the extractor and the stud will spin out. If it doesn't, then its time to use a regular drill and try to hollow out the stud and use a thread tap to clean out the remains.

Until a few months ago, I never really worked with wood. I'm very much into cars and I've been working on my own for a long time. That is to say I've broken a lot of stuff I have easy outs/left handed bits on my shopping list. Thankfully Amazon had some more thermostats in stock. Mainly I'm just mad at myself for breaking it. We have a room on the other side of the chimney that we are current sleeping in, so the lack of heat shield is actually a benefit for me.

Last night was great, just came out to a few hot coals and 65° by the kitchen window facing east. When I woke up this morning it was 5° outside. I searched the wood stack for the largest splits, and it worked wonderfully. The stuff I'm cutting for my new stacks has a much larger variance in size.

Thank you so much for answering my thousand questions and offering me advice. I've been learning a lot about heating a home with a wood stove as the primary heat. Years ago I lived in a house with a wood stove, hut it was only occasional use. That stove was very old, probably made in the 19th century. This is the most modern stove I've used, and certainly the only stove I've seen like it.

 

[kybishop]

Bummer on the bolt. I always dread the snapping of bolts. Good luck and hopefully you will be able to get it out ok.

We have found that you can also maximize the amount of wood in the Defiant by the length of the logs. Seems like we usually try and cut them in 18" lengths for this stove. It can take longer but it can get tricky loading the larger and longer pieces sometimes.

We have been caught a good many times where the wood is roaring and the door won't close because it just hits on the log at the door latch or something. You have to either try and shift it or take it out real quick before it catches toomuch. We have had to set logs outside the house that did not fit at the time.

 

[SpaceBus]

I've been trying to cut my rounds about 16-18" some are a bit longer as I'm still new to this. I need to make a measure and mark my logs.

 

[SCBeekeeper]

My father-in-law installed an Encore 2550 in 1996 when he built the house we now live in. I'm in the process of replacing the refractory unit, catalyst, and re-gasketing the upper fireback, side plates, lower fireback, doors and ash pan. It's a work in progress. I figured I'd have the most difficulty removing the bolts in the side plates and upper fireback due to their repeated expansion and contraction. They came out easily. It was the set screw on the damper stub handle that's causing the most problems. It's seized to the point of breaking an Allen wrench and then rounding off the shoulders. Tried drilling it out but no luck with that either. Only alternative left is to saw through the damper rod so that I can remove the upper fireback. Waiting on another shipment of parts.
I used a Dremel tool to sand the old gasket sealer in the grooves. Worked well.

 

[SCBeekeeper]

I thought I would post an update to my project. I've been on a mad dash to get the stove put back together since we are forecast to get 6-8" of snow this weekend. By South Carolina standards, that is almost a blizzard LOL!! I know it doesn't measure up to the snows up north but since we don't see snow that often things / people get crazy around here.
I did have to saw the end of the damper rod to get the upper fireback out. They had it cemented in good too. Took several wacks with a dead blow hammer to get it to start moving. Got all the parts cleaned, gaskets replaced. Even replaced the glass gaskets. Thought those little screws might cause issues but they came right out. Started putting it back together yesterday. I dry fit the upper fire back several times just to get the procedure down before I applied the bead of cement. When I tightened down the bolts the cement oozed out all along the joint so hopefully I got a good seal on it.
Had to adjust the damper tension slightly to get a good result on the dollar bill test. The left side door took some time to get it adjusted properly. I did install a cat thermometer. Just finished getting it back together this morning. Waiting on the griddle gasket to dry. Hopefully will be firing it up tonight.
Thanks to all who offered advise and suggestions! It was much appreciated. Didn't have the time to repaint it like I had hoped. Will be a project for this spring.