Screwing around with the pipe

[Eric Johnson]

Maybe this is more of a gear-related question, but I thought I might get more responses here in the main forum.

Does anybody have a good alternative to screwing single-wall black stove pipe together?

Having blown an unsecured pipe out the back of a stove one time, I have always since made sure that each section of single-wall pipe is connected with three sheet metal screws. As I'm sure everyone else is well aware, getting the holes lined back up once you take it apart, can be an exercise in frustration. I can usually do it, but it's not much fun. Much of the problem is tied to the fact that the pipe is hard to move around once it's together, so I was thinking maybe some sort of dry, graphite lubricant would be useful. Something that won't smoke once you get the thing fired back up.

Please note, there's no credit for posts that include the use of a drill. That's a no-brainer, but it offends my sense of what's right and decent.

 

[zogboy]

Eric,
I mark the pieces with a marker pen before I take them apart , that way you just have to line up those marks when you put it back together.

On this same subject, I was wondering if copper pipe could be use as stove pipe?
I have access to copper pipe of all sizes but I do not know if it is safe to use as flue pipe. My flue happens to be 4" and I have that in the garage.
Is there any health concerns of using it with a coal fire?

 

[Willhound]

I wouldn't. Copper can give off gases when heated/melted. I think the ability to handle heat, especially without deforming is also much less than steel.
This is my belief anyway.

Maybe some of the chemists/metallurgists in the crowd can jump in.

 

[rudysmallfry]

Ooh, good timely topic for me. I just took apart my elbow for the first time and am wondering how I'm going to get it back together. I'll be watching this one.

 

[elkimmeg]

First of all I try to take it apart removing the least amount of screws. I may just remove the 2 or 3 on the flue collar and slide the rest out of the metal thimble it goes threw. ot easier to line up only two or three. If I have to rotate the pipe to line it up I use one of the rubber band adjustiable grip type tool and Rotate that way. Little WD 40 may help and will burn off quickly. If I have to move the stove out to get the pipe out. I use a block of 2 by stock get my roll away car jack roll it under Jack it up and back it out.

Maybe I should detail how I got up at 3:00 Am Drove 6 hours to Burlington VT purchased my stove had it loaded in the back of My Subaru forester, Drove home. Removed my existing stove and had the new Ressolute Acclaim opperating at 6:00 pm zero help

 

[adrpga498]

Ooh, good timely topic for me. I just took apart my elbow for the first time and am wondering how I'm going to get it back together. I'll be watching this one.

I used a nail punch to incert & keep 1 hole lined up whilst turning and what have you to line up the other 2. Let me know how that works for you

 

[babalu87]

Toothpicks should be in every toolbox

 

[michael]

Maybe I should detail how I got up at 3:00 Am Drove 6 hours to Burlington VT purchased my stove had it loaded in the back of My Subaru forester, Drove home. Removed my existing stove and had the new Ressolute Acclaim opperating at 6:00 pm zero help

Yes, please do. I'd like to know how you unloaded the new stove and carried it into the house with zero help and also how you removed the old stove.

 

[babalu87]

Maybe I should detail how I got up at 3:00 Am Drove 6 hours to Burlington VT purchased my stove had it loaded in the back of My Subaru forester, Drove home. Removed my existing stove and had the new Ressolute Acclaim opperating at 6:00 pm zero help

Yes, please do. I'd like to know how you unloaded the new stove and carried it into the house with zero help and also how you removed the old stove.

Same but different:

Morso 3610 weighs in at 500lbs

Leave work early and drive to New Hampshire in your 1994 Dodge Dakota to pick up the stove
Drive home and find out your brother is working late and wont be home until 8PM
Its going to pour that night
Mind starts rolling with ideas of how to get a 500lb block of cast iron off the truck and into the house with ZERO help
Back truck up to the front porch and are surprised that the tailgate is that close to the height of the landing....... hey this looks good
Build some cribbing out of plywood and 2 X 4s to make a ramp of sorts to the front door of the house
Crib it up with a few cinder blocks and it now looks do-able
Luckily the masonite they were throwing out at work had a home in your basement things slide nice on masonite
Pick up/tilt the stove back (ships on a pallet) and slide the masonite under the stove
Push pull kick and groan until it is off the truck and on the ramp
Slide on the masonite and plywood until it is in place in your living room

Wait 3 weeks for Lowes to get the stove pipe they promised to you a month ago
Now make more cribbing/ramps to get the stove from the pallet to the hearth pad, keeping in mind you have to put the legs on it too

 

[elkimmeg]

I planned it starting with placing 3/4” plywood in the back of the Subaru, which the seats fold down flat. I drilled a 1” hole in the plywood and put two 2/4 blocks under them to space them off the floor and to give the plywood something to slid along. From the store into the car was easy with a folk lift. I also have moving blankets and the Subaru has tie down hooks in the back. I was able to secure the stove from moving during the 6 hour trip back. Once I got into my driveway, the hardest part was getting the stove out of the car undamaged to both. Because the plywood was raised in the back I was able to slide another piece under it and create a ramp exiting the car. I did line up some tools to get the job done. A wheel piano dolly, 2 .5 ton roll out car jack and ropes plus a come-along.
I backed my truck about 8’ away attached the come-long to the trailer hitch on the bumper and with rope I tied it threw the drilled out hole in the plywood it was stetting on.
At the bottom of the ramp it used the moving blankets to protect the stove once it got rolling. I started cranking it out with the comea-long and every thing works according to plan the first piece of plywood went over the second and the stove and it slid gently onto the driveway legs first. I repositioned the come-along with a couple cranks it was sitting on all four legs.
Enter the car jack there was enough room under the legs to slid it under with a block. I jacked up enough to place a short plank between the legs and bring in my 2 wheeler, lower it down and tilt it back, The 2 piece of 3/4 plywood would become useful again creating ramps to get over the one step thresholds by the door as I wheeled it inside. I set it down I set it on the piano dolly, so now I can roll it around The next hard part was dealing with the field stone 8” high raised hearth. With the 3/plywood pieces I now can disconnect the existing Effel stove, not as heavy and the VC resolute. With rope a Strap it to the two wheeler and pull it out into the garage ( In decent shape still I gave it to a guy that need it more than me a couple of weeks later)

Getting this 400 lb beast on the uneven fieldstone hearth was going to be a problem. With 2 pieces off 1/8 board, I laid them over the fieldstone. On top of them a 3’ by 1” dowels. On the piano dolly, I position the stove in front ready to get it up to the hearth. The two wheeler is useless no room to move it around. A lot of blocks and shims I wedge up the stove sitting on the piano dolly I get it about 2” above the hearth Slid wedge a board under each set of legs leaving the middle open. I positioning the dowels and adding another one under the boards under the legs. I now can roll the stove onto the hearth. the dowels are the rollers. I am lining this up to position it to line up with the existing connector hole in my chimney. Using the piano dolly as a platform. I am able to slid my car jack under it again raise it ever so much to get the dowels out then on the board under the legs. Finally with the jack I can tweak the final position. I take off the boards from the hearth it is now sitting in position lined up perfect to the existing hole straight shot with new connector pipe which I had previously slid into the thimble. Pull the connector pipe forward, ( change the stove collar to rear exit), I make my final connection. Time to start a fire while, I had a massive clean up of wood blocks and tools. Along the way, I removed the doors top griddle the bottom cast iron and Refractory panels to lighten to this beast. Initially the stove was 2” lower than the outlet and the legs were sitting on bricks. With no room to position an elbow to made up that 2” I made up a conversion box similar to the offsets used for insert connections The box I used, was an electrical sub panel box 16 gage steel. With two pieces of 22 gage connector pipe I” cut 1” slits a an inch deep and bent them over 90 degrees as fastening tabs. I applied a generous amount of refractory cement and sheet metal machine screw, nut and bolted the tabs ever 3 rd one. I also caulked the front with refractory bead. Repeating the process for the outlet flange. Inside the box. I installed an angle piece to deflect the smoke travel upward. The box can actually be disassembled for cleaning, Removing the stainless steel screws. When I assembled the box I applied refractory cement to all connecting surfaces. I will try to take a picture of the setup and post it. Next weekend, I bring in the car jack again.
I jacked up the stove and removed the bricks under the legs Lowered the stove down to the hearth. Cut the connector pipe and install the box. 25 years earlier, I positioned a cleanout door at the exact location in the back of the chimney to line up with the front connector inlet. This access makes cleaning the vertical and horizontal runs a snap. Plus being a great way to observe what is going on in there. Because these cleanout doors are notorious for leaking and not being a tight fit, I used thin gasket as in glass gasketing, and sealed the door. I then attached a metal swivel thumb like tab to keep it a tight fit

 

[Eric Johnson]

Car jacks are really handy. So are chain come-alongs. You'd be surprised how much weight you can move just by putting it on 1/2 or 3/4-inch galvanized steel pipes and pushing. Last weekend I moved a 250-pound cast iron radiator from my garage (where I painted it) into the kitchen with a combination of plywood and an old terrycloth throwrug. Slid like a dream across the tile floor once I got it into the house.

My boiler weighs 900 pounds. I bought it on Eaby and rented a Ryder truck to drive downstate to pick it up from the guy. I had reserved a truck with a lift-gate, but somebody totaled it the day before I was supposed to take posession, so they gave me a truck with an aluminum ramp and a discount. So now I'm thinking, whatamIgonnado? Drove down there anyway. The boiler was in a drive-in garage, but obviously the Ryder truck wouldn't fit in there. We managed to slide the thing across the floor to the garage door and then eased the boiler over sideways onto the ramp. Boiler plate slides pretty good on wet aluminum, so it was no big deal to use a chain come-along to pull it up into the truck bed. Paid the guy and headed home. When I got home, I just used a pry bar to slide it back down the ramp into the barn, then jacked it upright and pryed it into place. Last summer I rebuilt my boiler room, so that involved moving the boiler again. I used a big crowbar to slide it 10 feet or so out of the way. When I moved it back into the new, cinderblock room it had to go up 4 inches onto a concrete pad. I jacked the boiler up with a car jack, blocked it, and put in the pad, and then lowered it back down.

I always find myself working alone on these projects. Brainpower beats muscle every time.

 

[zogboy]

All good ideas guys but I am an old man so I rent an electric hand truck that can move a ton and climb stairs. I know this takes the fun out of
heavy moving but after 3 ruptured disk and surgery I no longer think of lifting as fun. I am happy to give the local rental co $50 to save my back.
John

 

[Eric Johnson]

I'm not getting any younger either, John, but give me a call and I'll come over and give you a hand if you ever need it.