Diabel said:
Are you extending the hearth at all? As for tips....we should all thank this place!!
I hear you there! There is a black slate extention in the works. I have the slate already, just have to cut it, cut out the wood floor and replace it with 1/2" cemment board and the black slate!
Sorry I didn't respond earlier, but I had a lot of work to do with the stove. I took the insides all appart and cleaned the whole thing, checking the refractory box and cat as well as other parts for any cracks or warpage. I'm pleased to say that the interior of the stove is impecable. The previous owner said he had replaced the refractory assembly once. I was sort of disappointed to see that the cat was cracked and warped, but I knew I may have to be replaced after I bought the stove. According to the previous owner it was 6 years old. But it looked really beat up for it to be that age. Everything was pretty simple to take appart. The thing that was by far the hardest, was taking the damper assembly off and putting it back in. Next time I'll make a jig to support the weight of the damper assembly while I take off and later re attach the bolts that go through the back of the strove and hold the heavy cast iron assembly. All the little nooks were vaccumed out and the cat was cleaned as best as could be. The stove is 90% clean and looks really great! I just have to dust off the little details that gather dust and are tough to clean on the exterior. There are only a few minor cracks on the enamel, nothing that can't be touched up with some paint from VC. This is a beautiful looking stove and I am happy to finally have it in the house. It'll have a chance to get acclamated with the indoor temps for the night and get rid of any moisture it may have acquired in the garage. I will fire it up this week with some break-in fires to reheat and take moisture out of the seams before a real fire is started.
Here are some more pics:
1. My little guy Max was hard at work wiping the dust off the stove!
2.The stove with all the parts that were taken out during the travel, this also represents the closest to the real color of the stove. It looks more Navy than the brighter blue the flash makes it appear!
3.Inside without the insides!
4.The cat is pretty banged up! Time to start looking around for one at a good price, I guess!
5.Inside the firebox with all the parts back in it. This picture makes all the dust on it really stick out. It had some ash all over it from having taken out all of the insides. Dusty and messy situation. All that stuff that looks like rust in the nooks and cranies is just dust. I already dusted off a lot of it, but it's hard to get at those inside corners. Again, the flash makes the dust really stick out like a sore thumb!
6.Here's where it'll spend the night untill I hook it to the chimney in place of the DW.
It was really tough to take that damper assembly off without something to support it while you try to unscrew from the outside. Even tougher to put it back in. Next time I'll have a little box built up to sit perfectly under it and put it at the right height without having to hold it by hand and try to line up the bolts from the outside.
! That is 125lbs more unless it is the large defiant that is 475lbs.
