VC rebuilding

[72Rover]

It's been a while since I last visited the site....

I've got a VC Resolute that's done yeoman duty for 34 years now. It has consumed over 70 cords and kept the small house right toasty. (Somehow, the thought of cutting, splitting, stacking and hauling 70 cords makes me feel old and sore right now, but I digress....) This spring, I plan on a full disassembly, as I'm pretty good at taking things apart and rebuilding them without any leftover and obviously unnecessary parts. It's been cleaned internally several times but never fully taken down.

One area caught my eye last time. The beauty of the VC design is the flame path on secondary burn. Yet the two castings that define that smoke path have a gap, widest at the exit end. I want to bridge that gap.

It's too wide to simple slather in the refactory cement. Besides, the stuff would slump before curing. So I've been considering a matrix to hold the cement in place 'til it hardens; kind of like re-wire in concrete. Best I've come up with is fiberglass window screen. I've experimented by placing a swatch on glowing coals, and after an initial flare, it remains strong after retrieval. Thought is to lay a bead of the 2000F stuff on wax paper, then incorporate the screening, and press into place.

Any other ideas?

Cheers

 

[dlj]

My first question is why is there a gap? Was it there when new? Or have the parts warped? Have you considered buying new internal parts instead of a rebuild using the old parts?

dj

 

[72Rover]

It's where the two castings just don't meet; nothing has warped, more like receeded. Not sure if it was always like this - or got slowly worse over the decades. The idea of high-speed gas cutting in an oxygen-rich environment comes to mind.... Part of the flame/smoke path is being "short-circuited" though it really doesn't seem to affect the stove's overall performance. I would much rather fix something if I can rather than buy something new. I've been driving a Land-Rover for 42 years with the same philosophy.