Vigilant rebuild

[1982 Vigilant]

I had my VC Vigilant wood burning stove since 1982 and am taking it apart the rebuilding it for the 3rd time now. The stove originally came with a small bucket of refractory cement, but i have not be able to find that same product since the firs rebuild about 30 years ago. Can it be purchased or will I have to mix up my own concoction to fill in the bottom of the stove. The re-build manual says to use sand or ashes, which I have done but refractory cement would be much better and easier to clean out ashes. Any advice or recipe for a mix would be appreciated.

 

[Jeff in Maine]

Hi,
I would try using fire brick maybe, try Lowe's and Home Depot they should have them down by the bags of concrete and cement blocks they can be easily cut to size using a masonry blade on a circular saw. For refractory cement try the local stone / granite sales places or Lows and Home Depot maybe

 

[rwh63]

i would use sand or ashes.

 

[peakbagger]

Rutland Furnace Cement available at most hardware stores is what I used to rebuild my Defiant twice. Seems to hold up pretty well. Just make sure to clean the old stuff of completely. I used an angle grinder with wire cup brush and then had to scrape some of the tough stuff. I think you need to dampen the joint before applying bit its been a long time.

 

[peakbagger]

BTW, I have always used sand in the bottom, fairly quickly its mostly ash and bit of sand. The goal is to just scrape it level with the casting ribs.

 

[Turkey66]

Can you build a fire directly on top of the sand? I just bought a VC and just trying to figure it out.

 

[peakbagger]

Yes build a fire on top of the sand preferably with some ashes on top.

 

[Fred B. NJ]

I've just used wood ash about 1/2" over the ribs for the last 42 years.

Started my first fire of the season this morning.