An Epic Battle

I wasn't really trying to be mysterious in my last post.  I guess I've been worrying and fighting over those pieces for so long I figured everybody knew what they were by now.  That's how osmosis works right?

Last year, during some of our coldest weather, one of the stones on my wood-stove broke, allowing too much air to leak into the stove and, of course, it choose to break while the stove was full of hard maple.  Consequently, the fire got too hot and couldn't be damped down.  It warped and cracked all of the inner cast iron parts.  I was able to fix the air leak, keeping the stove usable, but repairing the interior meant not using the stove for at least 5 days.  Not an option.

I fought with the thing all winter and when Spring finally arrived, I said hallelujah(!!) and vowed to get the bleeping thing fixed as soon as possible.  Trouble was, it was a very easy job to put off.  I should have been working on this when it was 98 degrees, but just walking past the miserable thing each day gave me a stomach ache, which, of course, went away as soon as I turned my back on it.  A very, very easy job to put off.

Until we had an early frost that is.

So, I finally called the manufacturer and ordered parts and then I promptly got sick and couldn't even deal with opening the box for another three weeks.  Hmmm, now I think of it, maybe it was the evil stove parts that gave me the flu in the first place.  It would be just like the rotten, uncooperative little S.O.B's

Finally though, I knew this could not be put off any longer and set out to tackle this most unwanted job.  And....the old pieces were all so warped that I could not get them apart.  I banged and fought and cursed and sprayed noxious chemicals and the blasted things would not give....and another week went by.

I had had enough so I bought a new wheel for the grinder and cut the thing into submission.  When all else fails, try this...

There are supposed to be 2 spikes and the bar should NOT curve...

There should not be a hole in the bottom of this and it shouldn't curve either...

Once I finally got all the old pieces out of the stove I found that the new ones were too big.  So, I got out the grinder again and now they fit just right.  The shiny new pieces all where they belong...

Tomorrow, all of the new cement should be cured and the stove will be usable once again.  Just in time too as snow has been mentioned and temperatures dropping into the twenties this week.  Yuck!

Now that the stove has been completely rebuilt and is better then new, I am a wee bit tempted to put it up for sale and put the money towards a gas furnace.  I've already used up this stove's entire quota of swear words and we've only known each other a few years after all.....