# The old smoke dragon is finally installed.



## ScottF (Oct 10, 2008)

Well after 6 months of working every single night until late and every weekend day the addtion is finally done and the smoke dragon is installed. Just a few more connections until I can fire her up and let her belch.  I had to put an addtion on the house. I went as far as putting steel beams in the 1st floor with an 8 inch concrete slab over the basement full of steel rebar with brick over that.  All the back walls are layers of 4 inch block with air spaces between each layer so completely non combustible.  I did every bit of work myself including , sitework, basement foundation and floor, masonry, framing, roofing, siding and trim, interior trim, drywall, painting, finish work, hardwood floorring, stove work, masonry chimney  etc.   After many thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours I am complete.  Here is the finish photos of the old dragon.  I even built all the furniture for the new room but thats another story. No secondary burn tubes and no catalitic action.  She was built in the 1890s. we just restored her.  I dont expect modern stove performance but I do expect lots of heat.  I have plenty of wood   Whew!!


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## Adios Pantalones (Oct 10, 2008)

That is sexy as hell right there.  The stove, the arch, the hearth- wow!

You might look into one a dems in-pipe catalysts that might help with creosote and smoke.


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## jrousell (Oct 10, 2008)

wow

 how about even more pics?  -- do you have a blog where you chronicle the progress?


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## ScottF (Oct 10, 2008)

> That is sexy as hell right there.  The stove, the arch, the hearth- wow!
> 
> You might look into one a dems in-pipe catalysts that might help with creosote and smoke



Thanks,  I did look into the in pipe catalyst but we dont have the room for one.  The distance between the connection on the back of the stove and the the opening in the brick at the thimble is only 3 inches.  And I have to fit a manual damper in that area.  My wife was adamant that she did not want any stove pipe showing.  She does not like the look of stove pipe for some reason.  Therefore I designed it to go right out of the back of the stove and into the wall asap.  I have very dry wood and will burn it hot and control temps with the amount of wood to keep creosote down.  I also have an easy set up to clean the chimney from the basement so I will clean it often.  

I dont have a blog with progress or any more photos.  I just dont have the time as I run a business and work every other minute available.  Sorry


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## granpajohn (Oct 10, 2008)

Is that mantle stone, wood, er; non-combustible?
Well...what's the mantle made of? (C'mon Granpa...spit it out)


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## ScottF (Oct 10, 2008)

> Is that mantle stone, wood, er; non-combustible?
> Well...what’s the mantle made of? (C’mon Granpa...spit it out)




Soapstone.  Cut it and installed it myself.  We wanted wood but I would never put wood that close.  It will get way too hot. It overhangs about 5 inches


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## fossil (Oct 10, 2008)

It's breathtaking.  I'm certain there can be no other installation quite like it in the world.  That old stove looks like if you were to push just the right buttons on a remote, it would walk out of there, greet you, and serve you dinner.  I love it.  Rick


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## woodconvert (Oct 10, 2008)

WOW....now THAT is a real real nice lookin' setup. Great job!.


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## granpajohn (Oct 10, 2008)

[quote author="ScottF" date="1223669770... We wanted wood but I would never put wood that close. [/quote]

Yeah, that's what I was gettin' at. 
The soapstone is an ingenius idea.
I sometimes worry a little about non-combustible mantles. Folks have a tendency to place combustible items atop them. In my case, a birthday card blew down (thanks to the ceiling fan) and fluttered down, landing right on the stovetop, as I watched it. (No exageration.) Needless to say, I corrected that problem right away.


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## begreen (Oct 10, 2008)

Wow Scott, that's a veritable temple of fire. You did a great job! It looks beautiful. 

Now how's she burning?! ;-P


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## InTheRockies (Oct 10, 2008)

Bravo!  That is a truly impressive and beautiful room.  You are a skilled craftsman. The stove is lovely, but the entire room is impressive.  Thank you for sharing the photos.  I know that you and your family will enjoy the room and stove this winter and for years to come.


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## warm in VT (Oct 10, 2008)

Beauty.  I had a stove just like that in college in a log cabin we rented.  IT WILL put out the heat when she is up and running  Congrats, nice job.


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## Backwoods Savage (Oct 10, 2008)

That is beautiful Scott and you can be very proud.


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## smokinj (Oct 10, 2008)

Adios Pantalones said:
			
		

> That is sexy as hell right there.  The stove, the arch, the hearth- wow!
> 
> You might look into one a dems in-pipe catalysts that might help with creosote and smoke.


Wow and sexy is right on!


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## jbroich (Oct 10, 2008)

Holy moley, that's beautiful. You have every right to be proud. Jeeeeez.


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## ScottF (Oct 10, 2008)

Thanks for all the positive comments.  Its not completely hooked up until tonight . I have to make a custom connector.  Was wondering if I should do break in fires?   It has been burnt before many many years ago. It was all sealed so that may need to cure and the paint may or may not need to be cured.  Any opinions. Scott


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## begreen (Oct 10, 2008)

Cast iron likes to be broken in. Start off with a small kindling fire to check draft and operation. Then build up each successive fire with a little more wood. If you have a thermometer on the stove that will help guide you. I'd break it in over say 4 fires raising the temp from 250 to 450 in 50 degree increments. And open a window, it's likely to smoke a bit for the breakin fires. 

PS: Your furniture work looks impressive too.


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## the_dude (Oct 10, 2008)

That is truly amazing work.  Simply stunning.  The fact that you did everything yourself is quite amazing.  Congratulations.

Because the stove was resored, ie new seals and repainted, I would think you would want to have a few break in fires.  It certainly won't hurt anything.


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## daveswoodhauler (Oct 10, 2008)

I am in awe....like the prior poster indicated, you should create your own blog on the whole process. 
Its almost too beautiful to burn it....well, almost


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## moondoggy (Oct 10, 2008)

BeGreen said:
			
		

> Cast iron likes to be broken in. Start off with a small kindling fire to check draft and operation. Then build up each successive fire with a little more wood. If you have a thermometer on the stove that will help guide you. I'd break it in over say 4 fires raising the temp from 250 to 450 in 50 degree increments. And open a window, it's likely to smoke a bit for the breakin fires.
> 
> PS: Your furniture work looks impressive too.



that looks amazing. I only wish it was mine.

but if i may hijack for a moment, Begreen, this will be my 2nd year burning. should i be doing break in fires still? like is that an 'every year to start the season' thing for cast iron?


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## cmonSTART (Oct 10, 2008)

Looks fantastic!


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## wannago (Oct 10, 2008)

Great job. Wish I could muster up the will power to try a project like that. Sweet....


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## smokinj (Oct 10, 2008)

Fire IT UP!


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## begreen (Oct 10, 2008)

moondoggy said:
			
		

> BeGreen said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Yes, it's recommended for cast and soapstone stoves to do break in fires at the beginning of the season.


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## savageactor7 (Oct 10, 2008)

Wow it's perfect there...is that the same stove you showed us a couple months back? Super job on the restore Scott.


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## woodjack (Oct 10, 2008)

Holy bejeezes! That baby looks like it's going to ejaculate any second.


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## Chief Ryan (Oct 10, 2008)

Sweet!

It fits perfectly!! Good Job!


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## Chief Ryan (Oct 10, 2008)

Your.......Like.......A Super Hero!

I went back and read the post over again. Absolutely Beautiful!


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## Elfin (Oct 11, 2008)

Absolutely gorgeous!  Nice job


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## bebopin (Oct 11, 2008)

OUT STANDING!  That is awsum.


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## BJ64 (Oct 11, 2008)

Marvelous!


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## RedRanger (Oct 11, 2008)

Absolutely stunning!!


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## bmwbj (Oct 11, 2008)

WOW...HOLY CRAP...WOW


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## jghall (Oct 11, 2008)

Phenomenal!!


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## NWMO (Oct 14, 2008)

Good evening Scott,

Beautiful stove.  I just started a thread on an old stove we purchased at auction and are hoping to refurbish.  Any pointers you have as you break in and burn would be appreiciated.  We won't burn until next season as the refurbish will likely be a winter project for the boys and I.  We're just trying to heat a 600 SF room and I am figuring on placing the stove 3' from the exterior wall.  Floor is already ceramic tile on concrete.  Seems to me a striait pipe (double wall, etc.) through the vaulted ceiling would be best, but my better half wants it installed through the wall, not ceiling.  At any rate, I wanted to say hi as your posts have been helpful already and we seem to have some things in common.

I am a civil engineer who also grew up cutting and splitting wood, with my dad and brother.  We actually heat our house with a long wood stove that fuctions on gas or wood.  We'll burn 6-8 truckloads in the winter and maybe $750 of propane.  I'm not worried about efficiencies per se and theres no code to speak of here in the sticks.  Heck, even my insurance agent said he didn't have a problem with it and trusted I would set it up right, though I was looking at new stove then.  I work for a home builder, developer, septic installer, commericial const. contractor.  It has turned into a neat little niche and I enjoy putting it on paper and then getting to help build it as well.  Our old stove will be more basic than the beauty you have, but I think it will look nice when we're finished.  Hopefully all goes well and it will be functional also.

Chris


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## karl (Oct 14, 2008)

Something that beautiful should be saved, and used even if its nots an EPA Stove.


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## NWMO (Oct 14, 2008)

I agree with you Karl,

Can't wait to hear how nice it is to sit next to and enjoy that nice heat on a cool morning.  Ahhhhh

Chris


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## ScottF (Oct 14, 2008)

Thanks again for all the nice compliments and kind words.  I will definately keep everyone informed on how the first fire and the break in goes.  I just finished the damper and the connect last night and I have a little paint touch up on the pipe tonight so probably Thursday will be the first break in fire.  I only had 3 inches of stove pipe and had to fit a damper in that. 

Yes this is the same stove that I had posted on a previous post.  

Thanks again


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## firefighterjake (Oct 14, 2008)

I'm a simple guy with simple tastes and I don't tend to like the ornate and fancy . . . that said, wow . . . really nice job. The stove, the hearth, the furniture . . . not that I'm a Martha Stewart or anything like that . . . but the whole thing works and fits together well. Great job on everything. Looking forward to hearing how well it heats.


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## polaris (Oct 14, 2008)

You could restore/install for a living. It looks the best. Congrats.


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## EddyKilowatt (Oct 14, 2008)

Very nice work.  If you post more pictures, it would be interesting to see some through-the-door shots of the inside of the stove... I'm not familiar with the setup inside those old parlor stoves.

Eddy


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## ScottF (Oct 14, 2008)

Ill try to do that but its a pretty simple setup.  Round sheetmetal cylinder with a hole at the top / back for the smoke to go out.  Set of coal grates on the bottom that you can shake to get the coal ashes into the pan below. can put a piece of solid metal over the coal grates to burn wood  Thats it.  Nothing sophisticated at all.   No cats, no burn tubes, just a round barrel with a hole in it.


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## jjhof0306 (Oct 14, 2008)

Man, that looks really sweet!  Is that real panelling on the lower half of the walls?  We'd like to do something like that in one of our rooms - probably build frames with trim boards and paint it all white, as the solid paneling would be too much $$.  I love that look, combined with the crown moulding.  Very nice.


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## MrGriz (Oct 15, 2008)

Incredible job!  Time to kick back and enjoy; you've certainly earned the right!


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## ScottF (Oct 15, 2008)

> Is that real panelling on the lower half of the walls?  We’d like to do something like that in one of our rooms - probably build frames with trim boards and paint it all white, as the solid paneling would be too much $$.  I love that look, combined with the crown moulding.  Very nice.



Thanks ,  Yes it is all solid wood raised  paneling,  I am lucky enough to have a full woodworking shop including a shaper, as one of my hobbys is building period furniture reproductions.  So I made it all myself.  Would be too expensive if you had to hire it.  We have it throughout the house.  Took me years of free time to build the house.

tonight will be the first break in fire.  I will let you know if it works ok


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## ScottF (Oct 16, 2008)

OK Here are the results for the first burns in the new/ 120 year old smoke dragon.

*Performance: *  The stove  drafted very nicely and very strongly with only a 12 ft interior masonry chimney.  I started with just kindling on the first break in fire that raised the temp to about 200 degrees.   On the second burn I used white birch logs that were very dry.  The stove produced tons of heat.  If you opened the bottom draft controls it ran like a blast furnace.  You have to run it with all of the damper controls completely shut.  There is one at the firebox and two at the bottom ash cleanout door.  Even with all of the dampers completely closed the fire burns hot enough to make the stove pipe glowing red.  There is only one way to control the burn rate of the fire and that is to completely close the damper on the flue.  That will cut the burn rate in half but not enough to make the stove smolder. There is always a decent flame present. With the flue damper completely closed it ran about 500 to 500 degrees measured on the top edge of the stove.  This did not cause the flue pipe to get red.  We are thinking with hardwood maybe it will even burn a little slower.  The mica windows did not get dirty at all after 4 hours of burning.  Overall we knew it would go through wood faster than a modern stove but that is OK with us and a sacrafice we are willing to make for the looks of the stove.  We have 16 cords already to go and extremely dry.  I can cut as much as I want if I need more.  It seems to perform great for what it is.  

*Here was the problem: * Once the stove hit about 200 degrees is started to smoke from the paint seasoning.  I mean smoke big time to the point is just billowed off of the stove.  We have a whole house fan so we were able pull it all out of the house. This went on for about 20 minutes.  At the third fire that we let it rip it continued to smoke all the way to 550 degrees.  the smoke would go strong and then slow but then come back.  It never did after 4 hours of burning stop stinking out the house but at that time there was no real visible smoke.  This was NOT smoke from the wood burning but just from the paint .  It had a real chemical smell and made us all feel sick even with the windows open and house fan on.  After 4 hours I let the fire die and the house did not smell too bad in the morning.  I did put 2 coats of High heat stove paint on the stove.  My question is will this happen again and for how many firings is it going to happen?.  Its the only real problem we have with the stove.


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## tg4360 (Oct 16, 2008)

Scott, 

Great job on your beautiful setup.

I've repainted two old stoves in the past and both times it took several fires before the smell totally went away.  One was a shop stove so it just got a quick spray with two coats and I could tell that the places where the paint was thicker were taking a longer time to cure.  

The one I did that was in my house did the same as yours and I'm not exactly sure how long it took but it was less than a week of evening fires.

I suspect that the worst is over and it will slowly diminish as you use the stove.

TG


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## ScottF (Oct 16, 2008)

> Scott,
> 
> Great job on your beautiful setup.
> 
> ...



Thanks TG, Makes me feel better.   Did yours just bellow huge clouds of smoke for a while?  How about the control of the fire.  Were you able to control it other that the flue damper?


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## tg4360 (Oct 16, 2008)

ya it was pretty nasty for a few minutes... it was VERY clear that it was not smoke from inside the stove as you could see it whisping off the paint.


One of them had a huge flapper damper at the outlet and those spinner air intakes in the front doors.  'Twas no problem to choke the fire out using both.  The spinners alone worked well but for an overnight burn I'd damper.

The other had the round in-the-pipe damper like you probably have and that was the shop stove.  Never had total control over that beast but I was only burning wood scraps and twigs from the yard for the most part just to take the chill off so it wasn't a big deal.

TG


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## LMBittick (Oct 21, 2008)

No lie-- I registered tonight specifically so I could comment about how incredible this setup is.  Congrats on the results of your hard work!

-L


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## Blevesque (Oct 21, 2008)

Scott, very nice job! What did you use for brick in the floor? Is it brick verneer or did you reframe from below. It appears your wood and brick are flush.


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## ScottF (Oct 21, 2008)

> No lie-- I registered tonight specifically so I could comment about how incredible this setup is.  Congrats on the results of your hard work!



Thanks LMBittick,  Thats an honor



> Scott, very nice job! What did you use for brick in the floor? Is it brick verneer or did you reframe from below. It appears your wood and brick are flush.




Its an addition.  Steel beams over the foundation walls, then metal pan with an 8 Inch concrete slab poured over the metal pan full of re bar.  Then full thickness bricks set on the 8 inch slab.  Wood framing abuts and bolts to the slab under the hardwood floor.  A major project .  No combustibles behind or below the brick.


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## raybonz (Oct 21, 2008)

ScottF said:
			
		

> Well after 6 months of working every single night until late and every weekend day the addtion is finally done and the smoke dragon is installed. Just a few more connections until I can fire her up and let her belch.  I had to put an addtion on the house. I went as far as putting steel beams in the 1st floor with an 8 inch concrete slab over the basement full of steel rebar with brick over that.  All the back walls are layers of 4 inch block with air spaces between each layer so completely non combustible.  I did every bit of work myself including , sitework, basement foundation and floor, masonry, framing, roofing, siding and trim, interior trim, drywall, painting, finish work, hardwood floorring, stove work, masonry chimney  etc.   After many thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours I am complete.  Here is the finish photos of the old dragon.  I even built all the furniture for the new room but thats another story. No secondary burn tubes and no catalitic action.  She was built in the 1890s. we just restored her.  I dont expect modern stove performance but I do expect lots of heat.  I have plenty of wood   Whew!!



Very majestic looking stove and hearth.. A true centerpiececonversation piece central to any home! You did a fantastic job on your project..


Ray


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## wagvan (Oct 26, 2008)

Wow.  Just wow.


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