I Wish I had a Fisher

[coaly]

Too much leakage behind the plate??
The baffle should rest on the small shelf if you have one under the outlet.
It should be angled upward at the front aimed towards the lower bend in the top plate.
The space between baffle and top should be about 2 inches. The pics below are just over 2" with an 8 inch plate. (this was for a masonry flue - you can go the minimum just under 2" with insulated flue)
Baffle height at front can normally be adjusted by sliding bricks on sides forward or back to raise and lower front edge of plate.
It should direct heat to front plate or lower bend.
My highest temperatures are just in front of lower bend.

 

[coaly]

My torch has a pencil tip light blue primary flame in the center that I keep the flame tip on the same spot until it glows and put pressure on it without cooling. Bends very easy. Maybe your torch isn't hot enough and doing it with stove hot would make the difference? You don't want to put a wrench or pipe on until heated or the heat will migrate to the tool like a heat sink cooling it too.

 

[vasten]

here is my baffle set up.

The look is a little deceiving because there is a strong pitch to the baffle. Other than that it looks very similar to your set up.
Right now my lower stove top reads 415 My upper reads 519 and my rise reads 572 measured with the IR gun. Flue is at 299
That is pretty consistent that the upper will read 75-100 deg warmer than the lower.
This is with the pipe damper almost closed and with the door dampers open 1/2 turn

 

[vasten]

after the stove was running for a couple of hours, I put the torch on it for 5 mins and put a wrench on it and moved it maybe 1/8-1/4 of an inch. But it was just enough to tighten up the door enough that there is no slop in it now.

Should that little hump be in the middle or should that be straight all the way up... I can always heat it up with oxy acetylene to get it to glow and straighten it if need be.

 

[coaly]

Latch rod is normally straight, but that's fine.

I'm going to assume your plate is a touch high since as it is lowered it gets longer and the front would not allow quite as much flame to hit the rise portion. It reversed my temp readings and mine points right at the bend. My readings are taken just forward of the bend and in center of upper top.

Here's pics of a Papa Bear with a 17 X 14 plate. The little shelf was warped and holds the plate a bit higher on the right. I took the IR gun over to his house to check his temps since he has to clean too often. This baffle position measures 515 on lower top just in front of bend, 460 in center of upper top, 350* at elbow before chimney. His flue is 7 1/2 square masonry interior chimney from the basement up so it's adjusted low to allow more heat out for the oversize chimney flue. That was 1 turn open with a small load and 1/2 closed damper. I told him to try about 1/4 closed damper instead since the 350 temp at elbow goes into 6 X 8 increaser that drops temp from 330 at 6 inch side to 200 at the 8 inch side. That shows how much flue gas cools when allowed to expand almost twice its volume. He knows he needs an insulated liner but he's a hard headed mason that builds chimneys.......

 

[vasten]

I can straighten out the latch rod that is no big deal.

As far as the baffle I cant move the bricks further ahead because I am already touching the lip for the lower blocks. My next option would be to cut the bricks think I will start with 1/2 in off the height and see how much that lowers the plate.

I have to admit that I am learning more about chimneys than I am about stoves here this year.

 

[coaly]

Many people that have burned stoves for years think a chimney is only to let the smoke out. They think any chimney will do that, so they can connect any stove to any chimney. They don't realize the second important thing the chimney does is makes the stove burn. Most ads for stoves don't mention the outlet size, and you need to know that to size the stove to your existing chimney. You can't size a stove to your heating area AND size it to the chimney if the chimney doesn't match the heating area. It's like having an engine from a school bus and you're looking for a vehicle to put it in. You're limited.
That's why I relate a stove to a vehicle. The stove is simply the body with contour lines, doors, a comfortable box that looks nice that you would ride in. It has no engine to make it go.
The heat you leave up is the amount of fuel you put into the engine. A small stove only has enough "fuel" for a small chimney. Putting a large chimney on a small stove is like putting a big block V-8 in a small vehicle and trying to get good fuel mileage. You're giving it a small amount of fuel so it only idles and takes a long time to get you there. It can only make horsepower (heat) with more fuel. The less "fuel" you pour through the engine, (chimney) the more you have in the tank. (the stove) When you have a performance problem, like low heat output or smoke inside, it's like a vehicle with poor power or hard to start. You don't work on the steering or body parts, you work on the engine.

The manual and installation instructions that come with a stove is like an owners manual with a vehicle. It only tells you how to use it with a minor amount of maintenance. If you want to know what makes it tick, you need a shop manual. The Woodburners Encyclopedia (watch eBay) is where to find technical info for chimneys and principals of combustion that relates to any stove. The book measures 8 1/2 X 12 with 126 pages. To give you an idea of the scope of this book, Chapter 5 titled "Chimneys" is 12 pages. Starting on page 32 and 33; Fundamentals with graphs and charts. Pg. 34; Height with flow charts. Pg. 35; Diameter with capacity charts. Pg. 36; Chimney Connector and Excess Capacity. Pg. 37; Chimney Materials. Pg. 39; Effects of house on chimney performance. Pg. 40; Wind. Pg. 41; Weather and Altitude. Pg. 43; Practical Conclusions. The book is filled with footnotes with a Appendix in the back for each chapter giving where the information came from. It's not like an A to Z encyclopedia. You look things up by subject in the table of contents.

 

[vasten]

ok so I found a down side to having a mama.... I am running short on wood so I called my go to guy and asked for 24 in splits. He said no problem he could get to that this weekend for me. However the price goes up for 24 in, said no problem by how much. 50% because that would be a face and a half at that length.

I told him for that price I will walk my woods for some ash lol...

 

[coaly]

Huh? You need a wood supplier that can do math too. IF that was the difference from 18 inch to 24, that is 33.3% more wood not 50% more. If he is comparing it to a 16 inch cut, yes, you are getting 50% more wood and the price would be 50% more. Plus it is less cuts to make, and less pieces per pound to stack. I never had to buy wood and from the horror stories I never will. I cut 22 to 24, they stack nice and an arm load is 30% more than shorter 18 inch pieces. Works for me.

 

[ncpaul]

And sometimes you cut them shorter cause too durn big and heavy to get on splitter.
But, price is right, live oak downed by storm on place. These were almost 30 feet up trunk.

 

[vasten]

that's what he was saying it is harder to get two footers to go through his processor.
Luckily I had skidded an ash log close enough to the house that I could walk to it. Had someone laugh and tell me that at two feet the stove wont burn it efficiently... I just smiled and went on my way, and couldn't help but to laugh harder and this log is disappearing inside that firebox.