Wife & I (both retired) moved to Central Oregon late last summer. House is 30 y/o with an original Lopi M530...a nice old stove, but we wanted it in a different place in the house. We used it in place for a month or two while we looked at all our options. I came to this forum with my questions, and the smart folks here talked me into scrapping the old M530 and having a new stove installed on the new hearth...for a number of very sound reasons. We had a Lopi Liberty (progeny of the old M530) installed (with the factory blower kit), and we're really glad we did. We too have a cathedral ceiling in the room, and later this spring a big new ceiling fan's gonna go up there, which should make a big difference in moving the heat around. The new stove is listed & certified, burns efficiently, looks great, and puts out a lot of heat...the blower makes a huge difference. I'm glad I came and talked about it with the folks here, and I think it was well worth the $$$ to go with a new stove.
Now we just gotta figure out how to get the old one outta here...the stovepipe is 1/4" wall well casing, 8" diameter, welded joints, and about 18' tall. Rick
Several ideas come to mind.
1. The easiest, work wise, is an actlyene/oxygen tourch & cut it out. But the tourch could be pricy, 99.95 from
www.harborfrieght.com & then there is the oxy & act bottles to rent or buy. Cheaper might be to rent the tourches & bottles from the same oxy/act supplier.
2.More labor intensive but lots & lots cheaper is to buy a box of heavy metal cutting blades for a 30.oo black & decker variable speed jig saw & get a 3/8 inch metal cutting drill bit & electric drill. Drill a starter hole to put thr blade in and slowly work your way around the pipe until you complete the cut. Mark a line to follow with the jig saw before you start cutting.
3. For about 40.oo
www.homier.com will sell you a chinese sawzall, which is similar to the jig saw but has a more powerful electric motor. I'm really not sure which of the two saws
would be more appropiate for the job. The jig saw is lighter & easier to handle & control but may saw slowly & will break if you force it to cut. Jig saws are designed for slow, cut at their own speed without forcing, type of cuts.
The sawzall will cut faster & you can get away with putting some reasonable pressure on it, because the motor is closer to heavy duty, but the saw is heavy & may be ackward to hold
in the cut.
With me,its not an issue because I have both saws & if I don't like the job one saw is doing, I just grab the other saw & see how it does.
You might actually have to talk to a tool dept salesman to find out what he knows about it,if
he knows anything at all, which may be doubtfull. Some salesmen are only salesmen & have never used a tool. They just run a good line of BS.