Well, you will probably like to hear this and most likely get a little (or more) laugh out of it....jatoxico said in post #25 about maybe the door latch adjustment causing a leak, so I did the dollar bill test today and some spots that previously had been good were now loose, and the one spot was right in the middle on top of the front door; I know the left side always seemed to be looser from the start 27 years ago, but the middle and right side always were good. Some of the spots on the bottom are also loose, but they are about 5" lower than the metal "wall" on the floor bottom near the front, but I am assuming that the top middle spot being loose may either have contributed to uneven draft on start up or somehow some smoke smell WAS making it's way out there, I never saw any but who knows?
Well, since I said I had put some gasket material on top of old gasket material I thought I'd take that off and try to "reset" the door close to the way it was before I had the brilliant idea 7 weeks ago of adjusting it, but they won't come off! It was thin rope gasket with tape on the back so it really is stuck on there, if I would've forced it sections of the old gasket would've came loose and I don't have any gasket cement so I thought I'll have to put more of that gasket across the top and adjust the latch again. I put it across the top, have the latch as loose as it will go, and it closes, but it is pretty tight; that bushing still moves but it is a bit tighter than I would like but that's the way it will be for now, and even my wife said the new gasket will compress and flatten out and she is right, it will just take some time. I lit a fire, stayed in the room, didn't turn the little muffin fans on to move the air to the ceiling fan upstairs so I could smell for any smoke and it really was improved, the only time I seemed to notice any was twice when I opened the door to add some more wood, but other than that it was better than it had been so I believe my friend jatoxico was on the right path!
I said "I'm not too pleased with this right now, the door latches a bit tighter than I want." I also asked her to recall the time we took the door off and I thought it was to replace the gasket but I now recall it was to change the glass on the door so I had to take it off and lay it flat, it had cracked years ago for some reason, even the dealer was shocked and I told him a piece fell into it at that spot but he said "it still shouldn't have cracked" but it did. I remember when I replaced the gasket I did it right there with the door on, tore the old rope gasket off, used a steel bristle brush to remove any old cement, put new cement on and pressed the new gasket into place. I remember it wasn't that easy because I couldn't just close the door and adjust the latch and everything was fine, I had to take the other side of the stove off (the sides lift up and off, pretty cool) and loosen two huge hex bolts so I could move the door around and try my best to align it, it is not easy to do, but I see myself doing that in the near future now.
And my wife said that "it took 3 hours when we had the glass replaced and tried to get it back on and lined up, a lot of swearing and we almost got a divorce" and I believe that, so I am not real eager to play that game again even with the door staying on the stove but I'll have to.
I should've just left it alone 7 weeks ago, but I thought "I can make this better". Yeah....sure.....
