EddyKilowatt said:fossil said:Scott, you got a hand-held electric heat gun out in your shop...you know, the "industrial strength" hair dryer looking type? No flame, plenty hot, no scorching (if you're careful with it)...lots of patience (but we already know you have that). Just a thought. Were I in your shoes, I might think about giving it a try. Rick
Was thinking the same -- though maybe a couple of them, borrowed, plugged into separate circuits, pumping hot air thru the *inside* of the stove to heat the whole thing up. Maybe rent a propane weed burner or some other oversized torch as the heat source? I would be trying to flow heat through the inside the stove, evenly, rather than flambe' the outside bit by bit -- much lower thermal stresses on the castings that way. Can you rig a temporary grate and burn some charcoal briquets down inside the lower section of the stove, where it's not getting hot now?
All kind of a hassle... I bet a couple more good burns on warm days with windows open will see you past the worst of it.
Eddy
If I were in your shoes, I'd leave it in place, throw all the windows open on a warm day, with some fans blowing out one batch of windows to assist the ventilation
and then
git myself one of those propane-fired weed burners. they throw a lot of heat, but it is spread out, so you could wave it all around the inside lower regions of the stove (keep it moving, because sudden changes in temp of different portions of the same piece of cast iron spell fast cracks)
they also have rigs for pipe thawing that might do a similar job of throwing a lot of heat relatively quickly and over a broad area-- got any acquaintances in the plumbing field who might have one or know who would? or a tool rental place?
hope this helps