Our old Defiant.......and new fire starter!

[wryfly]

So the wife and I just had our 9th wedding anniversary, and the traditional gift is pottery. So I headed down to the local potter and she had this nifty firestarter. It's a piece of pottery that you fill with lamp oil and has this "wond" with a stone that absorbs the oil. You roll this stone in some ash and light it and place it below your wood. It burns for about 20 minutes. No more newspaper......and with the dry wood I've been using, it gets roaring in just a couple minutes........now even she can get a good fire going!! and when she's warm....she's happy!

I also noticed this crack on the bottom plate. This is definately new and goes back under the stove for about 3 inches. Are there any concerns or should it be good for another season?

 

[Dune]

Can't really see the crack, but I don't like it, especialy on the bottom.

 

[ROBERT F]

Hate to see that crack grow or open up when stove is at full tilt! not on the bottom, droppin hot stuff out, lettin uncontrolled air in! like my house more than my stove! cheaper to replace the stove than the house in my opinion. Just my 2 cents.

 

[fraxinus]

I totally agree with pineburner. There are places where cracks can be patched or simply lived with. The bottom of a stove is not one of them. This might be repairable with brazing or welding, but I sure wouldn't just ignore it and hope for the best.

A bottom crack is a rare occurence unless there is a defect in the casting itself, but this would have shown up long ago. With the recommended minimum of 1" of ash to protect the bottom, a crack should not happen. Which makes me wonder about using any liquid for starting fires in a stove. Most manufacturers specifically say not to. Hot flammable liquid dripping down through the protective ash layer could well have caused the crack.

 

[wryfly]

Thanks for the feedback guys...much appreciated. I guess the next question is.....is it worth purchasing a new bottom or just look into buying a new epa stove.

As for the firestarter....I was concerned with the liquid, which is why I was looking for feedback on using it. However, the crack happened during our first burn this year before we started using the liquid. I think it may be more that there was no ash "barrier" on the bottom of the stove....hmmm.

 

[Dune]

If you don't have ash available, sand in the bottom of the stove will also protect it.
A "good" welder can fix the crack. It should be welded, not brazed.

 

[Fsappo]

Huh, I thought you braze cast iron, not weld. Anyhoo... Thats the worst place for a crack as far as safety goes. It's a fairly easy fix provided you can get the rods out without too much drama. You should be able to get a new bottom for a couple hundred bucks and get it fixed in one days worth of swearing and getting dirty. If I remember correctly (I've rebuilt over 50 Defiants back in the 80's) It does require standing the stove on its head. If you decide to give it a try, you can always email as you go along. I may be able to recall enough to help you thru any trouble spots. Or a nice big EPA Certified tax credit getting side load stove...The Jotul Firelight comes to mind.

 

[crazy_dan]

Huh, I thought you braze cast iron, not weld. Anyhoo... Thats the worst place for a crack as far as safety goes. It's a fairly easy fix provided you can get the rods out without too much drama. You should be able to get a new bottom for a couple hundred bucks and get it fixed in one days worth of swearing and getting dirty. If I remember correctly (I've rebuilt over 50 Defiants back in the 80's) It does require standing the stove on its head. If you decide to give it a try, you can always email as you go along. I may be able to recall enough to help you thru any trouble spots. Or a nice big EPA Certified tax credit getting side load stove...The Jotul Firelight comes to mind.

bronze can be melted with a wood fire , so brazing it will not hold up to the heat of the wood stove.
You cannot weld cast with a mild steel (read regular) welding rod and expect it to hold for long.
A welding shop worth their salt can weld it up for you with nickel or cast rod.

But I agree a crack on the bottom is nothing to mess around with. get it fixed or replaced ASAP.

 

[Dune]

Brazing,(technicaly bronze welding, brazing is a misnomer) is a great way to fix a lot of cast iron, strong, relatively easy to do, cheap. There are things however, which should never be brazed; anything which gets very hot, andirons, woodstove parts, exhaust manifolds to name a few. There are a great many ways to actualy weld cast iron, from cast iron rods (square, aplied with oxy-acetelyne welding torch), nickel rich stick electrode for arc welding (prefered method for stove repair, except in the case of seriously valuable antiques, in which case see the former method for perfect color match), stainless steel via TIG, stick or MIG ( the nickel content of stainless steel is high enough to make SOME cast iron repairs effectively (this selection requires great judgement and knowledge on the part of the welder) and of course 70 series stick and MIG wires (the 70 indicates 70,000 pounds per square inch tensile strength. It is not that this much strength is needed to repair cast iron, grey cast iron is only 20-40k p.s.i. tensile, which is one reason why bronze welding works so well at 50k tensile.) There are other properties of the 70 series wire which make it suitable for SOME cast iron repairs, decorative low strength items for the most part, however proper procedure must be followed to the letter, no wiggle room whatsoever, as one MAY have when using nickel rod or brazing. I have posted proper welding procedure for cast iron here in the past, a search should find it.

 

[Fsappo]

Thanks for the brazing/bronze welding tips. I was misinformed! This forum is full of the right kind of folks to keep everyone in line, from the first timers to the 25 year misinformed pro's!

 

[crazy_dan]

I did not know you could Tig with stainless for cast. I guess ya learn something new everyday.