lobsterman wrote:DJ,
I feel I could burn this now with no problem as is. Great eye, it is missing 3 things that I know. None of the 3 concerned me. I will begin to be on the lookout for these pieces. 1) The ring around the fire pot. 2) The exit elbow. 3) You could not see this in the photos, the exhaust exit does not have the grate there. What is this for, to contain large ash from a wood fire? As you said once about your stove, it looks much better than any photo. Great nickel, seems very tight. It is a big bast**d compared to what I am used to. It looks even bigger to me after I got it home.
Lobsterman
Lobsterman,
I don't have the grate over the exhaust either. I'm not sure what it does. Maybe it was an option? I think it must help coal or wood from dropping down into the back baffles. I can't see any other function. The back elbow is a non-issue. Nice to have, the original has a sort of manual "baro" in it. I never used it...
The ring around the firepot however, is another issue. It also helps keep the sheet metal in that region from burning out. I can't really tell from your photos if the ceramic liner goes high enough to cover this or not. Looks like maybe not... The second problem is that without it being in place, the air flow doesn't work quite right. Many years ago, before I had figured out how all the bits and parts went together, I didn't have my ring in place. I would get some smell of the fire while running the stove. Now that was when I was only running wood, don't know about coal. But I'd just feel safer closing up the holes without having that ring in place. Once I figured out the ring and got it in place, no more smell...
I'd go over the joints with a fine tooth comb. One spot that is problematic is the joint right on the back of the stove where the back base burner flat top plate bolts to the stove body. That seal breaks easily. I've had to re-do mine just about every year. Now, maybe that's just my particular stove, I don't know. But I know on mine that's a seal I have to stay on top of. I've actually toyed with ideas of how to improve the original design.
Just my 2 cents worth...
dj