Fire Brick Changes to My Harman MKII

 
Bear038
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Post by Bear038 » Sun. Nov. 20, 2011 10:06 pm

I never liked the way the fire brick was 4 inches lower in the front of the Harman MK II and III, so I put my old thinking hat on. The stove was removed from the house to work on making the water coil I added this fall, so the stove was stripped down to clean it out and work on it. The bricks that are in there are the standard 9 x 5. Stood up 9" on 3 sides, but only 5" tall across the front. I started to play with standing up the 9" way on the front, but it was just too tall, so I started playing with different heights and settled on cutting the 9x5 down to 7x5. This left me what I considered enough space to easily load the coal. The bracket was fabricated out of stuff laying around the shop, (flat bar, angle iron, with a nut an bolt welded on for good measure) held together by the application of electricity and welding wire. It is fastened inplace with one bolt in the same place that the factory has their bracket.

So far the results have been what I was looking for. I no longer get the early burn out on the front edge. It hold a little more coal, a few pounds maybe, but the fire burns much more evenly. I have been trying to up load pics, but not having much luck. I will keep trying after I post this part.
100_0270.JPG
.JPG | 131.9KB | 100_0270.JPG
Last edited by Bear038 on Sun. Nov. 20, 2011 10:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.


 
Bear038
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Post by Bear038 » Sun. Nov. 20, 2011 10:23 pm

I do not know what is going wrong here. I am trying too upload two pictures. It appears that the pictures go through the 0-100% of up load, then it comes back with an error messages saying it did not go through. Can anybody help me on this one?

Never mind, I got one to go anyway.

 
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SMITTY
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Post by SMITTY » Sun. Nov. 20, 2011 11:10 pm

Damn computers always doing crap that makes no sense. Welcome to my world ... :lol:

Nice work on that. That's always bothered me about mine, but never had the motivation to do anything about it. That looks good - should keep the front from burning out first like it always does. Might keep quite a bit of heat off the glass too, which is good - keep it from crazing so soon.

 
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Body Hammer
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Post by Body Hammer » Mon. Nov. 21, 2011 8:49 am

I put extra bricks around the back and sides of my TLC-2000 to allow me to bank the coal a lot deeper towards the back. You should be able to get a longer burn now with that little extra. Be careful not to have any chunks between the new addition and your door glass when you shut the door. Ouch!

 
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SteveZee
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Post by SteveZee » Mon. Nov. 21, 2011 9:09 am

Nice going Bear. It's great to see someone take an existing design and improve upon it. Let us know how it works out.

 
Bear038
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Post by Bear038 » Mon. Nov. 21, 2011 11:02 am

I have had it going for a while this fall on and off. Just not cold enough to keep it going you know what I mean. The fires absolutely burn more evenly. I have not had any more trouble with the typical ashing over on the front edge. With the extra coal, it produces much more ash, I I have to empty the ash pan every time I liven up and reload. Other than that the results have all been positive. I also did away with the baro this year and went to a MPD. BIG, HUGE difference in the amount of heat the stove produces. My chimney draws really well, and the baro was open at least 30 degrees to just hold a .06 WC. MPD is closed completely to hold .04-.06. Between the two changes, I think I got this particular installation pretty well dialed in. Nothing to do now but feed it and keep warm.

Caution must be used that coal does not go between door and addition, but with stove coal not too much of a problem. Ashes accumulating there are more of a problem then coal. You can really see how the over fire air flows up there over it from the bottom of the front glass.

Just tried again to upload second picture, and it still will not work. The error it gives is that the picture did not decode, translate or something. The pictures goes just fine in emails. Any body have an idea to try to get this second picture to upload?

 
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SMITTY
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Post by SMITTY » Mon. Nov. 21, 2011 12:17 pm

Must be an incompatible format. If you can convert it to .JPG it will probably work. Some of my brothers cell phone pics do that on my computer - I can't even open them unless he sends them as a .JPG .


 
Bear038
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Post by Bear038 » Mon. Nov. 21, 2011 12:38 pm

These are JPG"s. The one that is posted, it took 10 tries before it did convert and go through. The other one that I am trying to send was taken on the same camera right after the first one. Down loaded to computer at the same time. Sends in emails no problem. NEPA says it does not decode. Is there some other conversion I can do? I am not good with computers, old farm and truck iron, no problems. As far as I know I am trying to send a JPG that it will not decode.

 
franco b
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Post by franco b » Mon. Nov. 21, 2011 2:35 pm

Nice job on the alteration. I will never understand why the manufacturers don't make these improvements, it seems like good enough is OK.

 
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Chuck_Steak
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Post by Chuck_Steak » Mon. Nov. 21, 2011 5:47 pm

franco b wrote:Nice job on the alteration. I will never understand why the manufacturers don't make these improvements, it seems like good enough is OK.
I think they have to draw some sort of happy medium between ultimate
performance, and aesthetics.

They wouldn't make the inside rail directly in back of a glass window,
and if the window was a lot more narrow in height, it wouldn't allow
the nice open firebox appeal.
Not to mention the jamming coal issue of a piece falling between the rail and door..
They have to consider that everyone out there will not be as careful as some of you.

Just my opinion... Dan

 
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SteveZee
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Post by SteveZee » Mon. Nov. 21, 2011 6:12 pm

Just for laughs, try re-naming the pictures before you upload and put the .jpg at the end. I've had a couple rejects that fed just fine after that.

 
rberq
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Post by rberq » Mon. Nov. 21, 2011 6:39 pm

Nice work. I would like to do something similar with my MK I. Does anybody know if there is a way to cast firebrick in a custom size? It looks like a brick 2 or 3 inches high by 20 inches wide would slip in between the steel of the stove and the front edges of the bricks that line the sides, and would accomplish much the same thing you have done. Of course the bracket that holds the front bricks would then burn out annually instead of every three years....

 
Bear038
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Post by Bear038 » Mon. Nov. 21, 2011 7:00 pm

My friend has a MK I. The brick lay out is rather different. The front and back brick on the MK I are the 5" height, and the ends are cut on an angle to go higher. The baffle on the back wall is what actually causes the rear brick to only be " tall. I do not see where you could gain anything by making the front brick on a MK I any taller.

Picking the height to make this modification was Definitely a compromise choice. Put the front brick at 9 inches would not have left enough space to easily get the coal in. I looked at 6, 7, and 8 inch heights and made the personal choice to use the 7 inch brick.

Tried renaming file, did not work. Good idea to try though.

 
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echos67
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Post by echos67 » Mon. Nov. 21, 2011 7:51 pm

rberq wrote:Nice work. I would like to do something similar with my MK I. Does anybody know if there is a way to cast firebrick in a custom size? It looks like a brick 2 or 3 inches high by 20 inches wide would slip in between the steel of the stove and the front edges of the bricks that line the sides, and would accomplish much the same thing you have done. Of course the bracket that holds the front bricks would then burn out annually instead of every three years....
Could you use some castable refractory cement like people use to line the firepot inside a base heater-burner style stove ? I have some on hand but have not used it yet so I can not give any hands on details as to how it is applied short of the directions.

 
rberq
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Post by rberq » Mon. Nov. 21, 2011 8:33 pm

Bear038 wrote:I do not see where you could gain anything by making the front brick on a MK I any taller.
Even an inch would be significant -- something to keep the coal from rolling out the front door when I fill it to the max.
echos67 wrote:castable refractory cement
Good idea. I wonder how strong it is. I could cast some re-bar inside it, but I suspect that would not hold up to the heat. :|


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