Arch door

[nmerritt]

My arch door seems to glow pretty red when I’ve got the fire cranking. I should have plenty of draft. Has anyone every put arch board or any type of insulation on their door to keep it cooler and prevent it from cracking. I would like to avoid that. If so, how do you go about doing so.

[danno]

A few of us have. I took ideas I learned from others on this board, it may have been Fred?

When I put forced air in, I wanted to insulate the doors so I would not warp them.

I used a piece of insulation blacket cut the same size of each door, cut so the doors close completely. Then took a piece of 3/8 steel plate cut out the same pattern as the insulation. Insulation is sandwiched between the door and the steel plate. Took some 1/2" pipe and cut into 1" pieces. Pipe acts as a spacer between the door and steel. Then drilled doors in each of the 4 corners. Bolts go through door, through 1/2" pipe and then through steel plate.

Steel plate keeps the insulation from getting chewed up from the fire wood. Has worked excellent and doors no longer get red, even with forced air.

[Fred Henderson]

danno: That was a very good report on how to do it. You learn well congrats.

[hard maple]

just keep the fire back from the doors a little bit
or lay a couple bricks up near the doors
to keep the heat back
I think I would switch to a air tight front before I started drilling holes in my doors.
Not saying it doesn't work, but I hate the thought of altering the arch.

[Sugarbear]

I did the same thing as danno did except I used stainless steel sheets on the inside to protect the insulation.

[Fred Henderson]

just keep the fire back from the doors a little bit
or lay a couple bricks up near the doors
to keep the heat back
I think I would switch to a air tight front before I started drilling holes in my doors.
Not saying it doesn't work, but I hate the thought of altering the arch.

Drilling holes in the door is a good thing because it gives the metal another place to expand too.

[Pete33Vt]

Whats done around here and works really well is to use ceramic blanket cut to the size of your doors and either pick up the stainless steel pins and washers from the maple suppliers and weld them on to the door. Then after they cool instal blanket and washers then your done. Works really well, keeps the doors alot cooler even with forced draft. Another idea instead of the stainless steel pins is to use 1/4in stainless bolts and big stainless fender washers. The pins and washers from the maple equipment suppliers are around 2.25 a set. Or they were about that last year.

[Parker]

You must have some excellant welders in your area,,welding stainless to cast,,I know I could not do it,,,,I did the fred styel doors kind of,,I cut the blanket same as the doors then welded bolts on a piece of boilerplate and drilled corasponding holes in the doors and put the nuts on the outside of the doors and wound it up tight,,last year,,,third year running,,the boilerplate burned through,,,hopefully I will get an airtight front built befor the season,,,Better get a move on,,,

[brookledge]

Usually if you use Ni. rod you will have good luck welding to cast plus pre heating the cast
Keith

[Brian Ryther]

a high Ni rod is 309SS or 312SS. preheat is important, but post heat is much more important. slow even cooling will prevent the cast from cracking.

[Fred Henderson]

Take a cast door and put it in a wood stove all day, also put a pail of sand on top of the stove. Remove cast doors after 12 hours and weld cover with sand that was preheated on the stove and let everything cool for 24 hours.

[Parker]

Wow- you can learn somthing every day on the trader, if you pay attention,,I will have to try that sometime,,,

[Fred Henderson]

Wow- you can learn somthing every day on the trader, if you pay attention,,I will have to try that sometime,,,

Sometimes the cast piece is too big to put in a wood stove.

[Pete33Vt]

Yep thats what we did. The top of the stove is big enough to set my doors on. We got the prep work all done and just let the doors sit on the stove all day. Then zappped the pins in place with niickle rod and then let them cool slowly. Works like a charm.

[ibby458]

A professional welder friend was telling me about welding a big casting off a tractor. They built a fire in the back yard with the casting on a grate above it. Once uniformly hot, he welded it, pulled the grate out from under it (Setting the casting on the coals), and buried it with ashes and more coals. The next morning, it was cool & perfect.

[Dennis H.]

I have to remember this post for a how-to on welding casted metal.

Thanks for posting the tips.

[Fred Henderson]

Cast should always be pre heated and if you got a wood stove going and your piece will fit in it why use the oxy/accet. With a rose bud you will only heat a very small area and you will never preheat the sand.