FIRE

Hello! And happy November :)

The flue arrived on Monday, advertised at 125m overall diameter (OD) which I knew would be tight, but should fit. Anyways it arrived 125mm internal diameter (ID) with a 1.5mm wall. It in fact did not fit, but I tried. Alas.

So I ordered the next size down — 4.5" or ~114mm, and am now very aware that most (all?) pipes are sold by ID, and anyone telling you otherwise is probably porking.

The new one arrived on Wednesday, which I keyed with sandpaper and painted:

I then went to Denmark for a couple of days, back Saturday, and returned to assembly. I forgot about the fire bricks which sit inside on the sides, and I couldn't wrangle them in with the back boiler, so on return I had to take the top off again to fit them:

And then fit the chimney, wedging in fire rope and high-temp silicone (~300°) for the roof collar. It oddly smells exactly like vinegar...

And rope + higher temp fire cement (~1250°) for the flue-to-stove seal.

And it looks EXCELLENT.

The chimney still needs a second coat, which I'll do tomorrow after it's been through a heat cycle. I also couldn't light it right away because the silicon needed to cure, and the lower door is with a guy for sandblasting which I'll pick up tomorrow. But this evening, FIRE!

IT LIGHTS. I've never been so excited to burn something, there's a theme here.

But I added too much wood, and without oxygen regulation it just goes which was a lot disconcerting as it smoked and smelled like shit. I was hoping for a nice solvent-y smell, but this was god awful as the paint hardened and burned off. Lighting a fire inside the wood-filled boat you've rebuilt is simply an odd thing to do, but the autumnal camping setup is excellent:

The cement around the collar also started growing, like a cake overflowing in the oven. It's rock hard and seems to have held, but it's ugly and not the neat trim I started with. Things to fix next week...

In other news, the church path was pretty this morning: