Fireplace Maintenance Day

Hi everyone ,
as it has already rolled in pretty cold for the start of winter, for the past few weeks of a night time I have been lighting my wood heater in the lounge room.

Usually , depending on what type of timber I’m burning as to how hot that the fire makes the room ,
and if its actually left burning long enough , the whole house .

So last night I had it cranked right up ,
with the dampener fully open , there was a huge fire burning in it and I noticed that it wasn’t really working that well at all , as there was not a great lot of heat actually coming out of it in exchange for the amount of fuel that I was putting inside of it.

So I thought then ,
that Id have a look at it today ,
I moved the ashes aside and put my head in ,as far as i could and I looked up .
Well instantly I could clearly see the problem ,
The fire plate had a massive hole in it and it was completely burnt out.

I struggled a bit to get it out , but I eventually I managed to remove the plate from the fireplace for further inspection,
There is two one inch square metal tubes that are running along both the top and bottom of the rear end of the plate .
These tubes have a different series of small holes drilled along them in a straight line and they are both welded on top and bottom of the back end of the plate.
Apparently the holes in the tube are important as they help with the air circulation inside the firebox ,
This gives the unit an engineered high efficiency burn .

The original fire plate has a 25 mm right angled fold on its leading forward edge.
So its a pretty simple but effective design.
I scrounged all around the farm looking for some material to make a new plate .

I actually found I had some similar tube with slightly bigger holes in it ,
I also found a bit of metal plate big enough for the job as well ,
but on comparison on the workbench I decided that both items wernt actually going to be thick enough,
because , I could use them but it would be highly likely that then id have to make another plate again by next year , as the service life of a fire plate that thick would be minimal.

So I went to the local engineering workshop and they cut me the new pieces to size and bent the folded leading edge for me.
The new plate is nice and thick and a bit heavier than the original.
So I would expect that it should give me a great service life.

So with the new bits sitting on the bench ,
I marked the circulation holes to be drilled into the tubes , and then I centre punch marked them .
This does help you to drill straight , when the drill bit is lowered into the punch mark impression it both positions and guides it.
I then used my pedestal drill on the bench in the shed to drill all of the required holes .

I then set it all up ready for welding together using two pairs of locking pliers to hold and clamp the new tubes in the correct position.
Then came the simple task of welding the pieces together,
or so I thought.

I have both a mig welder and also an arc welder in the shed to choose from.
I thought that id use the mig for the job as its a welding type that Im more familiar and more well practiced with.
So connect the earth strap to the workpiece, plug the machine in , then turn on the gas, and turn on the welder .
Find my welding helmet
Good to go .

Instant Problem .

The thing is that really because I only use my mig welder so periodically, that I should technically after each use ,
remove the internal spool of mild steel welding wire.
Then I should seal it in a plastic bag and store it in a dry place.

The consequences of not doing this is that over time and with high moisture or humidity conditions , that the mild steel wire can sometimes develop rust pitting on its surface.
One thing that welds do not like at all is welding oxidation/rust.

So the welding process was a pain in the ass ,
it splattered, on and off and i even welded end the wire to the tip in the torch.
The problem eventually got a bit better when some of the rustiest outer weld wire came off the spool, and I then managed to finish the welds.

Realistically with the amount of rust pitting on it the whole roll of welding wire is now just scrap,
There is another interesting solution for me to fix that rusty wire problem permanently and thats to buy my myself instead next time
a roll of stainless steel welding wire,
its a fair bit more expensive , and it also has its advantages and its disadvantages.

It cant rust ,
giving a service life to the user to the very end of the spool over an unlimited period of time , so there is no wire wastage.
The negative thing is that the welds
arn’t quite as structurally strong as mild steel wire.
So with this in mind and the jobs I occasionally weld im going to have to change over to stainless wire next time I need to weld .

The old welding spool still has lots of rusty wire left on it so I’ll just hang onto that and recycle it eventually by using it for lots of other projects.

So with the new fire plate finished it was time to now fit it back into the firebox .
There’s just one more important final thing to check out first and thats the condition of the inside of the flue .
I took a look with my head in the firebox as much as I possibly could, before then taking a photo of it with my phone with the flash setting turned on, to further visually inspect it.
It was nice and clean ,
as over time your flue can get dirty with a build up of creosote and this can become a hazard and sometimes even catch on fire if left unchecked.

All good and its now time to start the battle to fit the new plate inside the firebox ,
Its like a heavy jigsaw piece that just fits , it took a minute or two , then I set a new fire , in it and the flick of a lighter to test it out.

Well it’s fairly cold outside, my fire