Tuesday

Yesterday while I was working in the shop I heard this soft “whump” sound from the neighborhood of the woodstove. I didn’t see anything amiss, so I figured it was the burning wood settling inside and went back to work. Later, while stoking the stove I happened to notice that I could see smoke through the gap around the stovepipe where it passes through the wall. That shouldn’t be. Going outside, I found that the end of the pipe that goes out through the wall had rusted/burned away and whole smoke stack had fallen to the ground. I drove to Wilton Springs early this morning to get the replacement parts I’d need before Marie had to leave for work then spent all morning fixing the stove pipes. Two things are tricky; one, the straight pipes are not pipes. They come as curled up sheets of metal with a sort of tab & slot joint running along each mating edge. I have to deform the pipe to get the tab into the slot, then try to make the tube round again so the other pipes and elbows will fit onto them. I get the heavy gauge pipes so they will last at least one whole year; the light weight ones burn through too fast. The second thing is that the ends of each pipe have a “crimped” end which is supposed to slip into the uncrimped end of the next piece – but they don’t. So I have to rework the crimped ends to form a taper on the end that the next piece will slip over and I can work it down as I try to round out the new pipe lengths. To do it right takes more hands than I have, but with enough time and persistence I managed it. And a blazing fire is now warming the shop. After lunch I will get to shooting lacquer on the repaired leaf so it can be sent back. I got the leaf lacquered, allowed it to dry well and packed it up to go out on today’s UPS truck. Then finished out the day with some assorted chores that have been getting neglected of late.