I broke the handle on my door on my boiler the other day, had to take the door off and run into the shop and weld it back together, whole process took about half an hour between test fitting finding the tools I needed, getting everything right and trying to get the stove cooled down as it was running away on me, water temp got to 202°f with the forced air running the whole time in the house and with the wife soon a load of hot laundry just to take some of the heat! I rebuilt the door this fall and it weighs a little under #100, but it should never warp again! I had rebuilt everything but the hinges and the handle, the hinges i cut off welded on the new door and reinforced, handle was cut off and welded into the new door as well. When rebuilding it I completely changed the design, to be much heavier to withstand the heat, without warping as my last door did, burning up $30 gaskets every 3 weeks, to the point that it would let so much air in it would burn up all my coals, but somehow not the wood that was on top of the coals! (Yes for anyone wondering the wood was dry, I split everything and it all sits for a year minimum) Frustrating to say the least, so I built it heavier, with a bigger gap between the inner and outer boxes, deeper flanges, and with an extra 3/16 heat shield about 1.5" away from the inner door, also made the gasket spacing 11/16 instead of the original 7/8. Changing this much called for lots of test fitting, no exaggeration here, I test fit the #80 door (without the heat shield) about 45 times before welding each stage solid. Inner door plate and outer door plates were 5/16 material, outer door flange I believe was 1.25"x.19" and the inner door flange was 2"x.19" flat stock. Total cost out of pocket for material? $30. Hours put into this door? I'm not sure I want to know. Smashed fingers? 1.5. Having a door that will take a common gasket, should never warp, built myself, and will last many years and keeping the$400 they wanted for a light duty door from the factory? Worth every penny!
some pics of the old door, the heat shield I put there last year, 1/8 plate didn't hold up very well. New door in process picture, inner door put onto the outer door plate. And lastly a picture of our black and tan mountain hound goat. She must've thought she smelled something with going up there for! I had to help her down after 20 minutes.
