Update on P2

Got the tools laid onto the new to us P2

Ripped out the metal fire back to see wassssup in there.

This stove had been fitted originally with the U-TUBE combustion air setup and some time in its past it had been removed.

The 1 inch holes in the back plate are supposed to have stainless steel snap in plugs, but instead there were two little square sheet metal plates half AZZ fastened in with sheet metal screws over the holes.

The entire inside of the stove was black with soot which led me to believe that the heat tube housing was plugged with crud.

I cleaned up the back plate and drilled the screw holes out that had held the metal fire back in place as well as the holes that had been drilled to fasten the sheet metal covers in place.

Then I added a pop rivet in each hole to permanently seal it.

I stopped in town and had two sheet metal angles bent to hold the new fire brick in place (Copied our other P2)


The question of why the stove was so dirty (The dealer mentioned that the fire burned real lazy)

Sooooo.
Off with the top tin and then the casting and the fan housing.

OMG

The real truth came right to the fore front quickly.

There is supposed to be a flat rope gasket all around the top of the heat tube housing where the casting and fan housing bolts on.

The exhaust casting fits down on the housing and is supposed to be snugged into the rope gasket that's all the way around the top mating surface, as well as the vertical rear facing surfaces.

The rear surfaces had nothing.

This left a gap in that area about 1/8" x about a total of 12 inches long.

The exhaust fan was sucking air from inside the stove cabinet rather than the fire box.

There was a generous amount of soot on the white rock wool blanket in that area too.

The stove has also had the exhaust fan relay upgrade added along with the newer exhaust fan.
Buttttt, the idiot left the tail bracket off the motor.

The fan and that area had enough dog hair in it to fur up an entire litter of pups.

Whoever worked on this stove should be stripped of their Double Clutching boots and chain drive wallet AND their tool box as well.

The exhaust blower wires were pinched in the side panel area and the rubber grommet in the chassis pass through was gone and there was serious chaffing of the wiring in spots that had allowed them to wear through to bare wire. (Obvious burnt spots)

The fan motor cooler blade had been handled rough shod and several of the delicate aluminum blades had been tweaked out of position. (Easily realigned, but they must not wobble or the unit does not run smooth and quiet.

The fire tube ash scraper draw rod was a mess and looked to have been replaced by a makeshift ????? rod that looked more like a garden snake. (Quite tweaked)
I will make a new one and fasten it in with a small button head Allen screw to get it located, then hit the rod with the wire welder to make it permanent.
Will likely weld on a nice little loop to pull it with.

Here are some pics of this 5 alarm train wreck.

All salvageable easily.

Will clean it all well, blow out all areas of the cabinet and the blowers then start bolting it back together.

I do hope that this train wreck was not the lame handy work of some moron that was actually getting paid as a stove tech.

Gawd, what a mess.
Poor thing had no chance of running properly.

Likely why it was replaced.
The overall condition is relatively nice, with great sheet metal, no rust and it appears not all that much heavy use.


NOTE ******
Pic number 10 is of our current P2 and shows where the gasket is supposed to be silicone'd in place.
The gasket must be as in that piccy and the casting is then lightly snugged down and the forward jack screws snugged up to pull the entire assembly snugly into the soft rope gasket.
This seals the entire exhaust housing and fan casting assembly up nice.
Once this is snugged up the top casting bolts are tightened down.

It is a wonder that this unit did not cause a fire or short out and blow the breaker.

OR WORSE

 

The world never ends creating stupids
Keep at it, awaiting the first fire pic

 

Excellent job Snowy!

 

Thanks troops.

Once the little critters is back together I will definitely toss a FIRE in its belly to initiate it.

I need to order a new fire brick panel, and am watching such places as ebay to try and get a good deal

But I can get the bulk of the work done and things ready to go.

At this point, most of the work is the cleaning and replacing the gaskets inside the "Widdle Beast"

Interestingly the door rope gasket is like new and almost looks factory, but that would be hard to believe after this many years.

The top has one tiny dent in it that, now that the units apart will be real easy to fix with a few taps of a body hammer while the top is laid on the anvil.

A good going over on the sheet metal to remove the old paint is in order too.

I have found that the Stove Bright paint in the rattle cans is a fine product, but tends to cause the factory paint to wrinkle and bubble up.

Not sure what Whitfield used, but the new stuff over it is bad ju ju.
I tried repainting our ADV 2 T back when we installed it in 2010 and it was a hard go.
All I wanted to paint was the base, and ended up stripping it to bare metal and starting over.

Funny though, after 5 years the base looks just about like it did when we got it.
BEAT AND ROUGH.

Could not have anything to do with tossing scrapers, brushes and stuff on it ???

I really did not need more projects, but getting two identical stoves to what we already have was just too good to pass up.

Likely never need them, but better to have and not need than need and not have

 

Did more snooping in the P2 and found yet more "dirty footprints"

Only one nut holding the blower fan in place and a suspiciously taped spot on the power cable inside the cabinet that just "Begged me to unwrap it"

Inside the tape were wires twisted together and folded then taped up

This entire scenario just prodded me to look deeper, and without going too much farther I found more things that needed attention.

Out of 4 bolts that hold the base to the main body of the stove, 2 were missing.
Ya know, this was still a great deal, but there is no excuse for this type of crap on anything, let alone something that can burn the house down, or worse.

AS I mentioned before, If this was done by somebody getting paid to work on the thing, they should be tarred and feathered.

 

Stoves to cars to homes, PO nightmares exist
Aren't you glad you ventured farther into it and found some more serious issues

 

Yeah buddy ! ! ! ! ! !

I'm gonna gut the thing to the point that I touch, fondle or otherwise get intimate with all of it's parts

From that point I am pretty certain things will be Fine.

I am thinking about even yanking out the feed screw (Auger)

I have just found waaaaaay too many things F'D up to let anything go untouched.

Stopped in town and got some screws, bolts and other goodies to make it all better

Plus SOME upgrades too.

Got a chunk of 1/2" square cold rolled steel and will add small pieces under the lip of the heat tube chamber to allow the casting retainer bolts to thread into a solid piece and not depend on sheet metal to hold the 1/4" bolts retaining the top casting.

The two bolts at the rear of the casting exit through a flange in the housing and nuts could be threaded onto them, but the front bolts exit inside the chamber with no access once the top is on.

Poor design, and they could have easily added a 1/4 thick doubler in that area and then installed the bolts.

The sheet metal is 10 gauge or maybe a tad more, but still too thin to really hold well if the thing is torn apart a time or two.

Self tapping bolts are used, which is sketchy at best IMHO

 

Oh My

 

YEAH BUDDY
Touchy feely

I love touching my stoves "Widdle parts"

 

Have you been peaking at me

 

Pete you know I can't help myself I see humor every where usually a bit off color , well not usually all of the time

 

I know.

 

Somebody has waaaaaay toooooo much time on their hands me thinks

 

I'm a late arriver and also seen the opportunity in the horizon. Willy beat me to the punch line

 

Actually I love touching the big parts too (Sits giggling wildly waiting for the shoe to drop)

Guess I'm just a "hands on type"

 

UPDATE

A cool little box arrived at the post box today with Whitfield upgrade parts (new old stock)

A updated fire pot, some air hole plugs and a few other goodies.

All I need now is the fire brick to replace the metal pieces.



I think I have pretty much everything to mod the heat tube chamber and make that area far better as far as fastening the casting on.

I picked up more screws and a few extra drills and taps to be sure I'm all set now.

Once this torrential rain stops I can get the Widdle beast out side and really give it a blowing out.

 

UPDATE UPDATE
Got some work done on the P2 yesterday

I bought some 1/2" key stock and made some reinforcing plates to go under the heat tube top flanges.

The casting is held on with four 1/4" flange headed bolts.

These bolts are self tapping and screw through the 10 gauge (about 1/8" ) top flange of the tube chamber.

The holding power of these is sketchy at best, and after a coming apart for service more than once the threads are going to fail.

I installed the steel square stock under the flange, drilled and tapped the stock and installed two 10-32 flat head Allen screws on the front flange and one each on the rear corners.

Then I drilled the original holes through the new 1/2 " stock and tapped 1/4-20 to allow the original holes to have a full 1/2" of thread.

The scraper pull rod was a train wreck, so I decided to upgrade to a 5/16 rod and add a cast steel eye on the end to make actuation easier.

The mods on the top housing and the scraper rod will make this "MORE GOODER"

Here are some pix

I can't believe how good of shape the fire tubes are in, and this suggests that use may have been minimal and time was all that was the enemy (And crappy service techs)

 

Nice photos! I'm impressed with your work, too! That heat exchanger looks like it has plenty of surface area for heat transfer. I bet this stove really puts out the heat.

 

Actually it is a very Tiny stove.

The one like this we are currently using is our "Shoulder Season" stove and this time of year it is the helper when its cold.

We had a warmer rain storm go through and the temps climbed into the 50 F range the other night and the big Whit was running us out.

The little one is just right in those situations.

During COLD weather it's a great helper.

I don't have any real hard specs, but I am guessing that this stove is in the 15000-25000 BTU range max.


Thanks for the compliments.

Worked in the metal trades for many years.
Machinist, Welder, fabricator, electrical, hydraulics.

Pretty much made the rounds, then got bored and spent 20 plus years as captain of a big rig hauling sand a gravel (8 axle heavy hauler)

Now retired due to health issues and fool with pellet stoves.

Went down this morning and finished the scraper rod on the P2

I hate trashy work, and especially if it's done by someone who is getting paid for it.

It take precious little more time to do a good job, and not much more than that to do a great job.

Much of what I am doing on this P2 is cleaning up somebodies hash.
The stove was traded in and likely because it worked poorly.

Now I have the time to fix several design shortcomings and generally improve things.
This being an early unit of this model there are/were several areas that needed updating and other areas like the top tube housing I just finished that were just waaaaaay toooooo cheeeeezy.

The scraper rod pull was too tough to get hold of and since it was fouled up anyway, a GREAT time to make it better.