Rebuilding a Vigilant Wood/Coal Stove

Hello All,
First time poster. As the topic says I'm rebuilding a Vermont Castings Vigilant wood stove that came with a coal kit. The previous owner was burning coal, I'm still undecided what I'm going to burn, may start out with wood, than make the switch, still need a chimney and a wall shield. Near as I can tell this unit would be called a Vigilant II 0035-0036. It has the 1977 marking on the fireback and the inside of all the castings are marked 1984. I've taken it completely apart, had it sandblasted, and have one coat of high heat paint on each side, would like to get at least one more coat on the outsides before putting it back together.

My question: Is Furnace Cement that comes in a caulk tube good for sealing the castings to each other, or should I use refractory cement or something else?

Going to try and attach a picture or two.............Thanks, Joe

Nice work! Nice floor tiles too. I have found furnace cement in tubes to be very convenient; haven't found any around lately. Just remember there's an expansion/contraction issue with using furnace cement as caulking. Might work out or might not, you might have to try it and see. Only other alternative I can think of is high-temp black silicone, you could make that look real good, it's adhesive and flexible, but if you exceed the max temp rating it might be a noxious outcome. Good luck, I'm sure you'll get lotsa advice!!!

Furnace cement in a tube...
That works...

There are joints in the Vigilant that will exceed Silicone sealant temperatures (600* +) when burning coal. I've never had external pieces appart, it's still tight, it's not broke and I'm not fixing it (Did I just jinx myself? ) But then again my 2310 isn't as old as your project.

NewGuy wrote:Hello All,
First time poster. As the topic says I'm rebuilding a Vermont Castings Vigilant wood stove that came with a coal kit. The previous owner was burning coal, I'm still undecided what I'm going to burn, may start out with wood, than make the switch, still need a chimney and a wall shield. Near as I can tell this unit would be called a Vigilant II 0035-0036. It has the 1977 marking on the fireback and the inside of all the castings are marked 1984. I've taken it completely apart, had it sandblasted, and have one coat of high heat paint on each side, would like to get at least one more coat on the outsides before putting it back together.

My question: Is Furnace Cement that comes in a caulk tube good for sealing the castings to each other, or should I use refractory cement or something else?

Going to try and attach a picture or two.............Thanks, Joe

Hi NewGuy, The Vigilant with a coal kit and the air control lever on the right at the back of the stove is a Vigilant, not a Vigilant 11. I had one for wood burning and it was a fancy wood burner. Bought new in 1985 and kept it 1.5 season. The first Vigilant had horizontal combustion when the stove's damper was closed. Horizontal combustion Like down draft combustion are not easy to control. Maybe the stove was a better coal burner but I don't know.
For the sealing, refractory cement should be used where the the temp. will be the higher and silicone where the temp. will be not so hot but if I were you I would use one product everywhere and you will get better user working with the same product.
You are doing a great job on that stove and I hope you will enjoy it.

i have the same stove, you're doing a nice job restoring it, looks like to me.

I'd use the cement on a tube, less messy that in a tub/pail, and that's the way the factory assembled it. I've seen pictures if the factory, using air powered tubes in assembly.

did you have any problems getting the 4 rods unthreaded from the top or bottom? I was wondering, in case I ever tear mine apart. I've had mine since new in the late 70's. good stoves, once you get the quirks understood. i'm loading mine every 12 hrs these days, temps dropping to 20's, and 30-40 in daytime. when cold weather hits, I load every 7 or 8 hrs.

Thanks for all the replys,
I found the Rutland furnace cement at Home Depot, it says it's good to 2000*. I'll see what it looks like when it comes out of the tube, The stuff that was in the joints when I took it apart had a hard cement feel to it.

I picked up some new threaded rod also, the nuts came off the bottom ok, that aloud me to take the top off with the rods still attached, they were pretty brittle, the first one snapped while removing it from the top, 2 of them came out good with some heat and vise grips attached real close, the last one broke also, just drilled them out yesterday.

I'll change my profile from a Vigilant II to Vigilant. I was trying to identify it from the stovepartsplus website, wasn't too sure about the model.

This is a great forum, everything about coal is new to me, I find the whole subject facinating. Will be interesting to see who has coal in my area. I'm in S.E. Penna., Levittown to be exact. I think Bristol Fuel still has some in bags. I seen a load get dumped in a driveway a couple blocks away, going to ask them where they got it. No hurry, if not this winter, next one.

Thanks again, Joe