How Do You Repairing a Door Gasket?

I have about a three inch piece of gasket on the top of my fire door that just fell off. I've never put one on other then back when I setup my Pioneer, but that was a while ago. Can the door be repaired when the stove is hot? I would hate to shut her down to fix it

It all would have been fine but I took the darn door off yesterday when the stove was down and polished her up a little bit and went to install the new door I got from Larry a little while back but the darn thing didn't fit! So I had to put the old one back on and then I noticed this morning that it was off

By didn't fit I mean the door latch on the inside of the door handle is smaller and narrower then the old one so you just couldn't lock it. I'll going to be emailing him in a bit here with pictures to see what can be done.

Rutland and other stove item suppliers sell a gasket cement.. it's thin like water, and for me was difficult [for me] to work with.

I use 'Ultra Black' gasket sealer/maker from my local auto parts supplier.. you could use just about any RTV sealant/glue/caulk.. Use only a very thin 'wipe' of the stuff on the cool door, and the back surface of the gasket, press in place and close the door for an hour or so..

Good luck..

Greg L

Permatex Ultra Copper is good up to 600° ... and higher, intermittently. It would be tough to run the stove that hot for any length of time without it ashing up & going out.

The only downside of the stuff is it's ugly orange/copper color, so be neat with it. When it cures, it feels as tough as a car tire chunk. That's all that's holding my baro in place on my oil boiler. Been using the stuff for over 15 years on everything. It's the only stuff that used to hold up on header gaskets in my '72 'Camino.

Adam, the gaskets supplied with the new Chubby doors are 3/8". I found 1/2" works best though. I'm sure if you wanted you could go bigger too. Also, in regards to the door not latching. What I do to adjust that is take a small 4" C-clamp and put one side on the inner "latch" on the door and the other on the outside of the door and I then clamp it down slowly to move the latch in. I personally don't like the glue that comes with the gasket kits and have wanted to try stove cement but I haven't changed the upper door gasket yet.

I do it once every few weeks because as the stove heats up the metal just bends back. I noticed the rod used to make the latches and handles is not heat treated or hardened/cast. Its a Zinc rod that is just bent into the shape of a latch and handle.

Adam, could you put the new door on and hold it closed some how just enough to keep your fire going, Maybe lean a pipe against it to hold it closed for a little while, then take the old door and let it cool down and put a new gasket on it. Just a thought.

I'm On Fire wrote:in regards to the door not latching. What I do to adjust that is take a small 4" C-clamp and put one side on the inner "latch" on the door and the other on the outside of the door and I then clamp it down slowly to move the latch in.

I do it once every few weeks because as the stove heats up the metal just bends back. I noticed the rod used to make the latches and handles is not heat treated or hardened/cast. Its a Zinc rod that is just bent into the shape of a latch and handle.

My problem is I have to move the latch out because the old door has a gap between the latch and the door 3/4 and the new one is 1/2. The length of the latch it's self up to the bend on the old one is a little over 2" and the new one is 1 3/4. I was afraid of trying to bend it because I didn't want to break it and I wasn't sure if it would be long enough to latch properly.

That's a great idea Jeff! I can do that!

Put the old handle on the new door.

Jeff I looked at it but it appears to have a ring that's welded on?

Yeah I went back and looked at them and the old one has a ring welded on the inside while the new one has a couple of spot welds on it.

Oh well, just an Idea, I didn't take a close look at how the handle was held on. So that brings you back to plan A. Swap the doors out while you put on a new gasket on the old door. You will want to keep the old door anyway as a back up.

Yes, the washers are welded onto the handle on the inside and outside.

So, the latch on the old door is wider than the new one? So, put the new door on and push down on the handle until it moves far enough out to pull the door in. I had the opposite problem when I got my new door from Larry. The handle / latch on the new door was narrower than the old one. So, I had to bend the new handle / latch in using a clamp.

You'd have to bend it pretty far to break it, if it'd break at all.

I ended up making a poker for the Chubby using the same Zinc rod that was used to make the handles on the doors. I used a 48 oz mini-sledge to fold the rod completely in half and it never broke. So, there is enough malleable play in the rod to bend it quite a bit.

IoF

I'm more concerned with the door breaking then the handle. There seems to be no way of pulling the latch wider without putting pressure on the door. I did try to force it a little bit to get it to widen but the door kept lifting since I didn't put on the pin locks. Wasn't sure if they would hold it enough to get the latch to widen or how much of a pain it would be to take them back off if I couldn't get the door to fit?

Jeff

I'll do that after.

Adam, figure out what you need to add on a piece of steel to the latch and take it down to my friend Roger and he will tig weld it for you. He lives on West St. in your town. Look for a blue cape with a blue garage, on your left. He's a good guy and an excellent welder.

i just went through this last week, I decided to replace my hopper gasket because the fire was burning up into the hopper. the whole process took 2 hrs. and it was 30 degrees outside with no other heat source. it was no big deal and it worked out great. I did it in the morning when my stove temp was down, I shook all the hot coals into the ash pan let the stove sit for 20 min or so with doors open to cool stove off then went to work. directions said wait 2 hrs for glue to dry but I only waited an hr.