PSA -- connecting stovepipe together

[Stwood_]

If your doors are completely airtight, not necessarily mandatory to have a damper.

If they are not, then you really should have one, like mine.

[Edwin Hackleman]

Please share.  Don't know if I'll need it but someone might!

Setting the holes for a stovepipe damper on the nose. Here it is:

1) Find some old perfed computer paper and use three connected sheets. Remove perfed edges, fold along the length, and cut in half by following the fold, leaving behind about a 5-1/2" width and 25-1/2" length. If you have no computer paper, the ideal strip of paper is 5” wide and 20” long.

(2) Wrap paper snugly around stovepipe and mark where one end touches the other. Fold paper at the mark. That defines the circumference--about 19.1" for a 6” stove pipe.

(3) Fold the paper in half between the mark and one end to obtain half the circumference. Check with rule. Fold one more time to obtain a 1/4th circumference measurement.

(4) Measure 12-7/8" from one end to set the axial centerline of the first hole. Use the paper at the 1/4th circumference mark from the pipe's seam to set the first hole's radial circumference line.

(5) With the pipe snug in the workbench vise, use a spring-loaded punch to make an impression for a drill bit. Drill a 7/32" pilot hole.

(6) Wrap pipe with paper held with some masking tape with long edge crossing the radial centerline of the first pilot hole and the half-circumference center fold aligned with the axial center line. Apply tape and check distance from end to ensure 12-7/8".

(7) Repeat step 5 for second pilot hole, drilling where the paper corners touch. Remove paper and enlarge both pilot holes to 1/4" to closely match the damper handle's shaft diameter (0.24").

(8) Remove burrs from inside of pipe with coarse sand paper.

(9) Install damper by adding a 1/4" clearance washer between the damper disk and the inside surface of the pipe (a bit tricky, that requires masking tape to hold the washer to the disk). Remove masking tape once damper is in place.

[CLETUS]

You could do that....

Or you could drill a 1/4" hole, put the damper in the correct place, tap rod with a hammer, reverse the dent with a nail set, drill hole.

[Edwin Hackleman]

You could do that....

Or you could drill a 1/4" hole, put the damper in the correct place, tap rod with a hammer, reverse the dent with a nail set, drill hole.

But, the paper aligns the holes both horizontally and vertically. And, (1)  how do you tap the rod with a hammer and (2) reverse the dent with a nail set? The pipe is already assembled together, not flat out. In short, it ain't that simple.

[CLETUS]

 The pipe is already assembled together, not flat out. In short, it ain't that simple.

it doesn't need to be...

[Stwood_]

I'm waiting on the 8" pipe instructions/measurements .......

[Wild Turkey]

 How do you throttle down a fully loaded stove when the wind chill drops below -20 F and the wind is blowing from the north at 15 mph steady?

I can do this with my stove, a Federal Airtight, but very few can.

Last time I used my wood stove (shop made from 4' piece of 18 inch 3/4" wall pipe) I put a heat exchanger made from a 55 gal drum with three pieces of stovepipe through it.  Never needed a damper, but this time may be different.

Thanks for the idea.  Might make it easier than other ways folks have done it!

[MstrCarpenter]

I just eyeball it by looking straight down a 12" long drill bit. When both sides look the same go straight in to the other side. It may not be perfect but I don't recall ever putting a damper when it couldn't spin 360*.

[Edwin Hackleman]

I just eyeball it by looking straight down a 12" long drill bit. When both sides look the same go straight in to the other side. It may not be perfect but I don't recall ever putting a damper when it couldn't spin 360*.

I must admit that my procedure in post #21 was originally proposed about eight years ago by SpokeShave, one of our premier members, when I asked how to do this with an assembled pipe in a thread that I started. I edited his instructions and then saved the file which I posted here. Spokeshave was well noted for his accuracy and precise workmanship.

I have since used the procedure half a dozen times and it always works. The only other thing I usually also do is check the second hole location before drilling it by wrapping the paper around the pipe in both directions, thus obeying the age-old adage -- measure twice, cut once.

[daddo]

I drill first hole then- pi x diameter divided by 2, measure center from hole to hole and drill. If your worried about being straight, use a piece of tape wrapped around the pipe, but I never had trouble with that.