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Chimney cowel woes !!


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Good afternoon all. We are in the process of moving the multifuel stove from the middle of the boat, to the forward port side of the front lounge. I'm having trouble locating a new cast iron chimney cowel. Because our roof has a much larger curve than normal. At a guess,I'd say right acroos the roof the curve is nearly 4"high. The best one that Midland swindlers had, just won't do. As it will make the chimney lean outboard to much.  So.Can anyone advise where we might be able to either get a bespoke one made. Or hopefull, we may be able to buy one "Off the shelf" that will fit. Thanks in advance as usual. Dave and Diane. NB Tickertyboo. Weltonfield Marina.

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2 minutes ago, David J Smith said:

Good afternoon all. We are in the process of moving the multifuel stove from the middle of the boat, to the forward port side of the front lounge. I'm having trouble locating a new cast iron chimney cowel. Because our roof has a much larger curve than normal. At a guess,I'd say right acroos the roof the curve is nearly 4"high. The best one that Midland swindlers had, just won't do. As it will make the chimney lean outboard to much.  So.Can anyone advise where we might be able to either get a bespoke one made. Or hopefull, we may be able to buy one "Off the shelf" that will fit. Thanks in advance as usual. Dave and Diane. NB Tickertyboo. Weltonfield Marina.

 

 

I had some wooden wedges made which were glued onto the bottom of the collar until it sat correctly (vertical), it was then removed and a piece of steel cut / ground / fabricated to the same shapes and size as the wedges, this was then welded onto the bottom of the collar, the collar then bolted onto the roof as normal.

 

If your collar is not 'verticalised' then the flue from the stove cannot be vertical either. and you will get CO leaks etc. Not good.

 

Worth doing it properly

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Our boat has a more normal curve and I found the standard angled ones not angled enough. I got mine from limekiln. And it did have more angle than the one I took off. But not enough.

 

I made up a fillet out of some mahogany ex laboratory worktop that I just happened to have....

 

I was able to move the stove a little bit too which helped line up the flue .  So if you don't already have a hole in the roof take your time and work that out carefully before making the hole. I think the numpty who fitted mine made a hole then tried to fit flue /stove to hole....

 

Somebody will be along to point out that the received wisdom is a centrally mounted stove is better than one positioned as is traditional to side of the front door... but I'm sure you have your reasons.

Edited by jonathanA
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5 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Hi Alan. Thanks for your advice. I had heard of people making wedge to lift it up. I have some good old english Oak. Will that do? As for the heat up there. Will wood be ok as a permanant cure.?

Thanks Dave

 

I had some wooden wedges made which were glued onto the bottom of the collar until it sat correctly (vertical), it was then removed and a piece of steel cut / ground / fabricated to the same shapes and size as the wedges, this was then welded onto the bottom of the collar, the collar then bolted onto the roof as normal.

 

If your collar is not 'verticalised' then the flue from the stove cannot be vertical either. and you will get CO leaks etc. Not good.

 

Worth doing it properly

 

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6 minutes ago, David J Smith said:

Hi Alan. Thanks for your advice. I had heard of people making wedge to lift it up. I have some good old english Oak. Will that do? As for the heat up there. Will wood be ok as a permanant cure.?

Thanks Dave

 

Some folks use wood sucessfully, I just wanted steel.

 

Try it and see - if it doesn't work with the wood at least you have a template for a steel 'wedge'

 

Good luck.

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Do not put Oak any where near steel.  The tannin in the oak eats the steel right smartly.

 

If you want to make a template, use thick  cardboard. Much easier to fabricate from. If you want to make a permanent wedge get an oily timber.  Lignum Vitae would be the canines cojones, if you can find any!  Iroko would be good.  Greenheart would be fine. Ekki should be ok.  Pine will be cr@p.

 

N

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I made my own wedge from Mahogany òver 20 years ago. The chimney sat vertically as it does to this day. The seal between the wredge and the roof failed a couple of years ago (no surprise). There's a topic running elsewhere on the subject. When I went  to reseal it I found significant rust but absolutely no rot of the wedge.  I made it out  two pieces ģlued together using a  combination of bandsaw, sawbench, router and Elastoplasts⚕️

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There is, or was, a tiny little company called Warstock in Southam. They made the common rudder bearing and also various chimney collars, but I think they mostly provided engineering support to Colecraft so are likely a word of mouth rather than website type company.

A few years ago they made a chimney collar "wedge" for me in aluminium. They did not have one in stock so cast one the next day and delivered it to the boat, I think it was still warm 😀. They also charged a ludicrously small amount for this service so have probably gone bankrupt. The wedge is still doing a fine job.

They did an initial visit to the boat as we were fairly close to them, he made no measurement, he just looked at the chimney collar and roof and said "I know what you need".

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14 minutes ago, dmr said:

There is, or was, a tiny little company called Warstock in Southam. They made the common rudder bearing and also various chimney collars, but I think they mostly provided engineering support to Colecraft so are likely a word of mouth rather than website type company.

A few years ago they made a chimney collar "wedge" for me in aluminium. They did not have one in stock so cast one the next day and delivered it to the boat, I think it was still warm 😀. They also charged a ludicrously small amount for this service so have probably gone bankrupt. The wedge is still doing a fine job.

They did an initial visit to the boat as we were fairly close to them, he made no measurement, he just looked at the chimney collar and roof and said "I know what you need".

Contact Information. Contact Warstock Development & Production. Phone: 01926 814598. Fax: 01926 810707. Address. Unit 3. Southam, England, CV47 8HA.
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1 hour ago, dmr said:

There is, or was, a tiny little company called Warstock in Southam. They made the common rudder bearing and also various chimney collars, but I think they mostly provided engineering support to Colecraft so are likely a word of mouth rather than website type company.

A few years ago they made a chimney collar "wedge" for me in aluminium. They did not have one in stock so cast one the next day and delivered it to the boat, I think it was still warm 😀. They also charged a ludicrously small amount for this service so have probably gone bankrupt. The wedge is still doing a fine job.

They did an initial visit to the boat as we were fairly close to them, he made no measurement, he just looked at the chimney collar and roof and said "I know what you need".

 

Warstock seconded by me. Very knowledgable and clever bod who rarely if ever answers the phone. You HAVE to visit and say hello and explain in person what you need doing. He is absolutely bound to still be in business somewhere somehow, but like DMR I thought him too cheap so I worry that Warstock the company might have evaporated by now. He is down a track the roughly opposite side of the road to the entrance to Colecraft. 

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  • 5 months later...
On 24/11/2022 at 16:11, BEngo said:

Do not put Oak any where near steel.  The tannin in the oak eats the steel right smartly.

 

If you want to make a template, use thick  cardboard. Much easier to fabricate from. If you want to make a permanent wedge get an oily timber.  Lignum Vitae would be the canines cojones, if you can find any!  Iroko would be good.  Greenheart would be fine. Ekki should be ok.  Pine will be cr@p.

 

N

Teak would be a very durable timber for this job

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