Good deal on a Lopi?

[spiderjo]

You got a great deal on the stove. I have a similar one bought in 1992 for almost $2000. Mine is a stove insert model. I wouldn't drill any holes in it. There should be a vent for it (looks like the metal rod in the center of the blower). That should adjust the air flow. If you drill holes you may not get the long burn this stove has. I would stock it to the max at night and it would burn all night long with embers still burning in the morning.
Good luck with your stove.

I picked up this used LOPI a couple weeks ago for $250.

It had been out in the weather for maybe a year. Some oil mixed with a rotary brush, followed by a good burn, then a new coat of high temp rustoleum and another burn.

I think it's an older vervion of the Endeavor model. Two doors and an air intake from the bottom up the middle to the secondary chamber and twin intake tubes to the upper fronts (see selector knob on right rear).

It seems to shut down too much with the doors closed so I'm getting ready to drill out some 5/16" or 3/8" holes along the bottom front below the doors and make an angle iron (3/4") slide for adjustment. Similar to the intake on the what must be a newer model and modification on the pics below.

Anybody know of any problems this might make?



It's going to be nice to get rid of the worthless, ancient, rusted out heat-a-lator in the external fireplace and go with central heating.
I'll demo that stuff out next summer.

$250 Stove
$30 bucks for ~ 5 cords
Borrowed my neighbors splitter in exchange for swaping out the engine & cleaning it up
A couple or five gallons gas
$300-500 for pipe and fittings
$150 hearth floor work
A minor modification to the "fan" setting/switches on the forced air furnace system to circulate the heat around the house (think AC setting)
Time and elbow grease

= I'm almost all set for winter and much lower propane bills - right on time.

 

[T-Ford]

I had 4 feet of pipe on it for the burns.

Got the chimney installed it in the house on friday. Had 2 burns so far. All burns have had to leave the doors cracked to keep it going. Rewiring a 54 year old furnace so I can use the fan was a trick.

I'll mess around with it "as is" for a little while before I chop on it.
Just need it to get cold out so I can have a decent fire to see what she does. Once it starts getting down in the single digits and below zero at night I'll know what I want.

 

[fbh31118]

Update!

Here's a few pics after a lot of sanding and painting. The stove is still a week or two away from being installed so I thought I would do a burn outside to bake the paint. Looking ok so far.

 

[WetBehindtheEar]

Beautiful job on that, man.

I wish I had the time (and skill) to make metalwork look that good.

The pics you posted of firebrick were exactly what I was thinking of!

Good Luck!
Tony

 

[fbh31118]

Beautiful job on that, man.

I wish I had the time (and skill) to make metalwork look that good.

The pics you posted of firebrick were exactly what I was thinking of!

Good Luck!
Tony

Thanks Tony. I'll try and get some pics of the new chimney that I installed. Just a little sanding and elbow grease, nothing fancy on the refinishing. Going to get material to start building the hearth area for it today. I really don't know what I'm doing to be honest, just been reading your guys experiances and have tried to learn from what others have gone through. That and reading directions.

 

[fbh31118]

Hearth

Here's a few pictures of what's going on. Working on the hearth base, the chimney is done.

 

[Hansenj11]

Looks good i just got a similar stove installed.

 

[fbh31118]

I wish I were a stone mason!

Here is a few of the stones that are going to be covering my hearth in the next few days. Been scrabling trying to get these things cut, finally had to buy a diamond saw blade to get the job done.

 

[Deadman]

I just bought a used LOPI Liberty from the Newspaper classifieds.
Its a sweet burner, rated at 72,000 BTU's! I rebuilt it, by putting in all new firebrick, 2 angle iron baffles, and some polishing. Parts cost me $100. It looks like brand new now!!!!!

My pics are all too big for this site, so no pics from me....

 

[fbh31118]

Should be ready for testing today! Try and ignore my horrible grout job. I'm alreay planning upgrades; I don't like having several sections of pipe so I'm going to change that up a little next year.

 

[WetBehindtheEar]

Hey, looks really nice.

I don't want to rain on your parade here, b/c of all of the hard work you've put in...

Do you have enough clearances between the rear and right-side wall?

They look marginally close... Just don't want to see you melt the wallpaper off that back wall.

 

[fbh31118]

Good eye. I'm right at the limit at the back, 14" and I'm 1" illegal on the side at 32" from the side wall. I'll have to do some chimney tweaking to solve that though.