chimney pipe liner expander

[Frank S]

Yesterday I decided to climb up on the roof to see why rain has been coming down around the chimney.
So I pulled the triple pipe chimney out and brought it to the ground. We have been hesitant in wanting to build a fire in the stove until I could either replace it or at least inspect it to make sure it was safe enough to use the wood stove.at least for the remainder of this winter.
Well I found out more than I wanted.
First off the core tube was still intact but leaking at the seam second it is an air insulated triple pipe without any vermiculite or thermal wool type insulation in side of it which would not be a bad thing if the inside core wasn't in quite the shape it is in.
But the thing that nearly caused me to explode was the transition box or in this case a round transition cup was just that it extended only through the 1/2" ceiling. aside from being rusted nearly completely away there was no non combustible box or tube constructed around the chimney from the ceiling to the roof.
All of the wood stoves or free standing fireplaces that I ever installed I built a fire resistant box around them out of either bricks or 4 layers of 5/8" sheet rock, later I found out that 3 layers of 5'8 sheet rock was code for the grease exhausts flumes in the shopping malls food courts.
So now that the chimney is out my first step will be to make or buy a transition cup or box then make the box to extend from the ceiling to the roof out of 1 layer of cement backer board and 3 layers of Sheetrock.
Then I will deal with either re coring the chimney or see about replacing it
After pulling the core out I decided that I could over sleeve it with another section of pipe.
Since putting 8 inch pipe over 8 inch pipe defies the laws of physics and since it was the seem that was leaking anyway I just split it at the seem and inserted it inside of a new pipe. My reason for doing this was the new pipe was galvanized while the core was stainless steel.
Now comes the problem of how to expand the core to fit tightly inside of the sleeve. I decided to make an expand-er
I dug around and came up with a length of 1/8 by 2 flat bar. 1/4 by 1 flat bar, 3/4 sucker rod, 3/4" pipe and a bicycle kick stand
Here is what I came up with




the bungee cord makes a good 3rd hand to hold tension on the tool



In addition to expanding the inner liner the expand-er provided a solid back up for drilling in the self drilling screws which hold the liner in place

Now the core is only 5 ft long instead of the 6 ft that it was I will have to shorten the outer double shell and get 1 new section of pipe.
The stack only extended about 2 ft above the roof so now it will be too short,. Actually for this area it really needs to be about 3 or 4 feet above the peak so I if I get a 3 ft section of new duravent that is insulated and a ceiling cup probably go with a square one that way I can construct a fire prof box around it to extend from yher ceiling to the roof decking and a new spark arresting top cap It will be good to go

[Frank S]

This is 1 of those tools that will most likely be a 1 time use special purpose tool also in a hundred years it may even become one of those mystery tools for someone to try and determine it's original use. Certainly not elegant but it functions unbelievably well I could see it literally stretching against the outside pipe

[DIYer]

Thanks Frank S! We've added your Pipe Line Expander to our Miscellaneous category,
as well as to your builder page: Frank S's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Pipe Line Expander by Frank S

tags: expander