Chimney Top

[pro70z28]

Sorry, I haven't gotten by here much lately. It's been a very busy year, so I'm not complaining, especially in this economy.
Last spring the top blew off the fireplace chimney. Too much heat & smoke turned it brittle & it broke like dried leaves. They have to be special ordered around here, they're expensive & we've gone through 2 in 11 years. So, I took a couple hours & made one out of .080 aluminum sign cut-offs.



At a sign shop, you use what you have. Made a template out of scrap vinyl.



Wheeled a little pitch in the top & bottom pieces for water runoff.



I don't have tipping dies for the bead roller, so I picked something close & went with it

[pro70z28]

Used the shrinker / stretcher & a hammer to get a 90°.



Test fit the bottom half on the stainless inner liner.



I tried everything I could think of to make the louvered sides, but nothing turned out right (wasted a good part of the afternoon figuring that out). So, as an alternative, I stomped out a handful of aluminum stripes on the shear, used the bench vise & a crescent wrench as a jig & bent all the stripes into louver pieces & then clamped spot welded them to the top 1 by 1. Then did the same with the bottom



It actually went together fairly quick once I had a system down. Welded some mounting tabs on the bottom & got it installed in the dark. Installed some rain gutter screen on the bottom to keep birds out of the liner vent. I have to do a little re-sealing on the chimney itself, but it started to rain just as I was putting the last screws in.



Cross another Honey -Do off the list in my quest to get back on the "Z". Been some chilli mornings lately & NO fireplace.
It's nothing fancy, but it should be functional & hopefully last a little longer than the thin gauge store bought units. Now that it's on the roof, nobody will notice except maybe me & Santa Claus.

[strube1369]

Looks really nice. Gonna outlast those bought ones too.

[Bistineau]

Rust won't be a problem any more, just watch out that the heat doesn't get so hot that it melts the louvers. Otherwise it's another trip back topside for a rework. Looks like you have plenty of firewood stocked up already.

[pro70z28]

Thanks everybody. This was one of those "just get the thing done" type job. I didn't spend much time making it pretty, but hopefully it will do the job for a few years.