Need Advice On .200 Rod Material For A Pellet Stove Burn Cup

Ed ke6bnl

Ed ke6bnl

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I did a favor last year for a friend and replaced a few of the rods in the pellet burn box with mild steel and it has burned out again this year. Would I be better off with drill rod, stainless, or???? what, that might take the heat better then the mild steel did. thanks in advance ED
 
Ed, just curious, but what is a pellet burn box?
 
the pellet go from the storage container with a screw drive and are slowly dropped into the burn box and air is blown from below the box and the pellet burn and that heat is used to heat the house indirectly.
 
Could you take a guess at how hot it actually gets (perhaps color temperature)? Most any stainless steel will perform better than mild steel. There are some very sophistocated materials that can handle high temperatures - probably not really necessary. Can you get a guess on the original material (magnetic at room temperature, does exposed metal have a tendency to rust, ... try the usual tests)?
 
Ed ke6bnl said:
I did a favor last year for a friend and replaced a few of the rods in the pellet burn box with mild steel and it has burned out again this year. Would I be better off with drill rod, stainless, or???? what, that might take the heat better then the mild steel did. thanks in advance ED
Click to expand...

Wrought iron has a better tolerance from burnout than steel. Wrought iron has a very low carbon content. As I recall, mild steel has less of a tendency to burn out than higher carbon steel. The problem is the wrought iron is no longer produced so can be difficult to find. I have a ton or so but all considerably larger than your .2" diameter. I might have some around 1/2"; I can check some to make sure it is wrought iron. (The positive test for it is to nick and break it. Wrought iron breaks look like wood grain.) How much do you need? (diameters, lengths, and quantity).

I have no experience with stainless but think it would be better than drill rod. I know when I used stainless for the flue pipe on my wood burning furnace, it went from replacing every year to never.

Bob
 
the pieces are .200 in in dia. and each is about 2.250 long may need to replace about 6 pieces.
the original bars are very rusty. the pellets sit on the these bars as a grate and the heat is from the burning pellets on the top of the grate.
 
well to my surprise it is not magnetic and when I wire brushed it, it appears to be stainless steel.
 
Where exactly do expect to find .2" rounds of any material in the US short of having it centerless ground?
Neither a whole MM or fraction of an inch.
I stand corrected after a Google search , Brown & Sharpe/AWG #4 is .204", this may be readily available in different materials.
 
3/16 stainless rod is readily available. Only 0.013 undersize. Welding supply? Hobby supply?
 
check with onlinemetals but too expensive for shipping. will be calling the weld shop for ss tig weld rod. will check my tig rod supply first.
 
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