I heat my garage, all winter with a wood burning stove. My stove is never really 'off' but i do, do cool downs to clean out ashes...

anyways, about 18inches above the firebox I have a damper... this damper serves as my primary use damper, its what I use to control the stove,.. the stove has a a large damper but thats not important right now...

this damper, in the pipe, 18 inches above the stove, has a rod, which goes thruogh the pipe has a large fin (damper) and out the other side. on the side that matters, is a slot for a ****... now heres the deal, this damper is for a gas furnace... the **** that goes on this slotted rod, well its gone... I need to weld a ****, onto this rod... its a gas damper with a plastic ****... plastic doesnt work over 400F.

I need to weld a **** to the end of this rod....

So, how do I do this? I have stick welder... do I attach the ground to the rod, and then. weld a piece of steel to the end of the rod?

Ideas would be nice. right now I am using a piece of 10awg tie wire to control the damper, it work, works like a charm actuolly... but something a bit more 'user friendly' might be nice... like say I have my mom come over and tend the stove.. wide open is fine for about 20 minutes then the damper has to be about 3/4 shut or i get fire in the pipe. Fire in the pipe is a very bad thing... Me, having a few years experience with the stove I know How to kill the fire in the pipe problem, but my mom... a simple **** whould be best...

by the way the end of the rod is slotted, but not drillable...its also free. meaning without the tiewire, itll close the damper completely - bad thing... why is it bad? itll snuff the fire and fill my shoop with smoke in about 2 minutes. itll also create a white plume above my garage for all to see also a bad thing.

 

should be able to ground it any where on the stove

 

attaching the ground to the rod would be preferable unless there's not room.

 

As long as the metal your welding is grounded (either by attaching the ground clamp to the the metal or to metal touching the metal your welding) you should be fine.

You'll want to make sure that the metal is clean or at least as clean as it can be. I recommend using sandpaper.

Pictures would help IMO.

 

cast iron doesnt weld well without a cast iron welding rod

 

I would assume that the rod itself would not be cast iron. It would probably be just low carbon steel.

You always want to get your ground as close as you can to the area your welding. Especially if there are areas where metal barely touches. This can give you Arc Blow.

Just be careful, that rod is going to heat up really really quickly. If you have a torch, I would pre-heat the **** a little, then weld it on. You will get better penetration into the ****, and you wont heat the rod up too much. If you just do 4 tacks, that would be sufficient enough to hold that **** on.

 

A furnace damper on a wood stove ?
NO NO NO !!
Take it out and get the right damper for a wood stove.If you don't you're just asking for trouble. The damper 'fin" is not designed to be subjected to the temps in a stove flue.
I've been running a wood stove for primary heat for 25+ years. What you are trying to do is just wrong.