Correcting roll up flue pipe seams overlaps

This post is about a simple crinkle-free way of forming roll up flue pipes while keeping the correct seam overlap. It also describes a simple correction method if the seams are wrong. It can all be done with the holding rings left in place.

Note: This is just one little part of a 12 part series on improved stove pipe rolling. You may wish to start at Part 1 as hors d’oeuvres and then taste from the banquet.

Introduction

While skiing we always say that if there is a camera rolling then it will spoil our skiing and make us have a stack that will be recorded and played back forever.

True or not, while practising my flue pipe roll up videos for this website I found that under the pressure of the filming I sometimes ended up with the pipe rolling up in such a way that it looked perfect. Then on closer examination, I would find that the inside of the roll turned out to be the outside.

In a similar way, I also noticed that the portion of the pipe that would normally form the outside seam overlap could change to the inside one. At the time it was just a perplexing nuisance and I thought it had no practical use.

However, when a flue pipe is heat-treated deliberately (heat treating virgin flue pipes) or by using it on a hot stove over many years, it will tend to curve the inner layer of the seam overlap. At the same time, the outer layer of the overlap is shielded from the heat and does not develop the same curve. It has a straighter more tangential shape that springs outwards from the pipe.

It is important to keep the inside and outside layer of the seam consistently in their own places during use if the difference between the two shapes is to be maintained.

Keeping the springy tangential form on the outside seam is essential to hold the flue pipe holding rings in place and stop them from falling down to the bottom.

Consequently, it is important to set the seams the same way every time the pipe is used. With the traditional flue pipe forming method that I now call the ‘crinkly damaging method,’ it is quite simple. You just put the black soot coated seam on the inside and the cleaner one on the outside as in the photo below.

I now promote my improved flue pipe shaping and roll up methods that are quick, convenient, avoid crinkle damage and allows all the holding rings to be left in place. The methods are described in detail in improved stove pipe forming.

Fortunately, with these methods, the sooty inside is not seen or touched. However, unfortunately, with these improved forming methods there is a 50/50 possibility of setting the seams ‘inside-out’ unless a systematic approach is taken. Nevertheless, this post describes a simple method of reversing the ‘inside-out’ state if in the hurly-burly of the camp set up or packing up you manage to get it wrong.

“The method makes such a smooth and easy transition between the two states that it sound impossible and looks like slite-of-hand or a magicians trick?”

Method

Seam inside-outing

The basic method for the inside-outing is described as ‘tight helical cone pulling/screwing‘ in my improved stove pipe forming.

The process at first is not obvious, like those ‘impossible nail puzzles’. “Many of my tricks first happened by accident and this is no exception.”

I will leave it to the following photos and captions to explain, as words alone will fail to do so. Just remember that the rings are left in place throughout the whole routine! (There is a video link at the bottom of the post also.)

Avoiding inside-outing

To avoid the inside-out problem I now put a permanent ‘A’ index mark on a particular corner of the stove pipe foil strip.

Note: It is a good idea have the ‘A’ index mark at the top of the flue pipe as this end will be exposed to lower temperatures (than the bottom). It will never need to be trimmed off. On the other hand a little portion of the bottom of the pipe may be trimmed off if it becomes heat damaged after a lot of use.

Stove pipe deployment. I start with the foil rolled up with the tangential tail of the roll pointing away from me. The ‘A’ index mark will be on the outside and on the left side of the tail. As in the first of the series of photos above.

Next, I pull/screwed out the core of the roll toward the left and the seam overlap will form correctly. (This is the opposite pulling/screwing direction that is used above when inside-outing the seam overlap.

Avoiding inside-outing during roll up. When it comes time to pack up the stove pipe there is also a 50/50 possibility of screwing up the pipe the wrong way.

To avoid this, I point the tangential seam overlap away from me and have the ‘A’ index mark on the right-hand end of the pipe.

To correctly initiate the roll up, I screw the index mark away from me while preventing the other end from rotating. Gentle pressing of the static end into the corner formed between the ground an base of a tree or the side of a backpack can provide such gentle rotational resistance.

If the words and photos above do not cut it for you, then here are two little videos that might just do it.

[Add video of start of forming with index mark]

Conclusion

I hope this post demonstrates how to form and roll up a stove pipe quickly without; doing crinkle damage, removing rings while maintaining the correct seam overlap.

If by accident the seam is ‘inside-outed’ then the problem can be easily corrected by reversal of the process. The following little video using a paper pipe demonstrates this seemingly impossible manoeuvre. It is easy to master and very simple to do with paper and with practice will become easy to do with metal foil.

Now you may have thought that there was no obligatory ode, but here it is;

Beautifully unscrewed, crinkle-free and ultrathin,
Alas, the inside seam was out and the outside in,
Your salvation will come from reversing the rotation,
Until the prior inside is out and the outside is in.

Here is a little Instagram video of the reversal of inside out.

Happy screwing.

Tim