Woodstove crack

My wood stove developed a crack last week.  I drilled a hole at the end of the crack to stop it from spreading.  Curtis brought his portable welder over and welded the crack together.  I had trouble getting the chimney collar off so he welded the stove up to the collar.

Later when the weld cooled it started to crack from the collar.  So this time I took the collar off and the next day Curtis welded the crack all the way.

When the weld cooled it cracked again.  We could hear, then see, the crack forming as the stove cooled.  So Curtis cut a small piece of scrap metal.  I drilled through the stove and bolted the metal over the crack.  That should fix the problem.

The crack and my drilled hole to stop it.

Crack spreading into the weld.

The second weld before I laid the plate over it.  I smoothed the weld.  The 'wet' part is the liquid woodstove glue used to attach insulation pieces to the woodstove.  I felt it couldn't hurt to try to do extra to seal the crack and not just rely on the metal piece.

The finished result.

Curtis had earlier tossed the metal piece in his woodstove to darken the shiny metal to match my woodstove's color. My camera's flash heightens the difference.  Without the flash the metal piece more closely matches my woodstove.

I have used my woodstove a few times and everything seems to work fine now.

Curtis wouldn't take any money for his help.  So today in gratitude, for this and other favors Curtis has done for me, I spent three hours helping Curtis tear out carpeting in a burnt house Curtis and his business partner bought for investment purposes.  We also removed a few appliances and other items not to be burnt.  They are getting a local fire department later this month to burn down the house to use for their fire training.  Curtis and I hauled to the landfill two full pickup loads of stuff.