Installing a Bypass in my bell

Hi all;
Due to the extended January thaw here in NW Montana.
I have taken the opportunity to install a new bypass in the brick bell of my shop stove.
I had been planning on doing this job in the spring... But, you make hay when the sun shines and you drill a 4" hole thru your brick bell when its almost 40F outside on February 2nd!

For tools , I used my cordless drill, a  4" diamond core drill,  a 4" bimetal drill,  a 3/16" concrete drill, a tapered metal punch and a large flat screwdriver.
For parts I used a 4" bypass gate, graciously donated by Dragon technology...  a 4" hvac flex 90.   A hose clamp and some metal duct tape, a bit of Rutland hi temp cement.... that's it!

Cutting thru 4" of  clay bricks is a slow process.    The diamond core drill was the best tool to use .
The bi metal drill did work... until it got so dull, that I had trouble later getting it to cut the 8" metal stove pipe.
The concrete drill of course worked great on clay bricks and the tapered punch / screwdriver made cracking  chunks much easier.

After getting a hole thru the bricks and the 8" metal stove pipe.  I mounted the bypass gate using Rutland stove cement.  I retained it with one tapcon masonry screw and large washer.
The 4" 90 took a bit of wiggling to get it on properly. A large hose clamp secures the bell end and metal duct tape seals up the stack side.
The bypass  works with a sliding metal plate which can be positioned anywhere from full open to full shut!
The whole process from start to finish took apx. 3-4 hrs... not to bad! And after lighting the fire. I can say that it works perfectly!

An extra benefit for me. This makes my double barrel shop stove much more usable during shoulder seasons, when it might be 30 in the morning and 65 in the afternoon.
I can heat the room but not the bell!   How cool is that!

Good job on the bypass installation Thomas!

The bypass is like having heated car seats. You don't know how you could have ever gotten this far without one.

I would like to report an update!
The next day after this install.  I discovered I had a moisture drip from the bottom of the sliding gate!
You can see some staining on the bricks.  
A poster over at Donkeys forum stated he had the same style bypass but it had a slight moisture drip!
His future plan is to turn the bypass sideways, to stop any drip and so the gate must be moved by hand not gravity.

I thought that sounded like such a good idea that I went out and turned mine.
I needed to drill a new hole for my hold down bolt and I smeared as much Rutland cement around as I could to seal it back to the bricks.

The final results do not look as pretty as the original install.   But it did the trick! No more drips!

I am now suggesting at Dragontech that all bypass gates be installed horizontal.

does anyone know of something similar that you an order in europe ?

Hi Peter;
Look for woodworking supplies.  
A 4" dust collection system "blast gate".
If you can not locate one, I do ship to Europe.
You can also build your own bypass using a standard wood stove chimney damper.