I am new to the forum and new to a 250 yr old house with 6 fireplaces! I recently attempted to rebuild a Vermont Castings Intrepid II model 1308 with a catalytic converter- I believe this was the model before the 1990. As I took this apart I realized I was dealing with something I probably should have left alone. I called several shops and none of them seem excited to rebuild it for me. Now though, with the stove in 50 different pieces, I am trying to put this back together. I am looking for some advise/help. Questions: Can I use 2000 deg fire mortar to seal the stove? How much/where should I use mortar and how do you fire the mortar? Does any one know where I can get a manual on the stove? (I tried the web site- it only has the 1990 model available-I don't know if they are the same?) Does any one have a set of procedures that I should follow to make sure the stove is rebuilt correctly? Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

You will need to use stove cement (Rutland is one good brand) in all the joints. These joints must be very clean - most rebuilders sand blasted them - or the cement will fail pretty quickly.

The other thing that usually happens is that you will have to use a grinder on some or all of the castings to get them to fit back together properly - a lot of heat over time tends to warp the castings just enough so that they do not quite fit the way they need to.

The old Vermont Castings company used to have rebuild kits for all of its stoves. After several bankruptcies and numerous ownership changes, I doubt if they can supply them. There are, however, a few online suppliers of old stove parts. One of them may have rebuild kit and be able to supply you with a rebuild manual.