“Made It Myself” Chimney Sweep

“Made It Myself” Chimney Sweep BUILDINGS Miscellaneous “We’ve been heating our home with wood since 1974 Cleaning the 20-ft chimney used to be an easy job but it’s not any more so I built a chimney sweep that lets me clean the chimney inside the house ” says Lee deVries Scio Oregon DeVries says his homemade chimney sweep “was fairly easy to build and works well” and that anyone is welcome to build their own Here’s how you do it: Start with a 20-ft long 1/2-in dia flexible CPVC pipe not PVC and use CPVC glue to attach a CPVC male adaptor to one end Screw a 1/2-in thick galvanized flange to the adaptor put four 1/4 by 1 3/4-in bolts through the holes and run four 1/4-in nuts up tight on the other side Place another 1/2-in thick galvanized flange over the bolts and screw four 1/4-in nuts with nylon inserts on just far enough for the nylon to be effective Screw a 1/2 to 3/8-in galvanized bushing into the flange and then screw a chimney brush into the bushing “The second flange being loose on the bolts works somewhat like a U-joint allowing you to make the turn from the stove into the chimney ” says deVries “CPVC is more flexible than PVC so it works great for this application At first I tried coupling two 10-ft lengths of pipe together since they were more readily available but after using it a few times it broke at the coupler Then I found a 20-ft length of CPVC pipe at a plumbing supply store and it has worked great for a long time ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Lee deVries 43251 Rodgers Mountain Loop Scio Oregon 97374 ph 541 367-8666;

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