Thanks, Jim. Yeah, it's drastically improved from the furnace you delivered a few years ago. The many years the furnace sat outside had done a lot of damage, but nothing that couldn't be reversed with some tender loving care. I did a huge amount of work on it, including replacing the top (which was badly broken). Luckily, I had several sheets of the asbestos that was used originally. Mine were a different thickness, but the three pieces combined were only about ¼" thinner than the original. It turned out exceedingly well as far as I'm concerned. I took pictures along the way and will eventually post on the rebuild. I think you'll like what you see. I cut no corners.
I'm just now working on the hydraulics, and that's a question I would have asked of you before making the final decisions. Thanks for the information. It will be dead easy to use a short length of isolating hose on both circuits. I had discarded the original "plumbing" because of its dreadful condition. The tubing had rusted through in several locations, so it was a real mess. I found a couple flow restrictors for a decent price on Ebay, which I now have in my possession, and I am fortunate to have acquired, way back when I lived in Utah, a huge assortment of ¼" 316 stainless Parker compression hydraulic fittings from which I can pick almost all the fittings I'll need to connect the cylinders to the pump. The local hydraulics guy said that compression fittings would work perfectly well, which really simplifies the tubing work. And I'm fortunate to have a Parker ¼" tubing bender, something I acquired when I was running my machine shop many years ago.Did you use non-conductive hydraulic hoses on the cylinders between the fittings on the cylinder connecting to the rest of the hydraulic system? Only needs to be 6-10" but it breaks the circle.
I wish I'd have known more about this topic when I installed the floor, way back in '97, if I recall correctly. Unfortunately, the rebar is tied at every intersection, and to add to my concern, the hydronic heating is tied to the rebar (kept it in place until the concrete was poured). I don't know to what degree the hydronic hose conducts, but it has an aluminum oxygen barrier between layers of rubber, but I don't know how much resistance the rubber has. I still have some random pieces, so I'll take a reading, if for no other reason, to answer my curiosity. It's deep in the 6¼" floor, however, and a reasonable distance from the bottoms of the furnaces so I'm hopeful that it won't be a problem. So many things to consider!You wouldn't have had a problem with the rebar if the bar was not wired together. Our foundry floors had rebar, but the bar had fiberglass
spacers glued between the bars so there was no electrical contact. Remember, if you have complete circle, you have an electrical path for
the induction to start heating things up.
Thanks again for all your help in this project, Jim.
H