Welcome aboard Alden .....we'll be waiting to see pictures of that bad boy with a nice fire in the box when the snow is blowing sideways outside.
Yes, that was a good score. But I have not found such good deals up here. I did not have a lot of time to shop my stoves. My original intention was to build a masonry heater, but the house I ended up buying was simply not suitable for one. Being in July already, and knowing that I would spend several weeks on refinishing, I took the pitiful rust jobs that I found and got right to work. But they are turning out nice, and I am on schedule. The problem with me is that I take something saying that I will just "do a little refinishing" on it, but then I make it a whole complicated long project and do a tedious paint regimen. 'Mission creep' as my lady describes it!
Hey, Locust Post. Will do. Right now I have pieces soaking, and that will go on for maybe another week. The soaking tub can only take a few pieces at a time. I should pick up another tote or two. The vinegar does a good job. Maybe I will be able to skip my usual next step- the applications of rust removers. I will know in a few days. I sort of like the rust removers because they leave the metal ready for paint. But I have, at times, gone straight to paint from the vinegar baths and have not been disappointed. Yes, that snow does attack sideways!
Well, funny thing today. I hit the local scrapyard doing sone pickin, and I think they have your stove. I did a double take and went over to coon finger it. This one has the swinging panel on the side door. It also has a screen for open door viewing. There is a wood retainer across the front of the door. So I guess this is a top, front and side load. No baffle plates in this one. It is missing legs and the top front chromed bar. It has the foot bar down by the air intake. Here are the pics. Crappy outside view of flap. Inside view of the flap. Pretty neat swing away top. The two holes in the front corner is where the chrome bar would go.
Hey, Jon. Yep, I figured that there are a lot of these stoves around. If you see one or two of something that says 'Made in Taiwan,' or 'Made in China,' then you can suppose there are many more, lol. Anyway, I think it is a pretty stove and worth the work to restore. I neglected to mention in my initial post that I, too, am missing the screen. But I did have the mica sheet that goes in the front window. These sheets are easily replaced for a few bucks. The spark screen, however, would have to be fabricated. I do not like the smoke plate. It just seems to be an odd part in my mind. Anyway, I do not see how I would get in a baffle and a smoke plate. The two cannot function together with this configuration of a stove. So, did you take it?
Update: So I have the parts soaking in vinegar. It is about the third day of soaking for most of them. The vinegar is, indeed, doing its work, and thankfully, saving me a lot of messy, nasty work at wire-brushing! That the vinegar works is no surprise. But I am happily surprised to see that the vinegar is doing an excellent job of derusting the nickel accent pieces. This is my first time attempting to derust such plated items. I very nearly tossed them into the trash when I dismantled the stove because I did not believe that there was anything to be done with them except for replating them. Well, luckily, I tossed them into the bath. I am glad I did. Below is a photo of the foot rest. Only half of it was in the vinegar and it went in only yesterday. So, after one day, observe the difference: Even the grooved details are coming out clean. And like no pitting. I am very happy to see this. Almost giddy. Over the years, whenever I restored something, I never bothered with chromed/nickled pieces because it was my understanding that such pieces are hopelessly lost once rusted. Now, it is not perfect. Not yet. But it has been less than 24 hours soaking. I am sure that after a few more days, the piece will be clean. It will certainly be clean enough that I could pass on having to paint it. Maybe just a cleaning with Never-Dull and it will be done.
Likewise for me regarding the quadrafire insert I bought. It took a while, but I got a $3500 stove and SS chimney liner and cap for $250 on CL. All it needed was an install, which I did myself.
Yep. That is definitely the way to shop. Almost anything and everything can be found 'For Sale' somewhere. Wood stoves are one of the better bargains to be had. The stores really rip on a new one, but once someone decides to sell one, they want it out 'now.' These days, here in my area of northern Maine, I see 'House for Sale' signs everywhere. Once the home goes into contract, the yard sale happens. I always find stuff that I really like at these sales. Wood stoves seem to make an appearance at every one. HDRock, I think that ss chimney, by itself, must be worth $250.
Yeah it was Horkn that got the deal with the SS chimney included , I already had one, just had to take out old stove n hook up new one
Buddy of mine heated his place for 3 seasons with that model stove. It was part of the home he bought from his wifes dad. That stove was installed in the late 70's (I was told) and had been used ever since. It made tons of heat. It also ate it's fair share of wood! His sealant between components was gone in many spots. You could walk around the stove with the lights off and still watch fire through the seems. A pipe damper was a must with that unit. Just changed it out last fall to a new unit. Keep us up to speed on your progress.
Hey, BK Sirocco 20. While I am far from being an expert on the use of wood stoves, it seems to me that the design of this stove ought not include it being sealed up. I know a lot of people caulk the openings, but I will not be doing so. A parlor stove is not a stove meant to burn through the night. My understanding is that, in days gone by, a family might retire to the parlor after dinner for a while before calling it a night. The stove would be called upon to give a quick, good heat for a couple hours and then that was it. While I can see that caulking it would slow the burn, and I understand why people would want to slow the burn, I think the stove is on the small side for being expected to burn through the night, or to burn for several hours without recharge. For me, this will be my main heat over the winter. I, actually, would need it to burn as long into the night as possible. But even caulked, I just don't see it happening, and the caulking, to my eye, is just unsightly. Sure, I would trade off a bit of her beauty if it would go all night. I do have a second stove, larger, that I could swap in if the parlor stove fails to perform, but I really like the appearance of the parlor stove and I am going to see whether it can fit my bill. I am fortunate to have a wood lot for the wood, and I have very well seasoned hard wood to burn in her. She will be on the ground floor and the stove pipe will go up through the second floor bedroom to the roof. So hopefully I will be ok. This house is very well insulated. I will just have to wait and see. The oil burner thermostat will be set at 50f so I shouldn't freeze to death, lol. But I really do not want to spend the money on that fuel oil.
Update: Gentlemen, here below is a photo of a majority of the parts now derusted: Most of the pictured parts were in the vinegar bath for some five or six days. Some parts were in the bath for just about three days. The parts do not come out of the bath looking as they do in the photo. I spent about ten hours today wire-wheeling them. I went through two 4.5" wire wheels, wearing them down to like an inch. For those who have not done this kind of a job, it might be easy to wonder what the vinegar did if I had to spend so much time on the wire wheels. Well, the vinegar 'frees up' the adhesion of the rust. Without the vinegar bath, it would have taken a few more wire wheels and a few more days of work to get them, maybe, as they are now. So, while they do come out of the bath looking almost no better than the way they went in, the rust now comes off much more easily. Note that the parts that were in the bath for just a few days took a lot more effort to derust than the parts which were in the bath for several days. Still, I would be lyin' if I did not admit that I feel like I was at the gym all day today! Anyway, looking at the parts, they are, to my eye, gorgeous. The parent iron, its natural gray tone, nice and clean. Pitting is, amazingly, minimal and hardly noticeable without putting an eyeball on the iron. I do not see any need for grinding or smoothing out any of the parts. She is now ready for some scotching/steel wool or sanding, and then stove paste. This stove was a rust-bucket when I started and I had some doubts as to her viability -or my skills, until just the other day. But I am managing to bring her back to life.
