# 1 fisher made in the south east factory

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CamFan

Feeling the Heat
Aug 21, 2011
345
North East Georgia
Well I got motivated and called the guy who had the #1 fisher that was made in the South Eastern Factory. I took him the new stove and picked up #1. Well I photographed the changing of the stoves. Some would say he got the better of the deal since after 36 years of use in a shop it was not in what I would call great shape. Anyway I installed all the pictures in photobucket and they will not post for some reason. I am getting a error message. "this photo has been moved or deleted"? I have not figured it out. I have posted other pictures here and did a preview and they did fine so I will have to figure out what has happened.

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Makes me feel like this guy.
I also went to the area I had the stove making pictures stored and it did the same thing but I can post any of my trail cam pictures which is not wanted here lol

Hopefully I will get it figured out. You would enjoy the pictures.
 
It's the way you named your photo or album. Problem is your link has "making space wood space stove" in it. The spaces are your issue. If you change your album and get rid of the spaces in between the name then you won't have a problem.

Nice looking unit. One serious beast. Brings back memories.

This link will access that picture.

http://i1216.photobucket.com/albums/dd362/CamFan2/making wood stove/DSCF0004-1.jpg


pen
 
Well I will try it again, thanks for the help.
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This is where #1 sat for 36 years. The owner and my wife. It will be displayed in our Fireplace shop now.
This is what I traded for it
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I called it a Great Gma. It is the width of a Gma and depth of a Papa
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this is the high light
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Ha, it's funny to see a typo cast into the door. That is a classic, like having a mis-minted coin.
 
Looks like you could crawl inside that monster fire box. What's the cu ft?
 
It is screaming "baffle me". And add some secondary air.
 
[quote author="Todd" date="1314250089"]Looks like you could crawl inside that monster fire box. What's the cu ft?[/quote

not taking out for the fire brick it is about 3.83 cubic ft I think. Never checked it before.
 
That is really cool! Years ago I installed two Fishers at my folks house - an insert in the upstairs fireplace and I believe a Mama in the basement. Dad has passed away and Mom doesn't burn so I've recently begun letting her know that I would like to have at least one of them. No place to put it right now, but a lot of sentimental value to me.
 
CamFan said:
BeGreen said:
Ha, it's funny to see a typo cast into the door. That is a classic, like having a mis-minted coin.

I never noticed that before. I wonder how many got shipped that way?

Me too. Maybe Coaly has a slightly later version?
 
If the doors cam from Bobby Fisher in the early years there could be a bunch of them like that. If each plant got their own doors made like in the later years, it could have just been a southern spelling. lol I know they had doors made in Alabama at one time.
 
I notice that the later units said patent pending or an abbreviation of the same. Regardless, the typo just makes your rare stove even more special.
 
Nope, all mine are spelled right. The older ones without trees have PAT. PENDG.
Here's my Mama Bear door with cast marking "08 19 77 M" on the inside. Notice the brown draft caps. This was a brown Mama Bear that the owner stove blacked the door. The rest of the stove will be brown again when I'm done with it. Written with weld on the bottom; 4218 PA

But WOW, our wives have a scary resemblance ! (Baby Bear wasn't too happy about a picture with Mark Martin's car)
 

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Are you going to try and save that door by having the crack fixed or find another?

pen
 
I think I will leave it alone. I have no plans on burning it so I think I will leave it the way it is and the way we took it out of service. For display purposes I was going to sandblast it and paint it but the wife wants it like it is.
 
I'd have to agree with her to leave it in "as found" condition. There is only one #1 stove to be had. Normally paint is no big deal. It can always be stripped off and changed. But you can't replicate the "patina" on a special stove.
I collect Dietz lanterns too. Barn type and Railroad. Paint on them doesn't decrease their value. It just means someone years ago tried to preserve the metal from rust.
I have a 1921 Model T Ford that is a "Center Door" model. Even though many were made, turns out they are the rarest model to be found today. Most people that see it wonder if I'm going to restore it. It's just the way it was built, all original with tattered worn interior. No body damage, so I'm leaving it alone. Still drivable as is with no after market parts.
 
Does any one know how many of those "great gma " where made at,the south eastern factory? Coaly sent me to this forum thinking this may be the model of stove that I have

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Now that I can see it with some light; No it's not an original Fisher. Just something someone made with Fisher doors.

Step top is too small, ash fender should have the same 1 inch channel iron as door seal. (if it's made with 1 inch channel iron door seal) And the ash fender is not shaped correctly. It's square, corners should be the same angle as side cut at top. (first ash fenders were the scrap piece cut from the side)

And it would have a 8 inch flue or larger. Probably 10 inch since the firebox is about the size of the XL.

The top plate corners aren't rounded enough. Also the top plate is much smaller on the top than the bottom cooking surface. Mama and Papa depth stoves would have the same size cook tops. This way if one side was marred from bending, it could be flipped over and the good side used facing up. And the leg angle iron isn't clipped on an angle at the bottom. It looks like weld is visable on the stove front ?? Nothing on that stove is made to Fisher specs, except maybe the material.

This "Great Grandma" was made to the specifications of the owner of the first stove sold from GA. to replace his #1 Papa Bear that the current store owner wanted. It was made just for him.
( gives a new meaning to "Lifetime Warranty" ! )
Camfan did make some smaller double door stoves, the size of a Baby Bear - double in width with 2 doors. Being a Fisher welder, he made them to Fisher's standards.
 
That stove is a Grandpa width with Grandma doors. I only made one of those that I can remember. Most of mine were the Grandma width and papa depth. If I made it it has a HM and SB welded on the bottom.

As far as most of the things Coaly says he is right. The top is not bent right It looks like it may have the original top level size of the grandpa and the front level is what is left over. I did come up with the cut sheets to build the Great Grandma stove it is a Home Made stove not a Fisher. When the breaks and shears were sold for doing the forming of the tops etc I had another shop do this. If someone did not bend the top correct instead of tossing the steel in the scrap pile if it would work it was used. I also know that some doors were either stolen or sold to people and I did not agree with that but it was not my buisness. There are many one time stove builders out there. We did run out of Grandpa doors at the end and I did not order doors, one I could not and 2 I had so many Grandma doors I just made the front side piece wider so a Grandma Door to fit. Coaly should have been a quaility control person for Fisher International lol. One thing on the HM stoves is I had the original iron worker machine that we used to make the ashfenders. I still have it I plan on putting it on Ebay to get rid of it. I do not have the sentimental ties to Fisher some have. I made them (the ash fenders) when I had to but I did not for the HM stoves since I did not like to make them. As far as the flue goes I have dealt with consumers for wood stoves since the late 70's and still do. At least once a week still there is some guy that thinks he know more than you do. Most things they want to do a install a chimney that is not correct, to code or safe in anyway. If someone insisted on a 6" flue on a double door stove they were put in but the customer was told it probably will dribble back smoke when they opened the doors unless they had a great chimney. This is another guy thing. Not a one of them has a chimney that may not be adequate, even tho they are out there. As far as tapering the legs go we never did it. I never saw a single stove with angle iron legs go out that had tapered legs with the exception when in the hayday was going on Heston tractor was slow and they welded boxes for Ga and they were sent in by the tractor trailer load. Boxes were all the parts welded up but the doors brick and paint were not finsished by them. We did that. When the top corners were finished they were done apparently not by the drawings but to eliminate a sharpe corner. So that radius was put on by the finisher of the stove with a grinder, no elaborate process, elaborate process took time and Carl and Ed would have cut any time taking step if it was cosmetic. I have found if you run into a stove with you leg and it had radius corner or a rounded corner it still would not move and hurt either way. lol
This is not the stove built for the people who had the #1 fisher, it was taken to them this year and I welded a history on the bottom of the stove for him. It is not easy to weld a story. lol
Coaly is right the front looks like it has weld showing. That is a no no. Also the front looks like is put in upside down. The top piece of the front is 3" and the bottom is 4" to hold ashes better. If you put the 3" down the brick was very close to the door opening allowing ash to fall out easier.
Coaly may have higher expectaions of me that I deserve. Thanks for the confidence and compliment. As far as the original question how may Great Grandma homemade stoves or cookstoves were built. I did put numbers on some of them. But a guess of 25 or so by me that is it. Could be less.

I could tell some funny stories that happened to me when working there that would ammuse most. One rainy day when I have nothing to do after I go through boxes of stuff for Coaly I may wrtie some of them down. It would add a different story from a worker not the owner. Like the time Carl sat on a stove that came right off the welding line, needless to say he burnt his butt, he walked out side and yelled. We all got a chuckle out of that one. The time I was delivering some stoves and the lights went out on the truck. I drove nearly 100 miles with no lights or only a flashlight out the window. Lucky for me it was all on back roads and I probably met 2 cars until I could get somewhere I could get them fixed. Or the time we put a stove in the trunk of a car. I told him we could put it in but I did not know if he could get it out. He came back by about 5 years later and told me the story. Well I have rambled enough for this Sunday Morning.
Camfan
 
Ok, see if you guys can dig up this story/rumor....

Back in about 1979/80 I heard a story about someone who went to pick up some stoves - Fisher was the name dropped - in a Box van. This was one of those where the cab is open to the rear.

The story goes that he got in a bad accident on 295 in NJ and was killed by the stoves.....

Any validity to that one?
 
Haven't found any news about it. But I'll keep that in mind crossing a few states this week with a 800 pound Kitchen Queen behind me. :-S

Surprised you guys never tapered legs camfan. I just did some comparison shopping on Craigslist, and notice the stoves down your way are all square cut. The Virginia, NY and PA stoves were all tapered at first (4 inch long taper down to 1" at bottom) and cut on a sharper 45* later. The taper and 45* was on both sides of the angle.

Ironically the fewest for sale is where they all started, Oregon !
My early stoves from Idaho are clipped, Washington isn't. Must have been a local thing??
Can't use a bear paw on the longer taperd ones, looks goofy, and the short taper sets in the foot and covers it.

I used to drive a snowmobile into the trunk of my first car, a '68 Dodge Coronet ! It had the low trunk lid that went down to the bumper. About half the track would stick out. I would back it up to a snow bank and drive it in. It would collapse the rear coil springs, so I would jack it up first and put a bunch of 2 X 4s between the spring coils so it would ride solid. Never got stuck !

How was Ed's last name spelled? I'd like to add him onto the stove shop owners list with Carl on the Everything Fisher thread.
 
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