Do you have an Atlanta Stoveworks Box #27?

I have one of these in my fireplace. It was given to me by a friend. The thing was a ball of rust! But after hours of grinding, cementing and polishing it was ready to heat!! It's not and airtight stove but looks neat as an antique. It works a lot better than the fireplace alone and keeps the room nice and toasty. I put a log in it (unsplit) the other day at 2pm and it burned until 9pm This would probably put some modern stoves to shame. I was wondering if anyone else may have one of these hooked up. I've tried to search online for pics or original owner's manual and didn't succed. If you have one contact me! Just curious.

VCBurner said:

I have one of these in my fireplace. It was given to me by a friend. The thing was a ball of rust! But after hours of grinding, cementing and polishing it was ready to heat!! It's not and airtight stove but looks neat as an antique. It works a lot better than the fireplace alone and keeps the room nice and toasty. I put a log in it (unsplit) the other day at 2pm and it burned until 9pm This would probably put some modern stoves to shame. I was wondering if anyone else may have one of these hooked up. I've tried to search online for pics or original owner's manual and didn't succed. If you have one contact me! Just curious.

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January 5th, 2010. I'm keeping the house warm with the little Box #27. It was 13 degrees outside/68 inside this morning when my wife stated it at 7:30am. It's now 71 and climbing.

Jotul118Michigan said:

How would you rate the Atlanta 27 box stove? Sounds pretty good from what you have described? My sister has a chance to get one for $125. What kind of burn time are you getting with it. She will be heating a mobile home, 16x80, but it has a real hearth, duroc, with tile over it, to code for real houses.

My dad bought a Vermont Castings Vigilant but her chimney is only 6 inch so its not getting enough draft and the room gets real smoky. Also the stove is so low to the floor the tile under it gets extremely hot.

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"For a small camp stove it's not too bad. It was given to me for free. That's always a good price. If you look around craigslist you can find a better deal. I like the stove primarily to take the chill off the livingroom. It is capable of heating more space but is installed in a fireplace, where it doesn't get to radiate in an open space like it's made to do. You can sometimes find the newer EPA stoves, rated to heat up to 1000 ft, for under $200. They are small and safer for mobil homes because of low clearance to combustibles. Whatever she decides to buy should be rated to be in a mobile home. Try searching for small Epa stove or small wood stoves on: http://www.searchtempest.com/ you should be able to find somethig safer and more efficient, for a that price. Good luck!"

VCBurner said:

Jotul118Michigan said:

How would you rate the Atlanta 27 box stove? Sounds pretty good from what you have described? My sister has a chance to get one for $125. What kind of burn time are you getting with it. She will be heating a mobile home, 16x80, but it has a real hearth, duroc, with tile over it, to code for real houses.

My dad bought a Vermont Castings Vigilant but her chimney is only 6 inch so its not getting enough draft and the room gets real smoky. Also the stove is so low to the floor the tile under it gets extremely hot.

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"For a small camp stove it's not too bad. It was given to me for free. That's always a good price. If you look around craigslist you can find a better deal. I like the stove primarily to take the chill off the livingroom. It is capable of heating more space but is installed in a fireplace, where it doesn't get to radiate in an open space like it's made to do. You can sometimes find the newer EPA stoves, rated to heat up to 1000 ft, for under $200. They are small and safer for mobil homes because of low clearance to combustibles. Whatever she decides to buy should be rated to be in a mobile home. Try searching for small Epa stove or small wood stoves on: http://www.searchtempest.com/ you should be able to find somethig safer and more efficient, for a that price. Good luck!"

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My dad bought a Vermont Castings Vigilant but her chimney is only 6 inch so its not getting enough draft and the room gets real smoky. Also the stove is so low to the floor the tile under it gets extremely hot.[/quote]

"Tell her to open the damper and the air intake for a couple minutes before openning the doors. This should get all the smoke up the flue so she doesn't get smoke coming into the house when the doors are open. She also shouldn't use the spark screen to view the fire unless it's connected to an 8" chimney. "

Welcome aboard Thomis! Thank you for posting Fireant! Great to see two other Atlanta Stoveworks owners! Funny thing is, I posted this thread a month ago (January 4th) and had almost given up the hope of finding another # 27 owner. Today, I got posts from two owners! I've only been a hearth member for a month, but have spent a great deal of time on this site. I'm laid off, so this woodheating endeavor has helped keep me sane. Between the wood cutting, splitting, stove research and taking care of heating the house I have little time to feel insane since getting laid off two months ago. I've saved well over a thousand dollars in heating costs since hooking up the two stoves in my house. This puts the icing on the cake. I've done some part time tree work and gotten paid handsomely for it, as well as adding to my wood supply. You can't beat the benefits of woodheating. Beyond the savings and health benefits, there is also a sence of independence that comes with providing for your self.

As far as the stove, I've tried to do some research on Atlanta Stoveworks and have found very little about the company, aside from the fact that it's out of business. The parts cannot be purchased as far as I know. Do either of you know otherwise? Not that I need parts, it's more of a curiosity factor playing a part in this search. I've found specs on stoves very similar to this and foud that they can put out as much as 97,000 btu's! You need a big clearance on the back and side of this unit. But the front ashpan, I find, doesn't get too hot. My stove has the date 1936 cast on the underside of the firebox and 1935 on another part. I take it these parts were made in those years. I don't know when they stopped production on these stoves, but it would be nice to find out. This is not our primary stove. I have it installed in a fireplace in the living room, which I feel is not the way to maximize its heating capabilities. Its only job is to take the chill off the living room when it's really cold outside. I think it would do much better when completely freestanding, like the way Thomis has in his shed. By the way, I think it's a cool looking shed. My kind of place. We have come to love this stove, my wife has gone as far as to state that she will never get rid of it, she'd rather display it as a decoration. There's somethig about its simplicity that draws you in and makes you think of times when these were the only things people heated with. I think, once I get a different stove for the fireplace, I'll put it in my shed and make it a place where I can get away from it all. Whatever happens to it, it will always remain in my memory as my first stove.

Didn't mean to get all philosophical on you! I'd love to see some pics of your stove Fireant! Here are some of mine. Thanks for the post guys and burn on!

Thomis, pretty cool that you had a lid tool as well as a poker and raker. I wonder if they came with the stove? I also wonder if the door originally came with a handle?

My wife and I decided it would be cheaper now for me to be a stay at home dad with my 2 year old and 5 year old sons.

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Hey Ant, really cool to hear that! I really treasure the times when I'm laid off. You couldn't put a price on having this kind of time with your family.

I have also been out of work since April

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Yeah, I was laid of for 5 months in 2008, 6 months in 2009 and will continue to be until, hopefully EARLY spring. As a union carpenter, I get used to having a little down time, especially during the holidays, it's nice to spend time with the family. But the last two years have been brutal! Last year, I had more time out than in and lost my health insurance for the first time in 10 years. Luckily, in homebuilding/remodeling there's always sidework to be done. I keep the money coming in as much as possible.

My NC-13 has been FANTASTIC at heating the house (1400 sq ft ranch).

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I was thinking of picking one of these up for the living room. I hear the Home Depot has them on sale around this time of the year. How long of a burn do you get out of it? Also, I don't know if it would fit in there: the height of the fireplace is only 26.5". How tall is the top of the flue flange on it?

Gotta run and make pancakes for the little guy!

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I drive my 3 older boys( 5, 8 and 9) to school, go to DnD to get coffee for the wife and I, then cook breakfast for us and my three year old Johnny every day. Then watch Ellen and usually go cut wood. Being laid off has some benefits, I really enjoy this routine. Beats getting up @ 4am and traveling to Boston to work at 6am, every day (I've done a lot of work out there, lots of commercial jobs...)

Hmmm. I’ll have to look mine over and see if I can find a date stamped on it somewhere.

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Hey Thomis, I took the rust off mine with a wire cup and brush on a 4" grinder. The date was sort of small under the bottom of the firebox, toward the back, I think. There was another dated part, but I can't recall now where it was! We leave a tea pot on ours and it gets pretty hot at times. I think the rear burner would be great for cooking if we could access it. We really crank it up when we want fast heat in the living room. I really like that shed though. My work shop is in my lower garage located in the walk out portion of the basement, there's no stove there. As you read above, I can't wait to get back to work, but it's not always bad. Can't live without that green though!

Take care guys and burn on!

That stove looks like it belongs there! It goes perfectly in your shop!! I did some more research on these stoves. Atlanta had other popular models, one of which was the #26. It was a Franklin-like fireplace/stove, pretty cool. The other was the huntsman, I think that was the name. I would love to find an original brochure or an owner's manual. There was someone on-line who had one w/ its original manual. But it was a listing from '05 so it's long gone by now! Great pic Thomis, with the mild weather up here we haven't had the need to fire ours up lately, but I'll burn it again before the end of the season.

Oh, I almost forgot! Check out this CL listing of another #27 that looks to be in pristine condition. But, $175 seems a little steep. However, this is probably a better quality cast iron than the newer copies such as the one Craig mentioned.
http://westernmass.craigslist.org/for/1566683330.html

Welcome to Hearth.com smallcabiner and J Farmer!

smallcabiner Posted: 08 November 2010 06:30 PM

Ihave a 12’x12’ cabinIwill beliving in this winter. The Atlanta 327 seems like a good choice.
Thoough I need to know if it is possible tomake this stove airtight?
Thanks all!

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They are good little stoves. However, there are many others I would spend money on if I had to buy one. I enjoyed this stove while it was in my fireplace but it only assisted the heating of the house and goes through a lot of wood in the process. As far as making it airtight I don't see a way to do it. I put some furnace cement in the seams to aid the tightness but it still has places where the air will just come right in. These weren't made to be airtight. That being said, I miss burning that little stove. Once you get attached to something it is hard to forget it. It is very easy to start and get a draft in with its N/S design, loading is also a breeze. Have fun heating your cabin with it, fun little stoves.

Hey all,
I just came across one of these and am trying to figure out the best way to start a fire that will last in it.
Will the fire keep burning all night if I stock it at 10pm? Or will I probably have to get up in the middle of the night to restock it?

Any help is appreciated. Also, has anyone found the manual for this?

Thanks,
J Farmer

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Hey J,
These stoves are not made for long lasting burns. However, the longest burns I had is when I put a big round on top of a big bed of coals and stuffed it with as many smaller splits around it as I could. The big round will burn longer and the smaller splits will keep the fire going. You'll have coals in there and may be able to re-start without a match for up to around 5-6 hours tops. I used to blow a fan into one side of it to go around the back and harvest as much heat as possible from the inside the masonary fireplace it was in. I never found a manual for it.
Good luck and have fun heating with it!

Stegman said:

Hiya folks.
New member here.
I just picked up an old Atlanta Stove Works 27 from craigslist for $60. It was in some guy's shed. Spent the last couple of days removing the surface rust with a drill with a wire brush. It cleaned up pretty fast. Next I'm going to hit it with steel wool and WD40. I already did that on one small spot and it looks fantastic.
This is the first woodstove I've ever tried to restore, and it seems like fun. Messy, but fun. It looks like I'll need to hit it with some furnace cement in a few spots to try to make it airtight. I'm curious if it needs firebricks on the bottom, or perhaps some sand. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
Found a parts schematic online, but if anyone has a manual that'd be helpful.

How old are these stoves, anyway? I saw somewhere that they were from the 1920s or so. Seems about right. The plan is to use this in a small Vermont cabin that we own once we get around to fixing it up.

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Welcome to the forum Stegman!
Thats a good price for it. Mine was a freebie and I also restored it in a similar way. One piece of advice: I would skip the steel wool and WD40 and get a tube of black stove polish. It's really cheap and easy to put on with a rag. You can even apply it on some minor rust and it will penetrate it and cover it. After it dries you can leave it matte black or polish it with a dry rag for a glossy look. Do some break in fires outside to get rid of the smell before bringing it into the house!

As far as the sand. Some people recommend it, to protect the bottom of the stove from cracking. Mine was made in 1936 and 1937. Some parts had the date casted on them as well as the part number. My stove never had sand on the bottom and it was fine. They go through quite a bit of wood and gather a protective layer of ash on the bottom quickly. The only thing I always thought about was trying to protect the sides with some sort of refractory cement or firebricks. Especially where the sides bolt together around the center. This is the weakest part of these stoves and the most likely to crack from the heat. I added furnace cement to the seams and it did not seem to make a great deal of difference in how this stoves burns (as they are not made to be airtight.) But since you have it out and can easily access to the seams I would do it. The only thing I would be afraid of is taking it completely appart. I didn't do it in fear that the long bolts that hold it together would snap and I wouldn't be able to find replacements. I did replace some of the shorter bolts on it.

Could you send me a link to the parts schematic? I was never able to get a hold of a manual. Though, I read posts on another site from someone who had one for sale about two years ago. I was unable to contact them.

Have fun restoring it, take some pictures and post them for us!

If you don't post pictures it's like it never happened. That's what we say around here!!

Take care,
Chris