1980's Luap Associates Inc woodstove

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Midnightc2

Midnightc2

Member
Feb 8, 2019
21
Washington
This thread is to document my progress, and so that there is some small amount of representation of this rare gem.
It was manufactured by Luap Associates Inc and I have no idea of the model. My decal shows two differant model choices (Nighthawk & Night owl) but neither box is checked to indicate which.
It was bought new approximately 1986 by my parents for their new double wide mobile home.
There is almost no info online about the manufacturer, and absolutely nothing about my model; not even a single picture!
What I do know is that they went out of bussiness in May of 1989, most likely due to changes in the EPA regulations. They were based out of Eugene Oregon at the following address - 2720 ROOSEVELT BLVD, EUGENE, OR, 97402
Here is a picture of it and the factory decals.

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I inherited the house somewhere around 2017 (long estate process so not sure when), and the woodstove with it. We spent two years or so cleaning the house and property before I ever got to looking at the stove. The first step was to inspect and clean the pipes, which wasn't really even worth it. This pic shows the minuture pile of soot we removed.

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The big issue we discovered while cleaning the stove was the baffle. It was absolutely destroyed!
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Dad was a packrat with mail and newspapers on every flat surface in the house. Mom would get irritated and spent whole evenings just burning papers. I'm pretty sure the reason it MELTED upward like a volcano was her.
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We tried to buy one, and nobody had heard of my stove. We then tried to have a shop cut and bend up a replacement, but they wanted so much money!
So I flatened the old one, took measurements, bought some flat plate steel & some angle iron and made one. I think it's close enough.
I remember Dad had to have a baffle replaced back when i was younger, so i dont even know if this is what the original factory one looked like.
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Here's what came with it....
An ash can
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Brass tools that I've polished up
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Not sure what to call this, maybe a log grabber? If there's a real name, somebody let me know, lol.
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It also has tile below and behind that Dad did himself
 
I started using it every night December 25th 2023 and have used it every night since. It's now January 27th 2024, so it's been at least 30 days now. Not only do the the wife and I love the beautiful heat, but kitty loves it the most, lol.
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It'll need all new firebricks, and a good rub down with stove polish in the future but it's working great, so I bought some toys for it.
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I bought a decent stove fan for it on Amazon for $40 (that boasts 240cfm), and it actually blows out a lighter from 2ft away! Here it is in action.
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Fan came with a free thermometer! I already ordered a better one but this will work for now.
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Here's how she looks today. I polished the brass a little this week, and we put the camp coffee pot on to get some moisture in the house.
We are currently looking for a kettle or stove steamer to replace the cracked and rusted cast iron kettle I sent to scrap years ago.
I will post new updates as things happen, and I plan to take lots of pics of the stove itself when I swap out the fire bricks. Maybe there's another guy out there looking for info on his stove like mine, and my pics could help him. I think I've quadrupled the amount of info online with what I've posted already!
 
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I'll have to look that up. I have heard rumors that some of the smaller companies in Eugene did make knock-offs (or at least based off other models), maybe Luap did...
 
Stay away from stove polish.

That was used before high temperature paints were formulated. It is for rough cast iron only. (Your stove is steel plate)

Polish is not impermeable the water and water vapor like paint. Water goes right through it, rusting the iron under it, requiring reapplication. Paint is far superior.

When polish is used on smooth surfaces it does not apply evenly. It smears like brush marks and makes a huge mess if trying to paint correctly. It needs to be sand blasted off after final cure with heat. It doesn’t remove easily.

The baffle was probably too thin. Fisher used 5/16 plate, the same as their tops that didn’t burn through.
 
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Thanks for the heads up on the polish.

The plate I made was 1/4 steel and so was the melted one. Hopefully it'll last a while. If I have to make another one I may make it a little thicker.
 
Lately I've been wondering where this stove draws air from and wondering if the intake is slightly clogged as closing the door really makes my flames drop.

I've never noticed that my woodstove didn't have legs like everybody else. So I started researching pedestals. Turns out that mobile homes are required to have an open air kit to pull air from outside the house.

This is a diagram giving me the idea that I probably do have an intake under my stove. So I'll check into that.
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My wonderful wife crawled under the house to look for an intake pipe. She found it and it was nasty with spider webs!

Here it is, its bigger than I thought.

Wow that's not very clear, yuck!
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After cleaning the opening, you can now see up into the pedestal and the screen. She could see the damper plate open and close, so we know there's no dead animals stuck anywhere.
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She also took pics of the ground wire. Here's where it comes from the stove/intake
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And here is where it attaches to the steel frame of the mobile
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While she was shining her light up into the base of the pedestal, I noticed a few small places in the seams that would still allow a bit of house air to be drawn in.

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And around the damper plate
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Midnightc2 said:
My wonderful wife crawled under the house to look for an intake pipe. She found it and it was nasty with spider webs!

Here it is, its bigger than I thought.
View attachment 324055
Wow that's not very clear, yuck!
View attachment 324056
After cleaning the opening, you can now see up into the pedestal and the screen. She could see the damper plate open and close, so we know there's no dead animals stuck anywhere.
View attachment 324057
She also took pics of the ground wire. Here's where it comes from the stove/intake
View attachment 324058
And here is where it attaches to the steel frame of the mobile
View attachment 324059
Click to expand...
I can see why you sent HER under the house.

This is like the Fisher Goldilocks mobile home stove with pedestal. They had an optional kit that raised the pedestal off the floor for conventional built homes getting air from indoors.
 
coaly said:
I can see why you sent HER under the house.

This is like the Fisher Goldilocks mobile home stove with pedestal. They had an optional kit that raised the pedestal off the floor for conventional built homes getting air from indoors.
Click to expand...
Lol, I sent her under the house because I'm allergic to everything, including dust and dust mites. I'm not gonna lie, it has its advantages like not climbing under the house!
I looked up the Fisher Goldilocks and I can definitely see the resemblance. I know Fishers were made in the same area, so Luap would have been able to copy some of the design. Thanks for the input.
 
Midnightc2 said:
Our 2nd thermometer came in awhile back, so here's a pic of it. (the Gala-Fire)

View attachment 324968
Click to expand...
This safe burn zone makes sense for single wall pipe temperatures.

The object is preventing condensing of water vapor from combustion in the venting system. Below 250°F, condensing water vapor allows smoke particles to stick, forming creosote. The surface temperature that a magnetic thermometer measures is about 1/2 the internal temperature. The 300°F surface is about 600°F internal, assumed to cool as it rises before exiting the top, maintaining flue gas temperature above 250°F.

The high temperature zone is to stay below the 1000°F constant high rating temperature of Class A chimney and liners.

I have ground water minerals that build up from water evaporation, so gave up long ago using good cast iron humidifiers and use stainless pans.
 
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