Early Baby Bear Stove on CL!

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930dreamer

Burning Hunk
Jun 3, 2013
233
Amarillo, TX
I spotted this three piece welded top Baby Bear on a local CL.
 

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That is WAY nice. Don't know what's up with the first style stainless spring handle and latest style draft cap........... Lots of combinations exist due to getting rid of old parts, but the spring and 5 fin cap didn't exist when the Springfield doors were cast.

Original would look like this. The earliest were brush painted;

Baby Bear Brush Painted.JPG

The owner of this one should be chased down and trade the ball and cap !

Baby Bear Napa 3.jpg

The common combination of handle and caps through evolution should be ball with pipe cap as shown above, then the first stainless spring with 3 or 4 finned cap; (Baxter's cap)

Baby with 3 fin damper.jpg Brown Mama Bear Door 77.JPG

and finally the loose wound plated spring and 5 fin cap.

Baby Bear with bear paw legs.jpg My latest CL find with cast bear legs.
 
That welded angle elbow is probably original too.

GP CA..JPG
 
Nice CL find, I'd like to buy the Fisher but it's a 7 hour drive each way.:(
 
My Grandpa 3 piece top was 10 hours one way. Drove across PA and Ohio to pick it up alone and drove back. It's one thing to drive that long, but when you sit in one position that long and exert yourself loading it with ramps, then go back into that same position another 10 hours, it's torture. I had to stop a bunch of times on the way back to stretch.
My Honey Bear was a normal 5 hour drive from NEPA to Buffalo NY, but it was through lake effect snow all the way. So that was more like 7.
The ones you want usually aren't close. Go for it. I'm not sorry I did. I use my early Baby Bear for a night stand next to the bed. They have a unique look in person. All four corners of both tops are radius, so the top stands out. Then the angled step portion is as narrow as the stove width without the overhang. Your nearest Lopi dealer may have a Liberty on the floor that is made the same way, and ironically Grandpa size.

CamFan on this Forum has (or had) the chrome balls. I can tell you how to make the pipe cap damper. Very easy to bring it back to original.

Early Knob $16 pair ebay Steve.jpg Original Fisher Draft Cap.JPG
That bolt is welded to the cap and super strong.
 
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