It's been a long time in the making, but I finally got the Liberty repaired, and installed at the camp.
Problems: There were five seperate cracks in the secondary air box beam; all have been welded. The door glass was loose, I could move it back and forth by hand; it's been firmed up by installing two setscrews in the bottom of the door (they were missing). The door gasket did not seal whatsoever; I installed a new one. The latching mechanism nut was loose, and had only one washer/shim, the owners manual shows three come with the stove; I got two more and adjusted as necessary for the new gasket, it now passes the "dollar bill test". The secondary tubes were removed when I picked it up, I got new roll pins and installed (not the easiest access the way they line up the holes). One of the baffle angle iron pieces was warped; my buddy made a new one.
I put all the baffle, side, and bottom bricks in it, installed the bypass slider and pipe connector with a key damper, and fired 'er up. It works great! Lots of secondary action, dancing flame off the wood, good control, and the wood load lasted much longer than the original owner stated (no wonder with all the problems), I had a huge coal bed 7 hours after light-off. It was +12
inside camp when I lit it, and 7 hours later it was 78
. For the cost of the gasket ($10) and roll pins (couple $$ @ hardware store), the $20 purchase cost, plus gas for the 150 mile round trip to get it, I think I have a winner! I would put it in the house, except for the hulking BK that only requires 24 hour reloads. Can't get around that piece of performance. The Liberty looks far nicer, both the stove and the fire within. I may spend more time at camp now in the winter, just for the inherent joy of burning with a nice stove!