Sell it or Scrap it?

I have an old (1986) Earthstove 1000C Catalytic that I'm replacing this week. It has two small cracks on the front panel at the corners of the doors. Being a steel stove I could easily TIG weld the plate and consider it repaired. But is it even worth it? Is there any interest in a 25 year old stove that needs those cracks welded AND needs a cat? I'd give it away as is if that were the case. If I were to repair/repaint it, what would it be worth?

PS. I posted here because even tho it's old, this stove isn't necessarily a "smoke dragon". Mods feel free to move this post as necessary or I may re-post in the Classic Stoves forum.

Heck. That thing's in better shape than an 8 month old Summit Insert. :lol:

+1 I agree as I sold my 20+ yr. old CDW for $350.00 a few weeks ago.. The way I see it is the new owner can use it for as long as they want and if they take care of it can get their money back when they resell it..

Ray

I'd make sure you grind the crack right out of it before you weld it up.

If you don't know what I mean, take a grinder on edge and gouge right in to it so that you make a V groove in it until you see no specs of contamination (I doubt this would be an issue with a crack like that).
You can even put a dye check on it to make sure you got it all out before you weld it up, so that way it will be 100% (technically it should be stronger than the rest of the stove). It would also make sure it's nice and air tight still.
Same thing as when you're doing 100% Xray.
Put a little paint on her and don't tell the buyer of it that it was even cracked.

If it were me, I'd even fix up those ropey looking MIG welds next to the cracks too.
I know for the application they're fine, but for appearance they're poo.

But anyway, I'd say fix her up.
Well worth it.
If you don't want to, drive it out to my house and I'll give you 10 bucks above scrap for it :]

Looks like we have a QC inspector or welder on board.

Exactly as BG said, that stove repaired will be a great backup or camp type stove for someone.

Close.
Mix the two together and you have it.

Gee, my MIG beads don't look that much better than those and I've been kinda proud of them. :red:

So the consensus is.... weld it!

As for grinding out the crack to weld it... been a while since I've read about/done any welding repairs like this, but isn't it a good idea to drill a hole through where the crack terminates? IIRC, this helps prevent the crack from propigating further after you weld everything up.

There is indeed a market for that stove if fixed up. I recall one party who had one of those stoves and it is now used for burning trash and boiling maple syrup. So these old stoves can be used in many ways. I say fix it.

Stop drilling is usually done when you aren't going to bother welding a crack.