An old Grandpa Bear Fisher going back in service

[North of 49]

New to this forum.. just found it actually ..

Around 1977 I bought a nice used Fisher Grandpa Bear to heat a log home I had built and had moved our family of 7 into. Several years later I added another larger log addition to the cabin.

Sadly in 1997 we lost our log home in a fire. I salvaged the Grandpa Bear from the debris, and it sat outside in the elements for the last 20 years..

I rebuilt a conventional frame house on the same spot, with no wood heat..

This year I just built a new 28x 36 shop, and decided I would use the Grandpa Bear to supplement the heat in the shop. So yesterday I moved the Grandpa Bear into my garage to start cleaning it up. Had surface rust and some pitting, but is pretty much intact. Had to put some penetrating fluid on the hinges to get the doors moving freely again.
The fire brick is still in place and looks fine. I used a wire brush the worst off, thinking I might sandblast it before I paint it.

Looking forward to having this beautiful old stove back in service, and sitting around it having a relaxing coffee on cold winter days with the wife...

Will post some before and after pictures..

The only parts missing are the dial covers for the air vents and the balls for the bottom of the legs.. haven't even tried to find them yet.. hopefully can find some. If not, I will make some dials..

 

[coaly]

Welcome to the Forum;

The original patterns for air dampers (sometimes called draft caps) are at Barr Castings Inc., Portland Oregon. Here is their on-line store where you can buy them in sets with and with out mounting nuts and bolts;
(broken link removed)
They show up on eBay, but sell for much more. I guess people don't know where to find them.

I would need pictures of your stove and doors to date it to tell you which caps it would have had.
1977 doesn't make sense for a used Grandpa since they started in '76 with that marked on the right door in a star, and early '77 still had stars without the '76. Those would have had 4 fin caps. Later models with bent handles (handle spring faces forward) would have 5 fin caps. Either will work, it just makes it time period correct. They would have been aluminum (they melt in fires) and make sure you get the caps with steel insert (steel threads) to prevent wear.
The chrome ball feet do come up on eBay from time to time, but be prepared to pay collector prices. I haven't found a supplier for chrome balls the correct size that aren't hardened for ball bearings to be able to drill for stud and set screw to hold in position. They are leg levelers for uneven surface.

 

[North of 49]

Welcome to the Forum;

The original patterns for air dampers (sometimes called draft caps) are at Barr Castings Inc., Portland Oregon. Here is their on-line store where you can buy them in sets with and with out mounting nuts and bolts;
(broken link removed)
They show up on eBay, but sell for much more. I guess people don't know where to find them.

I would need pictures of your stove and doors to date it to tell you which caps it would have had.
1977 doesn't make sense for a used Grandpa since they started in '76 with that marked on the right door in a star, and early '77 still had stars without the '76. Those would have had 4 fin caps. Later models with bent handles (handle spring faces forward) would have 5 fin caps. Either will work, it just makes it time period correct. They would have been aluminum (they melt in fires) and make sure you get the caps with steel insert (steel threads) to prevent wear.
The chrome ball feet do come up on eBay from time to time, but be prepared to pay collector prices. I haven't found a supplier for chrome balls the correct size that aren't hardened for ball bearings to be able to drill for stud and set screw to hold in position. They are leg levelers for uneven surface.

Thank you coaly,
You are so right, 1977 was not the year I bought the stove, that's the year I bought my property where I built my log house. I moved into the house in 1986, and that is when I bought the used Grandpa Bear.
My stove takes the 3 5/8" OD air dampers, and I will be ordering them from Barr Castings.. thanks for that link !
I thought I saw a post on here somewhere that some Fisher stoves did not have door gaskets... I know mine did and pretty sure it should have.. can you confirm that for me .. thx

 

[coaly]

No, it does not use gasket material for sealing the doors.

The door seal is the iron channel iron welded to the stove front. (after 1976) The doors have a raised portion on the back which makes contact in the center of the channel iron. The edges of channel iron make contact on the back of door all around the raised portion. This creates a 3 point metal to metal contact and is considered air-tight as built. People were used to poorly fitting doors on cast iron stoves that used gasket material, so it's common to find where gasket material has been added.

When the doors were installed, the stove was laid on its back and doors were set in place, centered on door seal. The hinge plates were then tacked in place for proper door sealing and operation. If the hinges were not perfectly welded in place, it was said IF you could put a piece of cardboard between the sealing surfaces and close the door comfortably, you could add FLAT door gasket material to the channel iron groove. That is the gasket material made for glass installation in the door opening. Other stoves use much larger round gasket material for door seals, but that should never be used on a Fisher with solid doors.
Glass door Fisher stoves are the only exception that do use door gasket material.

If you look closely at the sealing area, you'll find there is no clearance for gasket material or gasket cement. It causes the hinge to bind and puts undue stress on the door handle latch rod, in time straightening the bend in the rod which is the adjustment of the door handle angle when closed. The right movable handle should match the angle of left stationary handle when latched. Wire wheel the gasket cement used to hold gasket material in place until down to bare metal. Clean the back of doors with wire wheel as well. When you latch the door, you'll notice the edge of door is not touching the stove front. This is due to making contact with the center web of door seal channel iron. The thickness of the channel iron web is the space between door and stove face

That said, you can have hinge pins that were never greased with worn pins, hinge plates, or door holes that now may have clearance for FLAT gasket material. But new hinge pins or repair of worn holes is the proper fix. (and not difficult) So keep your hinge pins and new draft cap threads greased with high temp grease or silver anti-seize which has a higher temperature rating than most greases. The brush in can works great for reaching through the hole in door to dab anti-seize on the bolt threads. You should wire wheel your rusty hinge pins and clean up the holes so when greased the pins will remove by hand without tools. Then the doors will swing freely.

Yeah, there weren't too many Fishers sold used when they first came out. There was an oil embargo going on and the East Coast had a severe winter that was another driving force behind Bob Fisher's stove idea moving eastward. The few that could be purchased new were in high demand and shortly the fabricators couldn't keep up until Bob signed a contract with Hesston in Kansas to mass produce boxes for his licensees.

 

[North of 49]

Barr Castings list the air dampers that I need, but unfortunately they do not offer shipping to Canada ...

Welcome to the Forum;

The original patterns for air dampers (sometimes called draft caps) are at Barr Castings Inc., Portland Oregon. Here is their on-line store where you can buy them in sets with and with out mounting nuts and bolts;
(broken link removed)
They show up on eBay, but sell for much more. I guess people don't know where to find them.

 

[Don H]

Barr Castings list the air dampers that I need, but unfortunately they do not offer shipping to Canada ...

Seems someone here would have a pair to sell you.

This place in North Carolina sells them. Maybe they will ship to you.
http://www.hearthstove.com/Fisher_stove_parts.html

Or you could make your own out of pipe caps like the original Fisher stoves had.

 

[Todd67]

North of 49, I know I'm opening a one year old thread, but I'm wondering how your stove turned out. We would love to see some pics of your refurbished stove.

I'm glad you started this thread because I might be buying a pair of draft caps from Barr Castings to replace a worn draft cap on a 76 grandma bear I just picked up.