FISHER Grandma and Grandpa Bear Details (Fireplace Series)

[CamFan]

If you want to replace the short legs on the stove's let me know, it is easy. I can talk you throught that one. There are two ways.

 

[comstock1869]

I would like to hear your thoughts on replacing the short legs. If I could come up with the bear legs, I would like to hack off the L-bracket legs on my recently acquired GP stove and add those.

 

[Redbear86]

Camfan had some for sale, i think the bear legs he has left are reserved as family heirlooms though (easier than actual stoves!) they seem to go for $100 a set easily, i might get the generic ones myself- $100 is pricey for my stoves, let alone for legs

Id like one of these steamers, but if i have a hard time spending $100 on stove legs it probly wont be spent on a stove steamer!

 

[comstock1869]

Is that a Fisher steamer? I have never seen one. I would think water would boil off faster in a steamer versus a kettle. That one is neat.

 

[Redbear86]

no fisher didn't make it, but it looks neat huh? I've been told your less like to have water boil over the top on one of these steamer Vs a kettle

 

[comstock1869]

Yes that steamer is awesome. Once I learned how much water to put in my kettle, it never boiled over again no matter how blistering hot the stove got. I stick the kettle right next to the stove pipe too for extra heating potential. I have had the kettle really steaming. But too much water and yes it starts spitting and I had sizzling little water balls dance on the stove top.

 

[Redbear86]

yea, you can put a quart of water in a 1 quart stamer but you don't wanna put a quart of water in a one quart kettle, with a kettle you always have hot water for tea or hot chocolate too! The kettle on our woodstove growing up was bought from a yardsale and was pretty nasty inside, never cleaned out that i know of, wouldn't dare drink outta that one- do new ones get any rust or build-up in the inside?

 

[comstock1869]

My kettle is a cheap chinese cast iron affair that says not for human consumption. I suppose they meant the water inside it and not that I could not eat the kettle itself. My kettle has rust scaling and if a chinese manufacturer warns me not to drink out of it, darn tootin I am gonna heed that warning.

If I were to get a kettle for cooking, it would be food grade. The cast iron one can handle sitting on the stove empty and not burn.

 

[comstock1869]

Here is the one I bought 2 years ago and the price tells you why. At least I helped my neighbor out with buying it and not a box store.

http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1441915

 

[CamFan]

I would like to hear your thoughts on replacing the short legs. If I could come up with the bear legs, I would like to hack off the L-bracket legs on my recently acquired GP stove and add those.

That would be the third option and In my opinion the wrong option. It would not look right.

The legs are only welded at the top and at the bottom. (unless someone went wild) IF you turn the stove upside down, grind the weld at the top and the bottom and they will come right off. They originally were 24" legs in the front and 30" in the back, they are 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" x 3/16" angle iron. With this you will have to mount the hinges if they are attached to the legs. That is no problem either. If you choose to do it I will email the directions or give you a call on how to hang the doors.

The 2nd option get some angle the length you want to raise the stove. 6" was normal. You can take some 1" square stock and weld it th the remainging leg and attach the angle to the square stock and when the legs are lined up right weld up the legs. Do the welding on the inside of the angle and it is very hard to see if you do not know it and it is strong. I have done this to many of them.

The third option will be more of an issue since the legs are designed to bolt up to a piece under the stove and the legs have a recessed area on them. By the time you add the threaded piece to bolt the legs on and try to hide all of this work it will be harder to make it look good. You probably do not have more than 1/4" on an angle iron leg stove where the bottom and sides meet. the stoves that used these legs had a longer lap with the sides, back and front to hide this work without taking away from the fire box size.

yes I do have the Bear legs, the decrative legs and the weld on legs. Yes I was selling them for about 100.00 for a set of 4 on ebay. Now when I may have the only new never on a stove legs, I guess I can sell it for what I want. I have kept them for 20 plus years and have moved them so many times I made it worth my while for saving them. I did sell qutie a few and my wife wants me to make some stools for grandkids. She does not know how many I have. I will be dead and gone before I have that many grand kids. But I did stop selling the Bear legs for now. I did not stop selling the others. I will make a stool this year and see what she thinks. I will have to bend a metal band with the same radius as the sides for the stools to look good. I will paint the feet and band and make a unique stool top. I may take a 1/4" plate and have the original Fisher logo engraved with a water jet and who knows. What else. I may put stainless under the 1/4 plate to make the logo stand out. Now I am rambling....Sorry

 

[comstock1869]

I won't tell you what I was offered to pay for a set of bear paws, let alone the legs you mention. I could buy a whole stove for the price of the paws and politely declined. I think I am playing with fire (pun) trying to convert my stove from angle iron legs to bear legs.

However, I would like to get a set of 4 bear legs to think about doing this conversion when you are ready to sell them off eBay. If I were to add these, I would not want to mess with the doors, I think cutting the angle iron to set the edge of the bear paws against would be acceptable if done right and thus why I want a set of legs to play with this idea. Thanks for your kind help and thoughts.

 

[coaly]

The bear legs fit the radius corner of a series III, not a square corner of what you have.

The paint pictured below is Stove Bright Metallic Black. Courtesy of Finest Fishers. It's the best finish, but not original. The bear legs bolt on the same way as the "scroll" cast legs.

 

[Redbear86]

yea the trick would be to find a set that wasn't cast iron but regular steel, could grind them down and weld them easier.It wouldn't be original Fisher quality but i think it would work ok

 

[CamFan]

By the time you pay listing fees, selling fees and paypal fees it does get expensive selling on ebay. I did sell some there and that is how I found so many people interested in Fishers. I also sold blowers and Grandma screens and other misc stuff. I have no stove stuff on ebay right now. It will go in spurts, it takes up alot of time, more than I imagined. I have suggested to many to come to this forum with their interest in stoves and history of Fisher. Me talking to Coaly got me motivated to follow through with some things that I had been puting off. I am thankful for that. I will give the shop the dimensions for the stools Monday and hope to get a couple of them built this week also. I decided to not the fisher logo but Baby Bear logo. I will post a picture when I get it done.

 

[Redbear86]

Sounds like some deals worked out through PM's or e-mail would be more profitable!

PS. are the legs meant to be welded cast iron or reg steel? I've never tried but have been told cast iron is hard to weld

 

[CamFan]

Sounds like some deals worked out through PM's or e-mail would be more profitable!

PS. are the legs meant to be welded cast iron or reg steel? I've never tried but have been told cast iron is hard to weld

the bear legs are to be bolted. I would not weld one and hope it held up the the weight of the stove, and just moving it. There are some plainer stamp legs that are welded on. But as Coaly said they are for the stoves with the radius fronts and backs. I have some but they are not on photo bucket to put on here. They were not expensive. You are right welding cast you have to have special rods and depending on the quaility of the cast they can break while welding. I would expect the bear legs were not imported but I still would not weld them.

 

[barbara harford]

Hello,
I have a fisher granpa bear wood stove that might be the bicentennial and I was
considering selling it? What should I ask for it? Thanks.
Blueszer

 

[tgsnod]

The bear legs fit the radius corner of a series III, not a square corner of what you have.

The paint pictured below is Stove Bright Metallic Black. Courtesy of Finest Fishers. It's the best finish, but not original. The bear legs bolt on the same way as the "scroll" cast legs.

I love these! I had seen the silver "paw" type but these are really cool. So OK here is my question. I just bought a Grandma III. What all information can I glean from the serial number?

 

[tgsnod]

Just bought a Grandma III. What information can I get from the serial number?

 

[coaly]

The serial number is on the tag, sometimes a stove number is written in weld on the bottom.

A newer III stove should have the fabricator name, date, model and serial number on the tag. The stove number on the bottom runs consecutive. Serial numbers give you no information, and do not match the stove number.

 

[Lcj7]

Hey guys, first time posting. I've enjoyed the site for the wealth of information of the past couple years. Finally gathered some pics of my own.
I have a '76 Grandpa Bear that I "inherited" from a friends lake cabin when they took it down to build up a new dwelling.

Was originally located in Wolf Lake, NY (sullivan co). Now it's located in the western Fingerlakes between Honeoye Lake and Canadice Lake.



It was in really good shape when I first picked it up. Originally it was going to be heat for my barn/shop. It sat out in the barn for several years as I pondered about spending the money on a chimney stack.... After finally being handed a condensing propane furnace and installing that in the barn, I realized how dumb I had been for all those years... my house had a block chimney from the basement and I had been heating with electric baseboard. <sighs>

So anyway, the stove needed a good wire-wheel and paint. These are a couple after pictures prior to my install.

This is the same as the others pictured with the half round channel in the doors and the 1/2" round stock as the door seal.


At some point this stove was a rear outlet stove, and someone welded up the outlet and welded in a vertical flue flange.

This is my second year running the stove to heat my house ~1200sqft ranch from the basement.
I finished my install last year already into the heating season, so I pushed myself to start making heat instead of making a shelf baffle for it. (After learning about them here)

So this year i finally took some time and built a baffle. Unfortunately I neglected to take pictures as i built the baffle only of the installed unit.
2 pieces of .25" plate 26.5"x8". Overlapped them by about an inch and welded some angle to the one so i could slip fit them together once they were in the fire box. Final plate worked out to be around 26.5"x15". I installed a 2nd row of firebrick in the back of the box to act as a shelf as seen in some other people's setups. Then I took my diamond wheel and cut 2 more bricks on an angle to allow the baffle to prop up inside the box. This leaves the ~2" spacing for proper exhaust venting for the 8" flue.



The baffle seems to work perfectly!


It definitely keeps more heat in the box and less heat loss right up the flue.

So far so good.

 

[tommyg]

Hey every one,

This is the first posting I have done, but have done a lot of research on my stove. I bought the stove 3 years ago from a garage sale. I was told the stove was just sitting in hid garage for years and he never installed it, Had some surface rust, but overall was not bad. I bought the stove for $50 bucks. I found out is a bicentennial gramdpa. I snadblasted the stove and painted (per my wifes wishes). I just love this stove. This will heat my entire house. All I did was place a small fan on the side and found that thru off a lot more heat with out a large expense of adding a special fan to the stove. I love all of the information that peaple place on this site. I have noted people saying these use a lot of wood. I know people with new add on wood furnaces and out door furnaces that use 20, 30 or more face cords of wood a year. I heat my entire house (1600 feet ranch) with this stove and a few fans. I only use 12 to 15 face cords of wood.

I also hear people talk about the new stoves that offer other baffles and allows the wood smoke to be re bearned. This sounds great, they need to use very dry wood. If the wood is not very dry will allow these new systems to build up and not work right. No thanks. I will just continue to use a little more wood, that I can cut and dry for 1 season rather than having to cut keep very dry for 2,3 or more years and have way less maintance cost as well. My stove and many others have working well for 20 plus years with little or no upkeep (other than cleaning and an occasionally replacing a brick). How long will these new stoves last?

 

[webby3650]

I just starting fixing up a Grandma that I bought last week. I have been looking through all the Fisher threads, even ended up reading the book and the news articles. I am always tinkering and rebuilding stoves, but this is my first Fisher. I think this one might be a little odd, from what I have read. It measures 25 1/2" across the top. It has a baffle, it appears to be be a factory piece, it sits on a piece of angle iron on either side that is welded to the side at an upward angle. It also has a single firebrick mounted above the lower row, in the back but not quit centered in the firebox. It's corners are angle iron that extend all the way to the floor, they do not taper. The legs have a ferrell welded on the back side with a piece of all thread for leg levelers, the chrome caps are threaded onto the all thread. Has anyone seen these features on a Grandma? I thought someone might know some back ground on it. I can't find my camera but I will try to get some pics tomorrow.

 

[KristenGood]

Hi everyone! I am the new proud owner of a 76 Grandpa Bear Fisher stove. It has minor surface rust and is in great condition. I have a few quick questions. 1. How do I replace the fire brick? Is that a difficult thing to do? All the brick around the perimeter is cracked/broken and I would like to replace it before I install it. Question 2. How do I "spiff" this gem up without ruining it? I would love to get the doors back to the nickel(?) lettering and trees! Question 3. How do I get rid of the rust on the top and make this amazing stove look as fab as I have been reading about?

I am excited to take this project on, stumbled upon this stove and got it for a great price. It is going to heat our garage at our cabin in Northern PA = and that garage is huge! The former owner repaired school busses in there - so I am excited to have a piece of history heat us up in the winter.

Any and all advice would be appreicated! I will post pics tomorrow. Thanks in advance for all of your help.

 

[webby3650]

I used a combination of a belt sander and a palm sander to get the rough spots out. Depending on how bad it is, a wire wheel on a drill does good to. Coaly will be able to help you with the other things. Have you searched this site for those topics. There is lots of info in the Everything Fisher thread.