Mama Bear restoration and installation project

[Todd67]

I was planning to install the Baby Bear this year and the Mama Bear next year but we decided to go ahead and ditch our pellet stove and install the Mama Bear instead. The Baby Bear will get installed next year.

The Mama wasn't in bad shape but we removed all rust and replaced all firebricks. We painted it with Rutland flat black spray paint and fired it up in the driveway on a flat dolly. That's when we noticed some smoke leaking from the top of the right side, where there was a previous repair weld from someone at some point. I re-welded it and repainted it, re-fired it and the leak was fixed.

We removed the pellet stove, built a hearth, used 2 layers of 1/2" Durock cement board, cut 4" long vent holes in the bottom metal studs so that any warm air under the hearth can escape out the back 2 walls, which were also left open at the top. My wife is making the stones from a cement/vermiculite mixture, and then hand painting them, so the back walls of the hearth won't be finished for quite some time. The mesh on the back walls are what she will attach the rocks to when she finishes making them. I also installed a floor jack in the basement before I built the hearth so that the floor was supported before I put any additional weight on it.

I ruined two 90 degree elbows trying to crimp the male end small enough to fit into the flue pipe on the back of the stove. I bought the good crimper tool from Lowe's and had no luck at all. The non-crimped end of the 90 fit perfectly over the flue, so I decided to cut a straight pipe just long enough to slip over the flue and attached it with 3 screws and furnace cement so the the elbow would fit properly inside the homemade flue extension. It's not what I wanted but I was running out of time and patience. I'll monitor the back of the stove for leaks but I don't expect any. We use a Rutland thermometer on the stove pipe and the stove top so that we can monitor the temps. I used 21' for Duravent chimney pipe, with 9' above my roof due to the 8/12 pitch and the 2 foot/10 foot rule. I went without a damper on the stove pipe. I bought one but decided to use the stove this year without the damper just to see how well it would work. The stove and chimney work like a champ!

I installed a 12"x15" baffle plate (5/16" thick) on three firebricks inside the stove. The rear brick support is laying on its side and the 2 side bricks are standing upright. This puts the baffle plate on a roughly 45 degree angle, about 3 inches from the top/angle of the stove top.

The stove burns the wood so completely that there's almost never anything but soft ash left in the stove. There's also little to no smoke coming out of the chimney. This is my first wood stove restoration and installation, and had no help other than my wife and 14 year old son. We're extremely happy with the way it turned out, and most importantly, with how well it works. Enjoy the pics...

 

[Todd67]

Here are a few more pics...



I forgot to put the "before" pic in here, with the pellet stove installed.

 

[Todd67]

Coaly,
I've seen other stoves on this forum with some numbers or markings inside the door, but this mama bear has no markings at all, other than the PA84 on the bottom of the stove. Any idea when and where this stove was built? I bought it just south of Rochester, NY. The person I bought it from had no idea what year it was installed in the house it came out of (his "new" house).

 

[red oak]

That stove looks awesome! Great work! I just had my Papa Bear fixed up (new sides, firebrick, and baffle) but mine doesn't look anywhere near as good as yours. Enjoy that stove this winter! I've fired up mine twice already and have enjoyed it a lot!

 

[Todd67]

That stove looks awesome! Great work! I just had my Papa Bear fixed up (new sides, firebrick, and baffle) but mine doesn't look anywhere near as good as yours. Enjoy that stove this winter! I've fired up mine twice already and have enjoyed it a lot!

Thanks. I got a lot of great information from this forum and from the internet. It's been dipping into the mid 30's to low 40's at night, and these Fisher stoves are every bit as hot as people say they are. They hold the heat long after we let the fire go out in the morning. We've used a Coleman camp oven on top of our Fisher to bake in (a few times), and it makes corn bread and brownies like a champ! Can't wait to try a loaf of whole wheat bread., and I can't wait to complete the back walls with the rocks.

Did you have a local business fix up your Papa Bear with the new sides?

 

[red oak]

Thanks. I got a lot of great information from this forum and from the internet. It's been dipping into the mid 30's to low 40's at night, and these Fisher stoves are every bit as hot as people say they are. They hold the heat long after we let the fire go out in the morning. We use a Coleman camp oven on top of our Fisher to bake in, and it makes corn bread and brownies like a champ! Can't wait to try a loaf of whole wheat bread., and I can't wait to complete the back walls with the rocks.

Did you have a local business fix up your Papa Bear with the new sides?

View attachment 76575

No, my father in law has the welding equipment so he cut the sides and welded the new ones on. Then I put the new firebrick in, along with a stovepipe damper and baffle. I haven't tried cooking on my Fisher yet but I can already tell with the baffle it would work a lot better. We are expecting high 30s later this week. Here are some pictures of the new old Papa Bear.

 

[Todd67]

I'd say you accomplished something that probably can't be accomplished with a newer UL listed EPA stove. You recycled an old Fisher to keep it as a working man's stove rather than sell it for scrap metal. It just further proves how durable these Fishers are. Those Papa's have a huge firebox!

My Mama takes 24" logs but I keep them at 18" to 20" or for better air flow through the draft caps. It took me several hours to get the old firebricks and all of the dust and particles out of my Mama. It makes me more careful about how gently I place the logs inside the stove so that I don't break them and have to replace them again.

 

[Todd67]

It's been several years since I visited this great forum. So I wanted to finally share some "after" pics of my mama bear that I installed 6 years ago.

This mama bear has been our only heat source since we installed it, and it has been impressive during our long cold NY winter's. The wood racks on each side of the stove help dry the wood if we bring it inside after it rains, or if the wood has ice and snow on it, which we remove as much as possible before bringing the wood inside.

 

[Todd67]

The elbow on the back of my stove required some modification in order to fit it onto the stove. This is what I settled on for my elbow connection.


These are the rocks being made for our back two walls.


I added some support in my basement under the hearth and stove, before I built the hearth. This was the first step in the project.