Old coal stove restoration

[FanMan]

This is a "Daisy" coal stove, around the 1920s. It's what must have been a very inexpensive stove; the main body of the stove is sheet metal (a 10" stovepipe, essentially) lined with firebrick. It was made in Peekskill, NY, about 15 miles from my new (to me) cabin where I found it stored under the front porch... the previous owner had removed it because her kids weren't cleaning up when they used it in the winter. I took it apart, cleaned it up, repainted it, and used it for the next 15 years, taking it along to our new cabin when we moved next door after 5 years.



For the past year or so I've been thinking it's time to replace the body tube as it was getting thin, but I kept putting it off... until yesterday morning when I lit a quick wood fire to take the chill off. I was treated to a light show seeing the flames flickering thorough all the pinholes. Coal smoke is very corrosive. Guess I can't put it off any longer, so I pulled it outside and started taking it apart. Worse than I thought, the metal around the stovepipe attachment was pretty rotten, too... fortunately all the cast iron parts are solid.

Some would say, "Why don't you buy a new stove?", but this one is the perfect match for the cabin, and it has local history.

The plan is to make a new body tube out of 24 gauge stainless steel, clean and repaint all the parts, and hopefully have it back in the cabin in a couple of weeks. I'm sure it was originally black (though I used some green when I last painted it), but some parts, the finial on top at least, were originally nickel plated. The plating was in bad enough shape that I just painted everything. This time, I'm going to keep to the green and black, if I can find green stove paint again, but I'm going to try to figure out which parts were nickel, and paint those bright silver. I'm not looking to do a perfect original restoration; I want it to look nice but it's a working stove. From pictures I've seen of similar stoves, the finial was plated, the cast piece immediately below it should be black, then the next casting (the top of the body) would be plated, the tube painted, and I'm not sure about the base or the door.

I'll post more pictures as it progresses.

 

[begreen]

Forest Products Stove Bright paint comes in a light blue-green (6327) and a darker moss green (6197). I'm not sure how well it will bond to stainless. It might be worth contacting them.

 

[St. Coemgen]

Some would say, "Why don't you buy a new stove?"

Ignore such comments.

Preserving a bit of history, and giving it a new life has its own rewards.

 

[FanMan]

Getting all the rusty bolts out was a pain, had to grind most of them out. Not that many parts.




Some 22 gauge stainless sheet, rolled and held together with Clecos, ready to TIG weld, then I can cut the holes for the door and the stovepipe. I won't be able to duplicate the rolled beads in the original tube.



I'll use high temp primer on the stainless tube before the color coat.

 

[coaly]

It's the coal ash that is corrosive. In the summer the humidity turns the ash to acid. It is essentially lye. You're replacing the barrel which is why they were built with the easily replaced part. Coal ash is even corrosive to stainless. You don't want to rinse with water at the end of season, it gets into the corners and cracks in the bottom and rots things away. If you vacuum or wipe the inside out with rags with waste oil to stick the fly ash to, you can then oil the inside real good to prolong it's life. The ash doesn't do any damage over the winter with little water vapor in the air or during use.
You know by using it how fast the thin wall heats up and radiates like crazy. A new thicker stove won't do that. Stainless is also a poor heat conductor compared to what you had, so expect less heat from the sides.

 

[FanMan]

It's the coal ash that is corrosive. In the summer the humidity turns the ash to acid. It is essentially lye.

Not quite. Acid and lye are two completely things, at the opposite ends of the PH scale. Coal produces sulfur dioxide and other things in the smoke when it burns, which when combined with water makes sulfuric acid (acid rain). The ash does contain some amount of lime, which combined with water makes calcium carbonate. Calcium carbonate is not lye (which is sodium or potassium hydroxide) but is similarly basic (not acidic). Stainless steel doesn't like strong acids, but is actually quite resistant to corrosion from calcium carbonate.

You're replacing the barrel which is why they were built with the easily replaced part. Coal ash is even corrosive to stainless. You don't want to rinse with water at the end of season...

Wow, I never even considered rinsing it out with water... do people do that?

You know by using it how fast the thin wall heats up and radiates like crazy. A new thicker stove won't do that. Stainless is also a poor heat conductor compared to what you had, so expect less heat from the sides.

That's true, stainless is a poorer conductor of heat. With such a thin wall, however, I think it'll be fine. I don't think it's much thicker than the original tube. It's more than enough for the small room it's in, anyway.

 

[coaly]

I thought it turned acid, maybe just caustic. Maybe from the few wood fires at season end contains wood ash that becomes saturated with water vapor ? I know how much water it takes to become saturated to drip lye from wood ash...... Whatever happens, here's what happens to my pipe, cap and glass burning coal;
I've heated with coal for years and always pull the connector pipe and flush with water at the end of season. Dry it and oil the inside with drain oil. If I don't do that, it remains wet inside from water vapor from the atmosphere. Even disconnected, the pipe remains moist inside, bubbles the paint outside and I can count on replacing the connector pipe the following year. With the price of barometric dampers I can't afford that. I do the same with a rental house I loaned the tenants a Gibraltar coal stove to use. I use drain oil since I coat the inside of boilers with it that are laid up all winter. Never had a problem with the tubes or front and rear sheets in horizontal boilers from damage on the fireside. When I shut one down for good, like with a thin crown sheet or needing to be retubed, I coat with linseed oil and they don't seem to change inside over time. I have a few cast iron Atlanta Stove Works stoves I did that to and they seem to be staying like new inside. Maybe I'm neutralizing the PH with slightly acidic waste oil ? I was oiling to prevent oxygen from getting to the iron.

It was called "put'in up the stove" when these were stored in a closet all summer to make more room in the house while the chimney was capped for the summer. When you pulled out the stove in the fall, you found tiny holes ate through the thin wall. So you would scrub it, dry it in the sun, black it and put it away. The stainless Dura-Vent chimney that came with my new Fisher Stove in 1985 lasted 25 years (the warranty period) burning wood. One year of coal burning after that and a screwdriver pushed right through the inner wall. The stainless cap only lasts 2 years and rots off around the edge where the inner pipe is connected.
If I wipe my glass daily in the morning when coolest, the fine ash wipes right off with a damp rag and there are no issues with the glass. If I allow it to coat the glass, it etches right into Robax. I would have to replace glass each year. Learned that the first year operating stove. Never had a problem with isinglass.

 

[FanMan]

My stove stays in place. During the summer, it gets used very occasionally... I sometimes light a quick wood fire in it (no coal) to take the chill off on a cold damp morning in late summer. Even during the winter, I only use it 5-10 weekends each year. The stovepipe I'm replacing now is 7 years old, would probably last a while longer, but since I've got it all apart anyway, it makes sense to replace it. Never had a barometric damper on it, it works fine without one.

 

[FanMan]

Ready to reinstall, hopefully this weekend if I can find the time to get up to the cabin. Couldn't find green locally, but I decided I liked the black and silver better anyway. I'm pretty happy with the way it came out:




Sorry for the poor pictures, I guess the cell phone camera can't handle the contrast very well.



I'll fire it up with wood in the driveway tomorrow or the next day to burn off the paint fumes before bringing it into the cabin.

 

[FanMan]

Back in place...

 

[moresnow]

Nice job. Interested in hearing how it now performs.

 

[FanMan]

Thanks... it works great, though it always did. First night I put it back in it was 30° outside, even with a minimal coal load and damped all the way down I had to open the window, it was too warm.

I almost never used it again... the next day a forest fire broke out up on the mountain above the cabin and started burning its way down. By the time it was out it had burned nearly 500 acres and was within a couple hundred yards of my cabin. It doesn't get much closer than that!

 

[moresnow]

Lots of fire trouble this year. Wow.

 

[begreen]

Thanks... it works great, though it always did. First night I put it back in it was 30° outside, even with a minimal coal load and damped all the way down I had to open the window, it was too warm.

I almost never used it again... the next day a forest fire broke out up on the mountain above the cabin and started burning its way down. By the time it was out it had burned nearly 500 acres and was within a couple hundred yards of my cabin. It doesn't get much closer than that!

That's too close! Sorry to hear about the forest loss.

 

[FanMan]

It'll grow back. It was due for a fire anyway, part of the natural cycle. Now it'll be some years before we have to worry about it again. I haven't gotten up there to look at things yet, but I'm told the mature trees are mostly OK, just the undergrowth and dead trees that burned. But I'm hoping my favorite mushroom picking spots were spared.