Restoring a Buck Stove 26000

[ryjen]

So our weather is touch and go this weekend, but I have to get my little buck ready for the season. I picked her up from a lady that restores old houses. For those of you who watch DIY network, think "Rehab Addict". She doesn't remodel, she restores....anyway...I ended up getting it free, but she needs some work. The glass is missing, but other than that just a little elbow grease and some TLC should have back to form in no time.

I'm starting with the doors since I need to replace the glass, and the broken pieces are a bit of a hazzard to my little ones. Here is what I'm starting with:

Here is the front of door one with the glass removed:

More later as my project continues!

 

[ryjen]

Time got away from me this fall. Between kids sports, and general fall/winter prep around the house/property, this project progressed far too slowly. My apologies for what may have seemed like a "post and run". I'm going to upload pictures and update this thread as best I can, but for some reason I can not see the pictures in my posts from this computer. It's a setting somewhere that I cant pin-point. So if things don't quite match up, hang in there and I will modify/fix later this evening.

So once I got her home and in the garage I took the doors off and took the broken glass out of the doors. Here she is ready to begin.

Once I wiped the stove down I noticed that the bad spots were all surface rust, with no real damage other than right around the flue opening on the top. Even that was minimal pitting of the metal. So I attached a wire brush wheel to my drill and went t work. It only took a few hours (and three fully charged batteries in my drill) to get the surface ready. I wiped the stove down with acetone and started painting the outside.

Here is a side by side of the doors. One prepped and painted, the other begging for her turn.

In my area there are few options, color wise, for high temp paint to be bought off the shelf. I wanted to retain some of the stoves accent color so I found a gold\brass color in a high temp engine paint. With this, I painted the screens inside the doors by the draft knobs, and the hot air exit on the front.

I taped over the air returns, pulled out the fire brick, and gave her 3 coats of flat black.

Here she is waiting on the firing to cure the paint.

Here is curing fire, she really didn't smoke much but it smelled pretty bad. Glad I was outside! (Yes, that is a pretty sexy stack of wood in the background. Thanks for noticing)

I attached the stack and my wife and slid the stove into the fireplace, attached all stove pipe, installed the handles and fired her up for the first time on November 1st.

I am well aware that the right side draft knob is backwards, a bit of an oversight on my part. I'm also not thrilled with the wood handles so I plan on replacing those. Next step....block off plate and Roxul.

 

[bsruther]

Nice restore. I wish I could have seen what was going on inside my buck when I was using it.

 

[Osagebndr]

Nice job. Those are great heaters my reg buck keeps our place toasty

 

[gzecc]

Never saw the screens in the lower air intakes. Is that something you added? Or are they original?

 

[ryjen]

Original. My 28000 had them, but they were black. I thought they would look good if they stood out, which is why I painted them.

 

[gzecc]

Just remove the wood handles. They will dry and crack anyway. The spings underneath are fine to look at. You'll have to use gloves opening the doors though.

 

[ryjen]

I thought about using just the small springs, but they are not looking in the best of shape, so I'm going to replace them with the large handle springs after Christmas. The wood will have to do for now. I'm also a bit unsure of the flat black. I may go with something different come spring.

 

[Msb]

Can I ask where you found the wood handles? I'd like to replace mine that are cracked. Thank you.

 

[gzecc]

go to (broken link removed). They are a Buck dealer. They have all the parts and are a sponsor of this site. Website seems to be down today though.

 

[ryjen]

My wood handles were on the stove when I got it.