My 1912 Hub Heater Baseburner Thread

Based on the way you have described the gap in the door, with it touching on the hinge end first, it sounds like the pivot centerline of the hinges is too close to the stove body. If you can easily remove the hinge pins , then try to hold the door flat against the sealing surface, it might reveal a problem. The holes might not align properly when the door is in the correct closed position.

I would try as Paperboy suggests, but be very careful how you drive out hinge pins as I see no head on them from the pictures. You do not want to crack one of the hinge supports. An alternative is to file the hinge pins in a direction to allow the door to move away from the body at the hinge side and effect even closing. If those pins have been replaced then the original pins might very well have been altered in this way.

A tight fitting ash door is so basic to having to having a controllable fire that I regard what yours is doing as sloppy work on the part of a restorer who represents himself as expert. The fact that the latch had to be altered to get the door to latch at all with no regard to the leaks still in the door, just confirms it.

If this were a cheap pot belly or cannon stove I could understand it as they were rarely tight fitting, but your stove is in a class much higher and I would expect it to have been originally manufactured to a higher standard.

If it were my stove I would probably make up eccentric hinge pins or eccentric bushings in the hinge holes to effect adjustment.

Talk to the restorer and see what they say, but even if they agree to correct it you are faced with getting it there and back. I would rather have an adjustment made on the price and let someone closer to you fix it.

Richard

We haven't heard from you in a few days. Let us know how you are doing with your stove.

wsherrick wrote:We haven't heard from you in a few days. Let us know how you are doing with your stove.

Hey thanks! Been working 13hr midnights 7 days a week. Haven't got to mess with it much.

I have been burning small wood fires in it and have learned alot.

The door does have a bit of a bow in it. I think a little buffing with a grinder wheel will fix it up but the latch will be a problem. I emailed Barnstable stove since I haven't been awake while they are open. If they could send me a new pice for the latch I think I can get the rest fixed up.

One more question. The lid on the top, should it have any kind of a seal on it? It looks like there would be room for a gasket. Thats the only real place it leaks from above the grates.

The flat lid inder the fancy work?
Like on a cook stove?
Never seen a gasket on one...
It should be a machined surface...
Check for some junk that prevents the metal to metal contact...

CapeCoaler wrote:The flat lid inder the fancy work?
Like on a cook stove?
Never seen a gasket on one...
It should be a machined surface...
Check for some junk that prevents the metal to metal contact...

CapeCoaler is right. The lid should lay flat in its groove. They all will leak if you turn back the pipe damper too much. It shouldn't leak smoke if your chimney is drawing correctly.

Hope you have a CO detector... or two.

dsteinel wrote:Hope you have a CO detector... or two.

System built into the house, smoke and CO2 hardwired.

wsherrick wrote: The lid should lay flat in its groove. They all will leak if you turn back the pipe damper too much. It shouldn't leak smoke if your chimney is drawing correctly.

Pretty much what I figured. Smoke only leaks out if I try to damper it down alot. With it drawing good it either doesn't leak or leaks into the pot.

Quite a learning curve on how to make it run well. Everytime I light it up I learn something new or a better way to do it.

Got some magnetic thermometers. After getting a good wood fire going and building up a bed of wood coals and letting the fresh stuff burn down, the outlet pipe temp is between 125 and 250 depending on how close you are to the stove (125 being right at the wall and 250 near the stove) The barrel temp is between 350 and 600, again depending on where you measure it. 600 is right at the outlet where it goes to the recirculator/base portion, and 350 near the top of the stove. Moving the dampers I can get it much higher, but for now thoes are my idle numbers.

I'm getting 3-4 hours before I need to load a few more logs. Coals may last 5-6 hours. It sure is a pain to load logs in. Especially since I cut mine fairly long last year.

It is heating a 1000 sqft basement. I'm leaving the door for the upstairs open. The basement is a comfy 76 and I notice the furnace is not running much to heat the upstairs. High temps have been in the low 50's and lows in the low 40's. Moderate sunshine.

I did a bit of work to the ash door. Took a grinder to it and squared it up a bit. Closes pretty good now, still a bit of gap but much tighter. Now for the latch, I don't think it is the original. The hole it needs to fit in is too small. I see where they ground on it some. It really doesn't latch right now that the door closes further. I think I need to weld some more metal on it and grind a bit off of the inside of the stove. Pretty sure it will work then.

Are there any real thin gaskets or something I could use to close up any remaining gaps in the door?

Planning a trip out east to a breaker to get a load of anthracite in the next few weeks. Probably just wait till then to see how it does on coal!

Seems my smoke problems were mostly operator error and trying to correct for the ash door by dampering the exhust. Probably have to learn all again once I get some coal

Any opinions on my temperatures? Are they were they should be? Thanks!

I'm glad to see you have been making some progress with your stove. It will act much different with coal. It will be a lot easier to use and control even with the ash pit door. You can get some flat gasket to go around the area where the door fits the body of the stove. It's made in a lot of different sizes so get some different samples to find the one that works. In the meantime don't forget about a permanent fix for the door.
I can't tell you about the temps yet until you start burning some coal in it. By the way, I know burning wood has smoked up your ising glass windows. When the windows are cool get an old wash rag and some plain water or windex and GENTLY rub the soot off of the mica. It will clean up easily. Keep us informed about how you are coming along there.

Burnt my first load of coal last night!!!! All I can say is awsome! Screw wood.

Took about 50# to fill it, been running a steady 450 degrees on the barrell. I can touch the chimney pipe at the wall. Much more even heat. Going home here from work in a few minutes, time for it's first shake!

Sounds like you have very high draft from your chimney,, did you install a Barometric damper? This would reduce and limit your high draft..

As for the loading and ash door not fitting, well, welcome to the world of old stoves.. this is NOT what I would have expected from a restored stove from the company you bought it from.. Old cast iron stoves must have proper fitting doors or you can't control the air to the fire, and end up just like you did, with an out-of-control fire. This is not safe.

Most cast iron stoves of this era did not have gaskets or seals on the doors, they relied on close fitting metal to metal contact. If the doors don't fit tight enough to control the air to the fire, I'd contact the sellers to see if they will either take it back and install a door that fits properly.. or give you a stove that has a properly fitting door..

I would not recommend burning coal in the stove unless you can control the combustion air.

Greg L

I would not burn coal either however I would not put a Baro on if your burning wood. Humm..catch 22.. I have an old stove like that and can tell you that yes all the doors fix close and seal very good. I can make a big difference in the fire by cutting off the air.

Fix the leaks and then if you want to burn coal put in a Baro for sure.

If you do get a baro, be sure to set draft with draft gauge/manometer. Stoves like yours are not "airtight" and were not designed to be however there shouldn't be any big gaps like you described at the ash door. Did you ever hear back from the dealer on these issues?