My little Potbelly on Anthracite

Pretty neat! How well does it seal? Looks like it will make your potbelly burn with much better control.

The load door seals pretty good without a mechanical closure, I can see a little light here and there but I am going to run it as is.
I have had a couple of fires and there will be no flames until I open the load door and then they will flick up and start dancing, close the door and the flames go out in a few seconds so that tellls me it is sealed pretty good, i really do not want to molest the load door if I do not have to, so far the only mods that cannott be undone on this antique are the 1/4" holes I drilled in the ash door for the mechanical closures and I am getting a good 12 hrs.+ on a load of Pea so I feel I have reached my goal and this is all the more I want to scar the unit, at the moment it would just take 2 button head screws to close the 1/4" holes and remove the Mica to return it to its original condition.
later,
Tim

how did you attach gasket . is there a groove in the in the door for it . i have a wood stove without a groove to hold gasket . any ideas .

Tim wrote:I have had a couple of fires and there will be no flames until I open the load door and then they will flick up and start dancing, close the door and the flames go out in a few seconds so that tells me it is sealed pretty good,

The fire at that point needs a little over fire air to burn the gasses instead of letting them go up the chimney unburnt.

for M.C.B.,
no groove on the potbelly at all.
I purchased a Rutland kit, 3/4" flat rope gasket & gasket cement.
cleaned the mating surface and glued down the flat gasket and closed the door for bought an hr. till the glue set and made a fire, it is now stuck pretty good.
hope this helps.
Franco,
After reading many posts here I was under the impression that I do not want "any" over the fire air just air through the grates when burning hard coal ?...that is why I installed the Mica window so I could see the fire without adding air to it.
maybe I shoud remove it ?

Tim wrote:After reading many posts here I was under the impression that I do not want "any" over the fire air just air through the grates when burning hard coal ?...that is why I installed the Mica window so I could see the fire without adding air to it.
maybe I shoud remove it ?

While it is true that most air should come from below, secondary air above the fire is very desirable. Maybe you could add a means to crack the door a measured amount and leave the mica, or maybe 3 or 4 1/4 inch holes in another part of the door. While the volatiles in hard coal make up only about 4 percent of the coal they account for about 20 percent of the heat. Leaving them unburnt wastes heat. All antique stoves had and most new ones have provision for secondary air. It will also help to prevent puff backs when loading a large amount of coal at a time. With a deep bed of coal and bottom air restricted there will be more carbon monoxide formed as all the coal can not get that one extra oxygen atom to form carbon dioxide for complete combustion as oxygen is depleted while working up through the bed of burning coal. Carbon monoxide will also burn with a little over fire air. You don't need much, and too much will tend to drive up stack temperatures while cooling the fire and of course stealing draft from the lower grate. The ideal setup is Williams Glenwood stove which provides heated secondary air evenly at a point just above the fire.

did you make a fire pot liner ? if so how .

M.C.B.,
No on the fire pot liner, so far since sealing up the Old Gal she hasnt even thought bought turning red with an overfire condition...she just puts along making nice CONTROLLED heat.

nice

Well today I tried another Mod. I drilled 2- 5/32" holes under the load door bought an 1 1/2" from the center load door clasp on each side.......RESULTS.....just enough "OVER THE FIRE AIR" ...to make the blue ladies dance while she is burning ...actually the results are fantastic after loading a fresh charge of coal and waiting a bit for to get established I know have a nice glowing bed with the blue flames dancing and no unburnt gases at all.
I GUESS YA CAN MAKE A POTBELLY INTO A PARLOR STOVE!...
So I lit this fire last Sunday morning and it is still going strong.
Routine:
6:00PM, open the manual damper to full and open the air on the ash door to max for 10 minutes while I dump the ashes from the night before, poke down the ashes from underneath the grates and let that get good an sizzlin for another 10 minutes.
6:25PM, close the air down to nothing, add a fresh charge of (PEA) coal to the top of the fire pot banking a little to the back wait 5 minutes and close the manual damper, fill the cast iron tea pot with water and go see the wife for 15 minutes before I head out to work.
6:30AM, HOME FROM WORK! nice glowing bed of coal, open the air on the ash door and manual damper full, go top off the dogs dish and such, grab a cold one from the frige...I'M ALLOWED I JUST WORKED 11 HRS!
poke down the ashes from the bottom again till I get some "RED HOTS" in the ash pan and let her revive a bit and get good an HOT ...takes another 10 minutes and the tea kettle will start to shoot out steam...close off the ash pan air while leaving the manual open...Put in a fresh charge of coal to the top of the pot banked a little to the rear, do some stuff in the shop for a few minutes and close the manual draft , leave it alone till tonight.
Whalla!
Its WORKING!

Hi Tim,

It sounds like you have your Atlanta potbelly stove burning well on anthracite with your modifications. What are the stove temperatures at the 11 hour burns? Now that I see how well you have your Atlanta 60 burning, I wonder how well my my Atlanta 40 will perform doing the same modifications. You have me thinking! Thanks for sharing this. It was very informative. Great idea and great job!

Good job;cleverly done.

It is amazing what one can do if a little bit of observation and intelligence is applied. I think you should be proud of yourself.

Thanks Guys!
will get some temps tommorrow and post results after an all night burn, I let it go out today and emptied it as I wanted to do some tinkerin on the load door.
Just relight the fire and waiting for the NUT to get established and make a nice bed over the grates and then I will fill her with PEA
later,
Tim

K Folks here are some #'s
after 12 hrs of burn.
fire pot..430 degrees
above fire pot..334 degrees
stack temp between manual/baro ..168 degrees
stack temp on the horizontal run before exiting wall ..109 degrees, can lay a hand on it as long as ya want N.P.
Took these temps with an Infrared thermometer.
She is purculating along with nice "BLUE LADIES" at the moment ...I guess the 2 holes drilled below the load door are making this happen.
So in M.O. she is running as good as a Potbelly can ..........and my shop is Toasty.
wil post pics soon on ALL the mods for anyone that wants to make a little Potbelly Stove run like a parlor stove.
Thanks,
Tim