Magee Crown #112

After searching for the last 4 months I finally came across an old parlor base burner that I could afford.
It is a Magee Crown # 112 built in Boston MA in 1912. Believe or not found this stove less than 5 miles from my house.

Very, very cool. Take some measurements and let us know how big the fire pot is and other dimensions and keep us informed of your progress on restoring it. It is similar to a Glenwood 111 or 119.
Welcome to the Base Burner Society. We are happy to have you as a new member!

COOL FIND!...Congrats!!

William,
It's funny that every time I logged to the forum I would find myself following Base Burner threads. I think it was was your videos on antique base heaters that sealed the deal. I can't tell you how much I envy your stove.

I found this stove on Craigslist and picked up last night in Winchendon MA. The seller stated that he bought this stove at an auction in Hubbardston MA in 2001 and never used it. He just stored it in an old trailer where it sat covered for the last nine years. He stated that the original owner was the Wheeler Family of Hubbardston MA who purchased this stove new in 1912 to be used in their General Store. This sounded like a pretty cool story so I searched online and was surprised to find out this stove sat along with tons of other items in an undisturbed boarded up General Store for over a third of a century.
Crazy right? This store was closed in 1968 due to the death of the last surviving member. I guess they just locked the doors of a full stocked store until the probate court figured out who it belonged to which took over 32 years. I would have loved to seen the store the day of auction.
(Full Story) --> http://www.simondoakes.com/wheeler.htm

On first appearances I could tell that this stove was in pretty good condition but it was in pieces, very dusty and had some surface oxidation. After brought it home and put it together my daughter suggested that we should wiped it down. I ended up using a little bit of mystery oil on a rag and it shined right up. I was shocked to see that it was much better shape than I could of hoped for. The pictures above were taken before I dusted off the stove and wiped it down. I will upload some higher quality picture of the fire pot and grates later tonight.

Also, looked up the Glenwood 111 and agree that it is very similar. I am sure that I will have a lot of questions over the next few months as I am looking forward to getting this stove up and running for next winter.


Specs.

Height: 64" tall from base to the top of the finial.
Outside Barrel diameter: 16"
Fire pot is 12" wide within the refractory lining.
Fire pot depth is 12"



Bill

Thank you very much. I am deeply honored. Where are you going to put the stove? You should be able to put around 30 to 40 pounds of Nut coal in it. You will greatly surprised at what it can do once you fire it up. Please ask all the questions you want. And please keep posting updates about how you are coming along with it.

I would love to have this stove in my living room but I am not to sure if it would blast me right out of the room with too much heat.

Would you know what the smallest amount of coal you could burn per day without loosing the fire? My house is 1000 sq ft built in 1996 and well insulated. Currently my Alaska stoker burns about 25 pounds per day when it in the teens.

You can run these stoves for hours on very little coal. These stoves are very easy to operate and control the rate of burn. I can run the Glenwood for up to 24 hours on 25 pounds of coal and the stove keeps a constant temperature of around 350 degrees. It depends, of course, on your chimney draft, etc. Once you learn how to operate the stove you can make it do anything you want it to.

That is good to hear about the range but I have some concerns.

I have a grate ring that runs along the top of the fire pot. I believe it is for recirculating the gasses when in base burning mode. Could you explain in more detail how this works? I know by your threads that you state that base burners have two pipes in the rear of the stove, one down and one back up.... This stove only has one pipe in the rear of the stove,,, a single chamber with a top damper and a bottom one.. I believe that the damper at the top of the of stove when closed forces the gases through the slots on ring grate above the fire pot and down a chamber along the side of the fire pot and into the base where it exits through the second damper behind the ash pan and back up the pipe in the rear of the stove.

Do I have this right ? and if so, is this still a base burner?

Yes, your stove is most certainly a base burner. My and Dij's Glenwoods are Base Heaters. There's a difference. Base burners are strictly designed for Anthracite as the fuel whereas Base Heaters are designed to be a dual fuel stove. The efficiencies and the principals behind both designs are the same.
What happens with your stove is when you close the base heating damper at the top, the exhaust goes around the combustion area above the fire, then, down around the fire pot, down through the baffles in the base burning portion and then up the back pipe to exit. I don't know, but; you probably have the gas burning option as well. That is what the bottom damper is for. It allows a portion of the coal gas to be recirculated back into the fire under the grate. This preheats the incoming primary air and mixes oxygen with the hot coal gas so it gets a chance to burn rather than be lost up the chimney. Your stove will squeeze every available BTU out of every pound of coal burned. You have no reason for concern. You have a true Anthracite Base Burner. The direction of the smoke just takes a little different path to get to the back pipe than a Base Heater, that's all.

You made one heck of a score on that stove!....keep us informed as you rebuild her..and just my 2 pennies ..dont paint the Ol Gal, get some Williams stove polish and give her a good rub down ...you will like it!

Will the stove polish cure 100% on parts of the stove that do not heat up, like the legs? If so, how long would it take to cure?

on my #30 if ya rub the legs you will get BLACK on the rag ...stove polish is more like a wax but it is not sticky and does not collect dust.
With paint it has the tendancy to flake off due to heat ..no matter what the manufacturer says it is rated for, with Polish if ya get a spot or section that discollers while heating you can re-apply the polish while the stove is hot an make her look brandy new.

Your stove looks awesome.. Could you tell me the what brand name of the stove polish you are using and where I can buy some?

Another question. What do you use to polish the nickel plated pieces?

Flitz for the Nickel polish...
http://www.flitz-polish.com/
I think they mentioned Williams Stove Polish...
http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=williams+stove+polish&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=3336132325&ref=pd_sl_14p698rxu2_e

I use Williams stove polish from Tractor Supply and good O'l Brasso on the nickle trim