What to Do With My Petit Godin...

I just registered. Hello everyone. I've been chasing after Petit Godin information as far as the internet will take me, I am at the point of just tossing out my questions and seeing what comes back for a reply. I own a model 3720 and bought it new back in the 80's. For several years I used it in my living room fireplace, and it gave nice heat for the entire main floor of my raised ranch style house.

Sadly I developed an Asthma from both the ash dust and the coal dust exposure during servicing the stove twice daily. I took the stove out and stored it away. Now 25 years later I have a new interest in possibly using it as a garage heater where I think I can control my exposure to the dust better.

Unfortunately the stove has not sat still without some deterioration. The sheet metal jacket is rusted through in several places and generally junk. The cast iron chimney connection is cracked, as is one of the inner cast components down in the base or the stove.

It is a dark green enameled model and all the enameled components are nice, as is much of the inner and top cast iron structure and the fire brick seems usable as well.

Question is...Chase after a restoration or would these components themselves be saleable and perhaps make that a better alternative from which I could then buy a decent replacement for my garage. I'd need to have a sheet metal cylinder fabricated and several cast parts welded or find replacements. Frankly the project looks daunting at the very least...so in closing I solicit comments and advice from anyone interested, but mostly from the Godin community since they know the stove in question

Thanks Everyone.

Bob

Welcome to the forum Bob! Daunting is only a temporary feeling usually,around here. There should be a few opinions coming your way soon enough from the crowd that is in the know.

Since its off season, some of the folks are out and about enjoying the weather but fear not , they will help ya.

Feel free to complete your location info and or give a quick "hey there" synopsis in the Introduce yourself thread, and there will be several folks gettin back to ya as they usually do.

Welcome to the forum!

Hey Bob, welcome--ditto what PE said

Yes, welcome to the forum!

Well thanks for the friendly greetings! I know it is off season so I don't expect to get a flood of info just yet, but nice to see it's been read and folks are cordial here. I added my avatar since I see most others have one. It's a picture of my camp trailer in a campsite out by the ocean near Galilee, Rhode Island.

Bob

Hi Yankee. Welcome on the forum.
Maybe you could ask Bryant Stove for parts. I know they have one for sale on their's web site in: stove type...coal...for $300. I saw it when I went there for the Golden Bride but didn't look at it very much. There are a lot of stoves in there...
Salutations from Qc

They (Bryants) could certainly help with the jacket for your Godin. They run about $175 for a replacement jacket on a larger stove than your Godin so might be less? A complete rebuild would be $225 based on their prices for parlor stoves. Seeing that you are in Rhode Island, I would check out Emory Pineo at the Antique Stove Hospital. One of the best in the business in my opinion. He's located in Little Compton, RI. Check out his website. Best of luck.

I think if I decided to go for a rebuild on my stove I would have a local sheet metal shop roll a new jacket out of an appropriate metal, and I can then work it up into the needed configuration in my workshop.

Steve Zee...I live in CT not Rhode Island, but the picture in my avatar probably gave you that impression. Anyway I did think about Emory Pineo as a resource, and yes he might be worth contacting.

The bigger question for me is whether to bother rebuilding it at all. I have it completely apart now and after looking it over I bet the individual parts are worth more that the rebuilt stove would be. The cost of rebuilding may well surpass the price of a decent used Godin. A better stove could be bought with the proceeds from sale of individual parts. There are at least 2 cast iron parts in need of welding repairs or replacement. This makes me a bit leery of the projects worth.

Bob

Welcome to the FORUM yankee--again---quit the wishy-washy girly stuff Get going with that rebuild--you will be thrilled w/ the outcome & will be the main participant.Always a good feeling--just ask nortcan leery--smeery ---get started my friend remember, any advise you will need in the process is available right here

I`m in the same boat as you Yankee, I have a 20 inch round oak that is probably worth more as parts & scrap than what it would be worth after putting in the time & money to repair.

both projects would be priceless not only to you but as a family heirloom...

plus, itl'l burn better and warmer!!!

I started a rebuild on a stove built in the 1920's that will probably bring more $$ as scrap than a restored stove for sale. It is a piece of coal burning history that I cannot bring myself to take to the scrap yard. And when it's done, I'll be able to sit there in front of it when it's 15 outside and know that it's heating my house (or someone elses) for next to nothing compared to the oil burners. You can always sell it to someone for what you have in it or donate it to a family and get them off their oil addiction. You can always give it someone who can't afford to heat their home with oil because of falling on bad times.

Well I've spent last few evenings refurbishing what parts only need that done to them. The rest will require much more. I sandblasted one of the unusual fastening parts used to attach the metal jacket to the base and top assemblies. I needed to see what this little gizzo looked like under the cake of rust it had covering it up. Now at least I can see what I need to either find/buy or copy/make in multiples. The project has no time line or urgency for me, but it does occupy workshop space so is not easy to ignore. I will make gains on it. It is certainly never going to a scrap dealer...just way to much high quality enamled cast iron to relegate to scrap.

What's been said about the best ways to repair cast iron parts which have cracked apart?

Bob

Yankee wrote:
What's been said about the best ways to repair cast iron parts which have cracked apart?

Bob

Oxy-acetylene fusion welding is the best method, You melt cast iron into a ground-out trough called a V-groove on the edge of each piece. After the V-groove is prepared and the pieces are aligned on the welding table they are preheated to "black-heat" temperature (just below "red hot). This ensures that the entire casting is expanded, then the weld slowly progresses until completion. The piece may then be fired up to a dull red heat and allowed to cool very slowly for a long time. You'll have a stress free repair that can be machined and drilled easily to reshape the surface so that the weld is hardly noticable.

Or, you can have pieces recast at a foundry. We have one here in Maine that will do this although it ain't cheap.

Outstanding--that cast CAN be welded if you or someone knows what they are doing--I'm not a bad welder, but I take my cast out to a local farmer/welder who is much better set up for that. I know my limitations & I think that's important Later my friend