Keystone 11 baseheater

A friend from northern Illinois brought me my 'new' little baseheater. I bought it off of ebay a few months ago, and a fellow Forum member went to pickit up in Wisconsin for me then did a 'hand off' to a friend in the Pierce Arrow Society... He then came to Michigan with one of his Pierce Arrow cars to my weekend car-party/BBQ. So he brought the stove home for me.

This stove is small, only about 40" tall, the suspended firepot is about 9"-10" across. It has all the usual baseheater baffles, ducts, heated base etc.
It is NOT a double heater though, there is no passageway for cold floor air to be drawn through the stove.

Mechanically the stove is in excellent shape, there are two cracks in decorative skirts, they should be ok if brazed, since they are not structural at all.
The stove is in very good shape, the grates and firepot look almost new.

The BIG problem is the silver paint !! I can't find anything that will soften it so I can strip it.. I've tried two different brands of paint stripper, both with Methylene Chloride, tried Zylol, gasoline, laquer thinner, MEK, Alcohol and regular paint thinner [mineral spirits].
NOTHING seems to affect the silver paint..

I've had the dome top submerged in a mix of laquer thinner and zylol for 5 days, and the paint is still hard as a rock..

I have used my cabinet sand blaster, and the paint seems to be very dry and brittle, it blasts off fairly easlily, but I won't be able to get some of the parts inside the blaster cabinet, and I really hate using the outdoors pressure-pot sandblaster, especially in this HOT weather.

The other problem with sandblasting, is that I'm hoping that there is some nickel plating hiding under the paint,, and that if I chemically strip off the paint, the nickel might be usable.. maybe that's pure fantasy, but I do know that sandblasting will pretty much ruin any remaining plating.

I did lightly sandblast one of the 'foot rests' from the sides of the stove, and found some nickel..

Does anyone have any suggestions what to try to soften and remove the paint?

Anyone have any info on Keystone stoves??

Here are a few photos, these are not my photos, these are from the seller.
I'll take some better pics over the next few weeks as I get it cleaned up.
The doors all have new mica, the hinges are tight, but the silver paint is just wrong !! Can't wait to see the
stove black and nickel.

Greg L

Well, maybe I'll just have to sandblast the silver paint off,, or maybe I'll just paint black over the silver.

I removed the mica retainer from one door, removed the pieces of mica.. noted that there was silver paint on the windows,, so whoever painted
the stove, did it with a brush.

The sandblasting went very quick, the paint just seems to evaporate so maybe it will be easier than paint stripper. The detail on the door casting is
quite intricate, and there is no indication of any rust, so maybe this stove never sat outside neglected..

Greg L

Maybe you could try a little heat. It has been my experience that acetone will remove almost any kind of paint.

Greg,

What a beauty! Nice find!

As to your silver paint problem - got any nitric acid? I'd take a wee bit of nitric and spot check the coating to see if it strips it. I'd do it in a spot you won't notice first and go easy... If it works, you may wish to think of keeping the solution as you might have real silver paint... If you strip it with nitric, you should be able to recover the silver with a bit of chemistry... LOL

dj

p.s. do this carefully, if you have silver, it will generate noxious fumes...

That is an extremely nice little base burner. I really like these square ones from the late 1880's early '90's. Have you tried a lye preparation to remove the paint? Or even a heat gun? It just amazes me what people are capable of doing to these stoves. This one looks like it was in my terms; "Old ladyfied." When I was a house inspector for a short while and saw time after time what little old ladys did to magnificent, high style Victorian homes, it would often sicken me. Stuff like this, "Oh we tore off all of that old brick a brack and put up these nice wrought iron porch posts, or "I just hated all of that dark wood so we had it painted over." "Those old fashioned pocket doors were so much trouble so I had them ripped out," and so on. Old lady's with artful decorating ideas can often do more damage than a massive infestation of Termites. I"m afraid your stove has probably suffered the same treatment.

Very nice stove Greg. I also like these stoves. Just forget the BBQ and get on the sand blasting job, we are waiting since a long time for that stove so...
Anyways, bravo pour le beau poele!

Greg, I just come back home and click on your stove's front side and zoom on it. WOW, the first time I didn't saw the special pattern in the windows, I mean the casting details in front of the mica, it's just "art"
For the paint stripping did you check for electrolyse with a battery charger and a solution? Supposed to remove all: rust,paint... but doesn't affect the good metal

WOW not even methylene chloride OR MEK!! That's some TOUGH *censored* right there!! Why can't they paint cars with that stuff???

I was gonna say heat too. Lots of it.

I've been up to my ears with other projects, the one door I sandblasted looks quite nice, and it didnt' take that long, I think I'll just keep blasting away at it, if I do a few pieces a day, eventually it will all be done.. I do need to fully disassemble the stove, it is in excellent shape, hardly used at all from what I can see.

At least the paint comes off easy, it seems like there is only the one layer, and the sandblasting gets the paint out of all the fine detail in the casting quickly, probably quicker than paint stripper.

William: yep nothing more dangerous to a old home or antique furniture than a new publication showing the 'latest' decorating ideas. [defecating ideas ]

I've stripped my share of paint, off of furniture, machinery and house trim, and this is the only one that has ever been this stubborn. I may try a heat gun next week, when the temperatures will be 15* cooler.

OR: maybe I should just put it out in the sunlight at noon tomorrow?? it was 98* today !!

Greg L

I put all my freshly painted RD engine parts in my greenhouse to cure, during the summer of '10. Gets up to 185° in there on a clear day! Boy does that take your breath away!!

Not sure what you're using for blasting media, but there are several different types available. Since you are big into antique auto restoration, you probably already know this. Maybe something like crushed walnut shells or glass bead would remove the paint but leave any nickel plating behind.

Glad the stove made it to you safely through the Underground Stove Railroad!

Chris

Great looking stove Greg! I'm afraid that blasting is the only way to go I'd think? I'm sure there something out there but lord only knows. Take your time, a piece at a time. You've got the plenty of time till winter. How'd the Pierce weekend go? I'll bet that was ball.

Very nice looking stove i have a beautiful living room in in an old turn off the century home that would be perfect in. But back to the silver paint it reminds me off the old metallic aluminum high temp stack paint we used in maritime industry i think if i remember naval jelly was one off the few thing to soften that stuff. The navel jelly was a very thick acidic jelly used to take multiply layers off paint off marine metal hull or bulkheads if i remember it was to aggressive for fiberglass metal only might even have been steel only no aluminum very aggressive stuff

Thats a good suggestion Kstone. Forgot about that stuff.

I've never tried Naval Jelly, I'll look around and see if it's available anywhere nearby. So far the sandblasting looks like the best bet.

Burried with projects right now, but I'll eventually get the stove disassembled and cleaned. Just going to take time. The Art Garland
was easy, the paint just washed off with thinner.

Greg L