Chrystal Crawford 112 Restoration

Hey Everybody,
So I decided to give Chrystal a try. I do hearby commit to sharing the restoration of her with you all, my solid fossil fuel burning brethren. So here is the surgical layout. The stove is all torn down,The back pipe and barrel are already off to the sheet metal shop for fabrication. I have to decide on a plating co. to re-nickel the fineal,boot rests,skirt and all the door knobs/air knobs.. I will be making a trip to a local stove shop on thursday to buy some refractory clay and see if they have (shaker handle,burner plate, another grate) my great is perfect but Emory recomended having a replacement cast and keeping the original, So if I can find a replacement instead of sending mine out thats what I will do. Then I will just keep mine safe just in case I do need one made.

So far the bigest worries I have are,

How to pound the refractory clay in such a small barrel,

The cleanout door at the bottom of the back pipe does to fit right it is really hard to close and there is a gap when it does. It might just need some grinding but it does look like someone fabricated a "new" latch on it so that might be part of the problem.

If I cannot find a new burner Plate how will I go about getting a new one cast (there is a piece of steel set in there now which fits well and you cannot see it once the dome is in place). So it may not be a bit deal if I don't get that done this year..

Well here are some pics....Jason.

Here are two more, I guess 10 pics is the max in one post....

Oh does anybody have any ideas on where I can track down some bolts with square nuts. Or bolts and nuts that are not dipped.

The stove will look super once you finish the restoration. Take your time and best of luck on it.

Castable Refractory...
Heavy waxed cardboard...
Think Sonotube...
Worked nice on The King O' Heat...

g13nw00d-man wrote:Oh does anybody have any ideas on where I can track down some bolts with square nuts. Or bolts and nuts that are not dipped.

Pretty sure you can still get square nuts from McMaster-Carr

dj

Putting in the refractory liner is easy. You won't have a problem with it. You have to soften it first by pounding it, then it is easy to mold.

Flat top 1/4-20 plain steel grade 2 square nuts mcmaster carr part # 94855A115

Carr has many to choose from, some are plain finnish (no coating) some are pickled.

Here is a link http://www.mcmaster.com/#square-head-specialty-bolts/=j5dldf

Carl,
I should have been more specific, I need mech head (flat tip screwdriver) with only the nut square.

Jason, Almost every hardware store around will have the stove bolts and nuts in their machine screws etc... section. They usually have a "stove bolts" section.

As far as the refractory goes, yours doesn't look all that bad. I would not try to chip it all off.

My suggestion would be, clean up the sides by chipping off any of those fused chunks or edges poking out. Then you can take your refractory "clay", grab a handful off the block and knead it a bit (if needed;-)) then push it onto any low areas and tap with a rubber mallet. All you want to do is fill in any areas that need material and/or smooth those sides out. Your goal is have as smooth a surface as possible so the ash drops when shaking. I even used a ball peen hammer for the smaller areas. Keep a damp sponge nearby and sort of wipe the area when you've got it looking good. That will smooth it even more so. You don't need it to be really thick either, that will just take coal space away. You are right, it is a bit of pain on this style stove do to the space constraints and that is why I suggest doing it this way. Might be easier with the barrel off the base too? I never did one on this type. My Glenwood pot was a seperate piece. If you can't get at it then maybe the pourable type suggested with a sonotube will work better?

As regards to the burner plate, Go to Tomahawk Foundry or Auburn stove foundry and they will copy the steel on in cast iron for you. Just make it like exactly what you want to finished one to be. http://auburnstovefoundry.com/ or http://thebizbasket.com/subsites/home.asp?ID=57 and give them a phone call.

Keep the questions coming and we can help with anything you need.

Thanks Steve,

I am having trouble finding any non dipped nuts and bolts, I have been to a few local shops as well as "fastenall" in hermon. My stove does not have a separate cast iron fire pot that is the fire bricks where right on the barrel. so most of those were destoyed when they were removed. I had to remove them to have the new barrell made. I will see what I can come up with tomarrow at Bryants Stove shop. Jason...

g13nw00d-man wrote:Thanks Steve,

I am having trouble finding any non dipped nuts and bolts, I have been to a few local shops as well as "fastenall" in hermon. My stove does not have a separate cast iron fire pot that is the fire bricks where right on the barrel. so most of those were destoyed when they were removed. I had to remove them to have the new barrell made. I will see what I can come up with tomarrow at Bryants Stove shop. Jason...

No worries. The refractory material is better than fire brick anyway. Just use it in place of the fire bricks. If you can't find any bricks to replace the ones you took out make a mold out of one that is still intact, if you have one. Use the refractory stuff to make some more bricks from the mold.

Or this is what I would do. I would just put a new liner inside the stove. It will be just as effective and a lot easier to do.

g13nw00d-man wrote:Thanks Steve,

I am having trouble finding any non dipped nuts and bolts, I have been to a few local shops as well as "fastenall" in hermon. My stove does not have a separate cast iron fire pot that is the fire bricks where right on the barrel. so most of those were destoyed when they were removed. I had to remove them to have the new barrell made. I will see what I can come up with tomarrow at Bryants Stove shop. Jason...

Yep I got you Jason, I didn't see the lower pix with the stove in pieces. That would mean the the old refractory was gone. Well see what they say (At Bryants) about doing the refractory on the jacket. Might be easier to do the pouring type with a tube inserted as was suggested.

I talked with Emory last week before I tore the stove down, He instructed me in the same manner you have William. Useing castable refractory molded to the new barrel. My heading to bryants tomarrow is not for that reason but hopefully to find the missing/extra parts I need. Emory mentioned that he saw a chrystal crawford 112 in there bone yard a few weeks ago. I will also be buying the castable there. I do have the old bricks, I thought about making a mold of the last row of bricks which are located just above the load door. and using pourable refractory because of its unifrom white color (it might reflect light out of the mica) but that is just cosmetic... Jason