Germer Base Burner No17

Hello, I've been following along here on the forum for a while now but this is my first post.
I must say that most of you are very courteous and helpful when someone needs any help.
I have been burning coal in my home now for many years. The forum has indirectly helped me make the decision to purchase a Hitzer stove and buy my coal at Harmony Coal Mine [now closed]. For this I thank you.
Now I picked up this Germer base burner, and have begun to restore it myself.
My question is "what have I gotten myself into now?"

That looks a lot like my Favorite baseburner and I REALLY like it. When you put it back together, you may want to do some practice runs to make sure you know what order the parts need be assembled in as that's not always obvious and you don't want the stove cement all over the place. But you'll be able to get that sorted out and it will make sense.
It looks like a later stove from the mid teens and the baseburners sure do their job well. I've had a fire in mine since Nov. 12th and it's doing just fine. Even the other day when it dropped down to -26 out and was quite windy. I can't say the whole house was toasty warm, but I wouldn't have expected that of it anyway. I could have opened the stove up a bit more I suppose, but it sure did a fine job and actually did a better job of keeping up with the cold than I expected it to. If you have a place to use it, I can't imagine you not being happy with it.

Earl, your Favorite base burner is a real beauty.
I only hope that this one turns out as nice as yours.
The restoration is going to be a real experience.
This is the first mock-up since disassembly and cleaning. I have the swans and finial at the plater now to get an idea of his work.
Did you polish the cast before the plating yourself?
I have been trying different methods of smoothing the cast but haven't found the perfect method yet

Germer Radiant Home Base Burners are at the top of the list in the mica base burner category. If I was going to get a mica base burner it would be a Germer or an Andes.
Is this stove complete with the magazine? I'm sure it is a double heater also.
You have a prize there and a heat making beast which is as efficient as it is capable.
Take your time, do it correctly and it will pay you back for the rest of your life.

Some nice photos of the inside would be nice.

I sent all the parts to be plated to Madison Stove Works in Madison, WI. Rick has a guy doing the polishing that's been at it for over 40 years. He charges around $35 or $40 per piece so your leg base has 8 pieces, so it's times 8. And so forth. I am very happy with the way it turned out and I did all the taking apart and re-assembly of it. I did have to get a few parts re-cast and had that done up at Rice Lake, Wisconsin. The Tomahawk foundry did that and they really did a nice job. And the turnaround was very quick. It's hard to find the right stove-bolts for some of it, but I have always been a bolt "saver" so I was able to get it all back together with old stove-bolts and square nuts. Except the 4 bolts that hold the leg base together. Those are hardened round headed bolts with a star kind of opening for the driver. But I could buy those already plated and they are not very noticeable. I absolutely HATE Phillips head screws and refused to use them. If you don't want to go to the expense of getting all the bolts nickel plated (and that can get expensive) you can buff out the steel headed bolts and they will look pretty good. I did get the fancy bolts and nuts re-plated for the side ornaments and also for the dome, but the others I either just polished, or I had some that still had decent plating on them.
It looks like you have a lot of the work done already. It's a lot of work getting them apart, especially around the fire-box, but it eventually begins to come along. The fit and finish of these old stoves really is amazing. They really were artisans back in those days. Pianos have the same sort of fit and finish to them, those boys did nice work all those years ago.

Hi William, Yes it does have the complete loading magazine feature. The grates and firepot seem to be the original ones. The baffle plates in the back are missing and will have to be fabricated.

Earl, Most of the original hardware was lost in the disassembly. Most of the hardware was standard flathead 10/24 and 12/24 with square nuts. I will probably replace with stainless screws this time.

Most of those fancy flower nuts were missing.
If anyone knows where to find those please let me know where.

Nice looking stove you have there!

Was that whole thing sandblasted?
I second the idea of a complete mockup before final assembly. During my final assembly I ran into issues that I overlooked during mockup. It was due to me being lays and assuming certain things. Also as mentioned, you need to be sure you have an idea on the order of assembly. That can cause a great deal of frustration.

Some of the bolts I needed were made from carriage bolts. I had to turn the heads down into bugle heads of the correct specifications. Eight inch long 1/4"-20 stove bolts don't exist at the local hardware store.

The stainless screws will be fine and will blend in a lot better with the nickel if you buff them.
When you say the baffles on the back, do you mean the cast flat panels that force the heat down to the bottom of the stove and then let it return up the other side into the smoke pipe? Those would need to be in there of course to make the stove work properly. If you can't find someone that has a stove like yours to cast the parts from, you might be able to fabricate something out of sheet metal and use them as a pattern to get some cast.
Rick at Madison Stove Works was going to look into having some of those flower nuts cast. He may have done that by now. You could email him and ask. The one's on my stove look more or less like a hex nut with nicks driven into them with a cold chisel. I'll take a picture and post one if you want. There are some variations on that one though.

Welcome and congratulations on the stove. That's gonna be a beauty when it's done !

For anyone wanting old style fasteners already plated, or in stainless, here's a place that most of the top auto restoration shops use (including mine). Their cost is the same, or less then having the original fasteners plated. And, because they start out with new fasteners, the details are not over buffed-out like a plating shop has to do with rust-pitted originals.

http://www.gardner-westcott.com/

For all my other stainless steel fasteners, I use Jamestown Distributors, and Tioga Stainless.
http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/main.do
http://tiogastainless.com/

Paul

Paul, thank you! I knew there had to be a source like that out there. I couldn't find it when I was working on my stove. I have a '41 Buick also and that will be nice for that thing as well.
One thing with the stainless though, is make sure you use the right stainless nut on the bolt. I had some stainless nuts and bolts gall together one time and had one heck of a time getting it back apart. Heat will do that to them, and of course, it is a stove... I'm not sure how well anti-seize compound works on a stove.

Yes bead blasted. Over 50 hours in the blasting cabinet. The stove had apparently spent some time outside in the weather. The nickel plated parts and the back side of everything was thick rust. What is unusual and probably saved this stove was that most of the exterior was porcelain coated. Unfortunately the porcelain was chipped and spiderweb cracked, showing thru rust stains. I really hated to remove the porcelain but it just looked terrible.

This is the style of nut that I am looking for.

I guess they are called check dampers inside the back of the stove that are missing. I can probably fabricate them from 3/8 steel plate and weld actuator rods to the plate.
Now that you mention it I've had some stainless bolts gall together too. I'll be sure to heat test the stainless hardware before I use it.