Stove Tools - Off Season Projects

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Sunny Boy
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Posts: 25567
Joined: Mon. Nov. 11, 2013 1:40 pm
Location: Central NY
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Anthracite Industrial, domestic hot water heater
Baseburners & Antiques: Glenwood range 208, # 6 base heater, 2 Modern Oak 118.
Coal Size/Type: Nuts !
Other Heating: Oil &electric plenum furnace

Post by Sunny Boy » Sat. Jul. 19, 2014 7:52 pm

Summer's a good time to not only work on the stoves, it's also a good time to catch up on those little things used in connection with the stove that never seem to get done while the stove is in use because of needing them to keep the stove going.

I'm talking about stove tools and accessories, such as the towel rod that many ranges had to dry kitchen towels on.

When I got my range, it had the wrong shaker handle. Luckily, I found an original at a stove shop in Vermont.

It was missing the original type Glenwood cover lifter handle. However the handle that came with the stove had a hole in the tip that fit over the pin shaped top of the oven damper to operate it. So, since it can do double duty, I had it re-nickeled.

But, the poker rod was badly eroded making it much shorter. It was so short that there was no way to use it without singing the hair off my knuckles. I made a longer one out of a wooden file handle and some 1/4 inch rod from the hardware store. Worked well, but it lacked the coiled wire handle of the tools that come with the range. Just never looked right to me.

I started looking for a better coil wire handled coal stove poker rod. The ones I could find were all basically the same. Only about 17 to 18 inches long. Not long enough to reach up and through the grates at the rear of the stoves to clear any clinkers, or jams without getting knuckles very close to hot metal. Even with the #6 base heater, much less reach to the rear of the bigger firepots of the 118 Modern Oaks.

So, I made a new, longer rod out of 304 stainless steel. Heated, hammered and filed the cap to shape and polished that half of the rod length. Then I hand filed the opposing flats under the cap that the last coil of the handle gets pinched into to keep the handle from moving. Then I installed the original shaker coiled handle on it. Last was to bend the right-angle tip, heat form, shape and polish the tip point and the rest of the rod.

First two pictures show the shortened original and the wooden handled replacement. The third shows comparative sizes of the eroded original rod next to the new stainless steel rod with the original coiled handle installed, along with one of the commonly found poker rods that are too short.

Last picture shows the flared pointed tip that fits nicely up through the triangular coal grates.

Next on the small projects list is to make longer poker handles for my other stoves and a towel bar for the range. Wilson gave me an original towel bar. Rather than polish and plate the entire rod, I'll bead blast the coiled handle, polish, and nickel plate only it, then it too gets a new stainless steel rod.

Then, each of the stoves will have all the tools that are supposed to go with them.

Paul

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freetown fred
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Joined: Thu. Dec. 31, 2009 12:33 pm
Location: Freetown,NY 13803
Hand Fed Coal Stove: HITZER 50-93
Coal Size/Type: BLASCHAK Nut

Post by freetown fred » Sat. Jul. 19, 2014 8:31 pm

And that my friends is how it's done! :) Nice SB

 
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nortcan
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Joined: Sat. Feb. 20, 2010 3:32 pm
Location: Qc Canada

Post by nortcan » Sat. Jul. 19, 2014 8:36 pm

Very nice job Paul you'r a pro and bravo! :idea: These nine and well done tools and accesories could be offerd on the forum ""store""?

On the second photo, the side of the stove seems very close to the wall, maybe an illusion???


 
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freetown fred
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Posts: 30293
Joined: Thu. Dec. 31, 2009 12:33 pm
Location: Freetown,NY 13803
Hand Fed Coal Stove: HITZER 50-93
Coal Size/Type: BLASCHAK Nut

Post by freetown fred » Sat. Jul. 19, 2014 10:42 pm

Looks like spaced concrete board Pierre--just an old guys thought:)

 
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Sunny Boy
Member
Posts: 25567
Joined: Mon. Nov. 11, 2013 1:40 pm
Location: Central NY
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Anthracite Industrial, domestic hot water heater
Baseburners & Antiques: Glenwood range 208, # 6 base heater, 2 Modern Oak 118.
Coal Size/Type: Nuts !
Other Heating: Oil &electric plenum furnace

Post by Sunny Boy » Sun. Jul. 20, 2014 5:55 am

Thanks guys.

Nortcan, yes the back of the range is close to the wall. Because of the angle, it looks closer in that picture than it actually is.

But, the back side of range is covered by a sheet metal box heat shield that I made when I installed the range. That gets the range to within the minimum safe distance to meet code. With the stove running 700+ at the top plates, the back wall closest to the rear of the fire box, only gets up to 90-100 degrees. And the heat sheild helps keep more heat in the back end of the oven.

Fred, your close. It's this stove owner that is "spaced" :D That's the original wood wainscoting (board and bead) of this Victorian monstrosity.

Paul

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