Rework of 1905 March Brownback Double Heater

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blrman07
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Post by blrman07 » Sun. Jun. 28, 2015 6:20 am

I started the disassembly of the March Brownback Double Heater I am using at our church to heat the second floor. I picked up this stove summer before last and it sat on my back porch for the first winter as I had no place to put it. It's way too big for our little house. When we redid the second floor in our church for youth games, meetings and Sunday School I took it up there to provide heat. We burned wood, mostly lumber scraps because we were not heating continuously. We only needed quick startup and then let it burn for a couple of hours and it did just fine. That is until it got into the upper 20's outside then it struggled to keep up. Then we supplemented with a free standing propane stove and that seemed to carry us through. There was only a couple of Sundays that we didn't have Sunday School upstairs because it was just too cold.

I tried each screw holding the thing together. About half came out without too much of a fuss but the rest had to have the heads filed flat then drilled out. I got a surprise when I took a screw out and then the stove seemed to collapse on itself. :shock:

The stove has a firepot bolted to the bottom frame. A sheet metal piece sits on top of the firepot and has cast iron shields that protect the sheet metal from the direct fire. There is a second piece of sheet metal that forms the outer barrel that is screwed into the top of the stove and the skirting at the bottom. This helps to form a passage for heated air from the pot to the top of the stove. When I took the last screw out in that sheet, this took pressure off the cast iron shields and they fell inside the stove and the sheet metal dropped inside the fire pot. When the two pieces of sheet metal and the three cast iron shields fell inside the stove it made a very load crashing sound. :help2: People on the first floor heard it and when it wasn't followed up with yelling they went back to what they were doing. I asked one person why no one came to check to make sure I was alright. They said " We knew you were working on the stove and if you needed help you would holler." What if I got hurt I asked. You would have hollered for help. Nice crew...:mad:

The inner and outer sheet metal will have to be replaced. The cast iron pot segments were supposed to be bolted to the inner sheet metal. They weren't which is why they fell when I released the tension on the outer sheet metal and then everything shifted and fell. That tells me that the sheet metal was replaced at least once and they took a shortcut putting it back together. When I get the new pieces of sheet metal rolled I WILL bolt those segments to the inner sheet like it's supposed to be. No more surprises.

I am including some pics of the stove in operation during the winter. I have it broken all the way down to parade rest now and will take pics of it disassembled. For now here is the pre disassembly photo's with it in operation last winter. :)

Attachments

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Burning just some scrap lumber. When we put coal in it for a longer burn that firepot under the silver skirt will get a little pale pink glow to it and really radiate some heat!!! His little brother, the UMCO pot belly is now in it's forever home in a tree house somewhere around State College Pa. He was a junk yard rescue.

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Here you can see the three cast iron segments that sits on top of the fire pot. They protect the sheet metal. They had been fitted together and was held there by tension from the two sheet metal barrels. Not a good idea but it worked until I took that last screw out!!!

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freetown fred
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Post by freetown fred » Sun. Jun. 28, 2015 7:13 am

Nice project Padre. :)

 
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deepwoods
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Post by deepwoods » Sun. Jun. 28, 2015 9:36 pm

Very nice old stove!! My interest in the oldies has been growing since I have seen what you experienced restorers have been able to do with them. I know there must be a difference between your double heater and the base burner type but judging from the names of each, it sounds like they basically re-route the burn gasses for more heat extraction? I have seen flow diagrams of the base burner type here on the forum. Are there similarities with your double heater??
Recently I was looking at some of the restorations here on the forum and my wife happened to look at them too and she was very impressed. I asked her would it be nice to have one and she said sure BUT the Hitzer in the living room will not be moved :doh: I havent the heart to put one of those old beauties in the basement.
Hope your resto goes smoothly!

 
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Post by blrman07 » Mon. Jun. 29, 2015 5:31 am

The double heater is a combination of a radiant stove and external passages for hot air to rise and be vented out a top louver. A baseburner reroutes the combustion gasses from the top of the stove through passages or an external divided pipe, to the base of the stove, then back up the other side of the divided pipe and to the chimney.

A baseburner reroutes the gasses and a double heater has passages for heated room air.

It surprised me that the bulk of this stove is just sheet metal. :shock: If any of those three cast iron plates crack, warp, or are damaged in any way the stove is basically scrap.


 
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Post by blrman07 » Mon. Jul. 13, 2015 5:38 pm

Ok the stove has been disassembled down to parade rest. I got it apart without breaking anything if you can believe that!!! The "sheet metal" sides turned out to be two different types and thickness. The inner one was a mild steel and pretty eaten up and the outer one was galvanized. Both have been replaced at an unknown time but it appeared to be a quickie job. Now I know why the cast iron plates fell when I released the tension on the sheet metal. They were supposed to have been bolted to the inner sheet but they weren't. They were just sitting on top of the pot and squeezed together by sitting the inner sheet into the grove on the top of the pot.

Out of all the parts, the sheet metal is the only parts I see I will have to replace. The others can be dressed, filed, filled, or cleaned and reused. It took stopping at five shops in three different towns before I found one that would make new sheet metal pieces to make the barrel. Awaiting a call from them on a price and time when they will be ready.

Attachments

100_4147.JPG

This is the inner sheet. The D shape is where the exhaust casting is attached. You can see where the cast iron segments come up to . Now that I see how the stove is put together I can see it would have been popular with those who maybe couldn't afford coal but had burnable stuff around.

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Same sheet without the flash. You can see the pinhole light spots where the metal burned through

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Outer sheet was galvanized. Not good to use on a stove. Zinc heats up and gasses and kills you. Not good for a quiet evening.

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Unlined pot waiting to be put back together.

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deepwoods
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Post by deepwoods » Mon. Jul. 13, 2015 10:38 pm

When replacing the sheet metal can you get a little extra thickness for more durability? It probably wouldnt make much difference in the heating ability.

 
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Post by blrman07 » Tue. Jul. 14, 2015 7:29 am

deepwoods wrote:When replacing the sheet metal can you get a little extra thickness for more durability? It probably wouldnt make much difference in the heating ability.
Yepper I asked them to step up two thickness for the durability factor. The groove in the top of the pot will take it no problem.

 
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deepwoods
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Post by deepwoods » Tue. Jul. 14, 2015 11:53 am

The groove in the top of the pot will take it no problem.
If that groove has the extra room the original barrel just may have been considerably thicker than the "old rebuild" metal.
Do you intend to burn coal strictly when the rebuild is finished?
Does the stove have I guess what they call a back pipe?


 
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Post by blrman07 » Wed. Jul. 15, 2015 9:04 am

deepwoods wrote:The groove in the top of the pot will take it no problem.
If that groove has the extra room the original barrel just may have been considerably thicker than the "old rebuild" metal.
Do you intend to burn coal strictly when the rebuild is finished?
Does the stove have I guess what they call a back pipe?
No back pipe. This is a double heater not a baseburner. Picture a pot belly stove with the area above the pot being sheet metal. The pot belly part is cast iron. Now put a ring around at the top of the belly and another ring at the top of the stove. Now put a second sheet metal on it attached at the top ring and the ring at the top of the belly to form an air space.

The first heating is the radiant heat from the cast iron pot which is exposed like on a pot belly stove. The second heating comes from air that is heated as it rises between the two sheet metal pieces.

We are using this to supply heat to the second floor youth area in our church. It's wide open with raw brick walls and exposed rafter ceiling. About 1200 sq ft wide open with drafts galore!!! We will be burning scrap lumber as we don't have to lite it and keep it lit. We only use the area for about 4 hours a week currently. Last winter we started it about two hours before and that brought the temps up to comfortable. When it got into the 30's outside you wanted a light jacket and when it got into the teens it was heard the tables as close as safely possible towards the stove.

We have scored a coal fired hot air heater that will help if we can figure how to get it into the basement. It's bigger than the "Bilco" doors in the sidewalk and I'm not sure how we could get it down the stairs. Lots of measurements to do before we chainsaw the floor above :shock:
Link to that work: Got a Free Keystoker Warm Air Furnace!!!

 
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Post by blrman07 » Wed. Jul. 22, 2015 7:45 am

Picked up the both barrels sheet metal sections yesterday from the shop I found in Shamokin Pa. They did a good job on replicating what I took them. They even went an extra step and put a roll in them for me. :D A little bit of cleaning and fitting on the top of the pot area and I'll be able to dry fit them. Then it's find the appropriate nuts and bolts and get ready to reassemble.

I am not going to go through the expense of re-nickle for the stove. It will be just high temp paint and polish where applicable. This is a working stove for maybe 8 hours a week total. The kids don't care just so long as it puts out heat.

They mentioned they heat their shop with a coal stove and of course I asked if I could look at it. This is what they have in the shop. He said they burn only scrap wood in it and between their renovation work and stuff they pick up they heat the shop area all winter. He told me on cold days they get the "donut" on top glowing a definite pink. :shock:

Attachments

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No sheet metal surround for this bad boy.

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I asked him if it was really necessary to put HOT on the donut. The return look said it all!!

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They are still around

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He said they never clean it out since they burn only scrap wood.

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Post by deepwoods » Wed. Aug. 19, 2015 6:46 pm

Rev. Larry, is this project been put on the back burner or has some new progress been made? I still say it's a neat old stove :D

 
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Post by blrman07 » Thu. Aug. 20, 2015 8:55 am

LOL that you should ask!!! I was just thinking last night that it's about time to put that puppy back together!! Some of the trees that are the first to get their leaves are now tinging yellow around their edges. The sumac is starting to turn red and the poison ivy is starting to tinge red a bit. I hope to get back on this project in two weeks.

The church purchased a house at a ridiculously low price and we have been in the process of refurbing it so we can offer it for rent to a low income family. That is eating a lot of time. I have to get that stove back together as well as a Locke 120 that is going to a church about 15 minutes west of us as a donation through the Stove and Heat Ministry. I also have a home for two other stoves that need some tending to also.

Gonna have to shift back over to working on stoves in two weeks. 8-)

Thanks for the interest and the reminder :D

 
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deepwoods
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Post by deepwoods » Thu. Aug. 20, 2015 9:56 am

Wish I did not live so far away. I could help out and gain some much needed hands on knowledge of the old stoves and have satisfaction of doing some good for others.

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