Can Anyone Tell Me About My Sumter 115 A Stove

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4Runner
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Post by 4Runner » Fri. Dec. 18, 2009 11:04 pm

I just bought this stove and don't know anything about it. My wife liked it so we bought it for $55 dollars at a thrift store. So far the only thing I found on it was that it has the 115 A Sumter on it and thats it. I did a google search of it and found nothing, so I was hoping that someone on here would know what it was. I was told it was a coal stove, but what I was told and what it is could be a big difference.
Thanks for any help you can give me.

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Pete69
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Post by Pete69 » Sat. Dec. 19, 2009 3:17 am

Cant say for sure without seeing the grate setup but it looks like a coal stove. Does it have shakeable grates? Is the fire box a cast burn pot or firebrick lined?

 
4Runner
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Post by 4Runner » Sat. Dec. 19, 2009 12:50 pm

Pete69 wrote:Cant say for sure without seeing the grate setup but it looks like a coal stove. Does it have shakeable grates? Is the fire box a cast burn pot or firebrick lined?
The fire box is a cast burn pot and here are pictures of the grate. I hope it will help. I have never had to deal with coal or wood burning stoves before so I am trying to learn a little bit more about them.

I took the grate out and took the pictures one is the close position and the 2nd is the in the open position. If you need anymore info please let me know. I wanted to find out also if anyone know about a yr this was made or any info on this stove at all.
Thanks again to any help anyone is willing to provide.

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Freddy
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Post by Freddy » Sat. Dec. 19, 2009 4:13 pm

I've not seen one just like it, but that sure is a coal grate. Is the entire thing cast iron, or are the sides sheet metal and the other parts cast? Generally, the fire itself should not be against sheet metal. The fire pot should either be cast iron, or lined with stove brick. Can you get some pics of inside the stove? Does it seem like it's air tight? A coal fire wants ALL the air to come from under the coal, and you want to be able to control the air.
It's a cute little stove. Do have have a safe place to hook it up and try it? Just make sure to have a bucket of sand handy. If anything goes wrong...like...uncontrollable heat, it turns red & the cats hair is smoking....and the cat is 14 feet away...then you can dump in the sand and put the fire out.
Get it hooked up to a chimney, preferably have a barometric damper & be able to measure the draft, but for testing, anything goes. Cut up some short wood & get a wood fire going, With the bottom air open, add a cup of coal, wait 5 or 6 minutes, add another cup of coal. I'd use pea or nut size. Once you get a the coal burning well, keep adding layers until it's full of coal, then shut the air down to control the amount of heat. Filling it with coal does not give you more heat, (unless you leave the air wide open) it just gives more hours of the temperature that you desire. If you see the stove starting to turn red, shut down the air. If the air is shut tight, and it's still red....it's time for sand! That would mean you're leaking air soemwhere...or everywhere.


 
4Runner
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Post by 4Runner » Sat. Dec. 19, 2009 9:20 pm

Freddy wrote:I've not seen one just like it, but that sure is a coal grate. Is the entire thing cast iron, or are the sides sheet metal and the other parts cast? Generally, the fire itself should not be against sheet metal. The fire pot should either be cast iron, or lined with stove brick. Can you get some pics of inside the stove? Does it seem like it's air tight? A coal fire wants ALL the air to come from under the coal, and you want to be able to control the air.
It's a cute little stove. Do have have a safe place to hook it up and try it? Just make sure to have a bucket of sand handy. If anything goes wrong...like...uncontrollable heat, it turns red & the cats hair is smoking....and the cat is 14 feet away...then you can dump in the sand and put the fire out.
Get it hooked up to a chimney, preferably have a barometric damper & be able to measure the draft, but for testing, anything goes. Cut up some short wood & get a wood fire going, With the bottom air open, add a cup of coal, wait 5 or 6 minutes, add another cup of coal. I'd use pea or nut size. Once you get a the coal burning well, keep adding layers until it's full of coal, then shut the air down to control the amount of heat. Filling it with coal does not give you more heat, (unless you leave the air wide open) it just gives more hours of the temperature that you desire. If you see the stove starting to turn red, shut down the air. If the air is shut tight, and it's still red....it's time for sand! That would mean you're leaking air soemwhere...or everywhere.
I did start it up outside with only about a 2ft stack on it, and I only used wood (I don't have coal yet for it). It worked really well even with the wood in it. If I used the vents that are built in to the ash pan door and the firebox door I could almost put the fire out completely. As for the stove itself, the upper body is sheet metal the firebox is cast, the walls of the ash pan are cast and the ash pan bottom is sheet metal. The very top is also cast. The firebox is about 6 inches deep (cast iron part). By the way the vents are screw type and if I shut the top vent and opened the bottom one in the ash pan door the fire would pick up really great and when I would close it the fire would back down to nice glowing ambers, Not good for burning pine but it was just to test it. I have it set up outside right now because I don't have a chinney for it so it won't be setup in my garage untill I get the stack set for it or I decide just to put in a different heater all together. If I can sell it I might just do that to. Not sure what to do yet.
Thanks for helping me out, let me know if you need any more info. As for the picture of the inside I will get them hope in the morning.

 
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Freddy
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Post by Freddy » Sun. Dec. 20, 2009 7:01 am

Good test! It sounds like it'll burn coal OK, but I do worry a bit about the steel sides. If the fire stayed in the cast iron part, no problem, but if you filled it with coal, and coal like to be filled, then it seems you'd have to shake it every couple hours to keep the fire down low. If the coal fire is allowed to get up into the sheet metal part, well.... you'll be seeing red for sure, and that's not good. Maybe custom cut firebricks on an angle and line the sheet metal? If cut right, the last brick will hold them all in.

 
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Post by 4Runner » Sun. Dec. 20, 2009 10:02 am

Doing the fire brick sounds like a good idea. I can also unbolt the sheet metal and place a cast iron tube inside, setting ontop of the fire box cast, and this will increase the overall firebox hight and hopefully not let the fire touch the sheet metal sides. My wife took the camera with her this morning so when she gets back I will take pictures of the inside so you can see whats going on in there.
Thanks for you help, really.

 
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Post by 4Runner » Sun. Dec. 20, 2009 12:14 pm

4Runner wrote:Doing the fire brick sounds like a good idea. I can also unbolt the sheet metal and place a cast iron tube inside, setting ontop of the fire box cast, and this will increase the overall firebox hight and hopefully not let the fire touch the sheet metal sides. My wife took the camera with her this morning so when she gets back I will take pictures of the inside so you can see whats going on in there.
Thanks for you help, really.
Wife is back and I got some more pictures.

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Looking down from the top hole of the Stove

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looking in from firebox door, the cast firebox is deeper then I thought, it's around 8in deep

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The door is also cast and the vent is the screw type the same as the ash pan door and vent.

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Post by Freddy » Sun. Dec. 20, 2009 3:56 pm

Strange little stove. Sure looks like it didn't have firebrick from day one. Maybe someone else will chime in and give another opinion. It just seems if the coal is burning right against the steel it will shorten it's life.

 
crocker
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Post by crocker » Sun. Dec. 20, 2009 5:31 pm

Yes that is a coal stove ,I have the same shaker style grate in a coal stove in my garage, but there should be a handle that you attach to the grate ,the removable part of the grate is used when claning or emptying the stove out , you can just use a iron bar that will fit inbetween the gape in the grate , I use a fire polker even though it a little long ,when you shake down the round you want to rotate this grate backand forth think of the grate as a wheel you want to go in drive and reverse 6 to 10 time when shaking . and I bet that little stove can push some heat ,My stove is smaller then that holds only about 8 to 10 lbs of coal and it use to heat me out of my house when running full boar. I attached a picture of my stove below. watch it this little stove got me hooked on burning coal full time and lead me to buying that new stove in the other picture

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4Runner
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Post by 4Runner » Sun. Dec. 20, 2009 9:50 pm

Freddy wrote:Strange little stove. Sure looks like it didn't have firebrick from day one. Maybe someone else will chime in and give another opinion. It just seems if the coal is burning right against the steel it will shorten it's life.
I wrote to an antique place that deals with all types of stove and I hope they can tell me a little more about this stove. If I find out more I will post it just so anyone that comes across one can have an idea of what it is and if I get a price I will include that too. I am going to try getting a little coal tomar (Monday Morn) and see how this will heat ( outside for now that is) I still need to get stove pipe for the outside part of the chimney. I would really like to think that it would heat my garage, but I don't know how it will do, I have a 1200 sqft open span garage, for the people out there that don't think of the sqft area, I can put 4-6 cars inside. 10ft high solid concrete walls, and no insulation yet. So all I can do is cross my fingers.

 
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Post by 4Runner » Sun. Dec. 20, 2009 9:53 pm

crocker wrote:Yes that is a coal stove ,I have the same shaker style grate in a coal stove in my garage, but there should be a handle that you attach to the grate ,the removable part of the grate is used when claning or emptying the stove out , you can just use a iron bar that will fit inbetween the gape in the grate , I use a fire polker even though it a little long ,when you shake down the round you want to rotate this grate backand forth think of the grate as a wheel you want to go in drive and reverse 6 to 10 time when shaking . and I bet that little stove can push some heat ,My stove is smaller then that holds only about 8 to 10 lbs of coal and it use to heat me out of my house when running full boar. I attached a picture of my stove below. watch it this little stove got me hooked on burning coal full time and lead me to buying that new stove in the other picture
Thanks for the info. I really like the idea of the coal stove and can't wait to get it set up in the garage.

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