Coalpail.com Forum

Still searching for some information on the Grander Stove Co. Looks like I may have to take another road trip down to Royersford to find out more.

The Grander catalog that Pierre has doesn't list The " Merry Bride" . I did find a newspaper advertisement from 1911 showing one.

Paulie

The search is over, and it took a lot longer than expected but it was worth the wait.
The seller misplaced the footrests and side wings for the stove so we agreed at that time to deduct a hundred dollars from the purchase price. In late September of last year they were now where to be found so I decided to put the restoration on hold and placed an alert on Ebay and Craigslist for Merry Bride parts.

I found a few Merry Bride stoves, but they were either smaller or larger, or priced rediculously high.

This week it paid off and I found a complete stove 15 minutes away from home with a bad firepot.

Of course, the sellers grandfather had two stoves, and both were for sale.......... and since the other was an International Star...... you can guess the rest of the story.

In short my Merry Bride has her wings !

Paulie

Glad to hear you found the needed parts.

SWPaDon wrote:Glad to hear you found the needed parts.

Thanks Don. . It's going to be a few more months till I get my shop relocated and everything back in one place. Meanwhile the Home Works #25 is done and waiting for the trim casting and plating, so now that I have everything for Bride, it's time to get started on it.

I stripped down the Merry Bride parts stove last week and although there are a lot of repairs needed and the firebowl is thrashed, I think it may still be cost effective to restore both stoves.

That being said, I really love the look of Pierre's Golden Bride and decided to paint the bonnet and base black on this one.

I am hoping by this time next year to build a small plating line at least to do the copper and brass prep work and if the results are favorible, with the help of my plating guy I may give nickel a try.

Paulie

Did some work on the Bride this week. Got it apart and most of it blasted, and decided to powder coat it with high temperature powder and do the base and bonnet in black like Norcan's Golden Bride.

I'm pretty sure the previous owner had no clue how to run this stove or the purpose of the base chamber clean out door. The base chamber was completely filled with ash and stove coal rendering the base burner option useless.

Paulie

Pauliewog wrote:Did some work on the Bride this week. Got it apart and most of it blasted, and decided to powder coat it with high temperature powder and do the base and bonnet in black like Norcan's Golden Bride.

I'm pretty sure the previous owner had no clue how to run this stove or the purpose of the base chamber clean out door. The base chamber was completely filled with ash and stove coal rendering the base burner option useless.

Paulie

At least she finally found a home where she can get the love she deserves.

+ one !

lookin outstanding pw

have you been takin the MB parts over and running them thru the wheelabrater ? those surfaces are mighty nice looking

i think that base chamber is on a par with Earl's Favorite when he got it opened up at rebuild. can't imagine having a stove like that and putting it to such misuse.

SWPaDon wrote:

Pauliewog wrote:Did some work on the Bride this week. Got it apart and most of it blasted, and decided to powder coat it with high temperature powder and do the base and bonnet in black like Norcan's Golden Bride.

I'm pretty sure the previous owner had no clue how to run this stove or the purpose of the base chamber clean out door. The base chamber was completely filled with ash and stove coal rendering the base burner option useless.

Paulie

At least she finally found a home where she can get the love she deserves.

Problem is Don.......If I keep it, I'll be looking for a new home too !

Paulie

freetown fred wrote:lookin outstanding pw

coalfan wrote:+ one !

Thanks for the kind words of encouragement !

Paulie

KingCoal wrote:have you been takin the MB parts over and running them thru the wheelabrater ? those surfaces are mighty nice looking

i think that base chamber is on a par with Earl's Favorite when he got it opened up at rebuild. can't imagine having a stove like that and putting it to such misuse.

I ran both Merry Brides, and the International Star thru the Whelebrator and ran them thru the powder coat line using high temp powder.

Most of the parts I ran with a one minute cycle, but the porcelain parts I ran thru 3 times to blast it all off.

The base chamber top plate was warped from being restricted. I clamped a 1/2" plate on both sides and ran it thru the burn off oven for 3 cycles at 800* tightening the clamps a little each cycle to straighten it out. Can only imagine how it reacted in base burner mode. I may try that technique on a set of warped grates and see what happens.

Paulie

Made a little bit of progress on the Merry Bride.

Paulie

We decided to take off for a few weeks and head down to the Keys for a little R&R. The timing was perfect and we enjoyed the 80 degree weather while watching the Noreaster roll in on the Tiki bar tv.

After a closer look I bit the bullet and decided to restore both of the Merry Brides. Rather than send all of the good parts out for recast, I chose to repair the broken ones and send the patterns out before we went away.

Started with the check damper cutting and brazing a piece cut from a 4" square electrical box cover and bending a piece of #10 wire, followed by a little bondo, glaze and primer.
Next was the check damper handle.
Drilled two small holes, bent a piece of #12 wire for support and filled it with bondo. Trimmed it up with the dremel and gave it a few coats of high build primer.
The base burner damper plate must have broken in its previous life and was modified with a straight rod and the original handle was missing.

All that was needed here was to cut and braze on two round tabs ,fill in the two small drill holes and add a little filler before giving it a few coats of high build primer.
The missing base burner handle was the easiest pattern to make. Searching the garage for something the right thickness took a while, until I glanced down and noticed it was in my hand all the while. My clipboard. Traced it out, buzzed it out with the jigsaw, sanded it with the multitool, used the dremel to duplicate the casting numbers, and shot on a few coats of high build primer.
The only parts missing on the Original Merry Bride were the wings, footrests, and the load door handle assembly. Gave them a few coats of primer, extended the handle tab a bit, built a crate and shipped them out to Tomahawk. Since both footrests are the same I only shipped out the one.
Paulie

Now that I'm rested and back home it was time to tackle the most time consuming piece . The firepot in the parts stove was overheated and distorted with some of the fingers burned off or missing.
During my mini vacation over a few cold beers, I came up with a plan. I gave up looking for someone with a 3-D printer large enough to make a model, thought about sending out the good one for recast, and finally decided to pour a new refractory liner in that one and just repair the damaģed bowl to use as a pattern.
First order of the day was to remove the warped sections of the firepot using a 4" grinder with a thin cut off wheel.
Before pouring the new liner, I pressed it into a block of 2" thick rigid foam in order to compare it with the distorted one I would use for a pattern.
Next step was to wrap the outside with a ratchet strap and tighten it until the remaining fingers lined up with the impressions in the foam block.
After covering the inside of the firepot with aluminum foil and the outside of the fingers with foil tape, a piece of cardboard was cut and taped to create a dam and filled with spray foam. The next day the foam mold was removed and clamped in place on the back gap of the firepot. Traced out the finger shape on some scraps of wood, drilled two holes in each strip and secured them to the foam mold with finishing nails. Mixed up some bondo and filled in the outside. Once it was setup the foam mold and finishing nails were removed and the remainder filled in with bondo and sanded.
Moved and clamped the mold to the other side. There were enough salvageable teeth to fill in the front side, so all that required was to bondo them in.
Taking measurements off the good firepot and clamping a wood strip as a guide, it was easy to build up the back lip with the plastic filler.
Some sanding, a couple layers of glaze, and a few coats of primer and paint and the pattern is ready to crate up and ship out to Tomahawk.
I called Al Friday afternoon to let him know we were back home and was pleasantly suprised to hear my other parts are ready and will be shipped out this week.

Paulie