Glenwood No 9 Base Burner-(Hopefully) a Few Photos

franco b wrote:

SteveZee wrote: I wish the shaker fork was a bit longer.

Why can't you extend that handle?

Well Fella's that would certainly help if I could lengthen it somehow? It's cast iron so welding can be done but it's tricky. fusion welding or braising is possible but I'd hate to make a mess of it visually. I'll take it over to the shop and see what they say.

You guys have given me an idea though! I could easily have a steel copy made. Probably not as good as cast iron but it would certainly work. It's not all that complicated and it's a flat piece. Looks like this. What a you think?

By grinding down that flair on the end a piece of steel tubing could be slipped over it. The only limitation is how much extends outside of the stove that can have something attached to it. If there is an inch I think that would be enough to bolt a piece of steel tubing or channel or even plain flat.

SteveZee wrote:

franco b wrote: Why can't you extend that handle?

Well Fella's that would certainly help if I could lengthen it somehow? It's cast iron so welding can be done but it's tricky. fusion welding or braising is possible but I'd hate to make a mess of it visually. I'll take it over to the shop and see what they say.

You guys have given me an idea though! I could easily have a steel copy made. Probably not as good as cast iron but it would certainly work. It's not all that complicated and it's a flat piece. Looks like this. What a you think?

These grates all have an extension tool that fits in the opening at the end of the sliding bar. The Glenwood has one that fit into the two little holes at the end. A good set of vise grips clamped onto the end will work in a pinch.

A good and also an ordinary welder can make an extension of it and grind it . If well done, paint it or black polish it and nobody will even know the story of the lever.
Cast iron that is not rotten from fire is easy to weld, and just make a larger weld so you can grind it to an invisible finition.
I had my V.C. Vig II grates welded a few times to make them more agressive so should be even easier on your lever.

Good ideas. What I think I'll do is use the end of the original broken fork handle as my extension.
I can either make the extender tool like William suggested with a couple of pins (bolts) since the current fork has two holes in the end or just bolt it on with short machine bolts. Worse comes to worse I could grind down the bolts flush so they don't interfere.

But don't forget to make the modif. so the lever looks like original, I think it's important on an antique stove.. Well, it's my personnal opinion but it's your stove.

Here is a picture of the shaking tool that fits into the grate on the Glenwood No 9.

nortcan wrote:But don't forget to make the modif. so the lever looks like original, I think it's important on an antique stove.. Well, it's my personnal opinion but it's your stove.

Yes, Nortcan, that's what's bothering me too. Making sure it looks correct. I like the tool William posted. Mine has the two holes like his so a tool like that would work well.

You see how his sticks out where you can see the holes. Mine has to be pulled out a bit from under that lip before the holes are exposed. It's just a couple inches short.

William,
I've been thinking (dangerous for me) about the base burner concept. What stops the primary from bipassing the firepot (such as the vents in my stove ash pot that reduce draft) and up through the vented burner ring around the firepot in the #9? Is there a valve that isolates this area such as the baseheater's circuit, or is the primary air only under the firepot itself and not able to get around the isolated firepot?

SteveZee wrote:William,
I've been thinking (dangerous for me) about the base burner concept. What stops the primary from bipassing the firepot (such as the vents in my stove ash pot that reduce draft) and up through the vented burner ring around the firepot in the #9? Is there a valve that isolates this area such as the baseheater's circuit, or is the primary air only under the firepot itself and not able to get around the isolated firepot?

The ashpit/primary air portion of the stove is seperate from the base burning portion. On these designs the gasses go down around the outside of the fire pot and are channeled via baffles to the right and left sides of the square bottom part of the stove, then they are directed around the back where they then go up the back pipe to escape. When I get a new computer, I will post a diagram showing how it all works. The primary air can't go anywhere except up through the grates or out of the check damper if it is opened.

Ok, yep, that make perfect sense William. By the way, does the plate cover on the backpipe need sealing or does that just sit on top like mine does? It would seem to not be sealed but thought I'd ask.

i don't have one of those shaker handles . any idea where I can get one ?

mason coal burner wrote:i don't have one of those shaker handles . any idea where I can get one ?

I've been looking for one myself mason. With no luck thus far. What I'm thinking is getting some round 7/16ths stock and bending/fabbing one up. The two holes in my fork are 7/16th. Thought I'd get a 26" piece, cut off a couple one inch spreaders and two 4" inch handle peices, bend it in half then bend the two ends down and tack an inch bit between the two in a couple places to give it the right width. Then just build up the handle end with a couple pieces between the "spreader" inch peices and wrap the handle or use some coating or covering. I'll let you know how it comes out.

I noticed some one saying they wanted the grate handle to be longer. You can weld an extension on to the handle and smooth it up with bondo and sand it till its perfect. When you get exactly what you want you can send it to Tomahawk Foundry in Rice Lake Wis. and they will recast it. They do a great job.
On the shaker handle you can do the same thing by borrowing one or I usually have a bucket or two of these around. The trick is to find the right size.

Yesterday, I gave the No 9 a little test run. It was down in the low 40's and so I that was all the excuse I needed to try it out. In a word I was ASTOUNDED at how it worked for the first time.
I got home from work about 2 in the morning and lit it up. The stove drafts very well and the charcoal was fired up in minutes. I didn't want the house to get too hot so I put 4 shovels full of coal into it. That amounted to about 12 pounds of coal at the most. I set the primary damper to closed and put the stove in Base Burner mode. The primary damper and ash pit door fits tight enough to completey starve the fire and it almost went out. So the stove is excellent from an air tightness point of view.
After I set the dampers again, I maintained a low stove temperature of around 260 dgrees and a stack temp of around 115. The coal bed was fully ignited across the entire bed and I still could maintain that low of a temperature. I didn't use the check damper at all to achieve this.
Here is the good part. Remember I only had about 10 or 12 pounds of coal in the stove. It burned until 4:00 THIS MORNING!!!! When I got up yesterday I fully expected the fire to be out, but the coal bed was still all burning. I went to work again last night very pleased and impressed. I didn't give it another thought.
When I got home this morning around 3 AM I walked by the stove and felt heat still coming out of it. The darn fire was still burning!! It was almost out by this time but the stove was still quite warm.
12 pounds of coal burned for 26 hours in the Glenwood No 9. !!! There is nothing left of the coal exept dust. I expected the stove to perform well, but; nothing like this. I am more than pleased at the results produced by the first little fire I had in it. This only gives more solid evidence as to the supurb design of these Base Heaters and reinforces my high opinion of them.