Keystone 11 Baseheater

I am fully confident that you will do a bang up job on this stove. Once you get started on it, it won't probably take too long. If you think you've got a big project, look at the one I just bought!!!!

With all the nice baseburner stoves being bought and restored, I thought I'd update my lack of progress.

So one afternoon last fall, I decided to see how much of the paint I could remove from the assembled stove.
So I dug out the pressure-pot sand blaster and drug the stove outside of the shop.
The paint came off quite easily, the cleanup uncovered some hidden screw-heads. I now know how to remove some panels
on the stove body that I didn't know were removable.
The bare iron has a lot of cast-in detail, I think the stove will look very nice once I paint or stove-polish it.
I'm finding traces of nickel on a few parts, so I should be able to reconstruct the original appearance.

It seems that the size of the slots and gaps in the grates make me think that even nut size coal might fall through some gaps.
The idea that this little stove was designed to burn stove size coal seems like a mistake, In such a small firepot, I doubt that
more than 15-20 pieces of stove coal will fit in the pot.. I would think that a small decorative stove like this would be designed
to burn nut or pea sized coal which would provide a denser coal bed and a longer burn time.. It's not like you'd buy a little stove
then try to max out the heat output by using stove coal, A little stove like this would probably be used in a small room, not
intended to heat a whole house.

I will have to buy some large nut-size coal to try, once I get the stove restored. And put up a chimney to use.

Greg L

Such a pretty little stove. And it is just begging for some deserved attention.

Lookin' good! I think nut size coal will be just fine.

Does anyone have a link to an online source for the putty-like refractory clay?
I know castable Rutland is available on line, but I'd like to not have to make the mold to cast it, I'd like to use the stuff you 'hammer' into place..

But I do have a question, which type of refractory is strongest? I don't want to have the stuff break off the fingers of the firepot.

You can see in the photos of the firepot that the lower perimeter has 2" long fingers with slots between. I want those fingers to
have refractory to protect them from heat, just like the walls of the pot.. So, which type of refractory is most likely to stand up to
the shaking of the coal bed and not break off the fingers??

thanks, Greg L

Greg

Nice looking unit! I like the square shape as well.

I second the motion for an online source for the putty-like refractory clay. I want to do the firepot on my new Crawford. Any suggestions or tips on using the stuff is appreciated as well.

I believe the product is called; "Norexam," or something similar. I have used it but the stuff I got was given to me by Emery. Steve Zee, has bought it and think it is readily available at boiler and plumbing supply houses.

Onedollar,

You can pick up Plibrico Plastic Refractory in Woburn Massachusetts. --> Not too far from you.

This is what Emery's son Brandon at the Antique Stove Hospital recommended and it was easy stuff to use. S

Type to use is the "Super Air Bond F"

Cutter Northern Refractories
83 Holton St, Woburn, MA 01801
(781) 938-8998

http://www.fssperry.com/Plibrico.htm

Bill

looks great Greg!

A few photos of the very small firepot.

Greg L

Thanks for the photos Greg.
Hope to see that super nice little stove on the job this Winter. I really like the "Style" of that stove I'm shure you will get it back to it's day one look.

Yep I used Noxram and I got it from Mark McGrath at The Love Barn Antique stoves. Very easy to use and is clay like with alumina grit (feels like fine gravel in it). I think any boiler suppy would have the stuff or it's equiv. They call it plastic refractory as Ashburmham stated.

Yep I used Noxram and I got it from Mark McGrath at The Love Barn Antique stoves. Very easy to use and is clay like with alumina grit (feels like fine gravel in it). I think any boiler suppy would have the stuff or it's equiv. They call it plastic refractory as Ashburmham stated.

Yep I used Noxram and I got it from Mark McGrath at The Love Barn Antique stoves. Very easy to use and is clay like with alumina grit (feels like fine gravel in it). I think any boiler suppy would have the stuff or it's equiv. They call it plastic refractory as Ashburmham stated.

That's a nice little stove. My Dad used to say those were popular in apartments and hotel rooms where they didn't need a whole lot of heat. It makes sense. But that little Columbian Joy with a 12" firepot put out more heat than one might think it would. On that stove I couldn't get the refractory cement to stay put on the fingers and found that the fire wasn't really hot on that part of the firepot anyway so it didn't really matter. As little as that thing is, it wouldn't cost a whole lot to send it to the Tomahawk folks and have one cast and use up the 'new' one. And once you get some ash built up on the top of those grates you'll figure out how to shake it down and not lose a lot of coal through those grates. And as odd as it may seem, someone must have thought quite a lot of that stove to go through the trouble of painting it with that aluminum paint. And that stuff actually does a pretty good job of keeping iron from rusting. Plus, they more than likely cleaned all the ashes out before they did that, and that helped keep it from rusting badly as well. The best thing about it is, the aluminum paint makes it look bad enough that it often drives down the purchase price since no one wants to mess with it. Gosh some of that stuff can be a pain to remove though.
Nice looking old heater. It's hard to believe those little stoves like that were only around $12-$15 when they were new. Some were a little more, but not much more. Congratulations on getting it!