My "New" Glenwood Modern Oak 116

As most of you know, I was searching for an upgrade for the Star Herald that complimented my Glenwood cook range in the kitchen. These two heated my big 226 year old raambling house here on the Maine coast last season. One or the the other (usually the Herald in the center of three chimneys) would suffice during spring or fall and both in the winter. I used only maybe 40 gal of heating oil last year and that was only because I was gone for a week. While we did have a mildish winter last year, these two did well down to about low teens, high single digits before I needed to "help". Fortunately we didn't have the normal 2 weeks of below zero weather that we sometimes get in Jan or Feb. I wanted to get a stove with enough horsepower (and controllability) to handle any situation without pushing as hard. The Herald performed admirably for a 10" firepot but loved to run in it's sweetspot of 450 and would do so for as long as you fed it. It didn't like to run low temps for extended periods because it wasn't an airtight stove. Enter=The Modern Oak 116.

I had been on the lookout for a Glenwood #6 and almost bought one a couple of times. You know the story. Something was wrong, or the timing wasn't right, or it was 800 miles away etc...Making a long story short, I found this Modern Oak 116 within a 100 miles of home here and it was great original shape. While I had my heart set on a #6, this stove is the same top as the 6, without the double bottom. Instead it has the divided back pipe option. It is of the same series as my cookstove too so they sort of match. Being the same 16" pot as the #6, I think I will get close to similar performance out of this stove. The following are some pix of the stove as found and the restoration I'm just about done with. Being air tight, I think this one will have allot better control and probably heat the house by itself for more time than the old set up did. I'll use the cookstove too, when needed, but I feel like my coal consumption won't change that much due to the fact that this stove will heat the house by itself for longer then the Herald did, plus it will run lower and longer on loads. We'll see but I did order an extra ton to be sure. Here's the first few pix as the restoration began. Check out the original grates in the 3rd picture in excellent shape. The pot needs relining though. I'll post the rebuild bit by bit as it happened for anyone interested in the process.

Very nice find Steve. Please, don't wait too long before sending more photos, you know how much we like photos here
Thanks for sharing.

Glad to see you got a bigger and better stove Steve!

The 16" firepot is perfect and you will be very happy.

Pierre,

I will post some new ones each day. Sort of teasing along. The stove really is now like the day it came from the Weir company foundry and assembly in Taunton, Mass. I'm hoping it performs as well as it looks. I have to get someone to help me set it on the base still, for the final photo with the nickel trim on!

If you remember, Eddie, (PC 12-47E) from mid-coast Maine got one in the middle of last winter and had to make a divider and damper for the back-pipe. He seemed to be very happy with the performance of his.

EarthWindandFire wrote:Glad to see you got a bigger and better stove Steve!

The 16" firepot is perfect and you will be very happy.

Thanks EW&F. I'm pretty stoked that this one will serve the purpose perfectly for this old house here. The fact that it will sit smack in the middle of the house and have better low fire control will surely help too.

Here's a few more pix of the restoration as it progressed. First of is the firepot out for inspection, removal of what was left of the old lining material and then media blasted and preped for finishing, reassembly, and new liner installation.

Last pix is of the old back pipe which as you can see was in need of a replacement.

Nice find, it will be interesting to see how it really performs for you this winter.

Are you going to use the pour in a mold refractory or the putty you mold and pound onto the firepot ??

Using paint or stove polish, if polish, what type or brand??

Looking forward to seeing more photos.

Greg L

Greg, Thanks yep I'm really interested too in seeing the difference in performance.

I used the "putty" or ramming compound as they call it to re-line the firepot. It was the same stuff I used on the range in the kitchen since I had a half a box left. It's called Noxram and is pretty easy to use. I've attached a pix of the new lining.

As far as the finish goes, I used William's Stove Polish. This is IMO, the best stuff around. It's completely old school (like our buddy William), as it is just graphite in solution, but what separates it from the rest is there is no wax in it that burns off. It has a nice dull semi flat look to it. It was easier to do each piece at a time too. I considered painting with an HVLP unit and stove paint first but decided to try this alone and see how it goes since I always use this stuff anyways even after paint and on my cookstove top.

I'll get into the re-assembly when I have some time tonight.

After everything was cleaned, media blasted, and polished, we get out the bucket of furnace cement and tons of rags to clean up the squeeze.

Steve, the cylinder looks like it's in excellent shape !
Does that putty stick to the cleaned metal surface real well? seems like it could come off in chunks if it didn't stick reall well.

Greg L

That stuff you used to line the firepot is interesting...any special requirements to apply it or "cure" it?

Yeah,,, that putty your using to stick it together looks real interesting too. What is that????????

LsFarm wrote:Steve, the cylinder looks like it's in excellent shape !
Does that putty stick to the cleaned metal surface real well? seems like it could come off in chunks if it didn't stick reall well.

Greg L

Yep it really is Greg, that why I decided to go for it. I've put a brand new jacket on it and also a new back pipe so it should be all set for a good many years.

The "glue" is regular old Hercules Furnace Cement. It's very sticky but spreads quite easily. I probably overdid it a bit (application) because it's pretty much the same as gluing and clamping a wood project except that you use the actual stove bolts. There was allot of "squeeze" and wiping excess with rags and the parts have actual grooves or channels that fit together. The furnace cement is added for insuring air tightness and I wanted to make sure it was nice and sealed.

It will now set up/cure over the rest of the summer.

Rob R. wrote:That stuff you used to line the firepot is interesting...any special requirements to apply it or "cure" it?

Rob, That is the Noxram stuff I used to make the liner in the cookstove last year. It's pretty easy to work with and comes in a 50lb block. It feels like clay thats full of grit. The grit is alumina. It's rated for much higher then this will ever fire so it will protect that pot quite well. What I like about it is that you can pretty much mold it to whatever shape you need and just tap on it with a mallet or hammer. It sets up fairly fast and it totally cured in about 48hrs or so. It's still probably wise to "burn it in" with a couple wood/charcoal fires at the start of the first season. I didn't have any problems with the cook stove. After you smack it into shape (ram it), I found that if you take a wet sponge, like a scotchbright sided kitchen sponge, and scrub it smooth a bit, you'll have better ash drop than if you leave it rougher. It's normally a ramming agent for blast furnaces.

Here's a couple more of the assembly.

In the first you can see the brand new jacket going on.

Then the front shield for the loading door.

Then the top and top skirt hanger.