Chrystal Crawford 112 Restoration

I trimmed the mold/foam down to make a block. I am ready to mix and fill the mold with A.W. Perkins Castable Refractory. The second pic is the mold filled with refractory mixed to the containers specifications.

Here is the first brick (on the left) and the master on the right. There are a couple air bubbles in it but it looks just like the master. I have the second brick poured and setting right now (it takes 24 hrs to cure before I can remove it from the mold). The second one I mixed the refractory a little bit more wet than the container stated plus once filled the mold, I layed my viberating sander on the table beside the mold to bring the air bubbles to the top. I will post pics again when all the bricks are done.

That's amazing. You should keep the mold for future use. The Crawford deserves an owner like you.

Jason, You are the Man! That's outstanding work and looks excellent. I didn't realise you had decided to cast bricks versus the ramming agent clay type. They will fit tight enough to hold or will you "mortar" them in with furnace cement?
My Herald has the what looks like a cast pot with a row of the bricks on top that rise above the feed door the length of the brick. These are great to emable you to really fill it up when re-fueling.

WOW , you certainly built you house from your own bricks
Really neat job, keep posting

Thanks everyone,
Steve, Chrystal had an all brick firepot original, but I am only casting the top row and using the clay type refractory like your harold.. I don't know why I decided this method other than I like that the top row has the #12 pressed into the brick and they look nicer that the moldable refractory.
On a side note today I picked up my Barrel and Back pipe from the eternally slow fab shop and brought it to another shop locally. The new shop is a bigger operation and is a bit more expensive but told me they will have the job done in one week.

Jason,

Yep that is just like the Herald set up with the row of bricks. Good deal on the new fab shop. I hate when they tell you a time or date and fail, fail, fail to deliver I had a guy supposed to come and put seamless gutters up here and I waited for 2 months. Every week it next week for sure, or I'll call you for sure and it never happened. I finally found another guy who came in a week and did the job on the spot. That's a A plus job and review in Angies list!

Hey Everyone,
I have been busy with so much stuff I did not have time to post the new pics. Here is the new Barrel and Back Pipe from the second fab shop. They did a great job concidering what they had to work off of. I just had them cut the flu holes, the other holes for the load door and smaller door I did at home, I wanted to make sure they were right on. I also drilled all the screw holes. In the spirt of keeping her as original as possable I even reused the three brackets that hold the top of the stove on. so after everything was cut and drilled I assembled everything to make sure everything fits proper, then I tore it back down to put the moldable refractory in.

Here I am pounding out the moldable refractory. William you were right on after it was pounded to about and inch and a half thick, it was very easy to work with. After it was laid in place around the barrell I used the rubber mallet to form the joints of the sheets into one solid firepot. I took small bits to fill in any low spots. Steve thank you for your advise using the scrubby part of a sponge and water to smooth the surface as much as possable.

After the Fire pot set up for a day I assembled the stove (for the last time) . My wife helped me by holding the panel's of the ash pit together as I lifted the barrell and base onto it, My hands are still black from the stove cement . All the joints were sealed well. Before I hooked up the stove to the flu I put three cans of sterno in the ash pan to help in the curing of the refractory.

Your stove is coming along very nicely, I wish I had some of that liner material it looks like a nice product to work with and the end result is very impressive.

I got my cast iron back from Tomahawk. It turned out just as everyone said it would, exact copy of what I sent. You can see the new grate and fork the the first pic and the secondary air control and shaker tool in the second.
I also set the bricks I made in the stove. I cut the middle brick about a half inch to small so there is a bit of a gap on either side of the load door. You cannot tell unless you look through the top like the picture is. My wife got upset that I had to go buy fire place morter (cuz it's gray) instead of using the stove cement I already had. I just think black in all the joints would make it look ugly. Thats my opinion, I welcome yours however wrong it may be... Yes, yes I know it's the inside of the stove and you won't see it, but thats how OCD works.

Well a stop at my local "old tyme""old man owned" hardware store produced some brand spanky new five inch pipe. I love old hardware stores you can find anything there, pending you can find anything if you know what I mean. . So Crystal is done being molested by yours truly. I am waiting for her jewlery to be done and delivered. But here she is watching over my living room. I am resisting the urge to use bolts, washers and nuts in all the handles and knob holes and loading her with some cowboy. I will have to wait as it is our tradition to fire up on Oct 31, Pending of course the nickle is back.

She certainby is a think of beauty, you did a great job on her. These old stoves still amaze me with their craftmanship. I can see you take great pride in working on these stoves as I do.

Very impressive job Jason! Really looks outstanding. Your fire pot looks better than mine .
We learn as we go but I know that the smoother the surface the better it will shake down and you will find (on that type stove) that you need every help due to the round grates needing allot more shaking than the bar/prismatic's on the Glenwood. The other side of the coin is that your stove will burn all the coal and waste nothing. Crystal looks awesome in her new setting. Again congrates on a job well done.

PS: My MO116 is idling along at a pawltry 200 degrees and will hold that all day when I don't need much heat. Really appreciate a tight stove.