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Re: Felix 221 Is Coming

Posted: Tue. Sep. 18, 2012 11:48 am
by firebug
nortcan wrote:Thanks to share. Very nice work of Art :!: Enamel on cast iron is so neat and very easy to clean the dust out.
You have so many models of stoves in Europa, bien chanceux et profitez-en :clap: Nous attendons la suite pour votre poele avec impatience.
Salutations du Québec.
Oh, don´t mention impatience... I´m about to burst with impatience! :junmp:

Re: Felix 221 Is Coming

Posted: Wed. Sep. 19, 2012 6:50 pm
by nortcan
You know firebug, everyone here on the forum understand your feeling and we hope to hear about that Felix as soon as possible.

Re: Felix 221 Is Coming

Posted: Thu. Sep. 20, 2012 10:05 am
by firebug
somehow the order of the pics got messed up while uploading.... oh well, I hope you can live with that little flaw :D

Step one of the mission: accomplished! Lugged the stove up 3 flights of stairs, who on earth had the stupid idea of bringing an object of 250lbs to a 3rd floor appartment only with a sack barrow?!? Oh right, that was me - nobody else to blame...
I :love: that stove!
felix20092012 007.JPG

happy but exhausted

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Doors & dome still missing, but one can alraedy guess where we´re going...
felix20092012 031.JPG

view from the side, doors still missing

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10mins later: doors, hotplates and grates are installed
felix20092012 021.JPG

view down the combustion area through the removed cooklid

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felix20092012 074.JPG

doors are installed

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here you can see the firebox, smaller than what I remembered... approx 10x10x8inches, I know you lot are not going to be impressed with the grate & the fact that the grate is circular while the firebox is angular....
felix20092012 064.JPG

view through the cleanout-door, note the horizontal grate

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Re: Felix 221 Is Coming

Posted: Thu. Sep. 20, 2012 10:15 am
by firebug
felix20092012 015.JPG

the stove must have been overfired badly at some point in time...

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the enamel is damaged around the exhaust collar, must have been overfired badly at some point in its 98 years...
felix20092012 037.JPG

the second hotplate, normally hidden under the cast iron dome

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the second hotplate under the cast iron dome on top of the stove

enough for now, will now remove a bit of rust I´ve spotted here & there, the package was slightly damp inside... :roll:

Re: Felix 221 Is Coming

Posted: Thu. Sep. 20, 2012 11:20 am
by firebug
both ashpit door and cleanout door have screws attached to the handles. these screws pull the doors tightly against the body of the stove. They don´t wiggle without pulling the screws, but once you tighten them the doors are 100% flat to the surrounding frame, no way of pulling out a piece of paper anywhere - reckon the fire should be easily controlable.... :D

Re: Felix 221 Is Coming

Posted: Thu. Sep. 20, 2012 11:44 am
by carlherrnstein
It looks good. As far as the grate goes its there to hold the fire and shake the ashes out, if it can do those two things then its great. I wondered will you be burning anthracite or bituminous?

Re: Felix 221 Is Coming

Posted: Thu. Sep. 20, 2012 2:03 pm
by firebug
carlherrnstein wrote:It looks good. As far as the grate goes its there to hold the fire and shake the ashes out, if it can do those two things then its great. I wondered will you be burning anthracite or bituminous?
probably sub-bit briquettes most of the time & anthracite only during the coldest weeks of the year... :cry:
it´s simply too expensive with anthracite currently at €21 per 100lbs = $544 per metric ton! the briquettes are "only" 245€ ($317) per metric ton

Re: Felix 221 Is Coming

Posted: Thu. Sep. 20, 2012 10:18 pm
by nortcan
Very nice stove. The stove seems to be really built "solid". Like a beauty having a strong body ( I talk about stove here :D . ).
That grate looks like the one used in the Chubby stoves. One thing is that the ash will accumulate easily on the corners around the grate. Ash accumulation is a real problem when burning coal, my Vig ll teached it to me very clearly. One thing that could (just a suggestion) be done is to make a sort of funnel like shape around the grate with castable HT cement to get rid of the horizontal shelfs. Coal ash loves all non VERTICAL forms.
Did you get the stove's efficiency %rating with the stove?

Re: Felix 221 Is Coming

Posted: Fri. Sep. 21, 2012 3:04 am
by firebug
"Very nice stove. The stove seems to be really built "solid". Like a beauty having a strong body ( I talk about stove here :D . )."

Thanks for your compliment! :oops:
No, no, I knew (hoped) you were refering to the stove. It was actually a prerequesite to get a solid stove. Especially after last year´s letdown with the very elegant Danish stove I was about to buy. That one turned out to be a "Salonofen" i.e. the euro equvalent of a "4 o´clock stove" that was never intended to burn 24/7...
(Plus the Danish Lady was unreasonably expensive, more than twice the price of the FELIX)

"That grate looks like the one used in the Chubby stoves. One thing is that the ash will accumulate easily on the corners around the grate. Ash accumulation is a real problem when burning coal, my Vig ll teached it to me very clearly. One thing that could (just a suggestion) be done is to make a sort of funnel like shape around the grate with castable HT cement to get rid of the horizontal shelfs. Coal ash loves all non VERTICAL forms."

I was afraid you were going to say that :?
But I am going to burn briquettes made of sub-bituminous coal most of the time (the shape of the firebox indicates, that the stove was built mainly for that fuel). The briquettes are made of ground up coal, which is dehydrated first and then pressed into bricks of 18x5x6cm...
we´ll see how it works...
I feel like a heretic not to go for 100% anthracite, but it is so much more expensive than the briquetts!! :no1:
Sub-Bit briquette.jpg
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Did you get the stove's efficiency %rating with the stove?[/quote]

nope... :|
already spoke to them on the phone - they forgot to include it in the package,
but it´s - supposedly - already in the mail an on it´s way to my place. well, you know what they say: seing is believing
Mark

Re: Felix 221 Is Coming

Posted: Fri. Sep. 21, 2012 9:39 am
by Smoker858
Very nicely crafted stove. Will there be a hearth?

Re: Felix 221 Is Coming

Posted: Fri. Sep. 21, 2012 9:43 am
by SteveZee
You will get a good feel for the stove as you begin to burn in it. I can see that the grate will probably need some help such as a poker (like the Chubby's ) you can see in Larry's video. But you'll get the hang of it quickly. The door above the ash pan, with the horizontal slots, is that for assisting in the ash removal? That is above the circular?

Re: Felix 221 Is Coming

Posted: Fri. Sep. 21, 2012 9:56 am
by firebug
Smoker858 wrote:Very nicely crafted stove. Will there be a hearth?
Thank you! I ordered a big piece of slate to place it on.... next best thing to the lost original enamelled iron plate it used to sit on

Re: Felix 221 Is Coming

Posted: Fri. Sep. 21, 2012 10:42 am
by firebug
SteveZee wrote:The door above the ash pan, with the horizontal slots, is that for assisting in the ash removal? That is above the circular?
the door in the middle is a cleanout door to remove clinkers - and most likely to help scratch the ashes out of the corners towards the middle of the firebox.
the grate sits in hinges and swings inward. The slot you can see in the front (between the frame of the actual door and the shaker grate) brings up additional combustion air from under the fire... I think this needs a bit of explaining: Anthracite and high quality bituminous coal were exclusive fuels in 1914, when the stove was built. The average household would make do with wood or coke or briquettes (made of sub-bit coal mixed with bituminous coal fines), these fuels need quite a bit of secondary air to burn propperly. So opposed to baseburners (which were produced & sold here under the name "Americans" since the late 1880´s), the stove you see here would burn front to back instead of bottom up (the setup is refered to as "Irish Stove" in Germany)
felix20092012 065.JPG
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above the circular opening is a hotplate, it´s hidden behind the lage nickle trimmed doors.
here´s a pic with the doors open & hotplate in place
felix20092012 050.JPG
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Re: Felix 221 Is Coming

Posted: Fri. Sep. 21, 2012 3:16 pm
by wsherrick
That certainly is a beautiful stove. The design appears to be a lot like the Godin stoves of France. The front to back burn path design idea will work fine for softer coal. You do need to get a long poker to knock the fire down from the top. It won't be that hard, you will have to learn it by doing. In a few months you will be an expert. Of course we are all here to help you in any way we can.

Re: Felix 221 Is Coming

Posted: Fri. Sep. 21, 2012 7:54 pm
by SteveZee
It is a beauty Firebug and thanks for that explanation, that nakes good sense. I love how they called the baseheaters "American's" :D Very cool and a bit like up here in Maine where sub sandwiches or grinders as we called them are refered to as "Italian's" :P