Restoring My Wehrle 112 Acme Sunburst Baseburner

Thanks Jerry.

I use my O/A touches alot. In my business, about 20 % of the time for heating rusted parts during disassembly and 80% for hammer welding sheet metal patch panels, or heat shrinking dents in sheet metal. But never welding cast iron - just brazing repairs.

Up to now, any cast iron welding I needed was too critical for my skill levels. I rebuild air cooled motors that are very rare, so learning on cracked engine cylinders, that are near impossible to find replacements of, is not sometime I wanted to try and learn on. I've farmed out all the cast iron welding to a very good local welder and only done the final finishing myself.

With this Glenwood Oak stove I'm restoring, it may give me a chance to get in some cast iron welding too.

In prepping my 118 Oak parts for sand blasting last week, I found three small cracks - one in each front corner of the base, radiating out from the firepot seat. And one where Stove Hospital Avery said they commonly get them - radiating up the front of the firepot from a mounting screw hole at the very bottom edge.

All three look like the bottom edge of the fire pot was over expanding from heat strain. Considering the damage to the grate bars and no evidence of a firepot liner, I think this stove was run too hot, too often on coal.

Paul

Sunny Boy wrote:
All three look like the bottom edge of the fire pot was over expanding from heat strain. Considering the damage to the grate bars and no evidence of a firepot liner, I think this stove was run too hot, too often on coal.

Paul

I'd guess more likely run to hot on wood... Not that it matters....

dj

dlj wrote:

Sunny Boy wrote:
All three look like the bottom edge of the fire pot was over expanding from heat strain. Considering the damage to the grate bars and no evidence of a firepot liner, I think this stove was run too hot, too often on coal.

Paul

I'd guess more likely run to hot on wood... Not that it matters....

dj

dj,
That's quite possible too.

The coal overly hot assumption is mine and only based on the lack of any evidence of creosote, or wood smoke smell, . . . that my kitchen range was loaded with.

Paul

Hats off to the gas welding of cast iron. I can gas weld just about anything, but I would flounder on a piece like that. Nice job!

Wanna Bee wrote:Hats off to the gas welding of cast iron. I can gas weld just about anything, but I would flounder on a piece like that. Nice job!

its all about controlled puddling and he has clearly done this before (most would have a big mess on their hands without some practice on similar pieces first), this is pretty fine/small parts and he is doing it with a fairly hefty medium torch and proper tips... his vice stand and garage is a tell tail this is not for most of us to try but for the few of us who do have this gear I LOVE the fact he posted every step of how and what he did! (cant buy intel like that without signing up for VoTech )

I had that "watch the puddle" drilled in my head for many years. At first I wasn't allowed to use any kind of welding rod so I could show Dad how to link the puddles one after another with just the tip of the torch. A person never forgets that, once you understand it. You will see what happens when you have the flame too hot or cold, move slowly or too fast. The neat thing is, it doesn't matter what kind of material you are welding or with what kind of welder, stick, mig, tig, torch, the principle of watching and understanding the puddle is the same. Even the best factory or college-trained welders use that principle. I often wonder what kind of welder I could have been with that kind of formal training added to what Dad and Grandpa handed down to me. Jerry

Jerry,
I have a collection of old catalogs from the late 1890s to early 1900s and came across this. We all wish the US Dollar is worth what it was back then.

Thank you so much for going to all this effort for me! I kept finding the "model 100" all over the stove, and "112 Sunburst" or " Corona". I also kept finding the patent date of June 2, 1908 on all the parts, but until today I had never found an actual build date. I have an ad like yours that's in color I snatched off ebay that's from a 1914 Sears Stove catalog. It isn't nearly as detailed as your ad. With your ad I was able to understand what the model 112 actually meant, a 12" firepot. I had heard there were larger models made, but didn't understand what that meant, either. Just today I was cleaning some parts and on one of the doors I finally found where someone had hand-carved the date "2-12" on the inside of the mica frame. I'm reasonably certain that was the month and year it was built. Do you mind if I copy and print this ad so I could frame it to display by the stove when it's finished? After reading your ad I'm glad it's not one of the larger models, as I have a small home and they would be far to large for it I think. Thank you again...this means a lot to me! Jerry

I will ad my collection for him as well... (mines older and worth .03 cents more than VFW's ) Now you have an antique ad stating both names on your work of art print, frame and display them near the stove and thank Rich for giving us the only place in the world to discover/learn and find information about these priceless objects... Its hard enough to find the old literature for these... YOU HAVE THE ACTUAL PRODUCT! ... were glad your sharing your wealth with us here on the forum

jubileejerry wrote:Thank you so much for going to all this effort for me! I kept finding the "model 100" all over the stove, and "112 Sunburst" or " Corona". I also kept finding the patent date of June 2, 1908 on all the parts, but until today I had never found an actual build date. I have an ad like yours that's in color I snatched off ebay that's from a 1914 Sears Stove catalog. It isn't nearly as detailed as your ad. With your ad I was able to understand what the model 112 actually meant, a 12" firepot. I had heard there were larger models made, but didn't understand what that meant, either. Just today I was cleaning some parts and on one of the doors I finally found where someone had hand-carved the date "2-12" on the inside of the mica frame. I'm reasonably certain that was the month and year it was built. Do you mind if I copy and print this ad so I could frame it to display by the stove when it's finished? After reading your ad I'm glad it's not one of the larger models, as I have a small home and they would be far to large for it I think. Thank you again...this means a lot to me! Jerry

Jerry,
I am so glad you enjoyed the info. Please feel free to use anything that I have posted on this site. Happy New Year and you are doing a fantastic job on your elegant stove. Best wishes. Chad

Cmdr Cheras and dcrane, I have shown the prints you gave me to some of my friends and they were amazed and thoroughly enjoyed reading them. Today I finally had enough parts ready to take to the plater to get him started on it. Dcrane, you said " thank Rich for giving us the only place in the world to discover/learn and find information about these priceless objects..." and I really do want to thank him, but as far as my Wehrle being a "priceless object", I found it humorous that the plater, even as impressed as he was with the stove, had absolutely no problem coming up with a price for what the plating was going to cost. When I first walked in the store to talk to him and told him I had an old coal stove to work on, he said "Oh, yeah we get a lot of those to work on. There's 5 or 6 of them in back right now." I said, "Well, you don't have one like this." After I showed him everything that needed done and was leaving, I heard him tell another one of the office workers " Come in here and look at this stove! It's BAD ASS!" I had to smile. Jerry

jubileejerry wrote:Cmdr Cheras and dcrane, I have shown the prints you gave me to some of my friends and they were amazed and thoroughly enjoyed reading them. Today I finally had enough parts ready to take to the plater to get him started on it. Dcrane, you said " thank Rich for giving us the only place in the world to discover/learn and find information about these priceless objects..." and I really do want to thank him, but as far as my Wehrle being a "priceless object", I found it humorous that the plater, even as impressed as he was with the stove, had absolutely no problem coming up with a price for what the plating was going to cost. When I first walked in the store to talk to him and told him I had an old coal stove to work on, he said "Oh, yeah we get a lot of those to work on. There's 5 or 6 of them in back right now." I said, "Well, you don't have one like this." After I showed him everything that needed done and was leaving, I heard him tell another one of the office workers " Come in here and look at this stove! It's BAD ASS!" I had to smile. Jerry

If you think it is something to behold now, with it all apart. Just wait until you get a fire in it and experience it doing what it was made to do.

wsherrick wrote:

jubileejerry wrote:Cmdr Cheras and dcrane, I have shown the prints you gave me to some of my friends and they were amazed and thoroughly enjoyed reading them. Today I finally had enough parts ready to take to the plater to get him started on it. Dcrane, you said " thank Rich for giving us the only place in the world to discover/learn and find information about these priceless objects..." and I really do want to thank him, but as far as my Wehrle being a "priceless object", I found it humorous that the plater, even as impressed as he was with the stove, had absolutely no problem coming up with a price for what the plating was going to cost. When I first walked in the store to talk to him and told him I had an old coal stove to work on, he said "Oh, yeah we get a lot of those to work on. There's 5 or 6 of them in back right now." I said, "Well, you don't have one like this." After I showed him everything that needed done and was leaving, I heard him tell another one of the office workers " Come in here and look at this stove! It's BAD ASS!" I had to smile. Jerry

If you think it is something to behold now, with it all apart. Just wait until you get a fire in it and experience it doing what it was made to do.

Yes indeed Jerry... it is "bad ass"... im sure most would say restored your stove is $6k (plus or minus $1k)... but the fact of the matter is.... I challenge you to go try to find and/or buy your Wehele (cant be done, I don't care if you got $20k in your pocket ) and thats the simple fact of the matter

Here we go with another installment guys! I sent a lot of the parts to the plater to get him going on that stuff while I get some of the other parts ready. I've been saving up money for quite a while and finally figured I had enough. Just barely Here's a couple of pictures of most of the big parts:

jubileejerry wrote:Here we go with another installment guys! I sent a lot of the parts to the plater to get him going on that stuff while I get some of the other parts ready. I've been saving up money for quite a while and finally figured I had enough. Just barely Here's a couple of pictures of most of the big parts:

Just barely.

That's a lot of nickels worth of nickel !

Paul