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Re: Restoring My Wehrle 112 Acme Sunburst Baseburner

Posted: Sun. Dec. 29, 2013 8:02 pm
by jubileejerry
While I wait for the parts to get plated I need to attend to a few things. One of them was a little cap that goes on the door hinges that was damaged somewhere during its lifetime. There are 16 of these little buggers on this stove. I count myself extremely fortunate that only one was damaged, and at least was there, so I could account for all the parts. I'm going to show things on this thread that I try that don't work. My motto at times is " I've never made a mistake but I've made a lot of prototypes that didn't work." Don't give up. If what you did won't work, think up something else. Maybe that won't work either, but there's really no limit on ideas that don't work. :P Here's one of them. I tried to salvage the damaged cap by making a special couple of tools to re-shape it (it's made in two parts, crimped together). It had been smashed and I tried to get it close, then braze it to hold it together. NOT! Too delicate and damaged for that. I tried to drill it and tap it by turning it with the lathe, then putting it in a socket and drilling it by hand, but that didn't work either. I decided to completely make a new copy. Here are the mistakes:

Re: Restoring My Wehrle 112 Acme Sunburst Baseburner

Posted: Sun. Dec. 29, 2013 8:26 pm
by Sunny Boy
Sometimes, dents in stamped, hollow, thin sheet metal pieces like that can be worked out by placing the piece on end grain of soft wood.

Fill it with sand. Using a mandrel the diameter of the open end, hammer the sand into it, forcing the dent out. The soft wood end grain will shape to the piece and support it.

Paul

Re: Restoring My Wehrle 112 Acme Sunburst Baseburner

Posted: Sun. Dec. 29, 2013 8:26 pm
by Sunny Boy
Double post.

Paul

Re: Restoring My Wehrle 112 Acme Sunburst Baseburner

Posted: Sun. Dec. 29, 2013 8:33 pm
by wsherrick
I have had my share of bad ideas. One of the worst was getting married, oh well; that's water under the bridge now. I won't mention the water took the house with it. :)
You are making great progress on the stove. A good question would be how do you copy a delicate small part like that hinge cap?

Re: Restoring My Wehrle 112 Acme Sunburst Baseburner

Posted: Sun. Dec. 29, 2013 8:44 pm
by Sunny Boy
wsherrick wrote:I have had my share of bad ideas. One of the worst was getting married, oh well; that's water under the bridge now. I won't mention the water took the house with it. :)
You are making great progress on the stove. A good question would be how do you copy a delicate small part like that hinge cap?
I got the house, although getting a 17 room, drafty Victorian may not be the best example of victory ! :D

If it was one of my projects, the tooling and forms to shape and then crimp two piece like that would involve a lot of man hours. I'd turn a solid one on the lathe in a fraction of the time it would take just to turn the stamping forms for a hollow one. Both would look the same when finished.

Paul

Re: Restoring My Wehrle 112 Acme Sunburst Baseburner

Posted: Sun. Dec. 29, 2013 8:44 pm
by Sunny Boy
Sorry, another double post.

Paul

Re: Restoring My Wehrle 112 Acme Sunburst Baseburner

Posted: Sun. Dec. 29, 2013 8:56 pm
by jubileejerry
The reason those ideas didn't work was the nut simply wasn't strong enough to be clamped in the lathe without popping out of the jaws when I tried to drill it, and doing it by hand didn't work because there was a thicker area of bronze inside the nut that pushed the drill off to one side, and when I tried to tap it, the tap did the same thing and I couldn't get a nicely threaded hole. My next idea? Copy it the best I could, and if I ever stumble across an original, I can always replace my copy. So, here's what I did. I started out with a piece of stress-proof finished round stock, 3/4". I measured the length, and carefully drilled a pilot hole to within 1/8" of the other end. I did a test thread to make sure it would fit the threads of the door hinges when I was done. I didn't want to go through all this work without knowing it would fit when I was done! That worked, so I carefully measured where the crimped-over place of the original would be and what the diameter should be. I made a length cut down to the diameter of the small end of the original nut, only to have something to grip while I cut and formed my copy. A lot of this, like the rounded top, was done with the WAG (wild-ass guess) method, so it probably isn't exactly like an original one. All the good ones are at the plater so I didn't have a pristine example to go by. Well, here goes:

Re: Restoring My Wehrle 112 Acme Sunburst Baseburner

Posted: Sun. Dec. 29, 2013 9:17 pm
by jubileejerry
Next was making the round top which was for me a matter of just "carving" it out. Once that was done, the part was cut off at a mark I had previously made on the other end that gave me the proper length. I then used the original pilot drill bit to hold it straight in the lathe chuck (I switched chucks to one that would hold the part better), and held the thread tap in the drill chuck while hand-turning the lathe chuck. I left the tailstock nut slightly loose to allow the tailstock to pull in closer as the threads cut their way into the part. This was a VERY delicate procedure because I didn't want to twist off the tap, or bottom it out and snap it off. Lots of thread cutting fluid, and care.

Re: Restoring My Wehrle 112 Acme Sunburst Baseburner

Posted: Sun. Dec. 29, 2013 9:21 pm
by jubileejerry
Well, here it is. I can put it on a hinge pin that isn't real obvious, but I think it's ok as a substitute. Jerry

Re: Restoring My Wehrle 112 Acme Sunburst Baseburner

Posted: Mon. Dec. 30, 2013 10:47 am
by nortcan
WOW, very nice job :idea: :idea: :idea:

Re: Restoring My Wehrle 112 Acme Sunburst Baseburner

Posted: Mon. Dec. 30, 2013 6:50 pm
by Vermonster
This coal thing is all new to me, actually I have been burning coal for ten days. These old baseburners are a just beautiful. The men who built these were craftsman, you don't see that too much today. Keep up the good work I can't wait too see the finished product.

Re: Restoring My Wehrle 112 Acme Sunburst Baseburner

Posted: Tue. Dec. 31, 2013 8:19 am
by EarlH
Well here's a color plate of your stove from the 1912 Sears catalog. I'll take some pictures of the color plates for the other 3-4 models of base burners and post them later today. Sears offered some fancy stoves in those years, that's for sure.
You sure have done a nice job on the stove you have.

Re: Restoring My Wehrle 112 Acme Sunburst Baseburner

Posted: Tue. Dec. 31, 2013 9:32 am
by jubileejerry
Thank you for taking the time to send that picture. These photos have been great sources of details I might have missed in my rebuilding process. I can tell from them if certain bolts were plated or unplated, the angles of the door knobs, etc. It's not like you can go over to a store and look at another one. Thanks again, Jerry

Re: Restoring My Wehrle 112 Acme Sunburst Baseburner

Posted: Tue. Dec. 31, 2013 9:49 am
by Wanna Bee
Nice work on the hinge cap. I've often looked at the ones on my bride and wondered how. How with the limited tooling that these craftsman could pull off half the stuff they did.

First lathe? SB 9a

Re: Restoring My Wehrle 112 Acme Sunburst Baseburner

Posted: Tue. Dec. 31, 2013 9:51 am
by ONEDOLLAR
Earl

What was the cost for new one in 1912? I assume the prices are in the catalog?