Coalpail.com Forum

I feel like I have called every metal fab shop in the state of Michigan to see if they can roll me out a new barrel with beads in it. I have had zero luck. Everybody is telling me they can’t do it. They’d be more than happy to roll the barrel, but nobody around has the means to roll Beads in with it. Does anybody know if I went thicker on the steel for the barrel, Are the beads a must no matter what thickness you use? Or has someone somehow figured out how to make one out of a new steel drum possibly? I am at a huge roadblock being unable to find anything other than getting one made and shipped across country to move on with this project. Any ideas or leads would be greatly appreciated! My stove is smaller and almost exactly to the style of a round oak 14”. Is it an absolute must the stove has beads in it being this small? Thanks!
Nick

Have you tried contacting shops that restore antique stoves ? Many shops sometimes have to get new barrels made for the stoves they restore.

Paul

Try a trade school, they love that stuff. Who knows, maybe they'll do it free.

With all the automotive industry talent there it should be a piece of cake really. Where are you located in Michigan?

I thought it would be a piece a cake, turned out it has been everything but that. I called a custom car restoration shop, figured they had all the wheels to do fenders and such. Submitted some emails and very descriptive pictures but have yet to hear back from them along with two other shops i’ve emailed. Would really like to have this thing put back together along with my living room wall that is ripped apart waiting to build the alcove to fit the stove. I am located in the Port Huron area in the south east region of the thumb of Michigan. I’m open to any ideas or innovations I could use to make my own barrel.

Theres a member from NE Iowa that doesnt post a lot, Buck47, that has barrels made somewhere for Warm Morning stoves that he restores. If you go thru his posts you may find where he has it done and possibly have one shipped to you. Your close enough where the shipping wouldnt be a killer.

The equipment to cut and roll sheet into a barrel shape is not the problem. A roller is common machine in sheet metal shops. What's not common is a heavy duty bead roller and the wheels of the right shape to reach far enough onto a sheet to roll those beads in after the barrel is rolled. The light duty bead rollers used by custom rod shops usually aren't big and strong enough to do beads that large.

None of the commercial shops within an hours drive of here had a HD bead roller when I went looking. There's just no call for that kind of work.

I was lucky enough to find an old bench mount HD bead roller in a friend's barn and borrowed it to roll beads into fender edges of antique car fenders I restore (weights about 100 lbs). And at that, I had to spend a few hours at my lathe to machine the rollers for the size beads I needed, which are not as large as what stoves use. The same hours of custom machine time would likely have to be done, even if you find someone with a HD bead roller that doesn't already do stove barrels.

However, there are sheet metal shops making new barrels with beads for the stove restoration shops. I think your best bet is contact the stove shops, even if they have to ship it to you.

Paul

If it were mine I would go with a barrel without beads.

Early on i learned that spot heating of thin steel causes distortion at that spot, so i assume the beads are to better accommodate expansion.

There are many stoves with thin steel barrels without beads. Warm Morning and Godin are two examples. The difference is they have brick linings which better distributes the heat, lessening hot spots.

The old Oak stoves were intended to burn wood as well and common usage was to pack the whole stove as full as possible with wood, which must have caused a lot of uneven heating, making the beads necessary. With coal the major heat stays in the fire pot.

I think the only risk might be some mild distortion with coal.

Just my opinion. Paul has had tons of experience with thin metal body work, so his opinion would be better than mine.

Richard is right. I forgot the wood factor. And every beaded barrel I'm familiar with were sold for both wood and coal. I agree, you should be safe with a barrel without beads if you just use coal. Or never load wood above the firepot.

Localized heating of sheet metal, such as the end of a burning log leaning up against the barrel will cause a lot of localized heat stress, which if the temps get close to turning the metal red-hot, it can cause uneven expansion. When the surrounding cooler metal traps that expansion, you get a bulge like a dent. You sometimes see those bulges and warpage in barrels that have been run hot full of wood.

In fact using that over-heating is an old-time bodyshop trick to get dents out of sheet metal (before the days of body shops practice of throw it out and get another).

Heat the dent until it turn cherry red and bulges up more, then quickly drive the bulge down with a flat body hammer while the metal is in a semi fluid form. That pushes the metal back to it's pre-dent-stretched thickness. Then finish smoothing with hammer and dolly which will further shrink the bulge even more as the hammer and dolly draw the heat out.

Paul

http://www.slhmetals.com/metal-fabrication-servic ... b-shop.php

I’m thinking these guys can roll a bead

scalabro wrote: ↑

Thu. Dec. 07, 2017 3:02 pm

http://www.slhmetals.com/metal-fabrication-servic ... b-shop.php

I’m thinking these guys can roll a bead

can they make stove magazines though ?

Give em a call!

from their presentation, it's pretty clear the only limiting component to any work request would be cash.

Thanks a lot for the ideas guys and for the link. I will definitely give them a call and see what they say. It’s amazing, I still have not heard from the other shops I’ve contacted through email. Pushing 3 days now. Hopefully the one shop suggested here can do something for me. Im getting antsy to see this thing put back together and cranking out some heat!

Have you tried contacting any stove restoration shops ? Getting new barrels made is a fairly common thing with them.

Paul