Adding a refractory Cement liner to cast iron pot belly stove

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Mike H
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Hand Fed Coal Stove: Bellaire Stove Co, Bellaire OH
Baseburners & Antiques: Bellaire Stove Co, Bellaire OH / Burnside 1A

Post by Mike H » Wed. Jun. 27, 2018 10:51 am

I heard it is bebficial to add a liner to the bottom pot on my antique pot belly stove. I have a Bellaire Stove Co Burnside 1A and cannot find information related to this stove. Also I need a shaker grate and haven't been able to locate. I'm a novice and this is my first restoration project.

 
franco b
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Post by franco b » Wed. Jun. 27, 2018 2:58 pm

Adding a liner will give better combustion efficiency at low firing rates, but pot bellies are usually not air tight enough to take advantage of this. They want to run red hot.

Getting the right grate replacement has to come first before even thinking of anything else. Try Woodman's Parts for a replacement.


 
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Sunny Boy
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Post by Sunny Boy » Wed. Jun. 27, 2018 4:48 pm

franco b wrote:
Wed. Jun. 27, 2018 2:58 pm
Adding a liner will give better combustion efficiency at low firing rates, but pot bellies are usually not air tight enough to take advantage of this. They want to run red hot.

Getting the right grate replacement has to come first before even thinking of anything else. Try Woodman's Parts for a replacement.

Agreed.

The liner may get in the way of installing a grate, or at least you may not be able to know how far down in the pot the liner should go without getting in the way of the grate being able to move to shake ashes.

Usually a corrugated card board plug is cut out of a shipping box and put on top of the grate. Then the liner is fitted into the pot. After a couple of days of drying, a small wood fire is lit on top of the card board to help finish cure it. When the card board burns away that leaves enough gap to allow the grate to move without having too big a gap that coal pieces can get jammed in.

Also, try emailing Al at Tomahawk Foundry with the measurements of the space the grate fits into. He recasts many of the parts for a lot of the antique stove restorers and may have an extra from a previous project.

Paul

 
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Post by NoSmoke » Mon. Sep. 17, 2018 6:42 am

Try Bryant Stove Works in Thorndike, Maine for parts. They had parts for my 1893 pot bellied stove...(2) legs for $15 per leg. They might have a grate. If they cannot find the grate, they can also have it custom cast, and is really not that expensive.

I did not have this problem on my 1893 pot bellied stove, but on my junk Vogelzang, it took a lot of work to make that stove burn well. One aspect was getting the thin casting to NOT glow cherry red while burning coal. In that situation I took a piece of structural pipe, 1/2 inch thick, and 12 inches in diameter, and cut 8 inches high. I then slit the piece of pipe lengthways. Doing so allowed me to curl the two pieces into the firebox through the door.

It was enough so that the pieces were above the grate so it could move, but kept the burning coal from laying against the thin casting of the stove and making it turn cherry red. Eventually in the acidity of the coal caused the demise of the steel ring, but I got several seasons out of it before that happened.

I also made that pot bellied stove airtight...I do with all my stoves by disassembling them and using fiberglass rope and stove cement on them. On the Vogelzang, I even added a biometric damper from another stove that really worked well at self-regulating the fire, and even added door latches to the stove since it originally did not have any.

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