Coalpail.com Forum

OK, back on topic:
Jacob, have you figured out if that burnt up baffle is welded in? or is it hanging on pins or bolted in? If welded in, it will be a bit of a job to replace, but If you lay the unit on it's side or upside down you should be able to access it from the firepot/base side.

When you go to do the welding on this old metal, do the metal preparatiion really well, grind to clean shiny steel. and you won't have as many problems with crappy welds from contaminated steel. Been ther done that !!

And yes, the old steel was better. I've disassembled old fasteners on 1920's cars that have been out in the weather for 80+ years, and while they look awful, they come right apart.. I think the old steel had a bit of nickel added, making the steel a very low grade stainless steel. Only a guess but it amazes me that a 3 year old fastener on a new car will rust into one piece and break off when attempted to loosen and remove, and yet a bolt on a 80-90 year old spring shakle or battery box will come loose without problems.. and the threads are clean and shiny inside the fastener.

I'm looking forward to seeing some more photos of this project, maybe some overall photos of the heat exchanger, so we can see where those holes in the steel are.

Greg L

That looks rough. The rear sections of these are pretty thin. The vertical tubes in the rear rot out, it is hard to see. I have quite a bit of experience with these units.Quite honestly, it's not worth it.
A furnace is not a boiler. The old boilers are worth refurbing, not so for furnaces, The dark blue unit that you have there is an old,old model. The heat exchanger for the newest model isn't the same.
These furnaces were pretty common in the Finger Lakes area, but EFM stopped making them and the parts from 1990 to 2008. So, I have experience trying to patch them together as new heat exchangers were not an option. They were really too thin for that. We pretty much replaced them with new Keystokers. I used to line the bottoms where they'd rot out with stainless steel. But in real life, the liability of repairing any warm air heat exchanger is too great to recommend it.

Oilman--Point well made. I don't think I would take on doing something like this for someone else. I'll be sure to carefully, carefully check over the whole thing--stuff a drop light inside on a dark night, or something similar, to find any surprise thin spots. Haven't had the cleanout covers off yet, waiting for the oil to work some more. You say that efm had stopped making parts for the older furnaces--are they now available again, or are they still purest unobtanium?

LsFarm--I think I see some nuts and bolts holding on the baffle, but haven't been able to get the outside jacket off the front section yet. Waiting for oil to work on jacket screws, and worm tube setscrew. And time to work on it. O yes, the solvent headaches, I've taken to using a respirator or a fan a lot more than I used to do.

Ha, no worries about staying home at night this time of year. Lots and lots of stuff to do with garden, equipment, and planting all sorts of stuff (from trees to fenceposts.) But I suspect, this might be a little bit more project than a couple weekends will put away. Hey at least now I have an excuse to buy a welder

Thanks much for the tip on Kroil. I had tried some at a neighbor's suggestion on an old truck I was working on a number of years back, as I recall, it had a real distinctive smell and seemed to work pretty well. Will keep in mind if other solutions don't work out.

Side question: if you bought an old air-acetylene torch with a few B cylinders at a garage sale of stuff from an old fellow who passed away, how do you prove cylinder ownership (or lack thereof!) when you go to exchange them?

Sting wrote:I am black iron threaded pipe sort of guy

opps --- wrong thread

I have a propensity to M.E.K.

Yes Senator - I am an alcoholic - its been 6 or 7 minutes since my last beer

Likewise Sting, I just cannot stand the smell of DuPont's (now Axalta) Vari Prime. It was a very good automotive refinish product for pretreating bare steel and would stick like crazy. But now a days, I can smell that chit 1/2 mile away. Probably should have used a respirator many years ago.

Another method of freeing rusted bolts is the use of an electric inductor. They usually have varying sections of coiled wire that will heat items without flame. Don't use it much in the shop, but when we do it is great !!!!! Just used it today to loosed up the adjusting sleeves on a 1999 Toyota rear suspension that used to live in MA. Alignment shop wanted to torch it but it was too close to the fuel tank. The inductor worked perfectly.

http://www.theinductor.com/index.php?m=50&s=24

Rick

ETA, Most "customer owned tanks" are embossed as such around the top of the tank just below where the safety cap screws onto it. At least mine do. And I have 2 large sets of OXY and Acetylene and 2 large customer owned AR/CO tanks for the MIG welder.

Note they still have to be pressure tested every so many years. I am able to just swap out my customer owned tank for another of the same size.

Vari-Prime isn't so bad -

If your drinkin heavily and use the 620 reducer instead of the 615

Try the NASON alternative - same result - even less stinky - cheeper

agcowvet wrote: You say that efm had stopped making parts for the older furnaces--are they now available again, or are they still purest unobtanium?

You can get parts for the stoker, but anything to do with the actual furnace body,no. They changed the design many years ago.