Project Start -- July 25, 2001

To tackle the restoration of the stove I followed the same principles of restoration I had established when restoring Maych.

Following these principles, the first thing I did was take the stove apart.  Just as with Maych, this was no simple task.  All of the bolts and nuts holding the stove together had 60 years of accumulated rust.  However, with enough penetrating oil and the use of a good pair of vice-grips, they all eventually yielded.  I knew I would replace all of the bolts and nuts so I bagged the old bolts and nuts and carefully labeled each bag with name of the part to which they corresponded.  That way, I had a good reference for size when I ordered new bolts and a reference for which bolts went where when I began reassembly. 

I ordered all the replacement hardware on the Internet from Aaron's General Store.  To prevent future rust problems I ordered all the replace- ment bolts, nuts, washers, etc. in stainless steel.  It was way cheaper to buy these in quanti- ties of 100.  I wound up ordering over 1000 pieces in all but hey, you can't have too many fasteners around the shop.  I still have quite a few and I still use them from time to time.

Because the stove was so big and so heavy I decided to take it apart in my garage and then take the pieces to my workshop in the basement for restora- tion and re- assembly.  I'd worry about how to get it back out of the basement when the time came.

The next step was to clean and repair any damage to the sheet metal.  I'll chronicle that adventure in the next episode.

<Magic Progress

Sheet Metal>