Made a Little Find Today

[DanG]

A few times a year, I make the long, four-mile trek up to Ron's Yard Sale and see what he's got going on.  Ron is retired and buys up estate sales and yard sale leftovers, etc, and is open every Fri. & Sat.  Everytime I have been there, I have come away with at least one bargain.  Today, Linda went with me for the first time and she was flabbergasted at the huge array of STUFF! :D  Well, right away, I zeroed in on an interesting little wood/coal fired cookstove that was sitting out right next to the door.  I say's, "Whatcha want for that ol' thing, Ron?" and Ron say's "Thirty."  And I say's(to myself), "You gotta be kidding!" but out loud I say's "Let me take a closer look."  As I was pretending to be making a large decision, Linda spotted an old cast iron kettle and inquired about the price of it, and Ron say's, "I'll take ten."  Then he turned back to me and the stove and said, "That *DanG thing has been in my way for years!"  And I said, "Well, it won't be in your way when I leave!"

The kettle ain't much, but it was a bargain at $10.  The stove is a small one that was used on train cabooses and has facilities to attach a wall bracket on the back.  It is a model "194 Comfort" by the Atlanta Stove Works.  All of the parts and pieces are there and in good shape.  Knowing how you all love pics, I'm afraid I am guilty of........


TAKING SOME PICS! 8) 8) 8)













The only things wrong are the white paint, and the bottom grate is burned out, both of which I can easily fix.  The flat part on the front is a door for loading combustibles and the round part behind the eyes is a 6" flue opening.  The "pot" is over an inch thick.  The kettle fits perfectly into one of the 8" eye openings, too. ;D ;D ;D

[sharp edge]

It to hot in the  south for one of thouth things let me take it off your hands


SE

[DanG]

You're pretty sharp, ol' Edge, but you'll have to do some honing to beat me out of this one!  :D :D :D

[CHARLIE]

Dang! That's a neat find!  I worked on many a caboose and never saw a stove like that.  Must've come from a Georgia railroad.  ;D   The stoves I had in my cabooses didn't have a place to cook, they were just pot bellied stoves.  Being in Florida, I never fired one up, but one year when I was running the sugar cane train from Lake Harbor to Canal Point, we would interface with Atlantic Coast Line at Lake Harbor.  They'd leave me a train of empty cane cars with a A.C.L. caboose attached.  We were having some mighty cool nights and the A.C.L. conductor would always have a nice coal fire burning and the caboose was nice and toasty.  I always appreciated that and I started firing up the stove in my Florida East Coast caboose so he would have a warm caboose when he picked up the train of loaded cane cars. Good memories........      

[DanG]

Now Charlie, I don't really know if this stove was for a caboose or not.  That's what Ron said he thought it was.  Perhaps it is from a more modern caboose than you would have been riding in. ??? ;D :D :D

[SwampDonkey]

I don't know about cabooses, but on rail cars we had to light salamander stoves to keep spuds from freezing. I'm not that old but I can remember them loading 100 burlap sacs aboard train down at the siding. ;D Train, track and siding all gone to history. The worst thing that ever was 'encourage' to happen.

Nice little stove and pot. We had a couple huge iron pots around here they used to cook mangoes for the hogs. They would eventually get holes in the bottoms from corrosion. Mother used one to plant flowers in because the hole ruined the pot for anything else useful.

[thecfarm]

A very nice find.

I doubt this place would have the grates, they would need a pattern.But they might know more about it.

http://www.bryantstove.com/

[Roxie]

What a great find!  Nice restoration project.   

Cowboy Bob keeps his eyes open for a stove just that size for his garage. 

[Magicman]

Those are indeed nice finds.  Stuff like that needs to be preserved and used.   ;D

[Clam77]

WOW!!  That'd be perfect for a medium sized shop or something - heat the shop and brew up up some coffee or tea!!  You'd wanna send it up here for some of us that get cold to test out though - wouldn't want you to ruin it trying to make gr... ughh.. that whitish poridge looking stuff..   :D

[OneWithWood]

Excellent find there DanG  8)

Get that grate fixed pronto so you can warm some grog come fall. 

You might even be able to cook up some grits later in the winter with it. ;D

[Slabs]

WOW!!!   Another Hootieville.   And right in your backyard.

That's a familiar stove for the first part of the 20th century in Southeast Alabama.  Coal was the primary fuel and the one my folks had came with a 3/4 inch pipe coil in the belly that hooked up to a tank mounted on a pedestal just behind the stove.  The tank had special fittings in one side for connections to the coil in the stove.  Water circulated by convection between the coil and the tank.  The only source of hot water in many homes.

DanG, you're lucky to have as many parts of the stove as you do but are the feet with it?  Sometimes they have a tendancy to go astray over years of moving around.

Also, do you know about Stove Black?  It comes in a stick and you chip it up and mix it with water and soap.  Makes a dull black protective finish that closely resembles the original finish.

Enjoy it.

[DanG]

I have not been able to find this model #, but have found several that are similar.  Obviously, part of it is missing.  There should be a base unit with an ash pit, and some legs.  I'm not interested in trying to make it historically correct, so I'll just fab up something to make it functional.  Slabs, I do know about stove black and plan to use it as soon as I figure out what to do about that hideous white paint.  I'm thinkin' I might just build a big fire and chunk the whole thing in there to burn it off.  I might try good ol' Red Devil paint remover first, but that looks like a whole bunch of wire brush work.  For those of you who are worried about grits being cooked on this stove, let me put your little minds at ease.  There will be grits cooked on it, so you may as well accustom yourselves to the idea. ;D :D  I have been picking up various pieces of cast iron cookware for a while now, and I found several in my stash that fit on those eyes quite nicely.  There was a dutch oven at Ron's, and a lid, but the lid didn't fit so I left it.  Today I unearthed a pot that the lid will probably fit, so I wish I had bought it.  Maybe it will still be there next time.

[Ironwood]

I immeadiately said "caboose stove", around here they go for $125-175 when I have seen them. Fun, and functional.

Ironwood

[thecfarm]

Better stick with the stove black,grits will ruin it.  :D

[bd354]

  Dan, will that stove fit in a 55 gal drum? I have a rig I made for cleaning cast iron pots and pans. Plastic drum with one pound of lye based drain cleaner and water. Hang it or set it in and let it soak for about a week or so. Pretty much cleans everything off. For the rust I have another drum with PH plus ( a treatment for pools and spas) and water with a 10 amp battery charger hooked to it. Electrolosis will take the rust right off. If ya don't  want to go to all that trouble bring it down and I'll clean it.

[DanG]

George, the rust is just light surface stuff, easily handled with a wire wheel on a drill.  The paint is another matter.  I'll give the Red Devil a shot before taking you up on the offer.  The kettle is another matter...very heavy rust on the inside.  I'll get a pic and email it to you.

[Holmes]

DanG you have the right ideas just use the grits to remove the white paint and rust. Seems like a good application for grits. ;D ;D ;D

[Weekend_Sawyer]

Two burners, perfect, one for a pot of coffee and one for a pot of grits.
What more can a man need?

Jon

[Roxie]

Well, he would need to move that coffee pot off the heat, and fry some ham in another cast iron skillet, to make some red eye gravy to top those grits!  Hmmm, I just made myself hungry.   :D

[Weekend_Sawyer]

DanGit Roxie, the plastic liner over my keyboard is leaking!  :D

[DanG]

Roxie, you do not present a serious challenge to a sufficiently resourceful kook..er..cook.  Start the coffee first on an open eye, then start the grits on the other.  Pretty soon, they will both be ready to simmer over a closed eye, which they will both fit on.  Then you can fry the ham and make the redeye on the open one.  You will have set the ham on a plate and replaced the grits lid with it.  Pour the gravy into a large cup, saving a little to flavor the butter(real) that you fry the eggs in.  It will all be ready before beer time. ;D

[scsmith42]

Dan, nice score!

[OneWithWood]

Dan, I always knew you were a man of impeccible timing  8) 8) 8)

[DanG]

Thanks One.  Timing is pretty sharp around breakfast and beer time.  In between. not so much. :D :D :D