Everything Fisher

[coaly]

That's how you burn 'em.
The only reason they became so popular is that they don't stick into the room as far as a Mama or Papa. They had to have an 8 inch flue to be able to run with the doors open. The novelty of the wide open view of the fire wore off quick when you don't get much heat out of them , and they burn like crazy that way. Square inch size of fire box and square inch heating surface is the same or less than a Papa, and the 6 inch flue on that worked just fine.
So many people thought, since they could stick one back in their hearth, they should buy a top vent and go straight up. I'm sure the salesmen told them they needed a rear or side flue for that installation, but the customer didn't want the stove sticking out into the room. Can't have an efficient heater and bury it into your fireplace either...............

Best installation to me is in the middle of the room for better circulation, and no clearance problems. A section of pipe straight up with the damper, then adjustable elbow to pitch upwards to a hole higher up in the chimney. The horizontal run doesn't kill the draft that much, and takes advantage of all that surface area of the pipe on the way out. I built my own house with a Dura-Vent chimney support box in the center of a big kitchen, and a chimney in the center of the living room. I have an old piano mover that is a low steel frame on wheels that goes right under a piano or stove. lifts it a bit, and roll it right out. That way it's no big deal to use an antique parlor stove fall and spring, for a little heat, and the Fisher of my choice for the winter. I lean towards the Goldilocks since it's square and doesn't take up much room. It also has a double heat shield on the back that directs the heat off the back straight up. I face the back of the stove towards the fridge to keep that part of the house the coolest. It used to be an ice box, but the rest of the family couldn't deal with my Amish tendencies so she's parked in the corner in case the power goes out. Will they ever learn?

I have a 1901 duplex rental that has every hole cut into the chimneys 2 feet from the ceiling. 3 stoves were used on each side of that house. During the summer, the stoves were pushed aside, and the pipes were stored in a closet in the attic. I found a treasure trove of oval-ed pipe, oval dampers and elbows made with two straight pipes cut on a 45* and welded together. That started a Griswold damper collection I should get pictures of and post. But that's another fetish altogether. They called it "Putting up the stove" for the winter. Gotta go put up the stove honey. Ah, things were different back then.

 

[hareball]

Cool story!

 

[coaly]

BX, The word gasket doesn't even belong in a Fisher thread. They were considered air tight without one with the triple seal door channel. The raised portion on the door makes contact with the bottom of the channel, and the edges of the channel make contact with the flat door surface on each side of the channel. If the door is clean, you should get a good enough seal. If you're a true Fisher purist, lay the stove on it's back. Take the hinge pins out, and dab the contact surfaces with course grinding compound. Work each door flat against the stove in circular motion until this laps the surfaces together. Wipe clean, and put lead pencil lines all around the door at the mating surfaces. Rub them together dry, and check the lines. You can see where it doesn't touch. Lap it some more until the lines have the same pattern all the way around. This takes time, but the weight of the doors cuts fast. That's how steam valves and joints are treated. You will get a perfect seal.
Now if you MUST glue gasket material to a Fisher door to stoop to the inferior stove levels; :-/

Many find they get a longer burn buy adding a gasket in the channel. It makes the air adjustment act like a different stove. Only the thin glass replacement type material should be used. A round one like found on most stoves is too thick and sometimes causes door closing problems. The other thing to watch, is when you replace the gasket material, you should clean all the old cement off to keep the new one as thin as possible to avoid more door closing problems.

The newer brass and glass door seal is another story.

 

[jacksnipe]

What is the info you have about the newer glass door models & the proper way to seal the glass panels to the cast iron. I have one of these units myself with the upper air wash vents on top of the doors..

 

[hareball]

Yeah that triple seal is effective and so are the dampers. I had one chimney fire a few years ago and shut the dampers down and within a few minutes it snuffed the fire right out. Thats one airtight stove!

 

[Bxpellet]

BX, The word gasket doesn't even belong in a Fisher thread. They were considered air tight without one with the triple seal door channel. The raised portion on the door makes contact with the bottom of the channel, and the edges of the channel make contact with the flat door surface on each side of the channel. If the door is clean, you should get a good enough seal. If you're a true Fisher purist, lay the stove on it's back. Take the hinge pins out, and dab the contact surfaces with course grinding compound. Work each door flat against the stove in circular motion until this laps the surfaces together. Wipe clean, and put lead pencil lines all around the door at the mating surfaces. Rub them together dry, and check the lines. You can see where it doesn't touch. Lap it some more until the lines have the same pattern all the way around. This takes time, but the weight of the doors cuts fast. That's how steam valves and joints are treated. You will get a perfect seal.
Now if you MUST glue gasket material to a Fisher door to stoop to the inferior stove levels; :-/

Many find they get a longer burn buy adding a gasket in the channel. It makes the air adjustment act like a different stove. Only the thin glass replacement type material should be used. A round one like found on most stoves is too thick and sometimes causes door closing problems. The other thing to watch, is when you replace the gasket material, you should clean all the old cement off to keep the new one as thin as possible to avoid more door closing problems.

The newer brass and glass door seal is another story.

One of the other club members put a new gasket on and the doors are hard to close. but when I was there during deer season the corner was coming loose, Is it better to remove the gasket completely, I may been contacting you in the future, we plan on doing some work on it in the summer.

 

[hareball]

I would remove the gasket and clean up the channels. The stove was designed to bypass a gasket all together.

 

[watchamakalit]

Coaly,

Exactly why I only toyed with the idea

If I was seriously interested in a smoke dragon my in laws have one that we have set up on our acreage that we use for boiling off maple syrup.

While I have never done this I know that others have locally and by putting an "old wood stoves wanted" ad on the local free classifed ads board there are lots of fishers in our region that are sitting in barns and sheds doing nothing.

Matter of fact thats where mine was before I rescued it.

Coaly thanks for the leads on parts and paint. I plan to start the project in a couple of months when the weather warms up a bit and I can stand to work outside. I don't have walnut shells but might pick some up just to save the hassle of all the dust from the wire wheel.

We have a few equipment rental places around here and I think the Home Depot does it too. Some of the private ones rent out some really impressive equipment! One of them sharpens chains too.
Good luck with your restoration and please document the progress with photos and share them with us.

I will definately be documenting the process from start to finish. For some unknown reason I have fallen in love with my grandma bear and have found no faults in its build or performance that would make me want to replace it.

 

[hareball]

I hear that! My Father bought this one new between 77-79 and it's still going strong. The newer stoves are much kinder on the woodpile though and burn cleaner. Other than that I can't complain.

 

[coaly]

He probably used the round gasket material. The thinnest you can find for glass installation is the stuff. If he used the black gasket cement, that stuff cooks on as hard as the iron it's on. Wire wheel is about it. Then it's difficult to tell if any is missed, and creates high spots making matters worse. Might be able to use crayon and warm the stove before closing doors. It might transfer where it touches. Might have to try the thinnest glass gasket he can find, but it's still not right.

The technical and best way is bluing. About like old paste shoe polish, this is applied to one side and pieces mated. The blue paste squishes out, and the tight spots are a lighter shade of blue. The wider the gap, the darker the blue. Remove metal or in your case cement from the light spots until you get a consistant blue all the way around. There's an art to it, and scraping metal takes a short course in machine shop.

Worn hinge pins will prevent the door from closing flat and exactly perpendicular to the channel too. I take my pins out each year and grease with high temp grease. I was in the propane business, and have gas valve grease which is super high temp stuff and lasts an entire season. It's gray, thick, and stays put. Otherwise regular black moly grease is OK. Hang on to that door after you grease it if your not used to a door that flys open !
Prevent the wear in the door hole, and stove hinge plate, and it will stay tighter. For most it's too late. Once the hole is elongated, we're back to machine shop to ream it round again, and go to a larger size rivet. (pin)

 

[coaly]

What is the info you have about the newer glass door models & the proper way to seal the glass panels to the cast iron. I have one of these units myself with the upper air wash vents on top of the doors..

Nothing special as far as I know. I was referring to a Fisher not using gasket material anywhere, until you get into the brass and glass. Price of replacement glass includes the seal material when ordered from Woodmans. Used to be the peel and stick to wrap glass. They need the make and model and send you the correct material. 7/32" Robax is the best. IMHO

 

[tickbitty]

Ok maybe coaly can help me out on this one. My Fisher is in pretty rough shape and I wanna basically restore it to as close to like new as possible. I am planning a good once over with the wire brush and then a coat of rutland stove polish. Am I thinking along the right lines? Can the chrome ball feet be replaced or refurbished some how? Also are there replacement handle springs available somewhere as the plating is chipped off mine with the years of use. I don't want to turn it into a museum quality piece but don't want it to look like a pile of rusted up scrap iron either.

Regarding the chrome feet, call around and you can probably find someone who will rechrome them for you. My sister found a guy who will do piecework chroming on just about anything for cheap. He did some bicycle parts for her and the hubs to our childhood red rider wagon.

 

[tickbitty]

Coaly, I suppose you are acquainted with this guy?

(broken image removed)

 

[coaly]

Guess you could say that. It was sold on eBay twice it's so nice !

Don't know what happened to your picture there Tick, but here it is;

 

[coaly]

Here's a pic of the optional spring to prevent the door from opening too far on that same stove;
And a close up of the door.

 

[hareball]

Thats a beautiful restoration. Reminds me of the classic car restorations that are done so well they are nicer than when they rolled off the assembly line!

 

[coaly]

And one more;

 

[coaly]

And here's the dirty end of those two stoves.
Gives new meaning to "as smooth as a baby's behind" !

All Metallic Stove Bright

 

[hareball]

Some beauties

 

[Pagey]

That is some beautiful stove restoration work. I'm a firm believer if having some kind of hobby, even if it's a hobby that turns out to be, by definition, more "work" than "hobby". I know today's stoves burn much cleaner, but I've yet to see one that will heat like a Fisher.

 

[coaly]

That first Insert pic is from a fire at Byron Hot Springs Hotel in Byron Ca. That's not a missing draft cap. The aluminum left from it is what looks like ash on the fender ! Notice the handle spring expanded out of it's coiled shape as well.

That Baby Bear has some serious mass radiation going on.
That is "stronger than a brick sh!t house", literally !

 

[hareball]

I was wondering what happened to that stove!
Whats the deal with the bear with the long legs? Was that normal?

 

[coaly]

That's one tall Mama.
(2 draft caps) I read somewhere about someone with a bad back that raised their stove to prevent bending to load it.

Notice the old style tight wound spring, and 4 fin Baxter caps too.

Here's the way to tell the difference from a Mama and Papa just from the front. They use the same door. The Papa is wider, therefore there is a space between the door and the corner angle iron as shown in the picture below. Mama Bear's door comes right out to the angle iron. Notice how the hinges on a Mama Bear must also extend out beyond the stove corner like on the Fireplace series to center the door on the narrow stove.

The extra weight of a Papa would be pushing the center of gravity that high too. But that never stopped anyone before......

Now I've got that song "One hot mama" in my head all day, sung to "One tall mama". Thanks

Papa on left Mama on right . Notice door spacing to corner angle iron.

 

[coaly]

Come on Hareball, put the word Baby back into your post ! It will only change your grade to a 70!

 

[hareball]

Thats what happens when you have baby bears dancing in your head Haha