|
Post by jmwillman on Oct 20, 2014 8:17:19 GMT -5
Hi, My name is Joe I live where it is way too cold most of the year, Superior, Wi. My Chambers story starts when I find a red Model 90c on the 4th floor of an old warehouse in town. It had to be on the 4 floor to make it a challenge I guess, because the elevators in the building no longer function. They did when they brought it up there but no more. That left only one option, and that was to disassemble it up there and carry it down the stairs. At least it was down the stairs. So I gave the guy $100 for it, and dug out my back brace. I downloaded some info I found on how to disassemble it properly and started in. It was a long afternoon but managed to get everything there but the main carcass down by myself. Thankfully it came apart well, had no really stuck bolts or anything. I can say I was really impressed with how it's made. Took a lot of pics so I can put it back together. There are a lot of part missing on this, the griddle and broiler parts are missing, cast oven bottom, burner pans and grates, thermo well lid, and other small parts. So this ones going to take awhile to get finished. In the mean time I still wanted a Chambers stove to use so I found a Model B Silverlite on craigslist about 100 miles away and bought that one too. This one has been in the same family since the 40's and in their cabin for the last 30 years. It is very complete, unlike Big Red, and in very good shape. It has wear and age but hasn't been banged up or abused at all. I've pretty much disassembled, except for burner top, the B. I own a powdercoating shop so I cleaned up and powder coated all the black painted panels on the back of the stove and on the bottom of the folding burner cover. I will post pics when I get them resized. The burner pans were in horrible condition, so I blasted the enamel off and coated them with a high temp black powdercoat. this will be fine until I get them reenameled. I've been buying a lot of parts for the Red one off eBay so I have some spare parts for that, but many parts to find. May need to get another Model 90 just for parts. I enjoy this forum and hope I can add something to it. Updates to follow along with some pictures.
|
|
|
Post by cinnabar on Oct 20, 2014 10:04:56 GMT -5
good show! They are not easy to find here.
|
|
|
Post by cinnabar on Oct 20, 2014 10:06:34 GMT -5
jmwillman, Howdy neighbor, I too live in Superior, no summer this year eh? We should grab a coffee sometime and compare notes. Glad you have some stoves to work with, you won't be disappointed. There is lots of help available on the forum so dig in. I can tell you where to get some of the stuff for restoration, as well as I have lots of valve grease, permatex etc when you are ready for it. pm me for questions about that coffee cinnabar
|
|
|
Post by mach12 on Oct 20, 2014 12:59:44 GMT -5
Welcome Joe! Talk about hitting pay dirt - a red Chambers and Cinnabar's wealth of knowledge right there! You must be living right. Looking forward to the pictures. And now we know who to ask about powder coating, too!!
|
|
|
Post by vaporvac on Oct 20, 2014 13:16:31 GMT -5
Welcome! Be sure to take Cinnaboar up on her offer; I'd die to see her stove in person. Congrats on both you stoves. It seems like noone can get just one! The Silverlite is a beauty and what I have. I didn't know powdercoating would hold up to flame and high heat. I have lots to learn on that subject and now there's someone to teach us! You can post your pics directly as an attachment. We can enlarge them by simply clicking on the pic once or twice so hurry up with them. BTW, I used permatex on the B for some reason that now escapes me. Do I need it on the C?
|
|
|
Post by lwagne on Oct 20, 2014 22:48:16 GMT -5
I'd be looking around that fourth floor for a box of parts!! We just had one guy that had to go all the way back to the point of purchase because they found the stove covers, the timer back and a lot of other stuff, for an Imperial/trash burner, no less. Really hard to find parts.
Ask again or go look for yourself!! Welcome to the forum
|
|
|
Post by pooka on Oct 21, 2014 7:44:16 GMT -5
It takes a special kind of dedication or craziness to go though that much trouble to retrieve a stove. Some would think twice about packing a stove up & out of a basement, but to bring one down from a fourth floor walk-up is a testament to the Chambers appeal. I guess it being a FREEDOM RED 90 C helped make it especially hard to resist. You should be right at home with all the rest of us Chambers nuts. If you appreciate well built stuff, it's not hard to catch the Chambers sickness. Since you've already got two of them, you obviously got a terminal case. It might be easier to find a cheap parts stove if you can find one for all the missing parts. Some members might have some spares that they'll sell cheap. There's always eBay if you're patient enough to wait for the right deals. I just got a pair of oven racks for my long neglected model 7141 for $12.50 plus shipping. Welcome to the Chambers asylum where the inmates rule.
|
|
|
Post by jmwillman on Oct 21, 2014 10:52:58 GMT -5
Oh , trust me , I have been digging thru all 4 floors of the bldg. I haven't found any other parts, yet. I was in there yesterday and measured the stairway down and it's only 22 inches wide, this makes it tough cuz the chassis of the stove, I have everything removable off it, is a hair over 24 inches wide. No go! It looks like the rest of it is spot welded together so if I want it down I'll have to break the spot welds and break it up like that. I don't think, unless I really mess it up,that it couldn't be reassembled. I'm keeping an eye out for another parts stove, and I have some time so can be patient. The red one has so many parts missing that finding another one is probably the easiest way out. I figure that if people can find a P-38 fighter 250feet down in a glacier in Greenland, melt a hole to it, carry it out bit by bit and get it flying again.....I can get this stove home! Still working on the Pics, all mine are way bigger than the 1 meg link there so may have to link you somewhere. Or resize.
|
|
|
Post by mach12 on Oct 21, 2014 12:38:21 GMT -5
We just had one guy that had to go all the way back to the point of purchase because they found the stove covers, the timer back and a lot of other stuff, for an Imperial/trash burner, no less. Really hard to find parts. I didn't even think twice about going either! I doubt I'd have ever found a set of covers for this particular stove. It would have been nice to have gotten the covers and timer back when I picked up the stove but then I wouldn't have come across the nice 61C that I picked up on that extra trip. Good thing this isn't a "for-profit" venture though!
|
|
|
Post by vaporvac on Oct 21, 2014 12:38:56 GMT -5
I presume you have the top, broiler box and Twell off. If not, they're fairly straight forward to disassemble. Then you could take out the whole oven body. At that point the stove doesn't weigh much at all and you could lower it out a window! I'd be worried about getting everything back to the correct size if I took apart the body, but then I'm no welder!
|
|
|
Post by lwagne on Oct 21, 2014 18:44:52 GMT -5
If it ends up that you can't get it out - someone got it in evidently - rescue all the rad panels and removable parts - and find another cheap C:) White ones come pretty cheap sometimes, sometimes it's a "just come get it out of here!" No freight elevator anywhere?? Here ya go - Hammond - even has a cover to the broiler and the knobs look good. Reduced once, it's nearly get it gone time chicago.craigslist.org/nwi/app/4712866138.htmlOops, sorry, that's Indiana - but you get the picture
|
|
|
Post by jmwillman on Oct 22, 2014 8:04:58 GMT -5
I saw that ad in CL and considered taking a little drive to Chicago. Finding another C was always a plan considering all the parts missing on it would cost more to buy bit by bit than just getting a complete stove. I keep looking and something will pop up close eventually. Last night I finally got the rusty bolt, 4 of 5 came out easy but there's always the 1, loose on the cooking top and got it, and the front off without any damage or chips. Yeah! Now I can finish cleaning up the rest of it. Bought a tub, small for $29, of valve grease so am going to rebuild all the valves and things. I hope that grease is a special,as they say cuz you don't get very much. Once I have the naked carcass cleaned, I figure it's all metal and insulation so I'm going to powdercoat the whole thing black and put the whole thing in my big oven. We'll all find out how it works then. Regular powder is heat resistant to about 500 degrees and the hi-temp is good to about 1200 so it's tough. I had some really rusty and pitted drip rings so I blasted the enamel off in my cabinet and coated them with the hi- temp black, and they came out real nice. I know that it's not a 100% accurate restore job on them but they were so bad as to be useless otherwise. Still working on the pics, may put something on YouTube with a link if somebody wants to see it. More later.....
|
|
|
Post by vaporvac on Oct 22, 2014 12:48:39 GMT -5
You could just make a file in dropbox that we could visit and you could update.
|
|
|
Post by cinnabar on Oct 22, 2014 17:06:08 GMT -5
This afternoon I walked over to Joe's (jmwillman) garage/shop, (it is a block and half from my house, what are the odds ) and we talked stoves for a couple hours. Later I will get some pics of his stoves to post here for all to ogle over. The B is in good shape and the red C has some very nice features. This is the first time I have seen B and C stoves torn apart in person. Not impossible for restoration as they are not lost causes. Of course he has cleaned them up a bit and done some work on the parts. Joe will be a great source for his knowledge of powder coating and the restoration stuff. Very informative visit, which most here would have been able to chime into the discussion, I am sure of it.
I also got a tour of the 1941 Kenmore they are using in the kitchen. Cool stove too, just not a Chambers.
He says he likes to bake too, well all righty then!
cinnabar
|
|
|
Post by chipperhiker on Oct 22, 2014 18:51:46 GMT -5
Welcome to the group, Joe!! It sounds like you are well on your way to developing the same "sickness" as so many of us - multiple stove-itis!
Igwane is totally right. The pieces that are the hardest to find on that red stove you found are the ones you've already procured - the panels. You can easily put them on a cheaper white parts stove and come out in really good shape, especially since so many of the the other parts are already missing.
From Cinn's last post, though, it seems that, perhaps, you've already gotten that red C's body back home?
Again, welcome, and I'm looking forward to hearing about your stove projects.
|
|
|
Post by metrowmn on Oct 23, 2014 6:26:35 GMT -5
Welcome too. I also have a red c90 waiting to be installed in my kitchen which is still under construction. Funny, I guess great minds think alike. I already told the Dh I will need to purchase at least one more stove for parts etc. I do have a separate cottage/guest house on the property. Maybe one of the smaller models would work in there..... Hmmmmm
|
|
|
Post by jmwillman on Oct 24, 2014 13:01:56 GMT -5
Ok I think I figured out the picture thing. Let's try the red 90 as found under stuff center is our 1942 Kenmore, I know not chambers but I didn't know about chambers then and it was free the white B I got off Craigslist to fix and use until I gather all the bits of the red one, this white one was treated well
|
|
|
Post by jmwillman on Oct 24, 2014 13:05:06 GMT -5
A couple more pics Back of the white stove ore red parts
|
|
|
Post by mach12 on Oct 24, 2014 13:37:00 GMT -5
Great pictures! That Kenmore is a nice stove and I'd think would be pretty rare as most production in '42 was for the war effort. Chambers are certainly the deluxe stoves but the others are cool too. We have a couple of other vintage stoves, including a late 1930's Kitchen Kook that has been in the family since new. My problem is that I don't want to get rid of anything I've restored. That B series really looks like it was appreciated by the previous owners.
|
|
|
Post by chipperhiker on Oct 24, 2014 23:21:14 GMT -5
Wow. The '42 Kenmore is great and looks to be in excellent condition.
You're going to have yourself quite a stove collection soon!
|
|
|
Post by jmwillman on Oct 25, 2014 7:49:27 GMT -5
The Kenmore is a 1940 I have fat fingers and didn't edit my post. We've been using that one for about 20 years and can't see letting it go. We had an apartment with electric stove for a couple years and a friend of ours used it then. The back of Old Red after I cleaned it a bit, that is a nice shade of red.
|
|
|
Post by karitx on Oct 25, 2014 16:21:13 GMT -5
Welcome, jmwillman! Those are going to be some nice stoves when you get done. I really like the Kenmore, too. I think we all need a kitchen that will accommodate 5 or 6 stoves!
|
|
|
Post by vaporvac on Oct 25, 2014 16:41:32 GMT -5
Very nice! that must be an earlier on as it has the cloisonne nameplate. I think most of the red ones i've seen have the script chrome.
|
|
|
Post by jmwillman on Oct 25, 2014 17:20:27 GMT -5
I'm not sure of the age of Red. Can we decode the serial numbers here somewhere? The style is 90CR. I imagine that's a Model 90 C in red Serial #. 1-2899
|
|
|
Post by mach12 on Oct 25, 2014 21:15:52 GMT -5
That's correct on the 90CR meaning it's a 90C in Red. The 1 before the dash in the serial number dates it as a 1951. I have two 1951's and one (a blue 90C) has B style thumb latches and the other (a white 61C) the teardrop style that the majority of C's have. Your pictures look like yours are the teardrop style. I've seen a couple of other photos of C's with the B style thumb latches but don't know whether they were using them up, used some old stock to keep production going, people preferred the earlier style or what. Both of mine also have the red cloisonné knobs and nameplate. The 90C was originally sold in Long Island, NY and the guy I bought it from shipped it to Portland, OR when his job moved him there. The guy I bought the 61C from said it came out of a house in Sacramento, CA where it had been since it was new.
|
|
|
Post by jmwillman on Oct 27, 2014 9:39:27 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by jmwillman on Oct 27, 2014 9:40:02 GMT -5
After powdercoating with mirror gloss black sure looks different when I pulled it out of the curing oven it smelled like roasting turkey, so cool
|
|
|
Post by mach12 on Oct 27, 2014 10:56:35 GMT -5
Wow - That's awesome! This close to Thanksgiving the roasting turkey preview is timely, too. I can't imagine it looking that nice even in the factory. I've only had smaller parts powdercoated and am not even sure how big of an oven the guy that does my stuff has. Gonna have to check now!
|
|
|
Post by sporko on Oct 27, 2014 11:51:39 GMT -5
HOLY MOLY! I've never seen such pretty underwear on a Chambers! Most of us just amble by with Rustoleum on the undercarriage. That looks amazing. I bet it lasts a whole lot longer, too.
|
|
|
Post by vaporvac on Oct 27, 2014 13:34:33 GMT -5
This is a first and probably not last for this treatment. Completely awesome. It makes me want to redo mine before it all gets reassembled!
|
|