mindless rambling

[tplumeri]

well, this board has been pretty quiet lately. is it something i said? [img]smile.gif[/img]
anyway, im a fan of ebay. bought both my stoves there. but chambers stuff on ebay has been strange lately, to say the least. restorable stoves at $49 and no bids, nice stoves at under $200 (im tempted to buy a couple more), an imperial for $4000, and a broiler pan handle for $180!!
hey, i love my stove but i just cant imagine paying $300 for a set of triple pots, $250 for a thermobaker....want to bake in the thermowell? just take a metal pie tin, flip it over and put it on the grate in the thermowell. get a small baking rack from the local store,put it on the upside down tin and put your pie,cake etc on the rack. easy. bake potatoes right on the rack......
well, enough rambling from me, anyone else want to?
tom

[new chambers guy]

Hey Tom.

I just got a 90C for $16 in a fundraiser auction - now to clean it up a bit and put it to work. This is my first project of this nature and I too am surprised at the variablity of the prices on eBay. A lot like gas prices!

I have ordered a service manual to help me in fixing it up, but I'd certainly appreciate any tips or advice you might have to offer or pitfalls to watch for. It has some rust under the burners and is greasy in the crevices, but seems to be in good shape. Of course, rebuilding the light will be mandatory.

Thanks,
Rob

[pmisaber]

Tom,

I think that the folks looking at stoves are sort of different than the ones buying stove accessories for a couple of reasons. The stove is often a longer term project while the accessories are generally immediately useful. Perhaps more importantly, the shipping cost for the accessories is fairly low. I recently checked cross country shipping costs for a stove listed on eBay and the lowest estimate was $600. Even though the stove seemed pretty interesting the freight costs quickly put an end to my plans. I'll keep an eye on eBay but unless the stove is geographically close won't consider bidding. If I had a stove and wanted a part for restoration or a cooking implement, the shipping costs would not be so much of a factor.

[tplumeri]

well, first let me welcome rob to the club and congratulate on a great deal!! i know we all dream about finding one like that! ask all the questions you want. folks here have wide range of experience and are eager to share.
peter, i feel your pain re shipping costs. i paid top dollar for my first 61c, only to spend another 400 bucks to ship it. the second stove was 1/4 the price so i didnt mind the shipping cost as much. both stoves were near perfect cosmetically (enamel and stainless) and worked fine with minimum adjustments. of course, i had to take them apart and tweak em, just for fun. i just replaced all the gas lines to the burners etc with copper tube and new fittings. didnt need to, just was bored one day...
found an off brand oven cleaner (quality care, yellow can) for 99 cents that easily removed 50 years of crud. problem is, you have to hold your breath when you use it cause the fumes are terrible!
happy cooking.
tom

[new chambers guy]

Thanks for the warm welcome! I've spent the day reading all of the posts so far (oh, my eyes ache) and I believe that every question I could have had was answered.

I've bid on the Service Manual from the Stove Guy so I can do the adjustments and such before getting serious with the cooking. I did some basic disassembly to get it in my van and home - just removing the legs and backsplash to shorten it up - then I've thoroughly checked for rust etc per posts here. A little cleanup with a shopvac and damp rags and the "restoration" will be 75% complete! The only rust I've found is where there were spills down the back, and it's more stain than rust.

The funny part is that I was only interested in the stove to avoid an expensive repair on our existing modern appliance, and now I find that I'd like to aquire and rehab more of these things. Just what I need, one more hobby......

[tplumeri]

yeah, theyre addictive, like tatoos. but thats another story!