paint

ok my grill burners have a little rust on them. if i were to clean them up is there a paint i could use on it to make it look better. i know they make paint for a fire place so that is why i ask. im just thinking about the griddle burner and the grates. thanks

As far as I know, there are very few - if any - paints that can be used on a gas burner that gets as hot as the ones on your CHAMBERS that will not break down and emit possibly toxic fumes when they do.

Most people have their burners, grates, & drip rings reporcelained, if they feel like they really want to do something about the rust.

If memory serves, the broiler & oven burners weren't porcelained, but I'm not near mine right now to check and be sure...

how about painting the bottom of the thermowell lid?? Or can I just clean off the rust and season it like a cast iron pan in the oven??
thanks so much
Peggy

There is a paint that should work -- I'm getting a Chambers in very sad shape and was looking for myself, as I didn't want to foot the bill to replace the side panels if I can paint them. The paint is called STove Bright, and it withstands up to 1200 degrees fahrenheith and it's made by forrestpaint.com. So far as fumes go, they claim there aren't any after an initial curing of a half hour at 400 degrees, and that the fumes that do get released aren't harmful, just stinky.

Rustoleum also has 1200 degree paint for stoves, but the colors are more limited and they say they won't withstand direct flame.

However, at the Forest website FAQ, they claim theirs will, here's a cut&Paste:

20Q: I need to repaint my firebox. Parts of it will come into direct contact with flame. Will Stove Bright withstand direct flames?
A. Stove Bright paint products will withstand direct flame up to 1200 degrees F. and perform just fine. PROBLEM: Many fireboxes are constructed of materials (or coated with Aluminum for rust protection) which will not withstand direct flame of 1000 degrees F. If the metal underlie fails, then Stove Bright will not hold the deteriorating metal together and may appear to fail as it bubbles or flakes off the deteriorating metal.
If your question is not answered within this page, you can e-mail us.

And I want to thank you all for creating this website! I joined yesterday and I can't tear myself away from my laptop, I'm learning so much. All I think about anymore is stoves!

How are you going to cure your panels at 400 degrees?

Joe, Todd is correct about the grates being porcelain. They don't cost that much to re-do, and would look so much better with porcelain than with paint. To get prices and contact info for reporcelaining, just do a search on this site for keyword "Gigi's".

thank you for all your help. i live in IL and i dont like to ship the parts back and forth. so im going to find someone local. thank you guys

Gigi charges $20- for each piece - grate, drip pan , burner. Others you can take it to often are sending them to Gigi and then marking it up. $20- is remarkably reasonable as far as "we" know.

-FYI

My copper panels for my C had to be heat cured (the clear coat) - they had to go into a room size oven over night.

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ July 17, 2006 03:23 PM: Message edited by: phoebe9435 ]</font>

Joe,

If you find somewhere local, let me know. I believe that I'm not that far from you. However, when I finally get to my restore, I am planning on sending my pieces to GiGi's.

Frank

I am thinking that based on all the recommendations, I'm sending my drip pans and burners to GiGi. I know they weren't originally done, but has anyone tried to do the burner for the broiler and oven?

One other thought, I am working on a 1936 model A (I am pretty sure, thanks to everyone on the board for your help), and it appears that the grates for the burners were originally chromed like the top. Was this common?

frank
ill keep you in mind if and when i do find some one if you do the same for me.. my kitchen is still not ready maybe another month or so. im not even sure if my chambers works. so before i put money into it i want to know if it works. i was told it did.. take care..

took me long enough, but I thought of a possible way to get oven panels cured at 400 degrees if I use the stove-brite paint, except I'd rather come up with an alternative, if anybody can think of non-pizzeria, non-food businesses that use ovens. (My deli/pizzeria said yes, they'd do it after hours, but only because we're in there daily, and you could see they weren't happy fuming up the place). Only alternative I can think of is a potter's oven but as I've never taken a class I have no idea if they're big enough.

I have a 10BX and the grates are chromed along with the thermowell lid. I am trying to figure out how to post pictures and will do so soon. Also, I used stove polish on my grillenator burner and it worked great. My burner did not have rust on it but the cast iron stoveman I spoke to, in order to get tips on what they do to those very rusty old cast iron cook stoves, said to just wire brush off the rust as best as possible then use stove polish (they call it"shoe polish"). Be sure to get the polish used on the wood burners. It withstands incredible heat. I have heated up my grillenator and trust me, no fumes at all! (I cranked that baby up too.) Hope this helps

Ouseidel, I forgot to ask, does your model A have copper tubing by chance? Dumdum

Could you provide some more info on the stove polish? What is it, where do you get it, what does it do, how expensive, etc? Thanks.

I got the polish from the guy I bought my stove from who is an antique wood, Cast Iron stove dealer. I would look in the phone book for any store that sells cast iron cookstoves. It is William's Stove Polish in a yellow tube. It is made to be used specifically on unpainted Steel and Cast Iron. It does not smoke or smell. Apparently they make a liquid one also but this semi-paste is great! Hope this helps.

Update. I just punched William's Stove Polish in my search engine and many sites came up. They are charging 4.50-5.00 per tube which is what I paid. The sites explain the product also.

Hey ouseidel:

Yes, the older Chambers did have chromed burner grates. At least the B's that I have seen use them.

And Joe and Frank: I've been searching every now and then for local enamelers, and haven't found anyone in Chicagoland. There is Custom Ceramic Coating in central Illinois, their prices are about double Gigi's. Haven't tried them yet.

Let me know if you find anyone nearby.

Regards,

Joe P

Joe, did any of these older models with chrome grates have copper tubing? Tara

Interesting! If my stove was in fact redone they did one hech of a job. It looks to be original, although the guy who owned it obviously loved it and took great care of it. He could have redone it. I will find time to figure out how to post pictures. Thanks for the response.

Tara:

The Model B's that I've seen do not have copper tubing.

Joe P

DumDum,

Sorry it has taken so long to get back to you. My A doesn't have copper tubing.

Hope this is still useful info.

While we're on the subject of making things shiny, has anyone taken their griddle somewhere to be polished? If so, is it better to cook on a mirror or satin finish? And how much did they quote?

I live about 1/2 mile from this place called McBuffers, and even before i found my chambers i was like, yeah! I can get things shined up there. They also do plating. (I checked thie website) My stovetop is OK I'm not going to fuss over some minor areas of scratchiness. (Maybe I can even buf them out w/ 0000 steel wool?)

I also picked up some nickel or perhaps aluminum towel bars from a house sale, $.75 a piece. Any experience polishing something like that? We do have a dremel. . .

Edited to add: Williams Stove Polish. THANK YOU! This board ROCKS!!

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ August 18, 2006 02:54 PM: Message edited by: lkeriegrl ]</font>

I may have come upon an answer to the copper tubing question in one of the TOAC price lists (I don't think that they send these out anymore now that they have gone to online sales and email communications). In one area they have a listing of Chambers Antique Stove parts that they sell and include the following listing:

Tubing - RARE 5/32", copper (this is not 1/8")...........1 foot minimum- $8.00 per foot.

So it seems like some of the stoves must have had copper tubing. The folks at TOAC might be able to tell you which models were fitted with copper tubing.

It would be interesting to know when the copper tubing was used and when aluminum became the metal of choice for tubing on our stoves. Seems like there was a post at one time that referred to the fact that the technical advances required for working with aluminum were relatively late discoveries in metallurgy, but my once rock solid memory is no longer so trustworthy (a detestable by-product of aging).

The only copper tubing my stove has are 2 tubes leading from the manifold pipe, one going to the pilot, and the other to the thermowell.

I have been trying to find a solution to the problem of curing Stove Bright paint and found a place in Torrance that provides annealing services. They said that they would be willing to put the stripped down stove into one of their ovens at 400 degrees for a couple of hours. I didn't ask what they would charge because I'm not even close to being ready to paint. One of the Stove Bright representatives told me that even at 200 degrees, the paint would eventually cure, but that it would take a lot longer.