Federal Airtight 264CCL Questions

[sawmillersam]

Brass handle assembly

dyerkutn;
Rather pricey but here is one source for the brass handles.
This is where I ordered the baffle plate from. Very quick service.
Lots of interesting information here on this thread about the Dutchwest
Federal airtights.

Brass Handle Assembly at Black Swan Home, Hearth, and Gift


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Sawmillersam

 

[dyerkutn]

Thanks

dyerkutn;
Rather pricey but here is one source for the brass handles.
This is where I ordered the baffle plate from. Very quick service.
Lots of interesting information here on this thread about the Dutchwest
Federal airtights.

Brass Handle Assembly at Black Swan Home, Hearth, and Gift


Sawmillersam

THanks for the fast reply--For some reason their website is not loading but I will call them on Monday. And I will definitely peruse through the forum for other info. I love this stove--although I know it is a cheaper foreign made, but it was here when I moved here--would never have thought of buying one but now cannot imagine living without it. I run it every day/evening I am going to be here for any amount of hours.
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[ngzcaz]

You will not be dissatisfied. I have a backup design I may try this week with smaller holes but more holes in the plate. Likely, that would require an extra cleaning per month, but that's a piece of cake. I run it under tap water a few minutes and brush it off.

By comparison, cleaning a cat combustor is a mess and in only a few years, they fall apart. The steel plate will likely last longer than your car.

I also have a 264 I bought new in the 80's. I've never " cleaned " the combustor nor has mine fallen apart. I imagine if one handles them and bangs them around they won't last long. You don't clean a cat converter on your car nor should you attempt to do so on your wood stove except for a slight vac once a year. They are made to be self cleaning for the most part because of the high temps. A slight vac of the combustor is ok but handle it gently is you want to get long service out of it. Mine seems to still be working since the temp dial on the top of the stove still shows over a thousand degrees when you flip the damper down. And thats well after 25 years. When these units are working correctly they are very efficent. Cleaning the chimney was almost a waste of time. BUT... thats when I burned it 24/7. Getting it " messy " is almost impossible when decent wood is used and YOU GET THE UNIT HOT ENOUGH BEFORe FLIPPING IT TO THE COMBUSTOR. If you flip it too early then yes I guess it might get messy as well as get your chimney sooted prematurely.
As to the metal combustor.. well I hope it works well for you and anyone else that tries it. I sincerely doubt if it will accomplish what a regular cat will do. The fact that you clean it as often as you do tells me it doesn't. When I bought mine it also came with a metal combustor of some sort that fit in the place of the cat. Sort of a round metal cone with holes in it. I never used it and can only surmise that it may have been when coal was being burned. I never tried coal do to a coal gas incident many years ago.
Didn't mean to sound out of sorts but those combustors are a lot of money and mishandling them will almost guarentee a shorter life. And if the metal works Ok well I think thats great and certainly more cost effective. If anyone knows what those metal shaped cones were for I'd like to know for sure. :msp_smile:

 

[dyerkutn]

love this thread

I first stumbled upon and posted on this site in the spring when I was looking for someone to make a housecall to check out my 1983 Dutchwest India Fed. Airtight 224CCL (I guess the small one with no 2nd overvalve on the side door). I got my answer and did not really investigate much further. Then I posted a new post yesterday looking for new brass handles (Thank you Sawmiller Sam). It is the first forum I ever joined and I guess, except for Caroline, I might be the only female. Many of the guys on this forum seem to be real do-it-yourself type people. I myself am totally unhandy, but I can change light bulbs. I would never in a million years have considered buying a wood stove but this one was here when I moved in in 1999. The prior owners had installed it when they did an addition/renovation in 1983. I don't know how much they used it but I had it inspected--the 12 foot pipe and chimney are clean, it is installed to code. I have never been sure if I am using it totally efficiently but I love it and run it whenever I intend to be home for at least a few hours (I work majorly full time and am involved in a few other things that require evening meetings).

At Sam's suggestion, I have been devouring the info on this forum and am very pleased to realize that I am probably doing quite well with my stove. I have always just followed the manual. It heats the place up to sweltering and the thermometer stays around 1000 if I feed it fairly often. No backsmoke and I use about a cord of hardwood per year which I have to purchase as I am in the suburbs near Boston. However, given the state of the world, I would like to see if I can make even better use of it. Don't know if anyone cares about my story but I have found the stories of other new posters really interesting. Also interesting, some people on this forum have suggested checking out hearth.com which I have, and people on that forum have suggested connecting with this one!! I guess there are not a ton of users out there of this particular stove. So once I have been able to digest all the info I will probably post a few more questions.

The sun is pouring into my very large windows keeping the place pretty warm but I am off to start up the stove in a few minutes. But for the moment I do have one question for anyone out there. The outside of the stove had dulled a lot and had some rust. I wanted to spiff it up so I took the rust off with steel wool and used some William's Stove Polish by Rutland. It did shine up nicely but, even after rubbing it on extensively with rags, I am still left with a residue that comes off on my hand (or anything else) if I rub it. Also, some of the rust spots are already coming through. Any suggestions of other polishing products or should I paint it. I see from other pictures posted here that many of the stoves are a little rough looking but mine is right in the middle of my living area so I thought I would at least try to make it look nicer.

 

[rick996]

Just found this forum

Hi all, I have an FA264CCL that I have been using for about 10 years since I inherited it. I burn anthracite coal and it took me 2 years to learn how to burn coal in it effectively. Now I only have to touch it every 12 hours. In the morning I shake and add coal. In the evening I shake, empty ash pan and add coal. I'm in CT and the stove kept 1225 sq ft of our 1400 st ft house warm last night at 7 degrees outside (spare bedroom closed off). I wish I had found this forum sooner. Since the manual can be found here, I could have saved myself 2 years of trial and error. After reading the manual I plan to add a damper and use some stove size coal as well as the nut for starting. I light it in October and run it continuously until April.

In the manual I saw that for coal, some models have a something that replaces the catalytic converter? A basket strainer or something? Does anyone know about this? If it just blocks off the CC opening I can fabricate something. I really should do is shut it down and check all of the air passages/flow through the upper chamber so I understand the ramifications of blocking this.

I would be happy to exchange tips or information.

 

[sawmillersam]

Coal burning adapter

Rick996,
I am new to this forum myself; Just recently bought a FA264 that I posted about
a few posts back so others on here know a lot more than I do but from what I have
read about burning wood or coal this adapter is to be used in place of the
catalytic converter when burning coal. It is one of the accessories that came with my stove.
It is the same diameter as the cat and 1/4 inch thick and holes are about 7/16 inch.
Looks like a basement drain hole cover....

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sawmillersam

 

[bsearcey]

Rick,

Send me a PM with your address. I've got two of the coal burning plates for the cat chamber. I don't plan on burning coal with my stoves, so you're welcome to have one.

Here are some pics of the new stove in the living room. I took a picture of the glow around the thermometer and pictures of the thermo stuck past the 1600 degree mark on. They were with my phone, so they are not the best, but you get the idea. Doc, the thermometer is new so should not be giving me false readings.

Also took a picture of my handy dandy wood cart. Simple Harbour Freight hand truck with a square tube bracket bolted to the base. This thing is a life saver for carrying the wood from my stacks onto my back porch. I use to have to carry the wood either by the arm load or in a bag. I can get 5 times the wood up there in one effort. The fertilizer spreader is what my 3yo son pushes around while I'm getting wood.

 

[bsearcey]

Had trouble attaching to the previous post, so here they are.

View attachment 217833View attachment 217834View attachment 217835View attachment 217836

 

[rick996]

Rick996,
I am new to this forum myself; Just recently bought a FA264 that I posted about
a few posts back so others on here know a lot more than I do but from what I have
read about burning wood or coal this adapter is to be used in place of the
catalytic converter when burning coal. It is one of the accessories that came with my stove.
It is the same diameter as the cat and 1/4 inch thick and holes are about 7/16 inch.
Looks like a basement drain hole cover....

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sawmillersam

Thank you for the information. I did see reference to steel with holes and your picture tells me exactly what I want to do.

 

[rick996]

Rick,

Send me a PM with your address. I've got two of the coal burning plates for the cat chamber. I don't plan on burning coal with my stoves, so you're welcome to have one.

Here are some pics of the new stove in the living room. I took a picture of the glow around the thermometer and pictures of the thermo stuck past the 1600 degree mark on. They were with my phone, so they are not the best, but you get the idea. Doc, the thermometer is new so should not be giving me false readings.

Also took a picture of my handy dandy wood cart. Simple Harbour Freight hand truck with a square tube bracket bolted to the base. This thing is a life saver for carrying the wood from my stacks onto my back porch. I use to have to carry the wood either by the arm load or in a bag. I can get 5 times the wood up there in one effort. The fertilizer spreader is what my 3yo son pushes around while I'm getting wood.

Thanks for the offer. I collect all kinds of parts and scraps and know exactly what I have that fits the need and modifies it to maybe get more heat. I will be using a rectangular or square piece of steel which I will drill holes over the cat holder. The plate will sit on top of the cat holder instead of in it and will extent an inch or so towards all four the sides of the stove with the hopes that it will heat up and provide more area and mass to collect heat from.

 

[hoppeman]

Fa264ccl-r

Croi,

That should be the right fixed (center) grate for your stove, however your husband is right (if I'm reading your placement description corrrect). See how the shaker grates are under the bottom of the stove, kind of between two plates? The fixed grate is also installed this way. Just under where you have the fixed grate resting you'll see the opening that the edges of the grate rest on. You have to lift the bottom of the stove. In order to do this you will have to remove the back and side fire plates. That will allow you lift the bottom of the stove up. It is really not that difficult. I think it is 4 or 5 bolts to get the fire plates off. The the bottom (I usually lift from the back and pull forward. The front edge of the bottom will stay in place. This will give you plenty of room to work. You will get dirty. Also that side plate you show in your picture with the fixed grate is only needed when burning coal. Not needed when burning wood.

Keep us posted.

I have just purchased a wood stove on Craig's list. It is in good shape, just need to be cleaned up and redo all the gaskets on doors and top plate.

Have a question about doing the top plate. Does it need gasket material, or can you just use the stove cement to fill in the channel that is there?

Also, can I make my own center palte in stove, where the center grate wood go,it is broken in half.

Appreciate the advice

thanks, Steve

 

[hoppeman]

Fa264cclr

Found a Federal Airtight 264 on craigslist a few days ago and liked the looks of it.
I didn't know anything about them so searched for some info and found this site.
Reading the pros and cons I decided that I would like to buy the stove if it looked
OK after seeing it. Went and checked it out and bought it for $200.00. It is one of
the earlier ones (8/1983) but seemed to have not been abused. Was used up until
a couple years ago, I was told. The guy said it had never been apart and resealed so
I may take the top off and reseal that area before using it although it does look to be
OK. I have an oil furnace but use wood heat to cut down on oil use.

here are some pictures:

View attachment 215212View attachment 215213View attachment 215214View attachment 215215View attachment 215216

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sawmillersam

Nice stove, I too, have just got one on Craig's list for $200.00. I have some cleaning to do and redoing gaskets,but, everything looks great. Will post pics when done, congrats and enjoy this great stove.

This stove is exactly like the one I had in my big house in Warwick,NY, 2500 square feet. It heated the whole house when a power outage put it too good use for (3) days, glad I had it.
The only difference was the side loading door was on the left, one I have now is on the right,which will work for me, since my log rack I built is on ht e right side also.

I did post a question earlier about the cementing the top plate. I think I got my answer.

Thanks, and makes some heat

 

[hoppeman]

Fa264cclr

Hi Guys, forgot to mention 2 items I am interested in obtaining. (1) the solid plates on each side of the ash pan door, are they for intake air or for the blower to blow hot air out into room? If so where can I get those screens?

(2) I have the blower housing with no blower fan or motor. I know they sell them for like $150 at some outlet store who carry wood stove parts,but, let's be realistic here, I am retired and on a budget, anyone have any alternative ideas wood be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again, great forum

 

[geoxman]

Welcome to the forum! Here is where I got my replacement fan and it is working just fine

Surplus Center - 60 CFM 115 VAC FASCO CENTRIFUGAL BLOWER

good luck and it sure is a lot cheaper than $150

 

[hoppeman]

Fa264cclr

Hi thx for the info. Does this item come with a switch and a power cord?

thx again

 

[geoxman]

yes, it is plug and play

 

[sawmillersam]

Small air ducts

hoppeman;
Congrats on your stove purchase.
If you have the solid plates on the two air ducts on either side of the ash pan door,
they need to stay there if you use a blower. If the stove is used without a blower the
covers need to be removed for cool air to enter so the stove can heat by convection.
(cool air in below, hot air out the two vents above)

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sawmillersam

 

[hoppeman]

air ducts

Thanks, I appreciate the heads up. Guess I will take the solid plates out, don't have a blower yet.

The stove is ready to fire up. All the new gaskets in place,top is cemented down , all bolts in place. Brass shined, glass clean. Will let you know how it works in a day or two.

BTW, found a new way to clean the glass on the front doors. Use a wet paper towel and dip it in ashes to clean. Works great, DO NOT USE household cleaners on the glass.

Well, guess I have to fir it up this morning, chilly here today.

Thanks.

 

[sawmillersam]

Parts for FA264

In case you don't know about them, here are a couple sites that still have some of the parts
for the Federal Airtight stoves. Neither of them seem to have the small bottom screens:

264CCL - Dutchwest Stove (1983-1987)

CDW FA264CCL


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sawmillersam

 

[hoppeman]

Fa264 ccl-r

Well, I inall got the stove fired up. Working very well. I appreciate all the help.

Getting my blower in next week, and also my new thermometer, old can't read the numbers anymore.

Trying to send a picture of the finished stove. May also send the pics the way I got it.View attachment 221644View attachment 221645View attachment 221646View attachment 221647View attachment 221648