Restoring rusty cast iron wood stove, painting it

A. Hi Jessica. If such an approach worked robustly the manufacturers probably wouldn't go to the high cost of porcelain coatings (these are sprayed on at thousands of degrees and are more like molten glass than paint). I'd suggest trying your painting scheme on a tiny patch of the stove (maybe on the back?) and see if it survives a few hot fires before undertaking such a time-consuming restoration.

Luck & Regards,


Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

A. stovehospital.com

A. Hi Litt. I understand that the four bolts are rusted, but I'm not sure that I understand what your question is. You can't open the doors because they're frozen, or they're so far gone that you know you need to get replacements, or what?

If they're just frozen, then WD-40 ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] and tapping with a hammer, then more WD-40 and more tapping, etc. And when you can finally move the doors just a little, with a crowbar or however, you keep wiggling them and WD-40'ing them until at long last, they open and close freely.

Luck & Regards,


Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

A. Ahh yes wood stoves. This is how I started in the metal finishing business. Sure wish I had a sandblaster [portable sandblasters on eBay or Amazon [affil links] then because that is the best way to knock off the old rust and get to parent metal. We used to use wire wheels on drills: brutal, and should have worn better dust masks ⇦[this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] . Is this a "pot belly" or a cook stove?

Be careful of some of the old cook stoves as they had asbestos insulation. A lot of the pot bellies had a sheet metal jacket, usually corrodes away and has to be replaced, best to drill out the old rivets.

Most important if you are going to use it is the condition of the grates and the fire box. Cast iron is a son of a gun to weld well. Some of the trim may have been nickel plated and it can be hard in this day & age to find a job shop that can or will polish and nickel plate the parts (not chrome) and that is how I ended up in the plating business -- good young man's sport.

A. I clean cast iron skillets by soaking them in lye water but if a piece is too large to get into a bucket, I use oven cleaner ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] .

! Please be very careful and wear goggles ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] (as well as gloves ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] ; one drop of lye or oven cleaner in your eye will blind you.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2003

A. I am responding to "Alice H" question on how to clean of the mouse poop from her stove. I don't know how big this stove is but why don't your place the stove outside in a clear and safe spot away from anything that will burn and light a small fire in the stove. This would heat the stove to the point were it would burn off anything stuck on.

... Just a thought..

"Stove and
Fireplace Mortar"

on eBay or

Amazon

(affil links)

A. Hello, Alice. "Burning the bolts" probably refers to cutting them with an acetylene torch ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] because they are too rusted to unscrew. They can probably be cut off with an angle grinder ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] and a cut-off disc ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] if an oxy-acetylene torch is beyond your comfort level. But even a grinder can hurt you.

I doubt that you are seeing 'petrified mouse poop stuck all over' :-). To my knowledge mouse droppings look more like rye seeds. Many cast iron wood burning stoves are meant to be airtight, which isn't doable by just bolting cast iron plates together; rather they are sort of caulked with fireproof black mortars.

Maybe that black caulk/mortar is what you are seeing? Good luck

A. Hi Alice H

In response to your query regarding burn the bolts, I agree with Ted Mooney, it is a term used for burning out damaged bolts, but you need to be very careful to not damage the parent metal even cast iron can be damaged, however I have successfully removed very rusted bolts by carefully heating up either the head of the bolt or any exposed thread to a bright red with Acetylene (be careful to not let the surrounding metal get too hot) then let it go cold this will shrink the bolt and may unscrew you may have to apply a penetrating oil product like WD-40 ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] .

Wish you luck.

A. Hi Cecile. We appended your inquiry to a previous answer where it is mentioned that stove caulks/mortars ⇗ are made for the purpose. They will probably look better and work better than muffler cement. Good luck.

Regards,

I like how you cut right through. a simple 1-2-3 works just fine with most people. Did the same. My uncle has an antique business of his own and basically has the same formula.

A. Rutland stove paint ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] is a high temperature black paint, specifically for wood stoves, Felicita. I'm sure there are others, too.

A. I have 3 wood stoves in my cabin, 2 for heat and 1 is a kitchen stove. All of my stoves were made in the 1800 and were pretty rusted when I bought them. For each "refinishing" job I used 000 steel wool ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] because the rust does not have to be "blasted off". I then wiped my stoves down with good old soap and water and let them dry. My next step was stove polish for black cast iron stoves -- brand name is "Rutland" ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] . Rub this on, NOT TOO THICK. Let it dry and use 000 steel wool ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] to polish. Fire the stove good and hot. (this bakes the polish in). t will smoke just a little and, wah lah, it is done... (this took me less than a day to do).

Oh and by the way blasting the bolts is referring to using a blasting agent... "PB Penetrating Catalyst ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] "... you spray this on and it eats away the rust that has froze up just about any bolt... however do not use this as a rust remover for it is very greasy

My newest stove is a 1901 Loth's liberty cook stove. I use this daily and the polish is fantastic! this thing sat outside for years, and had a solid rust surface throughout... I did I as I described and now own a beautiful antique stove that I am proud of!

A. To restore a cast iron stove, (I just restored an old Florin Pot Belly from Lancaster Co. Pa.) you have to wire brush the rust scale off and wipe off with a rag. If you can sandblast or use a wire wheel, it will go faster. After you clean it up, use stove polishing compound, stove black ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] , to really bring out its beauty. It's a labour of love (and a little elbow grease.)

A. Hi Dennis.

I think I'd rethink the white look and try the stove polish look unless you want to hunt for a porcelain enamel jobshop. The white enamel you see on stoves is not paint, it is real porcelain enamel, which is more like melted glass than paint. The porcelain frit is melted onto the cast iron at thousands of degrees. Good luck.

Regards,

Gasoline-powered Air Compressors

on eBay or

Amazon

(affil links)

A. As I scanned through this thread I was surprised to see no one mention use of a product called "naval jelly ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] " to dissolve rust. I refinished a 1985 vintage cast iron Consolidated Dutchwest stove that had been in a damp barn and was covered with surface rust this way. You can buy it at any auto parts store that features body working products like Bondo ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] , and you simply brush it on, let it sit for five or ten minutes, then wash it off with water. Wire brush any heavy deposits and reapply and repeat. After this I simply painted the parts with high temp black stove paint ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] and I have been using the stove for 4 years without any refinishing.

I also have a vintage Century Crawford kitchen stove that I intend to refinish in exactly the same way. I would have used the blasting method but it is extremely messy and requires too many special tools for the average person. The blasting gun and media is pretty cheap, but a high volume air compressor to run can be problematic for the average do it yourselfer, unless like me your other hobby is playing with old cars....

A. Why don't folks electrolytically convert the rust? Drop the rusty bit in some water with washing soda ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] (in a plastic tub). Plug in your automotive battery charger ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] and attach the positive to some re-bar in the same water, the negative to the item that needs to be de-rusted. Just don't let the re-bar and the rusty piece of metal touch. Go read a good book and come back a few hours later. The rust wipes off with no trouble at all and non-rusty metal is completely unaffected. It will remove paint. I'm de-rusting and re-enameling an 80 year old stove this way and it's effortless. You don't have to work so hard!

I'm in the process of refinishing a stove and have found electrolysis does a great job of removing rust. I follow that with a fine wire brush and Scotchbright finishing pad. Stove polish ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] finishes it off and no damage has been done to the underlying metal.

ATLANTA STOVE

I am using Heidi's electrolytic cleaning of an old Atlanta Stove, I hope it works.

I started with wire brushing with power drill, bah!
Looked at Evapo-rust; looks good but $21.00 gallon plus freight.

I will post result when I get them.

A. Hi, Michael. Yes, electrocleaning is done with both electrodes submerged in the same tank but not touching. The actual idea is that the electricity splits the water into hydrogen bubbles at the negative pole (the piece you are cleaning) and oxygen bubbles at the positive pole (the rebar) which scrub the surface clean. In addition, to some small extent, the rust (Fe⁺, Fe⁺⁺) is reduced to Fe⁰ by the electrons at the negative pole.

Don't forget the washing soda ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] for conductivity and alkalinity; and a little detergent can help but not hurt.

Regards,

A. Hand wire brushes are not helpful and will only aggravate you. Graduated coarsenesses of wire wheel brushes, drill mount and go to town; start coarse, go to fine, then some 00 steel wool ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] all over and a spray down with some compressed air or a leaf blower. Then some solvent or brakeclean to clean surface, then some high temperature paint. The stove black is nasty stuff and can rub off very easily on clothes, etc. Also looks lousy and can't be painted over. Stove black isn't the weapon of choice anymore for a reason.

Also make sure your paint is rated to at least 1000 degrees.

Electrolysis weakens metal and is a quick way to get electrocuted/rupture a battery.

Hi L. Thanks for the helpful tips!

Alas, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and a number of readers prefer the look of stove polish to paint. I believe you're right that they can't change their mind and paint once they've waxed the stove though, so they better be sure :-)

You're entitled to feel that electrolysis is not a good & practical way to clean cast iron stove parts, but there's little chance of electrocuting yourself with a 6 or 12 volt battery charger if you exercise reasonable care (anything is possible if you don't). Electrolysis doesn't weaken mild steel or cast iron (thousands of plating shops around the world use electrolysis every day for cleaning millions of metal parts before plating); but electrolysis with the work attached to the negative pole does offer the potential of hydrogen embrittlement of hardened steels.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

Thanks, Wilma. But I'm left handed ... do you think I could go clockwise, or might the old lefty-loosey / righty-tighty rule make the rust grow instead of shrink? :-)

Regards,