rasct wrote:I also hope that we can find someone to cast those ring parts ,I would like to keep this original.
Rob, It's not a question of finding someone to cast the parts, it's to have the mold for them to use to cast them. There are several foundries that can/will do the casting. If we get enough people interested in some of these things, we could make the molds. It costs a lot to make molds. Most foundries don't own their molds. The molds are usually owned by the company that wants a particular casting done. I'm talking present day. Back when the Glenwood was being made the business was not the same. The small foundries doing some of the stove parts now might own those molds, I don't know. But it would be a stroke of luck big time to find a set of molds for the parts we are looking for.
All the stove parts on these old stoves were done in sand molds. The original molds were made out of wood in what are called cope and drag molds. Some of the early stoves done in the 19th century used what they call loose molds. In any case, sand is packed around the shape of the piece you want to cast first from one side, then from the other. Then you have to open the two sides and take out the wooden mold leaving behind the empty space in the sand for the metal to get poured into. You need a hole in the sand where the metal gets poured in, and usually small holes in places so that the hot gases developed can leave with causing the molten metal to stop flowing. There are a lot of things that have to be taken into consideration when making the molds in order to come out with a good part with no casting defects and the right size. The foundries that cast these old stoves were really good at what they did...