Crown No 1...or 2

I bought this old Crown stove for Jo on the weekend. As you can see it needs a little bit of TLC. I will have to do some investigation but I believe it is a Crown No1. That makes it a lot older than me, probably by more than 20 years!

We saw it at the second hand building supplies recently and fell in love with it for its retro 50's look.

I think I have mentioned before that Crown stoves were made right here in Brisbane. They are quite rare nowadays. Jo and I have two counting the one in the BBQ area.

Anyway, you might wonder how I will go about restoring this to something like its former glory. Well, actually it isn't too bad. The main chassis if you like is quite sturdy. The top looks like it is missing some bits though and the oven is completely rusted out top and bottom. Most of the parts in these stoves were cast iron. They last quite well. Some of the other bits were made with sheet metal and that is where the rust comes in.

I am going to use technology to restore this stove. My plan is to carefully measure the rusted out parts and draw them up in Illustrator. Then I will send the files to my favourite laser cutter and get the pars manufactured from 4 or 6 mm plate steel. Alternatively I could try and cut them myself with a Plasma cutter. A little bit harder but a lot less expensive.

Anyway it is a long term project.