Hi there!

I have a problem restoring an antique French cast iron wood stove.

As I was derusting it, one of the feet broke loose.

It's the part that was holding it to the body that broke. I guess it's a bold but I am not sure. The reason I am not sure is specifically because I am having a terrible time removing that "bold" to replace it.

Here is a video that describes it: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1W3b...ew?usp=sharing

I have applied old gasoline on it and let it react for a day, many days in a row. I have tried turning the "screwhead" with a screwdriver, it won't budge. I have filed the part that is stuck in the stove's body to make it flat and tried to turn it with a clamp, to no avail.

The thing that strikes me is that I don't see any "boundary" between what should be the bolt, and the "hole" in which it is supposed to screw. Neither on the stove's body nor on the foot. It looks blended into the "hole", as if it had been welded. I would be very surprised if it was indeed welded in the past, for 2 reasons. First because I wouldn't see the benefit of doing that. Second because I don't see how on Earth one would have managed to do it with the foot in position.

In the video I have already filed around the "bolt", because I was hoping to remove that little "mountain" around it. I removed most of it all right, but it still looks as if it had been welded.

Would anyone have any idea how I could remove the remnants of this "bolt", without damaging the stove any more? Or an alternative solution to getting the foot back into place?

Thanks a lot in advance for your help!

All four legs


Profile of screw


Closeup of stove base


Closeup of broken fastener


Closeup of same side with attached leg

 

The movie doesn't load so maybe some pictures?

Old stove, lots of heat cycles, probably stuck good!

Solvents/rust solutions don't work if materials are so siezed liquids cant get in, sort of like hoping that liquid drain opener will open your clog, a pipe dream!

Did you try and take one of the others off to see what it looks like?

 

Looking at the last picture showing an attached leg..... I see a nut. That means a bolt and nut was used to attach that leg. Based on that........

You need a punch and hammer.
Drive the screw out of the foot in the opposite direction of the head.
Use the same hammer and punch to push the screw into the stove.

If you cannot drive the piece of screw into the stove.... you may need to drill it out.
You'll probably need a 1/4-20 bolt, nut and two washers for the repair.

Any type of punch can be used.

 

Thanks a lot for both of your answers! I appreciate your help very much!

Thanks A LOT for sharing! That's what my impression was, but I had never read about it. It feels really good to know that I am not crazy.

Nope. They don't look like they would be any easier to get off, and I am very afraid of breaking more of that stove.

Pjmax, thanks a lot for adding screenshots of the video!

Actually I think that nut you see is from another bold, that was added by a prior repair, probably 40 years ago.

From what I see inside the stove, it seems the bolts screw into threads inside the stove body. It seems that the hole goes completely through, but there is no nut on the other side.

I am not entirely sure I understand what you mean. You mean take the screw out, and then use it to push what is remaining of the bolt that is stuck in the stove?

I am very afraid to punch. I was told cast iron break very easily.

It seems most likely that this is what I'll have to do. Do you have any hints on that? How to avoid breaking things while doing it?

Thanks again very much for your help!

 

If it was a nut and bolt used there.... you could just push the old piece of bolt up with a punch.
If that screw was screwed into the casting.... that will be an entirely different problem.

You may be able to cut the bolt off flush on the outside and then drill it out or cut the bolt off flush and drill next to it creating a new mounting hole. We couldn't say for sure from here. I'm leaning towards drilling a new hole next to the old bolt.

 

Drilling cast iron can be tricky especially if it is old and brittle. From the pictures it looks like that may be the case here. The bolt is not cast iron but probably steel and may be safer to drill through. Start with small diameter bits and work up in size.

 

Thanks a lot guys, that's really helpful!

 

Hi, try to file the screw head flat and use a center punch in the screw head , then start with a small bit and work your way up.
that stove looks in pretty rough shape.
Geo 🇺🇸

 

Thanks a lot for your help! Indeed this is what I am going to try.

 

Hi there!

It’s been almost 2 years, and thanks to the help on several forums I managed to repair my very old stove.

Better late than never, I would like to thank all of those who helped me, and share with you the result.

I hope this can help someone willing to repair a very old stove in the future.

So in the end, what I did was to saw off the parts of the old screw that were sticking out, then file what was left to get a flat surface. I punched small holes, and then drew a hole. Since the goal was to make this repair as part of a gift that was not supposed to cost a single cent, I used a hand drill to do it. It ended up being very easy and took probably less than 15 minutes each time.

Thank you all again very much for the help!

 

Nice work! I'm glad your persistence worked it out. It looks fabulous! And thanks for letting us see the final result.

 

Nice job.