Kewanee swag

Tinman

Some guys like to golf on weekends. Not me. I suck at golf. I like to restore antique boiler stuff. Gauge needs new glass and the other two are stripped, primed, and ready for color. I’m going Kewanee orange on the letters and black on the body.

Gilmorrie

I have a Kewanee Type R in the house. It was installed when the house was built, about 1951. It runs like a champ, but I have updated valves, the pump, etc. I had a Kewanee gauge mounted on the boiler, but I donated it to the museum in Kewanee, IL and replaced it with new Winters tridicator gauge.

My boiler has always run on gas. It's rated for steam or hot water, but has always been set up for hot water.

Tinman

> @Gilmorrie said:
> I have a Kewanee Type R in the house. It was installed when the house was built, about 1951. It runs like a champ, but I have updated valves, the pump, etc. I had a Kewanee gauge mounted on the boiler, but I donated it to the museum in Kewanee, IL and replaced it with new Winters tridicator gauge.

That’s cool. I got this stuff off an old brickset Kewanee. There’s a ton of them sitting in basements in Chicago because of the cost of removing them.

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes

When I played golf, I used to wear two pairs of pants in case I got a hole in one.

Tinman

I came within 2” of a hole in one once. Pure luck. I probably 3 putted from there.

retiredguy

To guys like @Steve Minnich, who like very old stuff and are still young enough to appreciate them, I have an old L.R.Teeple Type CR pressure regulator (operating control) 0-15 psi; a wind up clock for an MH Cronotherm, model 77 serial number D 3058; a mercoid control thermostatwith a red liquid thermometer on the front (1951)? and an old 3/4" Penberthy boiler feeder. These have been in my collection for some time but I would part with them for $0.00.I would post pictures if I knew how and had the right equipment.

Tinman

I’d love to add the MH Chronotherm to my collection.

retiredguy

It is just the clock that snaps into the thermostat body and not the whole thermostat

Tinman

When you post, there is picture icon on the far right, just above the text box. Click in that and then click choose files.

Tinman

Some progress on some of the “junk” I’m working on.

Gilmorrie

Steve Minnich: Regarding your comment about numerous Kewanee boilers left in Chicago because of the expense of removal.

Also, many old Kewanee boilers, including mine, have asbestos, which complicates removal. I have no intention of ever removing my 65-year-old boiler, which works fine.

There is a minor cult about movies that featured old Kewanee boilers, including "Blues Brothers," which was set in Chicago. Boiler furnace doors, with the Kewanee logo, are collectible. Since Kewanee, Illinois, is only 125 miles from Chicago, it stands to reason that many would have wound up there - many in schools, churches, as well as large residences and other buildings. Many were rated for hand firing (coal) as well as gas/oil. When natural gas became available, their burners were converted to gas.

Tinman

@Gilmorrie - I’m incapable of watching movies without noticing boilers and radiators; taking it a step forward distinguishing between Burnham and Weil cast iron baseboard.

I do this stuff because I enjoy it and the history of our trade intrigues me more than the present or the future.

I can’t ever see making it anything more than a hobby. Hobbies are more fun than business. 😎

retiredguy

I once made the mistake of taking my wife along on a night emergency call at a hospital for a 500 H P Burnham steam boiler firing #2 fuel oil. I was dead tired from too many hours working and no one else that would relieve me. They had a garage door at the rear of the boiler that I opened so my wife could see just what I worked on. Through the observation port at the rear of the boiler she could see the LP pilot flame. She tooted the horn to get my attention and remarked that she could not believe how large the flame was. Then I allowed the unit to light the fuel oil. After this episode, she constantly nagged at me to quit my job saying that she never realized how dangerous my job was. I loved what I did but I never made the same mistake again.

ChicagoCooperator

Speaking of abandoned boilers in Chicago, I was recently in a loop mid-rise with 50's boilers in the cavernous 3rd basement (20's building, possible also heating a famous early skyscraper recently restored). Will have to upload them to the other thread or create a new one - it was a spooky and mysterious room. Even had a chute up to the street they claimed was for coal, but I think was for combustion air (oil fired I think).

Tinman

@ChicagoCooperator Yup. Lots of coal chutes left.

ChicagoCooperator

Steve - I'm pretty sure it was on the freight tunnel system so it might not have had a coal chute, though it was built at the very tail end of the tunnel systems use (for non-Chicagoans, there was a freight tunnel system under the entire Loop in Chicago, which is what flooded when we had our infamous flood in the 90's).

I'll try and get the pictures up over the weekend.