$100 and a little work, with a whole lot of heat

JShep

While I sit back and ponder whether the time and money to keep our single, 100’ plus long main that snakes in an S through the basement was worth it (installed in 1908, with many eliminated radiators leaving dead branches off the main, and three distinct sections where hvac work and cracked beams left sags, I’ve managed to get it mostly sorted and back in line with the 1908 layout)… my only real regret is burying the best investment in time and money in the system down on the first floor where my mother in law gets to see it every day.

$100, some cleaning brushes, wire brushes, and a handful of cans of high heat black paint turned a massive radiator buried under a stack in a second hand store into a monster.  Loaded into my car with a forklift… unloaded by me with a 16’ long ramp I built out of scrap in the basement onto a sled I build with a pair of dollies and some scrap butcher block for cleanup, then wheeled around the block to the front where I had to enlist the help of a friend to get it up a step and a half inside.  

Gotta get a picture of it installed someday.

ethicalpaul

OK but high heat paint is wasted on a radiator that gets to 212

pedmec

looks great.

Steamhead

What a beauty! American Rococo?

EBEBRATT-Ed

It does look good. That's an old timer.

Mad Dog_2

Outstanding...that is a hydronic treasure...thanks for saving and honoring it.  Mad Dog 🐕 

DanHolohan

Great story!  Thanks. 

ChrisJ

ethicalpaul said:

OK but high heat paint is wasted on a radiator that gets to 212

The stove paint I've seen needs to be slowly heated to something like 600f to fully cure.

I don't know what that actually means though.

JShep

ethicalpaul said:

OK but high heat paint is wasted on a radiator that gets to 212

I chose it because it’s extremely thin and has a higher acetone content than normal spray paint, so it dries faster, even partially before it hits the surface which was key for trying to get deep into the inner sections without over coating while getting in close (I have an 18 almost two year old, in a 180 year old house in the city, that is near constantly being worked on… so when it comes to the lead dust I created by scraping the old paint off, while I washed it off real good, still saves me like 0.01% of stress by coating it five times over as much area as possible without the build up.  I didn’t buy it for the temp rating.

Steamhead said:

What a beauty! American Rococo?

That feels right, but I’ve spent most of time my in the basement in recent weeks breaking 2-3” fittings between floor joists… so it’s been a while since I looked at it.  

realliveplumber

Your enthusiasm is admirable.

Rusty2

Nice job JShep. Where there was a will, you found a way.