Firebox question on old oil burner?

EdTheHeaterMan

As I remember the steel chambers, they just hung there, supported by the attachment to the burner end of the boiler. There may have been some skimpy steel legs to keep it suspended at the far end of the chamber. Back when I worked on removing them to replace the chamber with the Lynn Quickie in the 1980s, there were not too many of the steel chambers left. I can't remember if there was asbestos in any of the gaskets, or supports. mostly because there was no information about the dangers of asbestos. That information was not available until the end of the 1980s. You just removed that stuff and vacuumed it out the dust at the bottom.

I remember when I was in my late 20s, telling my Dad that he must have been trying to kill all of us little cousins, (under 16 years old) by having us load 50 lb. bags of dry asbestos cement into a 55 gallon barrel so the service technicians were able to fill up their buckets for the service van. There was a total fog of flying asbestos dust in the room when we were done that chore on Saturday morning. That is what we did as a children (12 to 16 years old) on Saturday mornings in the winter while our younger cousins were watching cartoons. When you got your drivers license at age 16. You were given a fuel delivery truck and you delivered fuel oil. When I think about that now… with all the regulations to get a HazMat CDL today, our parents were crazy to give us the keys to those rolling fire bombs. Oh The Good Ole' Days!