Well, today was probably the best day I've ever had at a flea market.

I came home with two Coleman stoves - a two-burner propane in very decent condition, for $11, and a decrepit-looking 413E, a two-burner white gas stove, for $3.

We just got home, and as I was beginning this thread (to ask for advice on how to tackle rehabbing the 413), for a lark I Googled it. Well, I found this link:

Old Town Coleman Center

And it's a complete disassembly, cleaning and reassembly tutorial for this exact model. Gotta love Google some days.

I'll add photos later - ImageShack keeps crashing on me.
Edited: OK, here they are -

Propane stove:


413E closed:


413E open:


Dave

P.S. - My son demanded we add the trophy icon to my post.

Hey!

Great link Dave, Thanks a bunch. Its funny but I stripped apart my old coleman 425 last weekend and re-built it with new parts. Small world sometimes.

As a tip I would suggest using high temp BBQ paint on all the grey non painted parts like the manifold after you clean it up. I did it with mine and it really keeps the rust at bay for storage and the paint wont burn. Makes it look pretty darned good as well.

Coleman Suitcase stoves that go for a few bucks at yard sales
can be habit forming--use caution.....


the photo was taken last summer for another site that
was having a "fire up your Coleman" weekend--anyway..in case of
TEOTWAWKI i could make soup for a hundred---

OK, so given your collection, I'll ask your opinion.

The instructions on that link I had are very thorough on how to clean and rehab the stove, and the author's very receptive to e-mail questions, but one of the rules about what not to ask him about is "what paint do I use for my lantern or stove?"

I want this stove to be a functional and not necessarily pretty item, not the beginning of a pristine collection (see, I put it in writing - I can stop anytime I want). Given the amount of rust on the top of my case, how would you tackle it? Would you strip the whole case and repaint, just strip the rust and cover it? And, how would you strip both rust and intact case paint? Should I just Dremel and wire wheel the whole thing to bare metal?

Thanks

Dave

I thought I was a Stoveaholic, but after seeing that picture I can say I’m only a junior class Stoveaholic…

If you have an air compressor I would sandblast it to clean metal. Then find a paint that matches the original color and is resistant to heat and fuel.

You could probably use naval jelly to remove the rust, maybe followed by a wire brushing, then paint it with some heat resistant paint. Black stove paint is easy to find, or colored stuff for painting engine blocks. Don't know if it comes in anything close to Coleman green, but then who cares...

Try the Bullfrog stuff from The Rust Store

Works great.

Dave T--the other posters have the right idea..any good
paint and rust remover and a coat of paint will do the job.
some stove collectors use engine block paint.on smaller
stoves like the Peak One i have used wood stove paint.
some collectors will not give advice on re-painting a
stove because of what i call the "antiques roadshow syndrom"
the item that would be worth a millon is now worth $1.95
because the owner polished,painted or turned it into a lamp.
no one wants to hand out advice that may bounce back to
them in terms of a lawsuit---"you told me and----"...
and i'm not really much of a collector,just an enthusiast.
the real stoveaholics have rooms full of these layed out by
make,model,color--

I have collected a few yard sale items, also. It can get expensive if you have to buy many replacement parts.

I had an old Coleman stove that had a good sound "suit case" and good burners, but the generator was bad and the tank had a hole in it. Not wanting to spent the money or time, I found the cheapest solution was to buy a Propane conversion kit like this one:

http://www.campmor.com/outdoor/gear/Product___86801

By all means clean it up and restore it, but if you get into too much costs with the tank and generator, the Propane kit is an option. (Since you already have an $11 propane stove, maybe not.)

I got a bit more advice from another Coleman stove fellow: Phosphoric acid wash, which stops the rust from eating the metal. He recommends a brand called Ospho, although he said there are a lot of others out there. And for paint, he said Krylon or Rustoleum, just make sure to do several light coats instead of one heavy one

ospho works great as a pre-wash (after wire brushing), then primer, then add a couple of top coats.

apply ospho w/a brush, & spray cans for the primer & top coats.

Great find! My family has one of those beauties and it keeps going and going!

OK, so for an update:

After a bunch of other home projects got in the way of my fun tinkering, I've finally finished rehabbing the propane stove (which promises to be the much easier of the two stoves). Mostly, there was grease on it, and the rusted burner rings, etc. I cleaned all that, and spray-painted the burners, etc. with a high-temperature metallic engine block paint, then cured them in the oven.

Careful reassembly, hooking everything up and testing the connections with soapy water showed no leaks, so I fired it up and success - flame on the burners and no explosions.


So, not bad for $11 and some elbow grease. Of course, getting the list of cleaning supplies and paints recommended in the tutorial has ended up being something like $35-$40, but a lot of it is stuff I'll end up using on other projects - carb cleaner, Simple Green, etc.

A few more questions for the peanut gallery: Upon reassembly, I noticed that my propane stove has the burner bracket, but not the stovetop (basically the plate that catches the grease under the burners). Can anyone see a reason why that would be a big concern, or something I'd need to replace? [As I was typing this up, I searched Coleman online and found that the stovetop is only for the 5410A700, and mine's a 5400A700 - they share the paper instruction booklet].

My next question - I see written on the small propane canister and other places that you never refill the small propane canisters, and yet I have seen adapters for refilling the small canisters being sold. Is this the incredibly bad idea it seems like it could be, or a great way to save money and the public is being warned away from the practice by overcautious legal staff at Coleman, etc.?

Finally, is there a better/best adapter set for running a small stove like this off of a grill-sized tank? I've only seen adapters at Wal-Mart, and while they look kind of expensive to me, I also don't want to be buying expensive junk if there's a better alternative.

Soon, the rehab will begin on the Coleman fuel grill - a much bigger, more involved job than this one was.

Thanks all

Dave

Our scout troop has a "tree" that attaches to standard propane tank and then routes to two stoves and a lantern.

I mostly use the same ""Tree" (Distribution Post) as Mike H does. I run the stove and 2 lights of a 20 or 40lb tank in the kitchen wall tent at our moose hunting camp. It has worked well for years. I agree that these "Trees" are expensive but I have never seen one at a garage sale so I had to buy mine new.

I have also run the stove off of a 20 lb tank just using the proper hose but I think there was a regulator in the line there somewhere, I have not used this method in about 15 years.

Mike

Does anyone have experience/advice/warnings about using an adapter such as this to refill the small propane canisters?
Propane bottle refill kit

Is this a safe or unsafe practice?

Thanks

Dave

Dave I have one of those adapters and while it does seem to put some propane back into the can, I wouldn't say it's re-filled completely.
That said, I think it's worth the money to pick up and use if you're like me and have several of the smaller bottles kicking around.

I have one and it works great, had it for going on 4-years. The instructions said to put the cylinder in a deep freeze for 45-min before trying to refill it. I do this and I can get them refilled 100% as much as a new cylinder. One time alter freezing and refilling a cylinder I put it back in the freezer to lat it get cold again and then filled it some more. It worked so well that the cylinder bulged out some when it got warm. That was the last time I did that. It’s best to fill them from a big tank that is no less then ¼ full, after the big tank get ¾ empty it doesn’t fill the small cylinders so well.

I bought the refill adaptor for $13.00 at Harbor Tools.

I thought I had more stoves than I could use ....and so did family members and friends that learned what I had: a Propane Coleman, An Unleaded Gas Coleman, a white gas Coleman, a cheap knock-off propane coleman-type, and a titanium backpack Butane cannister stove.
I feel much better now ...thanks for sharing.
And I will have to start prowling the yard sales ....'cuz, clearly there are deals out there that will help me more easily afford to help my relations become more prepared.

Remember though, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

I love yard sales!! Good finds!!

It is good to see you posting again Malemutekid!! I have been wondering how you have been.

There must be some hazard to refilling. I was looking at a propane cannister yesterday and it said on it that it was illegal on the Federal (US gov't I mean) level to transport a refilled propane cannister. That being said, it sure looks like the cannister was designed to be refilled. There's a little port below the main screw on port that sure looks like it's meant to be used to refill the cannister.

"...a little port below the main screw on port that sure looks like it's meant to be used to refill the cannister...

I have never known what that little port is for, but the refill gizmos don't use it, they just screw onto the threaded part...

That little port is probably an overpressure relief valve.

Well, I finally got to run the propane Coleman stove through its paces this weekend - two-night trip with five adults/nine kids. I made sausage gravy and biscuits for breakfast on Sunday morning - that was the only time I broke out the stove, and while I was getting the biscuits ready in the dutch oven, someone else cooked four pounds of bacon on the stove and heated water for coffee and hot chocolate.

Then when the biscuits were well on their way, I took over and got two skillets going - one to cook sausage, one to make the roux and then consolidate/serve while the next portion of sausage cooked. It worked really well, although I kept stirring sausage and gravy over the lip of the skillets and by the end of the breakfast run, the stove was almost as filthy as when I bought it.

The good thing was that since I tore it down and rehabbed it, I know how to take it apart and reassemble it, so I could get all the nasty grease and sausage bits out of all the nooks and crannies.

A very well-spent $11.

Dave

"...sausage gravy and biscuits..."

Oh man, can I come camping with you? You make stuff like that and I will do all of the dishes!

If you really want a camp stove, keep your eyes peeled for a Coleman three burner. You would be amazed at how handy that third burner can be...