The other week I picked up a mid-1980’s Chambers gas range at a building salvage place (excellent condition, cost me about $50, worth the gamble).
The one thing I don’t have for it are the drip pans; I do have some from a different model that kinda fit, but I’d like to make it work right so I’m thinking of getting a couple custom-made.
The drip pans aren’t anything special - sort of a round shallow bowl with a lip to hold them in place and a cutout in the middle for the burner head to poke through. I was going to have them made (pressed?) of a medium-gauge steel and then porcelanized.
Anyone with any metalworking experience have any idea what it might cost? I assume that big metalshops won’t fiddle with small orders like this (don’t need a thousand of 'em), is there some kind of business (small custom metalworking stores?) that would handle an order of this sort?
That is how the originals are made. The cost of a custom stamping die makes this impractical for a one off job. A skilled metalsmith could hammer them on stakes but this is a labor intensive job that would cost far more than the stove. Stick with the ones you have if they are close enough.
My plan B (which may now become plan A) is to take the pans I’ve got, get their rims enlarged a bit (they don’t quite fit perfectly, so weld a slightly larger ring to the rim) and have the holes for the burners enlarged a bit as well, then re-porcelanize them. No fancy machining required.
Thanks. I’ll also check out emachineshop and see what they’d charge.
Wander through wallymart and keep your eye open for stailess pans, bowls, etc. You just might find something to fill the bill and beat porcelain 15 ways to Sunday! Maybe kaymart and turgit too.
If you can draw it, or create a CAD drawing, send it to me via the email in my profile. I deal with a medium sized shop in York, PA that does standard stuff but also has a custom fab department. If you’d like, I’ll run it past them for a quote.
Since it’s only a mid-80’s model, odds are very good that the originals are still available. If it were me, I would go to a local dealer called “Stove Parts Supply Co.” and if they didn’t have it in stock, they would order it. Check around your area, there is probably something similar. Also, check for a different brand that might fit it. IIRC, White-Westinghouse bought out Chambers, Tappan, Frigidaire and a bunch of other appliance manufacturers in the mid 80’s, so a drip pan for one of those models might also fit it. Good luck.
I’ll second Rhubarb; I’d almost guarantee that there is an appliance supply or old hardware store in the Bay Area area that has the drip pans in stock.
Thanks everyone. I have actually gone through the local OSH, Target, etc. I also checked with an appliance store that specializes in all sorts of hard to find bits. No dice. Also checked craigslist and ebay - there’s plenty of listings for Chambers ranges from the 1950s but nothing for their more recent stuff.
I actually wound up going to Urban Ore (another salvage place in the East Bay) and found a similar range (albeit in much worse shape) that I bought for $40, this is what got me the burner grates and the drip pans - the grates are perfect, evidently Chambers didn’t change the design over the years, while the drip pans are (like I said) a tad small - they sorta fit but rattle around. And the range I bought has one “power” burner with 6 heads rather than 4 so it needs a special drip pan.
Rhubarb, great idea on W-W, I’ll see if I can dig anything up. Dances With Cats I will send you a sketch and some photos.
It’s a GSU 42P. I couldn’t find any kind of manufacturing date on it (looked all over, including on the interior rear nameplate where I found the model number) but I’m pretty sure that it’s very late 70s or early 80s (it looks amazingly like the one my folks got when we remodelled the kitchen in about 1981).
42 inches wide, four burners and the Chambers combo broiler/griddle. Three of the burners are the regular 4-head burners, the front-right burner is a 6-head “power burner” (thus the cutout in the drip pan will be different). If there’s some way to post photos here I’ve got some I can upload or I can email them to you.
Butler1850, I did spend some time googling/ebaying away with no success. The first link is actually to Hughes Place and he does show some very similar-looking drip pans however Hugh never returned my message…that’s when I noticed that they are located in LA and figured they might be a little busy digging out
There are several companies around the country that refurbish old stoves like this one. I suspect that one of these companies will either have the part in stock as a spare, or have the tooling necessary to replicate it. Some of these companies might not have a web presence, so you might need to call around to find the person with this part.
