Where to find roller parts for fireplace?

Dear Experts,

I have a very old fireplace, installed in the seventies.

It has what I think is a very flimsy mechanism for the screen to keep the sparks in.

The screen hangs on rollers like this one:

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About 1/2 inch wide, by 3/4 inch long.

It is not unlike something that you might see on some kind of curtain rod. But since it's near a fire, it needs to be made of metal.

A number of these rollers are missing, and so, it never really closes correctly. And so, I don't use the fireplace much. :(

Does anyone know the name of this kind of part?

Where could I find one made out of metal?

Thanks

Reply to
condor_222
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My house was built in 1927. I was not present to see it.

Reply to
Pogonip

Suddenly I feel very old myself...

-Tim (also 'installed' in the 70's...)

Reply to
Tim Fischer

Have you tried a fireplace/heating shop? If they don't have what you need they might be able to tell you where to find it, or have a solution to your problem (new screen?).

Jean M.

Reply to
Jean D Mahavier

Mine in 1928. It's quite new for this village. The church was rebuilt in the 1100's on Saxon foundations, and the school (Victorian) has Roman remains under it. I'm relatively new, having arrived in 1956 and moved to this house in 1984.

Reply to
Kate Dicey

Even in the US, very old is 100 years.

70's isn't new, but I don't think it's even old. Medium maybe.

Those are nice. Maybe a fireplace store would have more. The onesthat don't will try to sell you a whole new screen.

I don't think my screen even has rollers. It just slides along when I pull the fobs? the dangling handles. They are made from spiral wire so they don't get too hot to hold. It doesn't pull easily, but if I pull a little harder, it closes and opens. I don't even shut it if I'm not leaving the room. If I had a good rug in front, I would, but really there have been few sparks if any that have made it out of the fireplace. Maybe a couple landed on the rug and went out without even burning the rug. If there were no rug within say 3 feet,, there would be even less chance of any fire.

Why don't you watch the fire for a while and get an idea how often there is sparking.

Still, one is crazy not to close the screen if he is leaving the room.

As to flimsy, normally flimsy is good enough. The sparks don't have any momentum behind them. Anything will stop them. And it was probably the difference between 40 dollars and 100 dollars. Well, I don't know. Never bought one, I'm just guessing. Maybe it's only

60, but if it bothering you, it might be worth 60 or 100.

My screen is something like chain mail, and although it's steel, the top parts are warped from getting too hot. That doesn't mean a more expensive one wouldn't warp also.

By correctly, you mean "all the way"?

You post this to the sewing groups? They'll just call it a bobbin. Sewers call everything a bobbin.

I admire the fact that you want to fix it and not just buy new. While I'm waiting for your jpg file to display, let me say that if you buy new, and if you have a separate cold air intake for the fire (straight from the outside I guess) I guess that is the time to get a glass "screen" so that it won't suck warm air from your house. But iiuc the odds you have a separate cold air intake are very low, and I like the feeling of the flames through the metal chain mail screen (or with no screen closed)

Once in the winter there was a power failure for almost 3 days, and I was getting cold, and I never got straight if a fire in the fireplace would warm the house or cool it further. IIRC, it was only expected to help me if I was in the basement getting the radiation from the fire.

That's why most people have fires in the fall and spring and not so much in the winter, iiuc.

If you end up buying new, it would normally be easy to take off the old screen and put on new, but I think the old bolts will be quite corroded. Anyone know? Maybe vice grips or the proper open-end, box or combination wrench will get them off.

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Reply to
mm

Well, for about $20 and some time, you could get some brass rod from

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and make your own.

Reply to
Goedjn

Darlington?

Reply to
homeowner

They're called 'I-beam rail gliders' when they're on curtain rods. The only ones I found, though, had nylon rollers and of course you want metal. The following website has replacement screens - might be able to tell you where to get the gliders:

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luck.

Reply to
Instructor

At that time, with a power failure and no gravity feed furnace, yes it will warm the house relative to the outside. Otherwise, unless it is fed air directly from the outside and cut off from the inside air it is counter-productive. Almost all fireplaces in residences today are cosmetic only. In older buildings, usually pre-WWI, you may find real fireplaces in main living rooms and kitchens that have a tendency to accept 5 foot logs. Those things heat. In those same buildings, bedrooms were likely to have smaller fireplaces that were meant for single room warmth. They were usually bricked up and their warming function was replaced with gas or oil or steam heating appliances in the 20s and 30s.

Disregarding the outside air feed types, in my opinion running a furnace and burning a fire at the same time is a luxury for it's esoteric and romantic value only and insofar as any heating value is concerned it is not too brite. :-)

(What a crosspost list!)

FACE

Reply to
FACE

Thanks. I'm going to save this post and try to read it a few times

*before* the next power failure. (this is not a laptop.)

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Reply to
mm

Darlington is rather bigger than a village these days... No, we're perched on top of the North Downs, a couple of hundred miles from Darlington!

I just looked up the bells. One was cast in 1579! :)

Reply to
Kate Dicey

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