Posted by JD Seller on December 29, 2013 at 08:11:14 from (208.126.196.144):
Yesterday I was in Monticello, Iowa. I needed some K-1 for my space heaters. None of the gas stations keep it anymore. Local fellow told me that McNeil hardware had K-1 in bulk. I go there all of the time for those hard to find hardware needs. They have been in business for over 100 years.
I asked Dave McNeil if he had K-1. He sure. He took me into the back room. There he had the OLD pump up fuel pump that pumps the K-1 up out of the basement into a one gallon glass measuring tank. Then he would open a valve to let that gallon down into my five gallon containers. He kept count with five carriage bolts in one of the bins on the wall. Dump a gallon and move the bolt over to keep track. LOL Real high tech.
I had never been back in that room. I got to looking around. It was their sheet metal room. All the tools to make all the sheet metal ducts and stove pipes fittings. He told me that prior to WWII that his Grand Father kept three men busy working there making all of the ducts and pipe you needed to hook up stoves and furnaces. HE told me about how all the patterns on the wall where the ones you would use to cut the fitting out of flat sheet metal. He talked about how the old guys did not have any of the patterns marked as to what they where for. He said they always called it job security.
He still uses the tooling to make shorter pieces of stove pipe. IF you need a double male he can make it. He can cut a long one and crimp the small end and roll the ring around it too. He had the long mandrels with a big chink of lead in the middle to put on the inside to support the pipe while you knock a hole in it for the dampener.
There is a GREAT coal stove in the middle of the room. It is in perfect condition.( Forget the name. LOL) He said that his Grand Father bought it new in 1903. HE said they had to quit burning it as he could not find 24 gage 10 foot stove pipe anymore. The "new" 28 gage would not stand the heat for very long. He talked about how the masonry chimney would leak a little and the up stairs goods would smell a little like coal in the winter. LOL Plus his insurance would not allow it any longer too. He does have it hooked up and sometimes burns paper in it.
His son is in the store with him now. Dave's father passed 3-4 years ago. They have added bicycles to the products they sell. They will put a new Fiber glass handle into your hammer, ax, etc. They still make/repair screens. They have new cast iron cooking stuff too. I love doing business with them.
So if your around Montcello Iowa you really need to stop in and see them. You will take a trip back in time. I flash back to going there as a small kid.
I am going to take my cammera with me some day and see if Dave will allow me to take some pictures.
AJH Mc Neill Hardware 201 E 1st St, Monticello, IA 52310 (319) 465-4286
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