Wiles Junior Cooker

[cliff]

I just had breakfast and now I am hungry again

[jack neville]

Whilst at this camp at Amphitheatre a fellow VMVC member indicated a desire to obtain a junior cooker. He also told me he picked up some surplus items years ago at an army auction and amongst the lots was a couple of heavy tanks in crates which he never knew what they were. Someone later told him they were new Wiles steam boilers. We struck a deal that there was enough to rebuild both cookers but there would be a fiar bit of work involved in rebuilding the first one. As he is an engineer that would not be too difficult. He had had the boilers for so long that the crates had rotted away.

[jack neville]

The boilers still had wooden bungs in all the openings and were assembled with the heat exchanger and steam tubes so all that was required was sanblasting and a coat of stove paint and they are ready to fit. Manufacture date is 1971.

[jack neville]

Before I got a chance to do anymore work a sale came up at Toolern Vale from an aging VMVC club member. His collection of Land Rovers, ex army trailers and other militaria included a Wiles Junior and Wiles Senior cooker and a large assortment of cooker parts. This included about ten boilers, water tanks, valves, gaskets, oven doors and grates and steamer bins and baskets. Most of it was NOS and had been parked under cypress trees and tarps for so long that a chainsaw was required to trim away branches before it could be uncovered. Most of the tarps and crates fell apart when uncovering the parts. I managed to acquire a NOS oven which only had a rusty bottom section that needed replacing due to many years in the weather. I also got a NOS tea urn in perfect condition and some NOS taps and valves and steam pipes.

[jack neville]

I also picked up two NOS boiler covers.

[jack neville]

The oven, dated 1971 had sat in the weather and water had gotten into the bottom via the smoke outlet in the top. The bottom corner had rustted out so I cut it off and welded a new bottom in it. The door had rusted shut but once heated up it freed open to reveal nice clean metal inside. Sandblasted and blacked and ready to fit. Under the brass plate was original paint.

[jack neville]

This allows me to fit a new boiler, oven and tea urn and taps and valves to my cooker and pass on serviceable parts to the second cooker. They will still need repairs but not total rebuild as was going to be required. My engineer friend in the meantime is going to make new stainless steel steam bins. My bins are useable but rusty inside and there was no steam bins with the original cooker. So I stripped the original cooker apart. Another example of why everyone should have a small excavator.