Massachusetts residents check in here!

Ok, this is my first official post as State Moderator.

If your from Mass please check in tell us about yourself, what part of Mass your from, what kind of stove you have, what size you burn, hobbies and expertise you might have. There are not many people from Ma that heat with Anthracite so we need to stick together and help each other out. If we can establish a list here it will make it easier to find members to ask for advice or locate someone that wants to split a load of coal.

I'm Steve and I'm in central Mass just outside of Worcester (thats Wista for the locals). I lurked in the background of this forum for months to learn about burning coal. When oil hit $4.65 a gal last year my wife and I ordered a new Axeman Anderson -130. In october we fired it up and never looked back. Last spring I split a tractor trailer load of coal (pea) with another member of this forum. My hobbies are motorcycles on and off road, RC planes, Flight simulator and wood working. My expertise is precision machining, fabrication and manufacturing.

mr1precision wrote:Ok, this is my first official post as State Moderator.

If your from Mass please check in tell us about yourself, what part of Mass your from, what kind of stove you have, what size you burn, hobbies and expertise you might have. There are not many people from Ma that heat with Anthracite so we need to stick together and help each other out. If we can establish a list here it will make it easier to find members to ask for advice or locate someone that wants to split a load of coal.

I'm Steve and I'm in central Mass just outside of Worcester (thats Wista for the locals). I lurked in the background of this forum for months to learn about burning coal. When oil hit $4.65 a gal last year my wife and I ordered a new Axeman Anderson -130. In october we fired it up and never looked back. Last spring I split a tractor trailer load of coal (pea) with another member of this forum. My hobbies are motorcycles on and off road, RC planes, Flight simulator and wood working. My expertise is precision machining, fabrication and manufacturing.

Hello Steve, My name is Jon and I'm just North of Worcester in Paxton. I too am a newbie to coal. I found this site last year when I was researching alternate ways of heating my house. I ended up purchasing an Alaska Channing III stoker that burns rice coal. Just getting the stove was a task in itself as everyone was looking for coal stoves and there was a backlog. But finally my stove arrived in Juanuary and I have never been so pleased with the heat and the overall low cost of burning coal. The stove is in the basement and it heats the entire house.

So far all I've purchased is bulk bagged rice coal. Last year it was from CSM in Three Rivers (they moved from Monson recently) and this year I purchased from Squire Lumber in Monson. Squire Lumber was the cheapest price and delivery I found. $269/Ton for Blashak and only $75 for delivery. They were courteous and doing business with them was great. I'd recommend them to anyone.

I too enjoy riding motorcycles and I am an avid fisherman, both freshwater and saltwater.

I missed this one ... Guess I've had a few too many ... or not enough!

I am known as Smitty on the forum & in local circles, so I'll just leave it at that...

My hobbies are anything that involves anything smoking, on fire, speeding, or exploding, & drinkable liquids that make me less miserable. I'm also known to fish too - fresh or salt, but preferably salt.. I've got a boat, but it's tiny, plastic & only seats me & 1 passenger ..... but it's powered by a 6hp Johnson, & a 55lb Minn Kota for fishing. Has a depth finder, aerated live well, full lighting & fits in the back of my short-bed pickup! What more do you need? I have a couple ATV's, several dirtbikes (most of them BW80's), & a couple motorcycles - my favorite being the RD350 2-stroke. I'm also a big fan of the music that I grew up with -- 70's & 80's heavy metal/classic rock.

I fix motors of any kind, but I most enjoy repairing dirtbikes & vintage motorcycles. My favorite engine? Just look at my avatar... The smokier the better!

If you've got an old bike that you found in a barn, or one someone gave to you, or just one that's been sitting for 10 years or has electrical issues, shoot me a PM & I'll do my best to fix'er up for ya! I can do anything pretty much, be it bike, truck, car, lawnmower, lawn tractor, weedwhacker, chainsaw, etc..... I flare brake lines, do A/C repairs, tune ups, front-end work (although I don't do alignments), etc.. If you need a kids bike, I've got a few 1986 Yamaha BW80's left that I'll be repairing & selling -- the BEST bike for anyone to learn on & becoming very rare as the years go by! Shoot me a PM if interested!

Hello fellow Massatonians,

I'm JB or Jeff...I answer to both I'm located in Leominster. Pretty much the same story here, oil went out of sight so I ordered up a Harman SF160 boiler and never looked back. I heat the whole house and DHW so, I use zero oil all winter. This is my second season heating with coal and after making some changes in my set-up over the summer I'm finding the start of this season easier than last season.

I get my coal from a guy in Baldwinville who has been selling coal for 30 years as a part time business. I paid $275 for bagged nut picked up. I load 1 ton in the van and make 4 trips to stock up for the winter. When I picked up the last ton a couple of weeks ago the guy gave me $10 bucks a ton back as a discount so, that makes it $265 a ton. Appreciated the discount.

This past spring I bought a used Chubby from some people in Boylston and set it up in the shop. So far it's working out great.

I'm a semi retired electrical contractor, which means I'm not looking for any new customers but, if anyone on the forum needs help I'll do my best to help out.

Never had time or money for hobbies but, this coal burning thing is as close to a hobby as I ever had. What other hobby has a pay back to it. Gotta love it.

This is a great forum, I have learned a lot about burning coal here. Welcome all new menbers.

hello fellow massholes,
my name is Jeremy and i'm from Brookfield. I started burning coal last year when I bought a house that came with a nice fairly new Channing III. I still need to burn about 300 gallons of oil per winter to help heat the upstairs but my neighbors go though about 120 gals. a month so I figure I am ahead of the game. My house is a big colonial 5 bed 2 bath built in 1880 but is fairly well insulated for this type of house.
I love to hunt, fish, and golf. I have some truly impressive fish on the wall. (13lb 3oz bass and 11lb 10oz bass and also have a 47.8lb striper). I have never taken a big deer but have taken probaly 30 or so in the last 8 years between here and rhode island. work, hunt, fish, thats about all I do.

So far all I've purchased is bulk bagged rice coal. Last year it was from CSM in Three Rivers (they moved from Monson recently) and this year I purchased from Squire Lumber in Monson. Squire Lumber was the cheapest price and delivery I found. $269/Ton for Blashak and only $75 for delivery

can you let me know how well blaschack burns as I get my coal from CSM and have the same stove and are always open to options.

Greetings Yankees,
( ya, I know, but we had the name long before the NY punks.) My name is Paul, or Paulie here. I live 16mi due south of Boston,in Randolph. I started burning coal last
fall after researching all fuels. Logistics and price, anthracite dope slapped all other choices. So I jumped in with both feet. Ordered all kinds of equipment, and ordered up a couple loads of bagged coal to use and sell at my store. I have not looked
back. More people around me burn coal than you would think. Nut is the is the most popular(based on sales), older equipment seems to be the norm around me.
I work more often than not. For fun I do some boating ( a small easy keeper), some camping, horses, some
travel, and I have recently re discovered live music. Not the stadiums of my youth, but club size. Kids take up what little
time and money I have left. I am mechanical, and live to tinker. Computers I find useful, but technically they bore me. Just
never got into the nuts and bolts of them.
Politically, I am NOT a party guy one way or the other,more of a pragmatist. All the name calling and finger pointing is
really counterproductive, it gets NOTHING done.
I post some, read more. I am proud to be from the BAY STATE and would not live anywhere else. Having traveled the
country and seen a good chunk of the world, I can honestly say with out reserve, there is no place like home.

Howdy from North Brookfield. I'm in the process of installing a KA-6 in a new outbuilding that I built just for it. I have a new home that is tighter than a 'you-know-what' in fly season and I didn't want to risk the CO2 from coal in the house. I have a very efficient Buderus boiler that I will run in parallel with the KA-6. It took over a year to get the KA-6 from CSM, but I'm not going to grouse about it now. If you look up my handle on this forum, you'll see some pictures of what I have planned. I have some new pictures that I will put up shortly. I'm retired now and have the time to tinker, so I'm looking forward to making the Saudis lose sleep as I replace a 1,000 gals of oil with good old coal from the USA.

Hobbies: Woodworking, fishing, working on old Detriot iron and playing with my 8 grandchildren. I've been married 43 years and all this keeps me out of my wifes space as well.

Profile: Industrial Engineer by profession and worked 40 years for Norton Co./Saint-Gobain Corp. I'm a Vietnam Vet and damn proud to be an American.

It is interesting that you have chosen ( like many) to put your boiler in another building instead of the house. Will you
use a direct vent or build a chimney for the shed? If your house is tight, it must be HUGE. 1000 gal in a tight house is
a lot of oil. I use 1000 gal plus 5 ton of coal to heat 3600 sf plus hot water. 230 year old colonial that has been updated,
but will NEVER be considered tight.

Hi All Doug from Haverhill
Instrumentation engineer I have a cellar full of old controls just ask if you need somthing special.
Heating a 5000 sf queen Anne victorian with a 1951 AA260 burn 12 tons of coal my first year 08
I work in Cambridge at havard Blackstone steam plant
Intrested In Having of the massachuttes coal burners social???
We could invite Freddy he will bring the lamb Chops.
The guys in Arostic county MAINE told me Freddy live in Ma AKA(SOUTHERN MAINE)

Let me know if I can help out with parts for you next progject?
Try to get rid of the junk in my cellar
Thanks Doug (BLACKDAIMONDDOUG)

Hello all, I’m John from West Brookfield. I burn nut size in my Crane 202 that I have owned since 1981. The Crane keeps the house comfortable in the spring and fall. But I do have to use my oil-fired steam furnace to help keep the house somewhat comfortable during the coldest winter months. Admittedly, I took 8 or 9 years off from coal burning until oil prices climbed a couple of years ago. In spite of lugging coal from the cellar upstairs to the stove everyday, dumping the ash pan everyday, and listening to my wife remind my about the extra ‘dust’ that seems to accumulate during the burning season, I still enjoy burning coal.

In my spare time, I enjoy working on our 150-year-old house (like I had a choice?) as well as hiking, skiing, kayaking, and searching for old NGS survey marks.

Congratulations to Steve/mr1precision our State Moderator, I’m sure he’s up to the task. Besides, anyone that owns and runs an AA can only have coal burner’s best interest at heart!

Gnikhog wrote:Hello all, I’m John from West Brookfield. I burn nut size in my Crane 202 that I have owned since 1981. The Crane keeps the house comfortable in the spring and fall. But I do have to use my oil-fired steam furnace to help keep the house somewhat comfortable during the coldest winter months. Admittedly, I took 8 or 9 years off from coal burning until oil prices climbed a couple of years ago. In spite of lugging coal from the cellar upstairs to the stove everyday, dumping the ash pan everyday, and listening to my wife remind my about the extra ‘dust’ that seems to accumulate during the burning season, I still enjoy burning coal.

In my spare time, I enjoy working on our 150-year-old house (like I had a choice?) as well as hiking, skiing, kayaking, and searching for old NGS survey marks.

Congratulations to Steve/mr1precision our State Moderator, I’m sure he’s up to the task. Besides, anyone that owns and runs an AA can only have coal burner’s best interest at heart!

Thank you, glad to have you aboard!

In response to Paulie, I'm heating 5,600 sf on two floors (that includes the basement) + HW. I have hydronic heat for the main floor and radiant heat in the slab of the basement. I keep half the basement at 68 deg year round and the other half (which is my woodworking shop) at about 65 deg as I like it cooler when I'm working. The house is 5 YO and I average pretty close to the same 1,000 gals of oil/yr since we built it. I'll finish the siding on the outbuilding tomorrow and will start on the insolation in earnest shortly thereafter. I bought a SS 8" chimney which cost a bloody fortune, but it looks quite nice and should work out well. Even though I'm retired now, I am busier than a one-armed paper hanger and don't get a lot of daylight to devote to the stoker, but I will keep plugging....

Hi my name is Jack from Seekonk Ma near Providence RI, picked up a Hearthmate few years back when oil went crazy. Kicks butt, heating my raised ranch and save $$$. My hobbie is cars

I live in western MA. I heat with an Alaska 140 rice-coal furnace.

Those furnaces come with dual stokers--each with its own individual control. After a bit of consultation with the company about how to go about installing a thermostat up in the house proper to control the thing, and not enjoying the prices I was hearing for such a conversion kit, I made my own controller out of spare parts.

Since the control boxes for the Alaska stove cannot each source the current to control two stokers I used a buffer relay. Instead of one controller for each stoker I have arranged it so that both stokers are driven by one controller through the relay. I used an old alarm system box which is mounted on the side of the hopper to house both controllers--and a mess of relays and other stuff. I've arranged things so that the stokers either operate off of one controller--set on "9"--or the other controller set on "3" --or whatever setting will keep a reliable and minimal fire going on both stokers--a pilot setting, so to speak. The switching back and forth between the two settings is done through another relay with low-voltage winding that works with a thermostat up above in the living space.

I also designed and constructed a 3-transistor DC amplifier that works with an optic link in the hopper that disables the thermostat and renders the furnace on pilot mode once the coal gets down to a critical point of about 75lbs--and the electronic "eye" sees the light. This saves the nuisance of having to rekindle after returning home after a long day that I'm busy on the road, and might get back too late to get more coal in before the hopper depletes, and the fires are thus extinguished.

The thermostat is actually one of those computerized ones that changes settins depending on time of day.

My old nut coal monster I had also rigged up with a bi-metallic spindle with a heavy line and idler pulley that worked back and forth from a wooden lever I devised upstairs. Worked pretty well to control the draft. When I removed the old furnace and installed this newer one I indicated that I would at some point remove the old lever mechanism that exists between two doors in a central hallway. Never have got around to that yet...

Hi Fellow MA coal users, my name is Ray and I am from Springfield, MA area. I bought an AHS Coal Gun S260 Boiler about 2.5 years ago. It runs on pea coal which I get delivered by the truckload in bulk 22-23 tons. I run the AHS S260 year round for heating the house, domestic hot water, swimming pool, and it is hooked up in tandem with my gas hot water heater that used to provide all the heat (radiant floor heating for 6800 sq ft). The gas hot water heater has not turned on since starting the boiler other than when I test it a few times a year to make sure it will still work in an emergency if the coal boiler runs out of coal or breaks down. So far no real problems with the coal boiler. Ready to get my second shipment of coal and have found that the prices have increased some. $128/ton for a 22 ton truckload in 2007, and now it is $149/ton. It costs about $600 for transportation ($24/ton + fuel surcharge) which is just slightly higher than in 2007. It would be great to get together with other coal users and buy together in bulk. A railroad car would be nice. I hear they used to come up this way loaded with coal, but not sure if anyone is receiving anthracite coal that way anymore. I hear some fellow MA coal users are paying much higher prices and it would be great to more coal coming into the region to give everyone lower pricing.