How do you oil coal in your bin as you fill the bin?

Does anyone have any answers to what is best to use to oil your coal as it is added to your hopper? My coal in bags is wet which I drain prior to loading my outdoor hopper, and I would like to oil the coal so it does not freeze as adding more water would do and it should keep the dust down when loading the Keystoker hopper in the house.

it will keep the dust down but won't keep it from freezing.the guy who i get coal from said they use peanut oil for dust only cost $10.00 extra per ton..

I am trying to keep the dust down after reducing the water moisture. Thanks for the information, I realize I will not make the coal freeze proof by adding the oil if water moisture is present.

I will try the peanut oil misted with a garden sprayer and update the forum with my progress. My clearances on the stove's built in hopper do not allow me to bring in 50 lb bags and load them directly, also I have been hauling coal for 27 years and am looking to improve the handling of it as of course I am not getting younger . I have built a stainless steel lined outdoor hopper that should be completed within the next week. Have to get the wife's van in the garage before the snow flies or I will be living in the shed

How do you dry it? Maybe oil the top of it a day or two before before you move it and it will wick down. Adding the oil while moving it would still have a dust issue I would think. We're big on science projects around here.

Besides pouring and spraying would be a two man job. I don't let anyone get that close to my coal.

What type of oil is exceptable. Has any one use waste motor oil or fuel oil. I'm sure the smell would not me to nice. does this in crease the chances of a hopper fire?

You guys are killing me . I just want to pour dryer bags of coal into my bin, and add/spray oil on it to allow for dustless or cleaner transfer of coal when it is finally poured into my Keystoker 90 hopper in my living space. Nothing fancy just a cleaner transfer of coal. I plan on staging my bags of wet coal outside with weep holes in the bottom prior to loading my bin. Just trying to find out what kind of oil is best, and the quantity that should be applied.
Thank You

Coalbrokdale wrote:..... Has any one use waste motor oil or fuel oil?......

I have 40 - 50 gallons of it if you need it.

Forget the oil and just get your self a spray bottle and give the coal a spirit's of water before you shovel it in to your bucket. You don't need much, just a misting over the coal will keep the dust down.
http://www.bettymills.com/shop/product/view/RL%20Flomaster/RLF1998TL.html

Don't over atomize the oil. Inhaling oil is extremely dangerous for your lungs and cannot be undone easily.

I think where I get my coal they will oil the coal at the rate of 1 gallon per 2 tons of coal. They use a non food grade vegetable oil. If I were doing it I would see what was in the kitchen because you may have some old rancid oil sitting around that can be used. I doubt the smell will be a problem because of the small amount of oil being used but you may want to test with a small amount of coal first. If using any old vegetable oil setting around the house is not an option I would just find the cheapest vegetable oil available and squirt it on with a garden sprayer or even a hand spray bottle if you are not doing much at a time.

peanut oil in a hand sprayer

The "old coal hand" at work gave me the dust solution I needed...

Turn on the shop vac with a hepa filter installed! I put the hose alongside my mini-bin coal chute (see http://nepacrossroads.com/about441-495.html (about 1/2 way down)) and let 'er rip! I concurrently spray water on the coal while I'm filling the bucket. When I dump it into the hopper, there's no dust flying around that I can see! For what it's worth, now I'm getting a light accumulation of white dust (ash?) on my stove, ducts, and flue, not black coal dust these days...

As for the hepa filter, I bought a generic one at Home Depot and put it in my 20+ year old shop vac. Works great!

I just sprayed the whole bin with used motor oil. Sprayed it heavy so it would just work its way to the bottom. Reduced the dust to almost nothing.