Bagging your own coal?

LsFarm · By: **LsFarm** On: Mon Feb 19, 2007 9:39 pm

Have you ever struggled with bagging some coal at the coal yard?? I have, and while it is much easier with two people, it is still a pain. With two people, one holds the bag open, and tries to make the opening wide enough that the shovel-full of coal can be inserted quickly without spilling the coal. At the same time trying to avoid getting his fingers smacked by the shovel.

Last week, I thought I was going to be loading at least 1/2 to 3/4 of a ton in bags by myself, so I got to thinking. What to make to hold the bag open while I shoveled it full.

I came up with a 5 gallon bucket with the bottom cut off, and it works really well.

Just slide the bucket into the opening of the bag, standing the bucket up inside the bag is easy, and it holds still while filling the bucket with coal. Then grab the outside of the bucket and the bag, lift the two together, and the coal ends up in the bottom of the bag. Then seat the bucket on the partial load of coal, and refill the bucket. Lift the bucket and bag again, and you have 70-80# of coal in the bag, tie off the end and make another.

Works great!!

Greg L

REDMAN · By: **REDMAN** On: Mon Feb 19, 2007 10:20 pm

Hey, Greg. Your invention reminds me of another invention I saw last year on TV. Did you ever see that show "American Inventor." The show was pretty lame, another one of Simon Cowell's great gifts to american television.:eeeeek: Anyway, one of the contestants, had a similar idea. "The Sackmaster 2000" was inspired by the events surounding huricane Katrina. Instead of being used to bag coal, his was used for making sand bags. Same principle, different material. I don't know if it ever made it to market, but if I find a picture of it on the web I'll post it for you. All I could find was this link to the inventor's profile on the show's web page.

http://abc.go.com/primetime/americaninv ... tinez.html

Thought you might get a kick out of it.

Shawn

REDMAN · By: **REDMAN** On: Mon Feb 19, 2007 10:51 pm

I found it!!

ccasion5:

http://sackmaster2000.com/index.html

Maybe he could add bagging coal to the list of things the Sackmaster 2000 is good for. It can be all yours for the low-low price of $49.95 + $20.00 S&H

Richard S. · By: **Richard S.** On: Mon Feb 19, 2007 11:16 pm

The Sackmaster is a flawed idea, bending over like while shoveling for any amount of time will kill your back shortly. That's why they have long handled shovels for tasks like that.

One thing I did notice is a shovel designed like that with the handles on the sides for myself would work quite nicely. When you're in a bin it's easiest to get right in and let the coal pile up around you, the handle on the front would be especially nice...

REDMAN · By: **REDMAN** On: Mon Feb 19, 2007 11:21 pm

Oh, I wasn't being serious. Just a failed attempt at humor. LOL

REDMAN · By: **REDMAN** On: Mon Feb 19, 2007 11:25 pm

That's the down side of the internet. You couldn't see me giggling while I was researching it.

keyman512us · By: **keyman512us** On: Tue Feb 20, 2007 9:22 am

Only in America...What a Country!
Has the military ordered 250,000 of these "sackmasters" yet? Or are they too busy trying to figure on "woodland" or "desert" camo? (lol)
$49.99 + $20 shipping and handling? Gotta love the e-bay generation!
Probably beats the "good old days" using a "cut up traffic cone" but I'm not wasting $70 on something that may never get used.
I like LSFarms' idea with the 5 gallon pail "necessity" is the mother of invention. Let's spin this off in an entirely new direction?: Has anyone ever used "sandbag" bags to bag up their coal? How much coal can you fit in one? How "cheap" are they? And where can you find them? We might be onto something folks... ???

LsFarm · By: **LsFarm** On: Tue Feb 20, 2007 9:28 am

The bags I used are feed bags that horse and animal feed was sold in. Forum member Greg White has several horses and had a stack of these bags.
I'm sure they are commercially available, but why not recycle them, get in touch with a local feed store, and find out what their customers do with the used bags. I'll bet each farm has a stack of free woven poly-bags.

The sandbag bags I have seen are pretty small, and would only hold about 20# or so of coal.

Greg L

BTW: My bagger is only $29.95 + S&H, just paypal me the cash, and I'll send out a set of hand-drawn plans, so you can do it yourself!! :lol:

.

REDMAN · By: **REDMAN** On: Tue Feb 20, 2007 9:58 am

Greg wrote: My bagger is only $29.95 + S&H, just paypal me the cash, and I'll send out a set of hand-drawn plans, so you can do it yourself!!

Greg, it's all in the marketing. Give it a catchy name like the "Buck-O-Matic", Hire some slick add exec to design the packaging and tape an info-mercial. Then before you know it - BAM ! - your rich!!

Richard S. · By: **Richard S.** On: Tue Feb 20, 2007 12:30 pm

REDMAN wrote:Give it a catchy name like the "Buck-O-Matic", Hire some slick add exec to design the packaging and tape an info-mercial. Then before you know it - BAM ! - your rich!!

Like this? :lol:

REDMAN · By: **REDMAN** On: Tue Feb 20, 2007 12:33 pm

keyman512us wrote:Has anyone ever used "sandbag" bags to bag up their coal? How much coal can you fit in one? How "cheap" are they? And where can you find them? We might be onto something folks... ???

I did a little searching on the internet and found this site:
http://www.bestpakcompany.com/burlap_bags.htm

Maybe there is something here that might be usefull to someone.
Many of the sites I found you have to order the bags in bulk, like a thousand or so. At least this one cuts it down to 50 or 100.

Free bags are always better, but if you can't find any & had to buy some, this is a nice place to start looking.

REDMAN · By: **REDMAN** On: Tue Feb 20, 2007 12:45 pm

AWESOME ADD !!! Coalman your hired. But my next big question is...
Greg, what are you going to do with all that money?

Richard S. · By: **Richard S.** On: Tue Feb 20, 2007 12:52 pm

What money ? It'a all going to the ad agency...

REDMAN · By: **REDMAN** On: Tue Feb 20, 2007 1:29 pm

keyman512us wrote: Has the military ordered 250,000 of these"sackmasters" yet?

I dont think the millitary will be interested in the Sackmaster 2000. When I was in the Marine Corps, we had the perfect sand bag making system already. They came in three different models PVT(E1), PFC (E-2), & Lance CPL (E-3).

jumperjoe · By: **jumperjoe** On: Tue Feb 20, 2007 2:19 pm

I use milk crates with medium size trash bags for liners. They fill easy, hold about 50lbs. and stack nice in a truck. 40 of them get me about a ton of anthracite nut. A two-wheel cart moves them 5 at a time. At 50lbs they're not too heavy to lift either. I put it into a bin, but they stack real nice by themselves if you don't fill them too full.