Keystoker Ka-6 Journey begins

Wiz your Journey looks so fantastic. My journey is full of quicksand, poison darts, giant snakes, the wicked witch of the west, etc, etc, etc. That is such a great looking setup.

Well I got to see the Ka-6 live & in person. What a impressive system. Wiz is a very nice, teaching coal burner. Thanks so much for letting me see your system. I'm so jealous.

Thanks so much for letting me see your system.

Your welcome, glad to have answered some of your questions. Soon you'll be enjoying the warmth that coal produces, and waving to oil delivery guy driving pass your home.

Wiz wrote:

Thanks so much for letting me see your system.

Your welcome, glad to have answered some of your questions. Soon you'll be enjoying the warmth that coal produces, and waving to oil delivery guy driving pass your home.

And the oil guy will wave back but only use one finger!

coalkirk wrote:

Wiz wrote:

Thanks so much for letting me see your system.

Your welcome, glad to have answered some of your questions. Soon you'll be enjoying the warmth that coal produces, and waving to oil delivery guy driving pass your home.

And the oil guy will wave back but only use one finger!

I can not wait until that happens. Every time that oil furnace kicks on I get nervous.

I've add a vac system to move coal from bin to hopper. Set-up fills the 15 gal drum in approx one min. Advantage of using vac it removes the dust and create a clean release of coal to hopper. Plus once hopper is filled the drum will also be filled for longer burn time. Shop vac has micro filter bag to keep dust from blowing out into shop. Since bin was design using the shop floor I can just add hose to completely empty bin. Decide to vac instead of auger system for cost reasons. Oh yeah I know frame to hold drum looks crappy, I'm cheap and used old lumber laying around.

wiz...great idea....couple questions if you don't mind....

do you have to move the intake on the coal pile around while it is filling the drum or does it stay buried in the pile? I am looking at putting a coal bin outside by the basement window and wondered if the vac idea would work if i ran the pvc pipe through the window at floor level in the bin to about the middle of its length. i was thinking auger, but i already have the vac dedicated for stove cleanup during the winter and could easily use it for bin filling also.

Also, can you post a pic of the top of your drum - anything special about how you piped the vac intake and exhaust on the lid (riser on exhaust, dip tube on intake)?

anything special about how you piped the vac intake and exhaust on the lid

Lid specs- Intake ( coal) 2'' pvc Exhaust to ( shop vac) 1 1/2" Bottom side of lid you'll need to create a vortec of air to remove coal dust. To achieve this place a 90 degree elbow on exhaust only.

do you have to move the intake on the coal pile around while it is filling the drum or does it stay buried in the pile?

Coal bin intake pipe is 2" that is buried about 3 ft into coal pile. You'll need to tweak this by adding (1/8) drill holes to topside of pvc pipe to allow air flow so it doesn't get air bound.

you da' man!!!

Here is demo of set up.. In video I'm using a 4 hp shop vac which is slower then when I borrow neighbors 6.5 hp. ( 6.5 filled drum in a min.) Note: video shows a small amount release into hopper reason for this Release is gravity so it'll only fill hopper until it backs up in drum, so allow more height to fill hopper complete.




Drum still has coal in it.. I used a toilet flange and only made a 2 in hold in bottom of drum to slow down the speed of coal.

Awesome!!! I could do that easy!! Trouble is my son is running mine back in Maine so it'll be tough to get done. I had one hooked up and vented outside for dust cleanup and stovepipe cleaning, but I didnt think it would suck up that much coal that high.

Kevin

That is an awesome setup for filling the hopper! Gives an extended capacity for traveling.

Wiz,

What does the top of your barrell piping look like? I am very interested in your design cuz if I'm gonna finish off my basement I have to curtail my coal dust. The dust this year is worse than ever and the wife is squaking!!!

What does the top of your barrell piping

I'll post tonight barrel top, I figure out air bound issue and need to take pics on intake pipe