My AA 260M Boiler Is Constipated!!

coalstoves · Post by **coalstoves** » Sat. Dec. 29, 2007 5:27 am

Where did you end up getting the Coal

Matthaus · Post by **Matthaus** » Sat. Dec. 29, 2007 6:52 am

coalstoves wrote:Where did you end up getting the Coal

flyer and I bought at Summit (in Good Spring on road 4011, we already knew where we were going

) Greg ended up buying at Hegins Coal Co and a sample (1,000 #) at Summit. The Summit coal is 9% ash and very heavy, the heaviest I ever bought aside from the good old rocks and shale (aka strip mined) coal.

U235a4 · Post by **U235a4** » Sat. Dec. 29, 2007 8:03 am

Matthaus wrote:
coalstoves wrote:Where did you end up getting the Coal
Hegins Coal Co

where is the breaker to pick coal up at?

gaw · Post by **gaw** » Sat. Dec. 29, 2007 8:23 am

Matthaus wrote:
U235a4 wrote:For those that were at Breakfest meeting of "knights of the coal table" yeah I missed it ....
We ate breakfast in Pillow PA, after driving for what seemed like forever! Seems those folks in that area eat at home, no restaurants for miles.

Had you gone the other direction in your search for a restaurant you would have found a pretty good one within two miles of where you were. Did you have shoofly pie for breakfast?

CoalHeat · Post by **CoalHeat** » Sat. Dec. 29, 2007 8:26 am

gaw wrote:
Matthaus wrote: We ate breakfast in Pillow PA, after driving for what seemed like forever! Seems those folks in that area eat at home, no restaurants for miles.
Had you gone the other direction in your search for a restaurant you would have found a pretty good one within two miles of where you were. Did you have shoofly pie for breakfast?

That would have put them on a sugar high for sure!
Sorry I missed it, maybe next time.

Matthaus · Post by **Matthaus** » Sat. Dec. 29, 2007 9:01 am

gaw wrote:Had you gone the other direction in your search for a restaurant you would have found a pretty good one within two miles of where you were. Did you have shoofly pie for breakfast?

Yeah we tried calling you Glenn, just knew you would have a good spot for us, maybe next time!

Matthaus · Post by **Matthaus** » Sat. Dec. 29, 2007 9:08 am

Wood'nCoal wrote: ...Sorry I missed it, maybe next time.

Yes! it's about time you got some "good" coal. Let us know when your ready, always looking for a good excuse to go get more deep mined coal. Taking into account what I have burned so far this year (a little less than a ton) I have almost 14 ton stockpiled in various places. A ton of rice in bags, a ton of buck in bags, 1/2 a ton of buck in barrels, 6 and a half ton of buck in the coal bin, and 5 ton of Pea on the driveway waiting for me to finish the coal bin in the basement.

I looked under the front porch and there is a perfect spot for 12 to 14 tons, so I'm gonna keep going till I can't fit any more.

LsFarm · Post by **LsFarm** » Sat. Dec. 29, 2007 9:28 am

The Hegins Breaker is on 25 just south or east of I-81. Just a mile or two from the freeway. Forum member 'Lincolnmania' 's shop is just about 1/2 mile away by road, about 300 yards through the woods.

The Hegins coal is from a deep mine, you'll have to get the details from 'coal berner' he knows every mine in the area. But it is a low ash, red ash coal, about 8-12% ash, and a red cruchy ash. So far it seems to be burning very well in the AAboiler.

The Superior mines pea coal is a pretty small size for pea, and I needed full size coal for my big firepot in the 260M boiler. Otherwise I would have bought Superior coal.

JC [coal berner] and I went to Hegins first to check the size of the pea coal, then went to pick up the used parts for my boiler from the plumber/serviceman in Herndon, then met with Matthaus and Dave [flyer5]. After that stopped at Superior to check out the coal size, it is only a small amount larger [maybe 10%] than their buckwheat size, and I still have 4 tons of Superior's buckwheat from the June mines-tour meeting this year. So I saw no reason to buy more.

The Summit coal is very similar to the UAE coal I have, a light powdery ash, and therefore I didn't think I should buy a big load of it. So after we took a look at the ash from Heggins coal in two different burners, I decided to go with it.

So you can see we did drive all around visiting several mines, including Pine Creek, where the AAboiler serviceman recommended I buy from... But JC just about went into convulsions when I suggested I buy from a strip mine coal breaker

. And we had taken a look at the ash from the Pine Creek breaker in the AA 260 ashpans at the Plumbing store, and it had HUGE rock-hard clinkers. The Hegins coal was just as crunchy and red without the clinkers. So Hegins it was.

Besides I needed another tour of coal country !!

Greg L

.

gregolma · Post by **gregolma** » Sat. Dec. 29, 2007 2:48 pm

The clinkers are from ash fusion, which occurs at a high temperature in anthracite. Some one noted it somewhere. Could this be the clue? Not high enough temps? Grate shakes too quickly?

CoalHeat · Post by **CoalHeat** » Sat. Dec. 29, 2007 6:53 pm

Matthaus wrote:
Wood'nCoal wrote: ...Sorry I missed it, maybe next time.
Yes! it's about time you got some "good" coal. Let us know when your ready, always looking for a good excuse to go get more deep mined coal. Taking into account what I have burned so far this year (a little less than a ton) I have almost 14 ton stockpiled in various places. A ton of rice in bags, a ton of buck in bags, 1/2 a ton of buck in barrels, 6 and a half ton of buck in the coal bin, and 5 ton of Pea on the driveway waiting for me to finish the coal bin in the basement.

I looked under the front porch and there is a perfect spot for 12 to 14 tons, so I'm gonna keep going till I can't fit any more.

You're either stockpiling it and waiting for the rest of the world to discover coal for residential heating (again), so you'll have enough at the "before" prices to last your life time (what was it--150 years?) or you are one of those "survivalist" type guys who plans ahead to be able to carry on when the rest of the world goes belly up.

Actually, I hope to be able to make that coal run within the next few weeks. I'm ordering the hitch for the E-250 this weekend, I'll go the rental route on the trailer for now. I'm purposely letting the bin go low so I have the room (I scraped concrete on one side this morning). If I ever get the Alaska done I'll build another bin for more coal. I'm getting closer to the paint stage.

Post by **coaledsweat** » Sat. Dec. 29, 2007 7:07 pm

Greg, that thing is scaring me. If it can't burn good coal, and runs better the worse it gets, pretty soon you will be burning rocks. Your going to need an excorcist.

lincolnmania · Post by **lincolnmania** » Sat. Dec. 29, 2007 10:30 pm

haha so you guys like the hegins coal now? leave me some please
i do! it's 70 degrees! thanks matthaus and coalberner! 5 gallon pail a day now in the alaska!
wish I would have known you guys were in the neighborhood.....i went to ez pull and messed up my back removing control arms from a 92 crown vic.

mwcougar · Post by **mwcougar** » Sun. Dec. 30, 2007 2:35 am

hey mathias

nothing wrong with keeping a "few extra tons around." I am looking for places to store another triaxle load this spring. ya know its only matter of time till they put carbon caps. would like to have 50 ton on hand by summer.

well today alot of wet coal wet into my hopper. damn near put the fire out..... I was wondering since I have been putting the UAE coal in wet if that has any thing to do with my clinker formation?..... shoveled all my coal into 5 gallon buckets frozen off the trailer. sometimes hard to tell how much water is on the bottom of the bucket..... hoping to go for another shopping trip south soon.....

cougar

Matthaus · Post by **Matthaus** » Sun. Dec. 30, 2007 9:04 am

John, yeah I think my addiction goes beyond the stoves and into the fuel! and yeah when I'm 150 I need to have some bootleg coal stashed away to burn after it's outlawed.

I painted the Alaska Kast Konsole and the Harman last night, gotta get these stoves outta here! Had 3 people come looking yesterday and have a few more lined up for today.

Give us a call when you get the hitch on and are ready.

cougar, I would like to keep 50 tons, but couldn't come up with anything that was not going to involve a lot of extra work. I need that massy!

I would think you need to be careful not to put it into the hopper more than just damp, the corrosion is the biggest concern I would have. Maybe you can drill some holes in the bottoms of the buckets and let them drain off as they thaw in the boiler building. As far as the clinkers, the UAE just makes them on its own with a hot fire, when I burned rice in the Alaska it was much worse, seems the combination of less air between the coal and a hot fire made me some mighty fine flap jacks (they were up to 7" in diameter which is the full width of the grate).

Since the UAE has so many fines I keep a bottle of used peanut oil handy to spray it down when I am loading the coal hod. The bonus there is that the peanut oil has been used to fry up a couple turkeys so the coal smells yummy when it burns!

CoalHeat · Post by **CoalHeat** » Sun. Dec. 30, 2007 9:57 am

Matthaus wrote:John, yeah I think my addiction goes beyond the stoves and into the fuel! and yeah when I'm 150 I need to have some bootleg coal stashed away to burn after it's outlawed. I painted the Alaska Kast Konsole and the Harman last night, gotta get these stoves outta here! Had 3 people come looking yesterday and have a few more lined up for today. Give us a call when you get the hitch on and are ready.

It's a deal.