A Boiler for This Old Dungeon With A Swimming Pool

 
dalmatiangirl61
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Post by dalmatiangirl61 » Sun. Oct. 20, 2013 11:02 pm

Had a little free time this afternoon so I took the stoker apart, yes the tuyeres are cast iron, and there are some extras. I did have to scoop 2-5 gallon buckets full of coal out of the hopper, and there is probably another half bucket to be swept up. Kinda surprised me on how easy the bolts came out, I was expecting them to be a pain, especially the ones at the burn pot.

Your not going to believe this, I've been offered 2 more stokers :D ! Went and looked at one today, from what I've learned on this site its either an Iron Fireman or a Will-Burt, its red if thats an indicator? Looked in the motor compartment and its spotless , and it comes with a ton or more of coal :lol:

Question about removing this thing, it appears the auger tube/blower tubes were inserted into the base of the furnace, then cement/refractory cement or something was used to seal the rest of the hole. Do I just break all that out, I have a chipping hammer? Any health issues to watch out for, I have a respirator?

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CapeCoaler
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Post by CapeCoaler » Sun. Oct. 20, 2013 11:23 pm

Now there ya go...
One for each floor...
to take the chill off...

 
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Carbon12
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Post by Carbon12 » Mon. Oct. 21, 2013 12:02 am

In the words of Professor Toichi Hikita in the movie Buckaroo Bonsai,..."Holy Toledo!!!" I like tinkering with old machinery as much as the next guy but,....SHEESH! I wouldn't know where to begin on that beautiful hunk of industrial revolution cast iron. May the gods, spirits, sprites, gnomes and fairies of the the heating realms be with you!

 
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dcrane
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Post by dcrane » Mon. Oct. 21, 2013 6:09 am

dalmatiangirl61 wrote: Your not going to believe this, I've been offered 2 more stokers :D ! Went and looked at one today, from what I've learned on this site its either an Iron Fireman or a Will-Burt, its red if thats an indicator? Looked in the motor compartment and its spotless , and it comes with a ton or more of coal
I cant believe you picked up that complete set up for less than $500 :shock: If your doing one... you might as well do two at the same time if people are handing them to you for pennies on the dollar :lol: your going to have all your tools, obtaining fittings, seals, set up, moving gear, etc... if your doing one... might as well do 2 or 3 at the same time if you can obtain them for those type of prices plus you got "key" spare parts and free coal with them :wtf:

Its like xmass down their! :clap:

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Mon. Oct. 21, 2013 7:53 am

If you can get a "twin" stoker for short money, do it.

 
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carlherrnstein
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Post by carlherrnstein » Mon. Oct. 21, 2013 9:54 am

Stokol is kind of hard to find information on, I did find a advertisement on amazon for them, it looks like the company was out of Indianapolis, Indiana.

Is there a serial plate riveted to it somewhere?

The tuyeres in the photograph don't look too bad the one at the 1:00 position looks like its missing a "tooth" and the sections from 7:00 to 10:00 look slightly burned, but sense you have some extras you might be able to have more cast there are places that can cast grates for out-of-production stoves but I don't know what they charge.

The coal screw looks pretty good, the hopper isn't rusted out. The first thing I would do is check the oil in the gearbox, chances are that if there is oil in it the seals have not failed and to gears are not damaged although its likely that its black and nasty. If there's oil in there I would flush it with diesel fuel or kerosene and look for leaks in the output shaft seal. If it leaks I would carefully pick out the output shaft seal, then measure the pocket in the gearbox and the shaft diameter, and order a seal that will work from mcmaster carr.

This is just me but, I would not open the gearbox up unless I absolutely could not find a way around it. It looks to me (and a may be wrong) that the only seal that keeps oil in is the seal that is on the output shaft because the oil plug is only about 1.5" or so from the bottom the other seals probably don't do much to keep oil in and are there to keep dirt out.

 
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Berlin
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Post by Berlin » Mon. Oct. 21, 2013 11:42 am

looks good, as was mentioned the gearbox should at the least be flushed and the output seal is shot.

I always open up the gearbox and fully disassemble, but, it's not always necessary and it can get expensive, complex, and time consuming.


 
dalmatiangirl61
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Post by dalmatiangirl61 » Mon. Oct. 21, 2013 9:11 pm

Had about an hour to fool with this today, started by opening the box on the side (above speed control knob), it has a brass tag on the cover, cleaned it up, its just an "Equipped with Timkin Tapered Roller Bearings" tag. The box appears to be for electrical controls, it has multiple knock outs with plugs in them, but there is nothing in there. Next I pulled the blower off, I'm guessing the belt has been changed in the last 20 years because its stamped "Made in Korea", but it is hard and cracked so it needs to go. With the auger engaged I can spin input shaft and auger does not turn, and the square input shaft to manually turn auger(next to In/Out knob) only turns in one direction and has a ratcheting action. The auger output shaft appears to have 2 seals, the outer seal is on a removable plate, it looks like a rod seal on a hydraulic ram. The inner seal appears to be a more common type shaft seal with a metal ring and inner rubber seal. The other end of auger shaft, the end where you would manually drive auger, has a large washer covering the seal, the washer will rotate freely, but I'm not sure yet if I need to pull entire shaft, or if a bur has been raised on the shaft by whatever handle was used to turn it, since I did not get the handle.

I posted pics and a description of this stoker on another site (smokstak.com) and got this response
"I have no manuals but we had one when I was a kid. The in/out clutch is used to let you manunaly rock the auger to break up clinkers or big lumps that might jam the auger. Inside there is a wierd timer that runs the stoker intermittantly to keep the fire from going out. There is a square bucket on a rocker arm. It is filled with hydraulic fluid via a choice of several orfiaces when the unit is running and drains out thru an adjustable needle valve in the bottom of the bucket. As the bucket tips back and forth slowly it triggers a mercury switch to cycle the thing on and off. The adjustments let you adjust off and on run times to suit the type of coal used and natural draft of the furnace. If the thermostat calls for heat then it runs constantly until the house warms up. You will see all the controls when you open the end if the unit.
:gee:

I picked up a bunch of purple degreaser today, this thing needs a serious bath before I pull the top cover or any shaft seals, I'm used to grease, even black moly grease, but grease and coal dust is whole new level of nasty :lol:

 
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Scottscoaled
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Post by Scottscoaled » Mon. Oct. 21, 2013 9:20 pm

The furnace isn't worth dealing with? I would think it would be easy to weld some patches over the bad spots to get some heat going. Winters coming. You might want to consider installing it next to where you would be putting the real deal in. So you can work on one and use the other.

 
dalmatiangirl61
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Post by dalmatiangirl61 » Tue. Oct. 22, 2013 2:49 am

Scottscoaled wrote:The furnace isn't worth dealing with? I would think it would be easy to weld some patches over the bad spots to get some heat going. Winters coming. You might want to consider installing it next to where you would be putting the real deal in. So you can work on one and use the other.
I have not completely written the furnace off, yet, but it is over on the edge of the bone yard :? .

Ok, I have noticed that the Stokol and Iron Fireman stokers are mounted at ground level, and I did get these medieval looking tools to remove the clinker with. So what page of the tutorial did I miss? I thought coal burned to ash, ash fell into a bucket that needed to be emptied? Yet the 2 furnaces I've seen have stoker coming in at ground level, no provision for an ash can, and just tools to remove the clinker? I thought, and my experience with Utah coal so far I that it burns to ash? Where does the ash go? Does it all go to clinker?

 
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carlherrnstein
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Post by carlherrnstein » Tue. Oct. 22, 2013 8:20 am

Iv never burned any coal from outside Ohio but, the Winkler (I thought it was a Allen) stoker dad had when I was young always made clinkers and my new to me combustioneer makes clinkers.

The air that's forced through the tuyeres makes a very hot fire so hot that the ash melts and makes a mass that resembles welding slag and is shaped like a doughnut or flower petals which is good because its a lot easier to grab a chunk of clinker than it is to scoop out ash. The ash wont clinker all at once in other words there will always be ash in the firebox but, you only take out clinker and leave the loose ash to clinker unless it builds up far too high.

 
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Post by Pacowy » Tue. Oct. 22, 2013 10:02 am

With an anthracite stoker I would think of clinkers as being a sign of a fire that's too hot for the coal being burned, but the bit stokers make clinkers on purpose ... :gee: I've never had big issues with ash falling into a pan, getting scooped out of a base or augered into a drum. Mine never makes it to the dump because people want it as a traction agent, driveway fill, etc. What do bit burners do with all of those clinkers, anyways?

Mike

 
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europachris
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Post by europachris » Tue. Oct. 22, 2013 9:00 pm

I have a contact that has (and rebuilt) a Stokol stoker unit very similar (or the same) as the one you have. It's a very unique design with the hydraulic drive system - sort of a complicated to do something rather simple. I'll see if I can find his e-mail address and find out what info he has.

Chris

 
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Carbon12
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Post by Carbon12 » Tue. Oct. 22, 2013 11:12 pm

@Dalmatiangirl61: looks like you came to the right forum for info and contacts! I hope you get that stoker and system running before the cold weather really sets in!

 
dalmatiangirl61
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Post by dalmatiangirl61 » Sun. Oct. 27, 2013 10:30 pm

Sorry for disappearing, I had a slight emergency this week, my manlift died, and its an essential tool here, so I have not even had a chance to touch the Stokol.

I did start trying to pull the Electric Fireman stoker today, not as easy as I thought it would be. I used the chipping gun to break thru the mortar holding the auger tube and blower tubes, then thru some firebricks, then about 5 gallons of sand poured out. I can see the base of the burn pot now, but there is a row of bricks further up surrounding the tuyeres? Looking in the fire box door I can see the tops of the tuyeres, need to take the rainbow vac over tomorrow and suck all the ashes out of the firebox to see things better. How heavy is the hopper/gearbox unit? Homeowner and I could not get it to budge, as far as I can tell its not bolted down. Anyone have suggestions on getting this thing removed?


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