Design for Feeding From Bin

plumber wrote: Perhaps I might be better off building a small bin and sticking with bagged coal.

The drum will hold 400 pound of coal and if you get bulk it's almost a necessity without a sloped floor. It's the same issue with sloped floor, without the drum you need a ton of coal on it to get a few hundred pound that is usable. With the drum it will use most of it. Most people put a hole through the side of the drum but if you put a hole in the bottom and set it on blocks above the worm you can get all 400+ pounds.

I wouldn't be dealing with bags for either cost or convenience.

plumber wrote:That skid system vermontday came up with is real slick. Perhaps I could make one on a smaller scale.

That's a great idea and I was considering doing it myself but you need more space.

I'm using a 275 gallon tote as you mentioned earlier. It'll hold about 1 ton, so far I've just been filling it with bags and that is getting old. I plan on building another bin in front of the basement window and then using a grain auger to fill the tote. Its about 10 ft from the window to the bin.
Sorry about the pics my phone won't let me attach and the links paste wherever they feel like:)

That's the tote I was thinking of. How's that work out for you? How low can you run it.
I'm in the same boat. The window is about 15 feet from my boiler.

I'm happy with the tote, my auger is only in that bin about 10 in so I do have to rake the coal to the one side as the coal goes down but that takes less than a minute every couple of days. This time of year I'm going through a bin in 3-4 weeks. Hopefully once the other bin is built I'll be able to fill this one in just a matter of minutes:)

Use a barrel or tote for the boiler auger,build a bin to hold your yrs supply,you can shovel from the bin into the barrel/tote just as easily as carrying bags to do the job , OR put the auger into the bin,build a hopper that will hold 200# + inside the bin & when the coal no longer slides into hopper you can rake & or shovel into the hopper as needed.You would have to design the hopper just right so you don't have 2 tons of coal fall into the auger space if you need to pull it for any issue that comes up.

Change of pace and storage direction. Mr. Vermont Day's using auger feed on his EFM,might this work for you? To me,it's a sweet set-up with it's own advantages.

EFM 520 Install With Skid/Bulk Bags Feed

I also like Vermont day's bin setup.

That skid setup is a great idea, if you have the room. The wife and I are moving everything around in the basement to try and see what works. Sliding the base around the basement, laying out auger tubes, etc. I was thinking about one of those 275 gallon totes, but that's out. They're about 10" wider than the door. I'm lucky I found a 350, we barely got that down here. A 520 would have had to stay outside. I love my house, but my basement needed some for thought. Ironic that I'm trying to figure out how and where to put a bin in a house that originally heated with coal. They probably didn't have food storage and a workshop down there in 1890!

Think like the old dead guys that built the basement for coal