Help a Girl Make Shoveling Coal Easier!!

Hey there! Trying to make this coming stove season easier/more efficient than last! And you all have been so very helpful with every question I've asked this far!!

I am attaching photos of my "coal bin" and am challenging you all to help me come up with a way that I can avoid going outside to shovel coal when it's high in the bin.

My stove's in the basement. All the way across the basement from the "coal bin" and when I get a new delivery (bin only holds about 2T, which I was blowing through in 4-6 weeks in the dead of last winter) I can't scoop from the inside for about a week.
I usually fill 3 five gallon buckets at a time and walk them across the basement to the stove (though this year I am thinking of getting either a wheelbarrow or yard cart for transport across the basement).

Here's my "coal bin" set- up. Not ideal, but it's what I have.

Sorry, it rotated the middle two photos sideways

Thanks in advance!!

Helga

Hello Helga,

Invest in a two wheel wheel barrow for the basement haulage to
the stove by filling pails and carrying them to the stove inthe wheel barrow.

Been there done, that it works until the mud comes when the ground melts.

Dont buy a single wheel wheel barrow for the obvious reasons of tipping.

Modify the panels you have to include a 'door' in the slide out pieces. I'd make it high enough to accommodate the wheel barrow. Make it big enough, say 12"h by 16"w. It would be in the third panel up, and you could use the bin the way it is , and not have to remove any other cross pieces. Could you make additional storage in the basement and move the door back? I'd want more than 2 tons under cover........

You can cut the bottom off the door about 4 or 5 inches. Do the same with bottom slat if it's stationary or raise it up some. The coal is going to spill out on the floor a little bit but you just shovel it from there. You won't even have to open the door. Just keep shoveling it out until you run out and can walk into the bin.

If you don't want to cut the door just do the slat but you'll have to build a "doghouse" inside the bin. Basically a little box inside the bin so the coal doesn't spill beyond the door. I guess the best explanation would be a very short step.

I have seen a few pics on here with a set up as Richard described with the cutout in the bottom board. There was one I remember seeing that had a small frame of 2x4's laying on the floor to keep the coal contained near the opening. They shoveled from this frame area, eventually removing the slats to access the bin when it didn't spill out of the cutout any more.

I am assuming that you do not want the door to leak cold air into the basement, and that was my idea or opening the door long enough to load what you needed for the day, and close it up. It will work in a variety of ways, you simply have to chose the method that works best for you.

Cut the bottom of the door as Richard suggested. Shovel coal directly into wheelbarrow rather than buckets. Load coal to stove directly from wheelbarrow. Wheelbarrow should be sized to hold one days supply in cold weather. Too bulky a wheelbarrow might not be good either. A smaller lighter cheaper homeowner wheelbarrow might be enough. Good flat bottom shovel to scrape along cement at coal bin to load wheelbarrow. Not too big or small. Perhaps round bottom spade to feed stove with; the round bottom penetrates the coal in wheelbarrow better and might fit stove door better.

If it turns out buckets are the only way, then perhaps a two wheel hand truck to move same to stove. The right size shovels sized for convenience of operation and your strength is important to make life easier.

As above make it easier to shovel into your buckets or switch to a wagon/cart/wheel barrow once you have made the coal easier to get. Some of the yard wagons (little red wagons on steroids) are big enough to be worth your time.

Next summers project could be getting more under cover and making it easier on you at the same time once you experimented some this winter.

Mine is outside under a tarp 25 yards away with the new pile being set up about 50 yards away, but I burn less than you do and so far keeping 6 buckets stacked in the closet behind the stove has worked for me. I have wanted to look at a grain wagon/gravity cart to park next to the house each winter, but have not moved on it yet.

Good luck with your search.

SD

Coal Dust Got You Down??

Coal Scuttle.

What's the benefit of keeping more "under cover"?
My bin handles 2T, which is what I have delivered when I am getting low.
I don't plan on making my storage bigger as this will be the last winter I spend in this house.
If I cut the bottom off the door as Richard suggested, won't I just have freezing cold air constantly pouring into my basement as whistlenut mentioned? I can't have that..
Am I missing something? Sometimes I am horrible at trying to picture things!!

Thanks again !
Helga

Leave the door alone, cut a hole in the lower bin board,roughly 12" square, make a box from 2x lumber or 3/4 " plywood 8 -10 " deep,measure from the bin board into the bin. This tunnel will keep coal from coming out on its own,you will be able to stick your shovel into this hole and get coal out whenever you want without going outside to dip into the bin from the top. There will be no need to remove bin boards till coal level gets lower. ( Depending on the size & angle of your shovel you may have to make the hole slightly bigger.) You may want the top of the tunnel to be higher in the front so your shovel handle clears as you push it into the bin.

Isn't the problem with cutting anything, cold air coming into the basement from the open to the outside bin? Why not cut access hole in bottom board and then cover the hole with a plywood panel that is removable. You can pull it when you want coal and slide it back into a frame around the hole like the bin boards have when your done. It won't seal 100% but it will be better than having a hole in the boards and you won't have to go outside to get the coal.

Rev. Larry

That cold air problem IS the issue. All I suggested was to make a door big enough to extract the coal you need, and cover it back up until the next day. All she wants is access until she can remove the top boards as the supply is used up. Once that happens she is good to go.

Don't cut the door ,it keeps the cold out,the bin is cold,the boards as shown in the pics do not seal the cold from the basement,they only keep the coal in the bin.The tunnel in the bottom board will not let any more cold air into the basement then what the door allows. Don't cut the door as it is what keeps out the cold.