My New Toy, Losch Stoker Boiler

Stoker madness......What your doing is proving that we all need to start thinking WAY outside this box that we think exists.

It all starts when you sit there and go "I Wonder?"

Don, you need to change your name to "The Mad Stoker"

What I realy need to do is add 2 more bays onto my garage! That way, when ever I feel the urge, I could just switch boilers.

I might be picking up another under fed stoker toy this weekend.

-Don

Here are some photos with the EFM plate bolted and clamped in to get a more accurate measurement of what needs to to happen.

I have been hosing PB Blaster on all the things that need to come apart on this EFM. The only thing I have been able to get off so far is the fines door rod. Everthing else seems rusted together. Looks like a 2.5" stoker spacer will center the pot in the base. I will be making a 1/4 steel adaptor plate to mount the stoker in. I will pull the ash door frame off and install the cover plate from the other side. Once I know where the feed pipe will come out I will put a hole in it. I would like to have at least 2.5" of clearance from the top of the pot to the bottom of the boiler. Right now we have about 1.25". Need to go down about 2". -Don

Another important thing to consider is the front to back placement of the pot.

The Losch boiler has a angled divider plate in it. This plate divides the firebox, Where the hot gassses rise to the top through the water tubes, from the exahust passage, where the hot gasses are forced down through the water tubes to the flue outlet in the base. The divider starts at the exahust passage in the base, then angles back to the middle of the water tubes. It ends at the bottom of the top row of tubes.

Hot gasses go up through the forest of 10 water tubes to the bottom of the large water tank on top. Then are forced down through the forest of water tubes again to extract more heat before they get to the flue outlet in the base. There is about 8.5" from where the divider plate meets the exahust passage in the front, to where it is welded to the top row of boiler tubes in the middle. I think this will work best if the fire is directly under the water tubes and NOT under the divider plate. The edge of the burn plate is about 8.25" from where the divider plate will meet the exahust passage. I will move the stoker mouting in my adaptor plate tward the back about 1.5". That should put the fire directly under the water tubes. -Don

Don, I opened my boiler after reading your last post. From the ash ring to the lowest water tube in this set-up, it's 14'' of free space for the fire.
Not sure if that's the best, but it works ok for this boiler.

Dave

Thank's Dave. That is another measurement to consider, how far up the flame has to travel before it gets to the water tubes. In this case the fire will be about 2" lower than the Yellow Flame stoker and the original Losch stoker. It won't be a problem.

I am having a lot of trouble getting this dern stoker apart! I got the ash ring and the grates out, that was easy. I got the bolts out of the bottom of the pot but I can't get the pot apart.
I don't think I realy need to take the bottom of the pot off. I mainly wanted to take it apart so I could put the feed tube in a vise to try to remove that. The feed tube is stuck in there good. The air tube is just as bad, will not budge. Do people normaly just cut these tubes out and replace them? Am I missing something?

-Don

I have been looking at "stoker man"s tutorial in the EFM section over the past few days. Today I decided it would be a good idea to actualy read the captions.
Pictorial: Combining of the Stoker and Burner Pot Assemblies

I was thinking these screws are to index the pipe. It turns out they are set screws that hold the pipe in place. One was broke off when I got it, the other will also brake off. I guess you drill them out? One of these came out, the other broke off. The two outside the firebox came out with no problem. I would think with the set screws out the blower housing would seperate from the air tube?

Still stuck on there. I guess I could cut it off. An air tube shouldn't cost much?

-Don

I took the clutch, oil bath, gearbox and blower off to make this contraption a little lighter so I could get it on the bench.
YUK!!! The blower housing is over due for it's 50 year cleaning. Chucked it up in the vise. Still no luck. I even tried softening it up with the air chisle, no dice. That thing is totaly rusted together! I don't even see a seem, it looks like one piece! The feed pipe end went about the same. After working on the one set screw left for a while, it broke off, as predicted. Other than cutting the air pipe and drilling out the broken set screw. Then chisling out the pieces of pipe, I see no way of getting this apart.

The feed pipe will need both set screws drilled out and chisle the pipe out too.

-Don

So, no ideas on how to get these pipes out? I guess everybody is on Summer vacation. Oh well, I will get it apart somehow.

The Losch is going to visit the welder today. It's going to get the leak I created with the grinder fixed. And get a plate welded over the domestic coil opening.

-Don

I just spoke with Joe at Mark's Supply. Joe's advise was leave the air pipe in place if it is that rusted together, cut the EFM side plate and spacer so it can be removed. On the feed pipe end, drill out the broken set screws and chisle out the pipe, tap new holes.

I told Joe what I was putting this soker in, he was not suprized at all! Apparently, he has put EFM stokers in other boilers with very good results. Ha! I am NOT crazy.

I discribed my feed worm to him, he said it needs to be replaced. Once the get a little sharp on one or two flightings under the pot, they will grind coal and eventualy cause the grates to warp.

Joe said that there is no reason to seperate the top and bottom of the pot. The fines clean out is still in good shape so that will all stay together.

Joe even had advise on addapting this to the Losch. He said to make a two piece addaptor plate to fit the Losch. That way I will be able to remove the plate without seperating the air pipe from the blower or the pot. Rather than a 2.5" thick plate to center the pot in the base like I was thinking, Joe suggested using angle iron welded to the plate. This will space the stoke out and if I run it top to bottom, it will strengthen the addaptor.

I am not sure how long of a feed pipe and worm I need. Joe said there is a 5 foot and a 4 foot extension. I need to figure out the placement of the boiler, then measure how far it is from the coal bin.

-Don

I told Joe what I was putting this soker in, he was not suprized at all! Apparently, he has put EFM stokers in other boilers with very good results. Ha! I am NOT crazy.

I got some news for you Don! Just because Joe doesn't think you are crazy doesn't mean you aren't crazy. Joe is a little crazy too! Hahahaha. Don't cut anything except the aluminum feed pipe going to the bin.

Scott, in Coal Cracker Country, ya do what ya gadda do.

I am going to leave the air pipe in there. It should work fine.

The feed pipe is another story. I got one set screw drilled but the other one, not so much. There seems to be something hardend down in that hole. I can hear and feel the drill bit chew'in on something on one side. I will get back to this one later I scraped a couple pounds of muck out of the blower housing. Then I washed out about another pound. After all that cleaning, there is still a little in there hiding. My cleaning was a bit to agressive for the data plate. I can kind of read it. I also figured out how NOT to remove the blower from the motor. Don't put the coupling in the vise by it's ears! Oh well, another part to buy. -Don

A big "Thank You!" to Scott for his suggestion to just cut down inside the feed pipe with a sawsall, then chisle out the two halfs.
Remember, the feed pipe goes in the pot with those holes facing UP. This vents any gasses in the feed pipe into the pot, NOT the coal bin. The pot bushing in the other end looks to be long wore out. I hope the new bushing has something to seal into! This set screw hole looks like I can re-tap it. The one on the other side I'm not going to wast any more drill bits on! That's it for progress today!

-Don

I picked up the boiler on the way home from work today.
The welded plate over the DHW coil opening looks great! That will never leak again during my lifetime!
I was feeling lazy, so I had the welder cut out the old cleanout cover studs and weld in new ones. This is the leak that I created when I used the grinder to cut clearance for the side rails of the Yellow Flame stoker. The welder said running it with that leak caused the weld to weaken. He had to cut it back quite a ways, then weld it back together. The other side looks good. Here's something we don't get to see very often, the bottom of the boiler. Here is a shot of the rearly seen lower end of the water tubes. It's a bit to humid to paint right now so it will wait. -Don