Chronicles of the Clayton

The Clayton has been running smoothly, nothing too exciting to report. I did the total for Feb which was 1879 pounds compared to 2471 last year. Average per day in Feb this year was 65 pounds per day. Easy winter, just like they called it. There has only been a few (maybe 10 or 12?) days that I had to tend the Clayton twice in one day, all other tendings have been at 24 hours and I expect the rest of the season to remain that way. I realize we could still see a blizzard, March is very unstable that way.

This week will be soaring into the 60's, I'm ordering more hamburger and hotdog rolls for my bread route, people will start getting the grills out already. I'm even considering setting up the gazebo for this weekend, we have a birthday party to plan for our grandson.

I built a sifter for fines, it has made a huge difference with recovery time and overall efficiency of the fire. More on that can be found here - Sifting Coal Fines

I'm gonna have a lot of coal left this year, I may just get a few tons of bagged coal for next year so that I can clean out my bin.

Still on first match. I might be in the one match club this year, finally after 5 years

Looking forward to spring, I saw new tiger lilly sprouts coming up already over a week ago.

Lightning wrote:The Clayton has been running smoothly, nothing too exciting to report. I did the total for Feb which was 1879 pounds compared to 2471 last year. Average per day in Feb this year was 65 pounds per day. Easy winter, just like they called it. There has only been a few (maybe 10 or 12?) days that I had to tend the Clayton twice in one day, all other tendings have been at 24 hours and I expect the rest of the season to remain that way. I realize we could still see a blizzard, March is very unstable that way.

This week will be soaring into the 60's, I'm ordering more hamburger and hotdog rolls for my bread route, people will start getting the grills out already. I'm even considering setting up the gazebo for this weekend, we have a birthday party to plan for our grandson.

I built a sifter for fines, it has made a huge difference with recovery time and overall efficiency of the fire. More on that can be found here - Sifting Coal Fines

I'm gonna have a lot of coal left this year, I may just get a few tons of bagged coal for next year so that I can clean out my bin.

Still on first match. I might be in the one match club this year, finally after 5 years

Looking forward to spring, I saw new tiger lilly sprouts coming up already over a week ago.

Looks like spring is almost here also. I'll be shutting my stove down tomorrow. Might need it again before summer never know.

I'm really looking forward to having central heating next fall
when I have a hotblast furnace installed.

corey wrote:I'm really looking forward to having central heating next fall
when I have a hotblast furnace installed.

Cool, there are several of us here that have em down pretty good if ya need any help.

This heating season is winding down, I count 6 full weeks to May 3rd from here. I don't think I'll keep it lit past that point unless we get a cold spell in early May. Anything is possible I suppose.

It's dawned on me that I've tended this furnace roughly 1000 times since I've started burning coal. I was just reminiscing about those first few months, we've come a long way. The end of this heating season marks 5 full winters. My first year I tended twice a day religiously, after that I got brave and started stretching out the burns. I just counted from my journal that I only had 14 days that the furnace was tended twice in one day this winter. Some of those were 18 hour burns, the rest were 12 hour.

I hope everyone is doing well.

You've done well Lee. It'll be sad to see the final ashes of the season. But it'll also give you time to freshen up the Clayton, and maybe toss in a few mods for next winter. I'm sure you've got some ideas up your sleeve.

Posting data here for everyone to see if interested and so I don't loose it lol.
Totals for 2015-2016 heating season -
10,154 pounds burned
1629 pounds of ash (coal vs ash is 16%)
264 pounds of fines sifted

October 2015
16 - 73
17 - 56
18 - 75
19 - 22
20 - 52
21 - 28
22 - 33
23 - 32
24 - 34
25 - 35  ash 52 --- 12%
26 - 42
27 - 38
28 - 35
29 - 37
30 - 33
31 - 36 
              total for October 661 pounds
              average 41.3 pounds per day

                      November 2015
01 - 30
02 - 40  nut
03 - 21  nut
04 - 19  nut
05 - 21  nut
06 - 19  nut
07 - 74  ash 69 --- 15%
08 - 20
09 - 35
10 - 20  nut
11 - 20  nut
12 - 36  mixed
13 - 61  mixed
14 - 52
15 - 45  mixed
16 - 45  mixed
17 - 46  mixed
18 - 36  mixed
19 - 43  mixed ash 70 --- 15%
20 - 42
21 - 42
22 - 48
23 - 48
24 - 49
25 - 51
26 - 40 nut
27 - 44 mixed
28 - 35
29 - 49
30 - 78
             Total for November 1209 pounds
              Average of 40.3 pounds per day

                            December 2015
01 - 25 ash 86 ---- 16%
02 - 50
03 - 37
04 - 38
05 - 38
06 - 38
07 - 52
08 - 58
09 - 39
10 - 40 nut
11 - 20 nut
12 - 20 nut
13 - 20 nut
14 - 20 nut ash 83 --- 17%
15 - 54
16 - 44
17 - 41
18 - 52
19 - 55
20 - 54
21 - 20 nut
22 - 20 nut
23 - 20 nut
24 - 20 nut
25 - 57
26 - 48
27 - 43 ash 78 ---- 15%
28 - 57
29 - 43
30 - 42
31 - 44
 Total for Dec 1209 pounds
 Average of 39 pounds per day

                      January  2016
01 - 53
02 - 30
03 - 30
04 - 76
05 - 50 am
05 - 50 pm
06 - 50
07 - 39  am    ash 93 --- 16.4%
07 - 55  pm
08 - 56
09 - 43
10 - 56
11 - 35
12 - 45 am
12 - 46 pm
13 - 56
14 - 53 am
14 - 53 pm
15 - 48          ash 83 --- 15.2%
16 - 44
17 - 38
18 - 45 am
18 - 46 pm
19 - 42 am
19 - 42 pm
20 - 65
21 - 69
22 - 50 am
22 - 45 pm           ash 90 --- 18.5%
23 - 56
24 - 47 am
24 - 45 pm
25 - 66
26 - 60
27 - 42
28 - 62
29 - 42 am
29 - 40 pm
30 - 32
31 - 45             ash 89 ----  16.6%

    Total for Jan 1947
    Average of 62.8 pounds per day

                    February 2016
01 - 50
02 - 55
03 - 57
04 - 61
05 - 64
06 - 59
07 - 61
08 - 54
09 - 56           ash 85
10 - 73
11 - 42
12 - 49 am
12 - 49 pm
13 - 49 am
13 - 48 pm
14 - 49 am
14 - 49 pm
15 - 51
16 - 59  am         ash 87
16 - 55  pm        fines 37
17 - 48
18 - 42
19 - 55  am
19 - 55  pm
20 - 58               fines 35
21 - 55
22 - 61             
23 - 60             ash 86
24 - 61
25 - 60
26 - 61
27 - 62                fines 31
28 - 51
29 - 60
               Total for Feb 1879
               Average of 64.8 per day

                     March 2016
01 - 33
02 - 45
03 - 53  am        ash 75
03 - 58  pm        fines 22
04 - 59
05 - 60
06 - 62
07 - 49
08 - 40
09 - 30
10 - 30
11 - 55             fines 39
12 - 45
13 - 32             ash 87
14 - 48
15 - 34
16 - 30
17 - 46
18 - 58
19 - 60
20 - 46
21 - 61
22 - 61          fines 35
23 - 45           ash 75
24 - 35
25 - 55
26 - 52
27 - 40
28 - 47
29 - 55
30 - 30
31 - 30
                     Total 1680
                    Average 54.2  pounds per day

                         April 2016
01 - 48
02 - 49
03 - 60         ash 82
04 - 60
05 - 70       fines 30
06 - 57
07 - 59
08 - 57
09 - 58
10 - 28
11 - 59          ash 78
12 - 45
13 - 47
14 - 45
15 - 45
16 - 30
17 - 40
18 - 38
19 - 45
20 - 42
21 - 27
22 - 32
23 - 39
24 - 42               ash 85
25 - 30             fines 25
26 - 50
27 - 42
28 - 33
29 - 36
30 - 33
                    Total 1346
                    Average 44.9 pounds per day

                        May 2016
01 - 26
02 - 32
03 - 38
04 - 34
05 - 28
06 - 37
07 - 28 last loading
10 - 00               ash 96

                     Total 223
                    Average 27.9 pounds per day

 

Disconnected all the black stove pipe. Took it outside and hosed it out and then washed any residue off with soapy water and a wash cloth. They were brand new last fall and I wanna make sure they don't rot anytime soon. They cleaned up fantastic, with only a few small spots on the inside where paint had been removed. I should probably take some stove paint to them in places. With this care they should last as long as I need them to lol. I even marked the sections as so to use the same screw holes next year.

Also, did a total clean out of the furnace, removed the fire bricks (none broken I think this is the 5th year for all of them except for 2). Scraped, brushed and vacuumed then painted on a coat of motor oil to slow down corrosion in my swampy basement over the summer. It's a big job, takes about 4 hours to do all that summer prep work but well worth the effort.

Ashley had a really good run this season. The fire she ended with was the same one she started with. My grate mod for the "play" between the two inline grates is beginning to slip a little after 4 years. I'm seeing slightly more travel in the front grate than the back grate, not much, but just enough that its not clearing ash quite as good in the back. So, I'll be doing something about that this fall.

The thermostat mod was by far one of the best things I've done with it. We had a steady 74-75 degrees in the main living area all winter long..

I have roughly 1 3/4 tons left in my bin so this summer I plan to just get 3 maybe 4 tons so that I can clean the bin out next spring.

I hope everyone has a nice summer, I'll be poking around in here occasionally to see whats goin on.

Well done, Lee. Ashley is very appreciative of all your hard work, and time you've spent with her. Looks like she rewarded you favorably, altho she/we had it fairly easy last winter. Your thermostat was a pretty cool invention. you ought to patent it, what do ya think?
You have a pleasant time off too, Lee and here's hoping for a quick summer.

Yes, good job Lee. But what is this business of just dropping in once in awhile?

We have world crises to solve as well and we need your help.

franco b wrote:Yes, good job Lee. But what is this business of just dropping in once in awhile?

We have world crises to solve as well and we need your help.

Is that a "coal to arms" ?

Paul

You guys are a riot Thanks for the kind words and we'll be solving those world crises this summer, no problem!

Good day, fellow coal burning brothers! Got 4.17 tons added to the 1.5 tons left over from last year.

It warms my heart to have a full coal bin

Nice look'in coal pile there Lee. Now is the time to git it, the price is low.

-Don

StokerDon wrote:Nice look'in coal pile there Lee. Now is the time to git it, the price is low.

-Don

Thanks Don! I paid $235 a ton for it, same as I always pay. I think you guys closer to coal country see the benefits of cheaper prices at the breakers than we do out here.

I forgot to mention, this coal is a step up from stove size. I like to call it "awesome" size hahaha.