Crawford BB Magazine Experiment

Here's what I have done for this winter till I can get a piece Of well casing or something, it is just 6" black stove pipe, Ive made two now testing out the lengths, this way I'll know what will work for my permanent cast iron one.

The 114 has 8.25 cover plate and 12 inch brick lined pot.

hotblast1357 wrote:Here's what I have done for this winter till I can get a piece Of well casing or something, it is just 6" black stove pipe, Ive made two now testing out the lengths, this way I'll know what will work for my permanent cast iron one.

i would think that the first one had the ability to send raw coal straight down the exhaust flues ?

the second looks better, I would think about 1 at most 2 inches above the rim of the fire pot for best performance.

great idea with the stove pipe BTW, at that cost you could make one every couple years considering the ease of fabrication.

Yes kingfish the first one was to short, this second one is think 1" too long, or maybe even .5" it is exposing some of my pot if I dot push the coal down in. That's what is nice with stove pipe cheap and easy to work with

Yes kingcoal the first one was to short, this second one is think 1" too long, or maybe even .5" it is exposing some of my pot if I dot push the coal down in. That's what is nice with stove pipe cheap and easy to work with

You guys are building hoppers for stoves that'll already burn for a day or 2, and you're not satisfied? Are you planning a weeks tropical vacation, and don't want your fire to go out? I'm doin good if mine will burn longer than 10 hrs.

I am going to be fabricating one as well if it doesn't work out with the foundry since I missed the magazine thread for the glenwood . I have a lot of experience working with metal so if I can help you in anyway let me know. especially cast repair and welding. I am really interested to see what you come up with and to talk to you as well. where are you locating your cast piping ?

joeq wrote:You guys are building hoppers for stoves that'll already burn for a day or 2, and you're not satisfied? Are you planning a weeks tropical vacation, and don't want your fire to go out? I'm doin good if mine will burn longer than 10 hrs.

well, lets look at some fire tending logistics.

during the recent sub zero cold snap I was putting about 35#of coal in my stove thru the hopper every 12 hrs. for a couple days. what that meant was I was refilling the whole hopper, shaking the ash, then refilling about half the hopper that had gone down during the shaking.

so, I was maintaining my fire pot completely full and responding to fresh coal non stop. this made a very comfortable house, no yo-yo effect.

from another point of view, now that it's back to the 30's, i'm running the stove much cooler and the same fire pot and hopper full of coal would burn about 72 hrs. with out problem.

it's really a matter of capacity. I have a large fire pot and a hopper besides. if I had your stove here I very probably would get pretty much the same results you do.

Well I guess I am getting into the act as well. I have made one out of sheet metal to get the right size before it is cast. Mine is 8.5" at the top, and 7" at the bottom. It is 20" long. So far so good. Mine must be inserted through the front doors and hangs from a couple of pins on top. The opening under the top plate is 6.5", so nut coal works the best.

Great discussion Gents

skip wrote:Well I guess I am getting into the act as well. I have made one out of sheet metal to get the right size before it is cast. Mine is 8.5" at the top, and 7" at the bottom. It is 20" long. So far so good. Mine must be inserted through the front doors and hangs from a couple of pins on top. The opening under the top plate is 6.5", so nut coal works the best.

NICE WORK, what's the weight of coal held in your prototype ?

Kingcoal, I honestly have not tested that yet, just wanted to throw it in there to see how and if it will work. I plan to run it thru the weekend and see how it goes. So far so good. I will fill the mag all the way up tommorow, I did not fill it up yet incase I needed to remove it for some reason, I would not have to deal with all the coal.

skip wrote:Kingcoal, I honestly have not tested that yet, just wanted to throw it in there to see how and if it will work. I plan to run it thru the weekend and see how it goes. So far so good. I will fill the mag all the way up tommorow, I did not fill it up yet incase I needed to remove it for some reason, I would not have to deal with all the coal.

how does the top seal ?

it was my understanding that there must be no way for the stove to pull draft up that tube or you will have one serious flame thrower on your hands ? ! ?

Paul My Glenwood catalog says the 114 could be ordered with op. mag for 3.50. Im sitting near a 114 and it has a 81/8 lid and has the notch for the mag. measures 7 inches across. Wilson

The mag does not seal air tight, but there is a lip and small ledge that the mag is pulled up to inside. The top of my mag is also about 3 to 4 inches higher then the outlet when I have the stove in Direct draft. In indirect draft (Baseheater) the flue gasses exit just above the fire pot on two sides to travel down around the ash pan before traveling back up and out. I have wondered about draft thru the mag, but I was more worried about pulling air down thru the coal from the top leaking around the lid.

In looking at old stove catalogs, including a couple for mine, I noticed some of the mags had small holes just below the top lip and usually located opposite the load door. I wondered if the holes were to allow off gasses from the warming coal in the mag to be contained in the stove instead of leaking out thru the lid. So I placed a couple small holes in the back top of my prototype.

So far so good, but the outside temps are going to be in the mid 50's this weekend and low 30's at night. I have the stove dialed back sipping coal keeping about 190 on the barrel and the house at 72. It maybe a while before I can open her up and see if the mag prototype is good or bad.