Update on My Coal Bin Project...

...I can finally use it!

Took me a year, ok, well 7 days of work, lol...I have a lot of excuses why I kept putting it off.

Last year...to get you up to speed with this project...

Post by SpurHntr - FINALLY Building My Coal Bin...

Last week, started working from the top...
Exploratory pick axe hole through my driveway revealed a 24" round 2" thick cover just laying over the existing chute that was poured into my bin at it's inception.
So, a 26x26" square I cut out with a regular old circular saw and a $12 diamond blade.
Cleaned it out... Then, since the sides of my poly concrete box were a bit shorter than the opening, I racked my brain, and came up with an angle iron support frame setup...JB welded it in place, then added some liquid nails just cuz... Then JB welded the poly poly-concrete Quazite electrical box (that I had to cut to 6" height not the 18" height it was) my buddy fixed me up with to the angle iron...more liquid nails...then about 4" of modified Then, pop in the bolt fastened 2" thick 12000 lb load bearing lid, and some cold patch...

Then, top it off with some dust to keep the tar down... Will let it cure overnight and let the Mrs. drive over it tomorrow.
By my calculations, it is 189 cubic feet, so I got 4 ton of Jeddo rice coming shortly.

Sorry for the sideway pics and duplicate pic...not the easiest place to post/edit pics on

Very nice! In a calculation using 35 cubic feet per ton (33-34 cubic ft/ton is more actual) you should be able to fit 5.5 tons in there..

Lightning wrote:Very nice! In a calculation using 35 cubic feet per ton (33-34 cubic ft/ton is more actual) you should be able to fit 5.5 tons in there..

Thanks Lightning.
I figure to start with 4 ton and see how it fills up.
My drawboards are just over 6 feet up front, and I went a smidge above 3 feet high for the back height of the sloped floor.
My calcs say 189 cu ft to 6.5 feet level height. I know more will stay in the "back".
I always thought around 40 cu ft per ton?

40 cubic ft per ton is a good figure for building a bin. It gives you some wiggle room in case the coal guy shows up with a little extra, or maybe you find out that you need a little more the following year after getting thru a cold winter.

But as far as actual volume is concerned, thru careful measurement, myself and a few others have found a ton to occupy 33-34 possibly 35 cubic ft per ton depending on what size. The density of the coal can vary a little bit too.

Lightning wrote:40 cubic ft per ton is a good figure for building a bin. It gives you some wiggle room in case the coal guy shows up with a little extra, or maybe you find out that you need a little more the following year after getting thru a cold winter.

But as far as actual volume is concerned, thru careful measurement, myself and a few others have found a ton to occupy 33-34 possibly 35 cubic ft per ton depending on what size. The density of the coal can vary a little bit too.

really ?? where was this spoken of ? all the bin sizing tables I have seen here are based on 40 c.f. making my 4x4x8 - 128 cf. bin about 3.2 tons.

but now you are suggesting that it's likely more like 3.65 - 3.87 ?

i'm fine with which ever, I just wish there was some agreement across the board. the difference could be as much as 1250 #'s, that makes some serious difference in use calculations and pretty well means that the most accurate record keeping will be "weighed coal in ".

glad you brought it up,
steve

KingCoal wrote:i'm fine with which ever, I just wish there was some agreement across the board. the difference could be as much as 1250 #'s, that makes some serious difference in use calculations and pretty well means that the most accurate record keeping will be "weighed coal in ".

Yes, Larry and I found a ton to occupy less than 40 cu ft per ton.
35 cu ft per ton is more actual. I believe Larry came up with 1.3 cu yards per ton which is 35.1 cu ft.

Sizing a little big is always better than sizing a little small....

ok, I need to go back to were Paul measured the C.F. in a 5 gal. pail then weighed the amount of nut it will hold.

whatever "that" figure is i'll go with for the capacity of my bin. should be interesting.

thanks,
steve

Lightning wrote:

KingCoal wrote:i'm fine with which ever, I just wish there was some agreement across the board. the difference could be as much as 1250 #'s, that makes some serious difference in use calculations and pretty well means that the most accurate record keeping will be "weighed coal in ".

Yes, Larry and I found a ton to occupy less than 40 cu ft per ton.
35 cu ft per ton is more actual. I believe Larry came up with 1.3 cu yards per ton which is 35.1 cu ft.

Sizing a little big is always better than sizing a little small....

I too agree 40 cu ft per ton is generous. I agree with 35 or 36 cu ft per ton is real.

KingCoal wrote:ok, I need to go back to were Paul measured the C.F. in a 5 gal. pail then weighed the amount of nut it will hold.

whatever "that" figure is i'll go with for the capacity of my bin. should be interesting.

thanks,
steve

Using a bucket measurement to scale up to a ton will lead to being inaccurate since there is space along the wall of the pail that isn't proportional to the walls of a full bin.

Actually if you take 50 buckets at 40 pounds each and multiply 50 × .66 cubic feet per bucket you get about 33 cubic feet per ton lol.

You gotta consider settling too. A box of cereal is only 2/3 full haha.

I built my bin to exactly 40 cft. at 2x4x5. It held 52 buckets of nut that came from a free basement mine which put the coal right up to the top. Had I put pea in it I would probably have gotten over a ton. That 35 pound a bucket figure seems about right. I had been using 40 and always thought it was a little high. Now that I could put the measurement in a known volume 52 buckets at 35 lbs each comes in at 1820 pounds which is about right. The basement owner said they got a ton and never used it. There are about 7 bucket loads left to get. That would put it at 2065 pounds.

Close enough for me.

well..........i measured and calculated 3 plastic buckets marked 5 gals. this morning.

they all came out to 1390 c.i. or .80c.f.

they all held 41 #'s of bulk run nut.

that's about 49.2 #'s per c.f.

i'll go with 128 c.f. equals 3.15 tons of bulk run nut anth.

A quick Google told me that 5 gallons is 1155 cubic inches. I'm not sure if that skews your calculations or not. I got the same poundage for a bucket though at 41 pounds

Plus most buckets I've seen are slightly cone shaped meaning the top is a a little bigger than the bottom. You could have lost a little space there. Are you using inside dimensions?

Lightning wrote:A quick Google told me that 5 gallons is 1155 cubic inches. I'm not sure if that skews your calculations or not. I got the same poundage for a bucket though at 41 pounds

yes, I saw that too. the problem enters because that it a projection from the cubic area required to contain 1 (one ) gallon of water x's 5.

that simply won't work for what we are doing.

5 gal. bucket has top dia. of 12", bottom dia. of 10.5", so average dia. 11.25" x 14 ' deep.

5.625 x 5.625 x 3.14 x 14 = 1390 c.i. x .000579 = .80481 c.f. in an actual 5 gal. bucket.

then go from there................