AA 130 Outfires.. Coal feeding problems??

Years ago i welded an electrician's bit on to a 6 or 7 ft piece of steel rod and also welded a small ''T" on that shaft. It fits right down the center of the tube and you can auger 'at will'. It saves the trip into the bin, can be done at any time, and hangs on the wall nicely when not in use. The fines issue will be solved later, but it is nice to not crawl into the bin in the middle of the night. Necessity is the mother of invention..........
Don't damage that knee, recovery will be long enough as it is.

Mine isn't an arthroscopic solution, but as good as us old timers can do. It seemed that I did slide a piece of conduit over the shaft also to account for the size difference of the 1/2" shaft and the hole in the anthratube.
Yes, I'm one of the guys that put a return heat live under the bin to keep it thawed and dryer.
I have done the same technique on the 9 ton bin for my EFM 900.
'Fines, wet or frozen' are not good words in the coal burning business.
No problem when the degree days number gets much lower, but we had 5 feet of frost yesterday on a ruptured water line repair, and that wasn't in the street, but in a driveway. Thank God for excavators with pneumatic hammers! Beats hanging onto a 100 lb hammer when it 6 degrees out!

Interesting... I built a similar tool but out of 1 1/2" pipe and it has a paddle at the end to sweep the plugged material out of the end of the tube. After reading about your invention I'm pondering building another with a bit like yours to "help" the accumulated fines find their way into the feed tube.

I've been studying my pile (at least until the tarp was covered by the recent snow and ice) and I think the fines are mostly located near one end of the pile... The last off the truck.

I need to first make repairs to my feed tube then experiment a little. Tonight I will go to the hardware and pick up the materials for a screen.

How do I adjust the rake on the Anthratube? The dial to tell me how just spins. I don't know how it's meant to sit. My rake isn't working right. It keeps letting the fire go out. It's a bad time of year for that to happen. I can't depend on the heater and my cook stove is doing over-time to keep this place liveable.

By "rake" I assume you are taking about the recipricating grate and the anthrastat that controls it? The knob on the Anthracite is just an indicator, you need to use a small allen wrench to adjust it...otherwise the knob just spins on the shaft and you lose the calibration.

Where do you live? Perhaps there is an "Axeman Expert" nearby that can give you a hand.

To set the anthrastat, remove it from the boiler and boil water in a pot to 140, place the anthrastat tube in the water, use an ohm meter and turn knob (WITH ALLEN WRENCH) down untill their is no resistance then up slowly until it reads resistance and stop. Now if the dial that indicates the temperature doesn't point to 140, loosen the set screw on the knob and point it to 140 WITH OUT turning the allen wrench. 140 is the factory setting,should be a good starting point. Reinstall and enjoy .

studebak162 wrote:How do I adjust the rake on the Anthratube? The dial to tell me how just spins. I don't know how it's meant to sit. My rake isn't working right. It keeps letting the fire go out. It's a bad time of year for that to happen. I can't depend on the heater and my cook stove is doing over-time to keep this place liveable.

How are you making out

Interesting that this old post was resurrected.

Anyone interested in how this story worked out in 2009?

Yes, please tell us.

It's a long story. (as they all are)

Problem #1 - Coal:
Coal was 75% of my problem. Be very careful where you buy your coal from. I started burning coal prior to discovering NEPA crossroads. I've learned so much since then. The coal I bought nearly five years ago was total junk. Probably scooped off the rejects pile. I had so much ash I couldn't get rid of it all and the fines were at least 50% (known from the screening process I underwent to separate the good from the bad). I won't say here where I bought the coal (a broker)... 5 years later wouldn't be fair. The anthratube would not feed this stuff. Not even the new one. I had a make shift hopper in place until the coal was all gone. It was so bad I threw out the last ton or so. Also, I was told by the weigh bill that the delivery was 26 tons. I've since learned that you can't fit 26 tons of coal on a truck. My last load came from Harmony. I rode in the truck to "witness" the whole process. Harmony Rocks! I got what I paid for.

Problem #2 - Outdoor bin:
This could also be blamed on the coal. With so many fines, the coal couldn't shed water. I covered the pile with a very large tarp, but the coal was sopping wet when the truck dumped. It stayed wet until all gone. Point here is that the wet sloppy stuff would simply freeze right in the bin. I've since moved the entire boiler and the bin is now inside. It's simply a much better situation.

Problem #3 - Rotted Anthratube:
The end of the anthratube was rotted back at least an inch. The insides were'nt much better. I explored repairing it but in the end I just bought a new one... $650... ouch.

My old AA 130 now hums along like it's barely even trying. Freddy made a comment a while back about only cleaning out his bin once a year. I think I've arrived there...

Tom

OldAA130 wrote:Interesting that this old post was resurrected.

Anyone interested in how this story worked out in 2009?

Sounds like you where greener back then. We all have a learing curve I don't have outfires anymore, good "low ash coal" is a good start. More the opposite, when I shut down last spring, it was hard to put the fire out

Yup. I was Green when Green wasn't the in thing.

That's what's cool about NEPA crossroads. There's a wealth of information here just have to sort through and find what's helpful. last night I searched "settings AA130" and I got over 700 results.