My New Toy, Losch Stoker Boiler

StokerDon wrote:A little before Halloween but, here is the scary DHW coil.

DHWcoil 001.JPG

DHWcoil 002.JPG

DHWcoil 003.JPG

You could soak those studs in oil for a year, no way there come'in out without brake'in off.

Note the boiler puddy in the middle. I can't beleive how much of the plate steel is rotted way! And this was running last December and making DHW.

-Don

if the coil is good and holds water pressure. I would make a new plate and get two sets of bronze nuts for the coil. if the studs snap off and they will you can grind and tap new studs when making the new plate. parts for this boiler are; your going to make them, or by some chance in a million someone has the parts you need.

so far from the pictures I see a nice boiler. looks like it will give you years of service. on another note if you don't what the head ache I would be glad to take it off your hands.

Don, the domestic coil studs are like many other brands of stoker from the 50 to 90's, 3/8 coarse on the outer part of the stud, 3/8 fine on the blind hole install. Pipe threrad inside so they tighten as installed. Not through holes. Perhaps that boiler will clean up OK, but go easy on the scaled up sections. Do you have the millboard from behind the access/cleanout doors, or did they disappear as some took it apart. If the coil area needs to be plated, I'm sure you can fabricate one or weld it up and go with an indirect. Either way, keep the pics coming.....

whistlenut wrote:Don, the domestic coil studs are like many other brands of stoker from the 50 to 90's, 3/8 coarse on the outer part of the stud, 3/8 fine on the blind hole install. Pipe threrad inside so they tighten as installed. Not through holes. Perhaps that boiler will clean up OK, but go easy on the scaled up sections. Do you have the millboard from behind the access/cleanout doors, or did they disappear as some took it apart. If the coil area needs to be plated, I'm sure you can fabricate one or weld it up and go with an indirect. Either way, keep the pics coming.....

whistlenut,

What the heck is '"millboard"?

Anyway, it is missing. The boiler tube cover plate has 2 studs with square plates on them and nothing else. I guess that's where the millboard goes?

I haven't had time to play with the Losch lately. This weekend is all about wiring the Yellow Flame and getting it ready to fire.

Sadly, the Losch is missing parts. I have contacted the seller, He is going to look around for them. If he doesn't find them, I will likey do a stoker conversion if the boiler is good.

Here are some photos after I set the boiler on the base. Something on top was leaking for a long time. The front of the boiler and base are rusty, as well as the DHW coil flange. your right, nobody sees that with the covers on.
-Don

Don, do you have the 'transmission' for shaking the stoker? If not, you should consider a YF conversion. Too expensive to source one and the related parts. Not every boiler deal works out the way you would expect, sometimes the life expectancy has been reached. Like vehicles, sometimes the rust and corrosion are winning before you realize that the time has come to park it or 're-purpose' it to make a few more Hyundais. Actually, Dodge/Ram must buy the worst of the worst steel with their history of 'First to Rust Through Sheet Metal'. Never have I seen a boiler as rusty as a 4 year old Dodge/Ram.
If ever there were an Automotive Industry Investigation, that would be a good place to study metallurgy! Ok, they all rust, some worse than others......Boilers too!

I have the transmission and the blower but, no coupler. The springs, nuts, leavers, brakets and linkage that go on the back to operate the grate are missing. Also the blank for the unused fire door is missing too.

To do a YF conversion on this boiler a lot of metal will need to be cut off and re-arranged on the back of the base. There is the possibillity to make simple brakets and rods to move the Losch grate back and forth, like a Yellow Flame. I don't know if the Losch grate will push the ash off the end of the grate without a Bump though. I would hate to go through all that pain and suffering only to find out the ash casues a dam at the end of the grate.

If the missing parts are not found, I have another option. Between my coal guy and his sons they have 3 Losch's, they may have quite a few spare parts.

They are very interesting, these stoker boilers. At the outset of this adventure, I would have thought the Yellow Flame and the Losch would be very similler. As it turns out, they are almost opposits!

The YF has a very simple stoker with 1 adjustment and only a few moving parts
The Losch has 4 grate hight adjustments 3 bump adjustments and a moving water cooled grate, yes the water lines move too.

The YF has a simple reduction gear box.
The Losch has a much more complicated gear box with paws and latches.

The YF has a simple plate boiler blank, easy to clean, just brush the plates off.
The Losch has a long water tube boiler design with covers to be removed and some dissassembley for cleaning.

I do like the Losch. I guess what I'm trying to say is, the Yellow Flame was simple enough for me to do a refurb, plumb it and get it fired in 4 weeks. The Losch is going to take me more than 4 months! Don't expect to see it done before spring.

-Don

All the parts may be available ,and the springs and linkage could be located. The rust around the domestic coil is problematic. Don't choke, it can be rebuilt easily if you can save it. If too much work, part it out and sell them to recover your investment. Not a bad end to the story, if you come out clean.

I pull out the Losch grate today to measure it to see which one I have. Over all area where coal/ash would sit is; 24" x 10". The area where there are holes in the grate is; 12" x 10", about 120 sq in.

For comparisson, the Yellow Flame 3 grate is 13" x 8.5" = 110.5 sq in. Area where there are holes.

The Yellow Flame 4 grate is, 13" x 11.5" = 149.5 sq in, Area where there are holes.
So, it looks like if I do a Yellow Flame 4 grate conversion on this Losch, it should put out a few more BTU's than originaly intended!

Just a thought.

Also, The seller has looked around for the missing parts and has not found anything yet. Not looking good.

-Don

That yellow flame three grate sounds like it's the closest match. The four grate might have tendency to overfire on ya. Your already familiar with the yellow flame system so it sounds to me like choice made? You can always rebuild the losch grate at your leisure and have a spare or sell it and buy some coal!!

I was over on the other side of the river today so, I figured I would stop by to see my coal guy too, get some photos of the parts I need and ask him if he had spares.

Lucky for me it was on a heat call when I was there. This one is in the large pole barn in the coal yard.
The other side. the upper pipe goes into the boiler. the lower pipe comes from the bottom end of the moving grate. YES, that part does move, that's why there is a flexable pipe on it.
FIRE!
Basicly, out of all this stuff on the back, I have; the blower, the motor, the gear box and the plate the gear box sits on. All the springs nuts and levers are missing.
The coupler between the blower and gear box is missing to.
That large bracket that holds the blower is missing too.
My coal guy DOES know someone that has a whole bunch of stoves and boilers (not me) and he may have 1 or 2 Losch's for parts.

So, If I do go original Losch, not a conversion, there is hope.

-Don

there is a place in pa that can make any spring you need if you can lay hands on one for them to go by. I had them make me springs for a steering clutch on a jap dozer, new they were cheeper than used ones from a parts machine. for the life of me I cant recall the name of the place right now but they are in east pa. king of something IIRC was the name of the town. great people to deal with. I will do some digging and see if I can find their contact info, I know I still have it somewhere "I never throw stuff like that away" but I have moved into a rv and built a house since I used them there still in my stash somewhere

tri- cor industries couldn't find the paper work but there name was on the box

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A little bit of progress on the Losch today.

I used my 2 foot pipe wrench with my good old freind the 8 foot pipe to try to get the 1 1/2" return pipe out of the bottom of the boiler. That wasn't working, so, I got my other old freind, the air chisle out to soften it up a bit. Had to do the same on the 1" supply pipe to.
Now I'm ready to start plugging it up for the pressure test. I don't have everything I need, so I will be going out sometime this week to get supplies.
Man, look at all that scale and crap in there!
I will be pressure testing it to about 40 PSI or so. I think my well pump goes to about 45 PSI so, some where between 40 and 45.

Mybe that will be my Black Friday project. Stay here, hide from all the shoppers, pressure test the boiler. Sounds like a plan!

-Don

I got the needed plumbing supplies on the way home from work today. So, I plugged all the holes, put in some valves and started filling it up!
And, I guess I expected to see this.
Somebody must have broken off that one stud and thought boiler puddy would fix it!

I fooled with it for about a half hour more. I only got one nut/ stud out. I guess that was the easy one.
It will be a fight to get the rest out!

-Don

Was that the only leak? If it was, your sitting pretty good!!!! Oh yeah, buy lots of drill bits and an easy out rig for the rest of those bolts.