Homemade Sub-Bit Flatbed Stoker Utube Link

rockwood · Post by **rockwood** » Fri. Jan. 30, 2015 8:51 pm

Looking forward to seeing the new video

unhippy · Post by **unhippy** » Sun. Feb. 01, 2015 4:58 am

After 3 nights after work and a part weekends effort I have finished the rebuild of my stoker unit....it works rather well if I do say so myself

Now I just need to get to stove back in place, refit the stoker to it and wait the depressingly long 2 months until its actually needed

Oh and if anyone is tempted to twit me about the rough paint job.......its ok.... I already have a self applied 'MORON' stamp on my forehead for not covering the slide bars before I i started waving a rattle bomb around.

blrman07 · Post by **blrman07** » Sun. Feb. 01, 2015 7:27 am

That is one serious looking stoker. Simple once you see it in action but it looks like it would last a long long time. Replaceable parts, common bolts, few moving parts, no electronics. Looks like a winner in my book.

unhippy · Post by **unhippy** » Mon. Feb. 02, 2015 6:30 am

Thanks....thats kinda what I was going for.....solid,simple and long life before anything needs done

waldo lemieux · Post by **waldo lemieux** » Mon. Feb. 02, 2015 8:14 am

Callum

I think you did a great job . Elegance thru simplicity. A stoker mech like that should be mounted out front rather than round back. congratz

While I got your ear, hurry the eff up with my summer , you've had it long enough....

best,
waldo

unhippy · Post by **unhippy** » Mon. Feb. 02, 2015 1:43 pm

waldo lemieux wrote:Callum

While I got your ear, hurry the eff up with my summer , you've had it long enough....

best,
waldo

dunno where your summer went......I been forced to join the submarine service to be able to go outside for the last couple of days

and the stoker is in plain view stuck out the side of my stove

SWPaDon · Post by **SWPaDon** » Mon. Feb. 02, 2015 11:32 pm

unhippy wrote: dunno where your summer went......I been forced to join the submarine service to be able to go outside for the last couple of days

and the stoker is in plain view stuck out the side of my stove

You took our summer, can we have it back please?

Very nice job on the flat bed stoker.

rockwood · Post by **rockwood** » Mon. Feb. 02, 2015 11:44 pm

You did a great job on that!!

Speaking of weather...we've had one of the mildest winters out here in the west that I can remember. You guys out east keep getting pounded.

unhippy · Post by **unhippy** » Tue. Feb. 03, 2015 2:58 am

SWPaDon wrote: You took our summer, can we have it back please?

.

feel free to come pick up your summer any time you want....i'm sure our farmers would gladly trade you some rain for the inland parts of New Zealand that are currently as dry as a chip.....its funny, i'm on the southern eastcoast and getting more rain than we have had for months....only a few miles inland they are getting nothing.

unhippy · Post by **unhippy** » Tue. Feb. 03, 2015 3:18 am

Actually its rather cold here (for summer at least) and I have been running the stove since I got home.....it unreal how much more heat it is able to punch out with the deeper pushblock that I have in it now......LOL I need to have another go at making setblocks....i can only use up to the 3/4(30mm) fire block without it smoking out the chimney....it ran with no smoke on the bench at 4/4(40mm) but when its in the stove it smokes....however that 3/4 block is punching out more heat than I have ever had out of the stove before by a huge margin

I think I need to make some new blocks and set it so that my current 3/4 fire block is my 'new' full fire block and other blocks are 3/4, 1/2, 1/4 etc or however many divisions I think I will need

SWPaDon · Post by **SWPaDon** » Tue. Feb. 03, 2015 6:59 am

Sounds like the hard part is over, you are in the 'fine tuning' stages now. Let us know what happens.

Take care, Don

unhippy · Post by **unhippy** » Thu. Apr. 30, 2015 6:38 am

I had a bright idea to stop dust when I reload.....water the coal to damp down the dust (the inside of my hopper is painted with a hard lacquer so rust isn't an issue) ..... so I got one of my plastic 20L (5 US gal) buckets and drilled a heap of 1/8" holes in the bottom to allow excess water to drain out......filled bucket up with coal and then used the garden hose to wet the coal down.....gave it a real good wetting.....left the bucket draining out on the back porch......come back an hour or so later and picked up the bucket and thought 'man that coal has absorbed some water' as the bucket of wet coal was HEAVY.....real heavy.....but the there was no water draining out the holes in the bottom anymore so it must have drained all the excess out.....

Went in and poured it into the hopper.....instantly had water running out the back of the feeder

.....fire was quenched

......I was not happy

.....bucket was still about 1/3 full of water......the drain holes in the bottom of the bucket had been blocked by the fines and small coal that must have got washed down thru the coal as I was wetting it down.

As the water ran down the grate it wet the ash which then clogged all the air holes (this was about 11:45pm and in the middle of the first cold snap of the year), I turned the stove off in disgust and went to bed in a foul mood and woke up to a cold house

.....so this evening I spent a fun half hour with my head inside the stove wearing a headlamp so I could see what I was doing, unblocking the air holes in my grate with a 1/16" and 1/8" drill bit and a pair of pliers.....pliers where a bit hard to manipulate in the stove so ended up just holding the drill bits in my fingers......

Finding of the day : coal ash/soot makes you sneeze without warning....sneezing without warning inside a coal stove is both painful and totally and utterly defeats the purpose of watering your coal to reduce the amount of dust inside your house

......

The stove is back running again......and the coal bucket now has 1/4" holes in the bottom and drains the excess water out without blocking....and I have no dust when I reload

waldo lemieux · Post by **waldo lemieux** » Thu. Apr. 30, 2015 8:19 am

Good show Geeves! Pleas tell me your gonna get that video on you tube, soon

sounds like the cold we have had is now, finally moving your way. Hope your modifications pan out for ya Callum.

Regards,
Waldo

unhippy · Post by **unhippy** » Thu. Apr. 30, 2015 8:59 am

LOL no video of this little episode......besides, 'she who must be obeyed' is less than impressed that I filled the house up with grey dust.....putting a video up PROVING that she is shacked up with an idiot......well lets just say occasionally even I can see that something is a bad idea

unhippy · Post by **unhippy** » Sun. May. 31, 2015 8:16 am

Well the stove is rocking along doing its job now that winter is here....had snow last weekend....house is 68-70f the any time we are below freezing outside and the stove eats about 50-60lb/day of my 8500btu/lb sub-bit coal....only issue is that with wet coal to keep the dust down about 1/3 of a hoppers worth of coal won't feed as being wet increases the coals batter angle just enough that it won't collapse down into the feeder

happy summer sweating lads

Cheers
Callum