Tri-Burner Mod

If anyone has seen my other post about the stoker motor issues you will understand why I did this mod. After McGiever told me to tear apart the gear motor and look at the grease inside I see why they don't last. I then hook a gear motor up on thee work bench and let it run for 2 hours and I can't believe how hot the whole thing got. No wonder they don't last. This got me to thinking. Installing a cooling fan to blow air on the gear motor? Why put another fan and motor on to go bad and use power. A few years ago I upgraded my tri-burner to a separate combustion blower and was in hopes that removing the plastic fan from the gear motor might help give the motor a longer life. The set up from Reading is another pan that slides under thee stoker motor. Mine leaked a lot of air around all the joints.

Last night I got thinking, I have extra air from the combustion blower already. Why not use this forced air to help cool the stoker motor? Why not make up a new stoker motor/combustion air mount and seal up the leaks?

Now it's not finished yet but it did fix a lot of the issues. I just mocked up my blower to the end to test it and it did move air to the stoker motor. I also added air baffles to direct the combustion air into the opening at the back for the stove to go under the grate. Instead of hitting a flat wall and bouncing around it will now be directed to the opening. I also made it a bit over all longer to move the combustion blower out from the stove more. I also welded nuts to the underside of the plate for mounting of the stoker motor instead of tapping the metal which get stripped out. I am also adding a pcs of pipe through the for the mounting bolt so it guides easier and will hold the entire assy down more even. I have to finish cutting the end plate for the combustion blower and weld the nuts for mounting then weld it to the end. Then sand it and prime it and paint it.

I used 16ga steel, 1/4" steel break line with 1/4" plastic tubing onto the ends to direct air to motor and the nut's are all I have into it. I don't have a brake press so I had to cut everything and weld it. All total i'm guessing I have maybe 14.00 in materials. 5 hours in layout and welding.

Thanks for sharing.

Undoubtedly will help cool those parts.

Finally got to finish the project. Got the blower mounting plate cut out. Drilled and welded nuts for the blower mounting. Welded it onto the other plate. Got the pipe welded that runs through the ASSY for mounting. Installed it on the stove and WOW. It really gets the air into the grates now and the 1" hole where the shaft goes down to drive the blower wheel really let's air up to the motor. Overall I'm happy and can't wait to light a fire. I know I'll have to cut down my combustion air now. Better too much then not enough.