Ash Bridging Pictures

 
scalabro
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Post by scalabro » Thu. Dec. 08, 2016 3:25 am

Nice Tom, that's a clean fire!!!


 
KingCoal
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Post by KingCoal » Thu. Dec. 08, 2016 7:41 am

these are pretty neat pics, esp. Tom's but, do you guys "have" to do all this just to keep the stoves burning and heating adequitly ? how long does it take to perform a tending sequence ?

i don't have these issues and wondering if it could be addressed with bigger or smaller coal ?

steve

 
scalabro
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Post by scalabro » Thu. Dec. 08, 2016 8:13 am

KingCoal wrote:these are pretty neat pics, esp. Tom's but, do you guys "have" to do all this just to keep the stoves burning and heating adequitly ? how long does it take to perform a tending sequence ?

i don't have these issues and wondering if it could be addressed with bigger or smaller coal ?

steve
The short answer is no, as simply pulling the center drop grate, reinstalling it and shaking would suffice. But, this is somewhat amusing and challenging to do. Properly done, it results in a very clean fire. This allows more coal to be added to the pot, less wear on the grate due to less shaking and less dust in the base passages. It takes me no more than a few minutes to service the Crawford. I think the coal itself and the firing temps/length between service has a lot
to do with it. I believe Tom gets such good results because his 109 pot is narrow.

 
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joeq
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Post by joeq » Thu. Dec. 08, 2016 9:11 am

Steve, your Warm morning heat monster has a round barrel, round grate, with draw center. You say you never get any bridging? Maybe because your stove will hold a truck load of coal, and the pot is so wide, it doesn't happen.
I guess if you immediately start poking and shaking, a bridge won't be realized. It was Scott who showed me how to do this, and it does prove to be beneficial. It can be fun at times, trying to see how much can be cleaned out. It's not fun if your timing is off, and a bunch of fresh hot coals end up in your ash pan. :(

 
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Post by KingCoal » Thu. Dec. 08, 2016 9:42 am

joeq wrote:Steve, your Warm morning heat monster has a round barrel, round grate, with draw center. You say you never get any bridging? Maybe because your stove will hold a truck load of coal, and the pot is so wide, it doesn't happen.
I guess if you immediately start poking and shaking, a bridge won't be realized. It was Scott who showed me how to do this, and it does prove to be beneficial. It can be fun at times, trying to see how much can be cleaned out. It's not fun if your timing is off, and a bunch of fresh hot coals end up in your ash pan. :(
in present configuration my fire pot is 16w x 9d if just measuring the fire bricks. this doesn't include the dishing of the grates, that's another 2" of depth, so if I have that much ash under the fire I can still get 55#'s of coal in the pot.

i keep ash on my grates on purpose to help control my draft but have not found that I get any bridging so far. could be the width of the fire pot or the Blaschak coal i'm still using. compared to the L.H. I just bought it Definitely runs toward stove.

steve

 
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Post by joeq » Thu. Dec. 08, 2016 9:49 am

I'm guessing stove size coal has a better tendency to bridge, compared to nut.

 
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Post by Sunny Boy » Thu. Dec. 08, 2016 11:14 am

I suspect that whatever temperatures the firebed is running at have a lot to do with if a stove will bridge, or not. If it was mostly caused more by narrower spans, then my range's firebox, at only 7 inches wide, would be the King of bridging. But it doesn't bridge at all.

It did sometimes back when the fire bricks had a very lumpy buildup of clinker scale that narrowed the firebox to only 6 inches wide. That rough surface had a tendency to help the coal get hung-up on the side walls. But since I chiseled that scale off and filled in a lot of the cracks and "crevasses" in to make the bricks smoother, using refractory cement, no more bridging.

One thing I learned is never shake ash first. I always add a layer of coal first. That does two things. It adds weight on top of the firebed to help move ash downward during shaking. And it makes use of the firebed's pre-shaking higher temperatures to get fresh coal burning sooner than if I were to shake ash first.

Then, once that fresh layer of coal is starting to burn, I do whatever ash removal is necessary. If it's been running for more than about 6 hours since the last shaking, then I rotate the grates one surface and shake it. If just a few hours, then only shaking is needed. Then I top it off with more coal.

And every now and then before shaking, I drag the right-angled poker along the sides of the firebox to scrap off any clinkers that might be starting to fuse to the firebricks and build back that scale that so narrowed it.

Paul


 
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Post by joeq » Thu. Dec. 08, 2016 11:37 am

To avoid using my "shaker" as much as possible, during the day when I'm running by the stove, I'll take my "skewer" looking poking tool, and just jab it into the klinker opening, and sometimes will "stir the pot", (gently), or turn some over, just to loosen things up, and get some more air into it. Don't know if that method is helping or hurting, but it seems to keep the fire alive longer.

 
scalabro
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Post by scalabro » Thu. Dec. 08, 2016 12:29 pm

I suspect that our type of cylindrical pot (G111,109,C40 etc) that is taller than it is wide contributes greatly in allowing a bridge to form.

 
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Post by Sunny Boy » Thu. Dec. 08, 2016 12:36 pm

My range firebed is deep for it's width, but not the depth of your parlor stoves. I think that maybe beyond a certain depth it starts to bridge and width is not as much a factor as depth is ?

It seems that a deeper firebed does burn better as in hotter, and at a steadier rate.

I wonder if that greater depth makes the upper areas of the firebed burn that much hotter that it then is getting the coal up to the temps where it has a chance to become softer and "sticky" ?

And the greater weight on top of a deeper firebed many also contribute to pressing the coal together to form bridging ?

Paul

 
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Post by Canaan coal man » Thu. Dec. 08, 2016 12:41 pm

The hotter I run the old G6 the more it bridges no matter what size coal. To keep a good even burning fire pot I take my poker and gently push the bed down after the first shake, then re shake after I settle the bed. I do this once a tend and this keeps my pot good and full with no dead spots or un burnt coal.

 
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Post by joeq » Thu. Dec. 08, 2016 1:02 pm

Brenden/Paul, do you guys strictly use one size, or do you mix the nut, and stove?
With my 111, the TSC/Reading nut is such crap, I always begin my tending regiment with stove size. It takes off much faster. Once the fire is established, and has been running hot for a few hrs, when the temps are as warm as they have been, that's when I throw in some nut, which puts a blanket on the coal bed of stove. I'm wondering if mixing them cold in a hod, would make any difference in performance. I won't make the mistake of using only the reading nut by itself. I opened a bag yesterday, to fill my hod, and the fines were incredible, (as Trump would say :lol: ). The bag before it, wasn't bad at all. Talk about your inconsistencies.

 
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Post by Sunny Boy » Thu. Dec. 08, 2016 1:19 pm

joeq wrote:Brenden/Paul, do you guys strictly use one size, or do you mix the nut, and stove?
With my 111, the TSC/Reading nut is such crap, I always begin my tending regiment with stove size. It takes off much faster. Once the fire is established, and has been running hot for a few hrs, when the temps are as warm as they have been, that's when I throw in some nut, which puts a blanket on the coal bed of stove. I'm wondering if mixing them cold in a hod, would make any difference in performance. I won't make the mistake of using only the reading nut by itself. I opened a bag yesterday, to fill my hod, and the fines were incredible, (as Trump would say :lol: ). The bag before it, wasn't bad at all. Talk about your inconsistencies.
No, I don't use stove size for the range. Bought 6 bags of Blaschak stove a couple of years ago and used up five bags experimenting with it in the range for about a week.

With the smaller firebox, the 10% less coal by weight of stove verses nut makes a big difference. Yes, the stove size burns a bit hotter and responds faster to damper changes, but with the firebox being less "fuel dense" the fire doesn't last as long and needs refueling sooner. And that tends to upset the cook sooner - something I try to avoid doing whenever possible. She being an RN understands how to relieve pain, which means she knows all-too-well what also causes pain !!!! :shock:

And mixing stove in with the nut wouldn't do much, like it might with a larger firebox/firepot.

Paul

 
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Post by joeq » Thu. Dec. 08, 2016 1:25 pm

LOL. Gut-cha. "Happy wife...Happy life". :D

 
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Post by Sunny Boy » Thu. Dec. 08, 2016 1:28 pm

joeq wrote:LOL. Gut-cha. "Happy wife...Happy life". :D
The secret to not waking up dead ! ;)

Paul)


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