Chronicles of the Clayton

Lightning wrote:

corey wrote:Looks like you have her dialed in.

It took a couple years but we're gettin there lol.

I like your temperature monitoring equipment.

corey wrote:I like your temperature monitoring equipment.

Thanks for the kind words, I like it too, peace of mind really. It keeps me well informed about the status of the furnace anywhere I have cell phone service.

Lee's alias should be "Commander Clayton"

scalabro wrote:Lee's alias should be "Commander Clayton"

Nice

A little bit of coal action eye candy. The first picture is after a 26 hour slow burn just before tending I revved her up. The second picture is after shake down. Notice the level fell about 6 inches. Both pics are thru the fire view glass. The third pic is a fresh load brewing, pic thru opened load door.

Ahhh, the "progression" of clean heat. Looks good Lee.

Looks great Lee.

Hey thanks fellas! Last night I took a few well lighted pics of the coal bed to show how full I load this thing. I'm still on a 24 hour burn cycle (since Jan 11) loading anywhere between 45-55 pounds at tending. After shake down I have a really nice base of hot coal left, about 6 inches deep (40-45 pounds worth I reckon).

In the pics below I had just added 45 pounds of Stove size with a blanket of 10 pounds of nut size (55 pounds total). The pics with the ruler I tried to take at level with the top and bottom to get an accurate depth measurement. I'm seeing 11.5 inches at the grate and 24 at the peak of the mound making for a 12.5 inch depth straight down thru the center.

Sometime this weekend I'll need to shorten the burn cycles as the mean temp falls into the 20's.

Current stats
32 OAT
74 inside
217 over the load door
169 on the pipe
Warm air supply is variable with the blowers cycling on and off. It's been 12 hours since last tending and it's cruising with no heat calls from the thermostat.

So then I was fiddling with the drawing feature I just discovered on my phone, oh no! lol Here is a pic of the fire box all prepped for first fire of the season. I thought I would give a little more detail on the "exhaust diverter" installed in the back of the furnace. The plate with the orange circle is a door on a hinge. It only opens to about a 60 degree angle due to the counter weight on the backside of it that catches on the roof of the stove pipe outlet. The counter weight on the back side of the door holds it closed when I close it. Right in the center of the orange circle is a tab that I reach with a poker tool to open and close it.

The exhaust path channel marked with the red X is 8 inches wide and 2 inches in depth. When the diverter door is closed the exhaust gases are forced to remain at the top of the furnace a little longer and give up some heat before descending (shown by the blue arrows). Once they descend, they exit under the white line and up thru the channel to the stove outlet.

The temperature change rising over the load door on the furnace and lowering on the stove pipe are quite remarkable once I close that diverter door.

Also in view is the pink fiberglass insulation behind the front and rear liners to block primary combustion air from bypassing the fuel bed.

Hope I didn't bore anyone I had some time to kill lol.

Lightning, Is the "main" box (actually I assume it's more like a "C" channel) that the door is mounted to and the door just plate steel? Also, how is that mounted to your stove?

Ahh, maybe it's mounted to the breach pipe bolts???

Ky Speedracer wrote:Lightning, Is the "main" box (actually I assume it's more like a "C" channel) that the door is mounted to and the door just plate steel? Also, how is that mounted to your stove?

Yes exactly. Before mounting, it assumed a "C" channel shape. The back fire wall completes it as a box channel. I actually ran two bolts (one on each side of the new channel) thru the fire box wall just below the stove pipe outlet.

The whole thing is made up of plate steel and a couple two inch C channel strips make the sides. It's all bolted together, no welding.

Looking at the sheer massiveness of those grates, it crossed my mind that maybe drilling some holes in the solid parts may help airflow and shaking down ashes? I was wondering if you thought the same thing?

And it looks like you've designed an "internal back pipe" from what I can tell, nice!

scalabro wrote:Looking at the sheer massiveness of those grates, it crossed my mind that maybe drilling some holes in the solid parts may help airflow and shaking down ashes? I was wondering if you thought the same thing?

And it looks like you've designed an "internal back pipe" from what I can tell, nice!

And along the sides in the grate frame ?

Paul