Coalpail.com Forum

Here it is...My daughter will be uploading it any time now.

(While this video shows my specific routine in re the Harman TLC2000, it is pretty generic in terms of shaking down & poking any hand fired coal stove)

Here it is....

Great Video Devil. You make it appear effortless!
IT appears Harman used the TLC2000 stove as the base for the DVC-500. Everything is the same, except the interior grating and controls. All dimensions are the same.

Did you mortor in that brickwoork, or is it loose-fit, with sand in joints?

DVC500_at_last wrote:Great Video Devil. You make it appear effortless!
IT appears Harman used the TLC2000 stove as the base for the DVC-500. Everything is the same, except the interior grating and controls. All dimensions are the same.

Did you mortor in that brickwoork, or is it loose-fit, with sand in joints?

Thanks! My daughter gets the technical credit for converting the video from mpeg to .wmv format & uploading it. (poor kid spent hours doing it while my 3 year old granddaughter was "Helping" her!

I just laid the bricks in loose (no mortar or sand) & have them held with an angle iron across the back & held in by wedging the side bricks.

Great job Dick!! Nice video. I had never seen how you manly men do it. All I have is a girlyman stove.

sterling_40man wrote:Great job Dick!! Nice video. I had never seen how you manly men do it. All I have is a girlyman stove.

Thanks Bob (I'm hoping a Hollywood producer will see it & "Discover Me")

Nice video and great for how to run a hand fired stove. Now I'm very happy I have a girlle stove.

Very nice Dick. Or should I say Cecil B d'Devil. I think that will be helpful to the many newbies that are popping up all the time.
One of the neatest things about having friends on the web is wondering what they look like. I know when I went to the last two coal nerds fests, it was interesting to say the least. You get a picture in your head as to what someone looks like and its never accurate. You posted a pic of yourself along with your lovely wife back when I think you were dating. I had that image in my mind for you but age enhanced of course. I just didn't figure on you getting taller. You seem to have grown right through your hair.

coalkirk wrote:Very nice Dick. Or should I say Cecil B d'Devil. I think that will be helpful to the many newbies that are popping up all the time.
One of the neatest things about having friends on the web is wondering what they look like. I know when I went to the last two coal nerds fests, it was interesting to say the least. You get a picture in your head as to what someone looks like and its never accurate. You posted a pic of yourself along with your lovely wife back when I think you were dating. I had that image in my mind for you but age enhanced of course. I just didn't figure on you getting taller. You seem to have grown right through your hair.

Thanks Terry but....Keep in mind that the cheap Sony amateur camera I used has a tendency to distort & not provide a very accurate picture of what someone REALLY looks like. That stupid camera distorted my picture to make me look like an old, bald fat man!
(Below is a picture taken just after I did that video, at the gym...taken with a BETTER camera!!

Nice video Devil! I really liked the closing statement...

Razzler wrote:Nice video Devil! I really liked the closing statement...

No way could I do a whole video & NOT at least mention my hero!

Well done, Devil!

I'll tell you my aunts method and she's been tending a coal stove since she was a kid, probably about 60 now. She of course learned from my Grandmother who is 90....

Step 1: open the manual pipe damper to let the gases escape.
Step 2: Slam,slam,slam,slam..........slam with the shaker.
Step 3: Fill with coal.
Step 4: Close everything up
Step 5: Repeat in 12 hours.

Takes her all of about 2 or 3 minutes. Nice tutorial Devil but truthfully I think some of you guys go a little overboard in the ways you do things. Course what works for one stove....

Richard S. wrote:Nice tutorial Devil but truthfully I think some of you guys go a little overboard in the ways you do things. Course what works for one stove....

I agree Richard....It's not rocket science......BUT.....other than starting a coal fire, I think most problems with new coal burners are caused by improper shaking down/refilling technique.

1. Not waiting for the fire to liven up b4 shaking down & killing their fire or spending hours trying to revive it.
2. Not poking or shaking down enough to get rid of enough ash (& thus not enough stove real estate left for fresh coal)
3. Burying their fire so deep with fresh coal that volatile gases build up & explode in "Puff-Backs"

I figure it's one thing to "Read" about it but another to actually SEE:
how much do you shake?
How much ember should fall?
Should you poke? (how hard, etc)
How fast can you reload your stove without puff-backs or wasting way to much time? (after reading many posts, I get the idea that many new coal burners are very tentative with their fire & think it's fragile!.......They will spend HOURS refilling their stoves (per many posts) & many are afraid to fill the stove all the way up)

Many "former wood burners" figure that more fuel=more heat & are afraid to fill their coal stoves up completely, or they'll lose control of the fire. (like with wood) I've practically had to threaten the lives of some newbies to fill their stove up or I'd come over & do physical harm to them!)

I always tell them that being afraid to fill your coal stove up completely is like being afraid to fill your car's gas tank up fully because it will drive to fast with a full tank!
(a full coal stove will just burn LONGER, not hotter)

Hey Mayor, Can you sweet talk your aunt or grandma into doing a video? It shouldn't take long.

Devil, When you pour the coal in the top, don't you get a lot of smoke in the room? Thanks your doing the video.