Bottom of the Coal Bin

 
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Santiago
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Post by Santiago » Wed. Dec. 29, 2010 12:56 am

Time to let the fire burn out as we leave for Florida next week.

Does anybody have any suggestions as to using the last bit of coal that is in the bottom of the bin. It seems that there is too much coal dust that is mixed in with the nut coal. Each shovel full now is loaded with dust! Do I sift out the coal?

Suggestions please!


 
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valley trash
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Post by valley trash » Wed. Dec. 29, 2010 3:17 am

brown lunch bag and some motor oil. Or paper towel tube. No good for a stoker but if your looking to make use of some scraps...

 
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Freddy
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Post by Freddy » Wed. Dec. 29, 2010 4:53 am

Time to build a new tool! A miniature pitch fork. What ever size you are using for a shovel or scoop, make a many tined fork like device that picks the nuggets & leaves the dust. Then you can shovel & sweep the dust & do what you will.

OR

Buy more coal, add to bin.

 
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blrman07
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Post by blrman07 » Wed. Dec. 29, 2010 7:14 am

New tools......love new tools. The best are the ones you make....

 
CapeCoaler
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Post by CapeCoaler » Wed. Dec. 29, 2010 7:28 am

Hardware cloth over a 2x4 frame set on angle...
Bag and burn the fines...
Do not pile more coal on top of your problem...
It will still be there for next year...
Clean out the bottom of the bin now...
I know how big a problem this can get...
Doing SSM...
I have seen 18-20" of crap on the bottom of the bins...
And I burn it all... ;)

 
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Richard S.
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Post by Richard S. » Wed. Dec. 29, 2010 11:19 am

Freddy wrote:
OR

Buy more coal, add to bin.
Not until AFTER you have cleaned it out. Never put one load of coal on top of another. The fines migrate to the bottom and will continue to build up. If you can't completely clean out a bin each year alternate which side you empty first.

 
crazy4coal
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Post by crazy4coal » Wed. Dec. 29, 2010 6:24 pm

I don't know what you call'm but the people with horses have a fork that gets the horse turds and leaves the saw dust. That would work. Somewhere many yrs ago I saw a fork that looked like a pitch fork but the ends had a piece of steel across the ends and you used it like a shovel, scoop and shake.


 
CapeCoaler
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Post by CapeCoaler » Wed. Dec. 29, 2010 10:51 pm

Manure fork...
Rock fork...

 
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Richard S.
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Post by Richard S. » Wed. Dec. 29, 2010 11:43 pm

If I was going to go through the trouble of doing this I'd frame out a swuare and get a larger screen to sift it.

If you have a lot of coal like this frame a triangle with one corner open sot it's like a funnel. Elevate so the funnel end is bit higher than a bucket and angle it at 45. Shovel the coal onto the screen and the big pieces will roll down the screen and funnel into the bucket.

 
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dtzackus
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Post by dtzackus » Thu. Dec. 30, 2010 8:00 pm

What no pictures of this home made tool? I am curious esp. since I am about to get to the bottom of my one bin....

Dan

 
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dtzackus
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Post by dtzackus » Thu. Dec. 30, 2010 8:04 pm

Hmm, I wonder if I used a regular lawn metal rake.... Hmm...

 
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Stephen in Soky
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Post by Stephen in Soky » Fri. Dec. 31, 2010 4:00 pm

Okay, are coal forks a strictly southern thing or what? I'm still using my Dad's:

Image

It measures 9 inches across and the tines are 14 inches long. Much too small for an ensilage fork (That I've used and still have) but just the right size to fill 5 gallon buckets and scuttles:

Image

It's far too rounded and the tines are far too close together to work well as a manure fork. It's almost basket like although this photo really doesn't show it clearly:

Image

Mine still hangs right by the coal pile, just as it did at home:

Image

I fork my coal off the trailer leaving most of the fines behind, then I fork into my buckets leaving even more behind. By the time my coal reaches the stove it has virtually nothing smaller than 3/4 inch in it.

I assumed eveyone burning coal had one?

 
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Richard S.
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Post by Richard S. » Fri. Dec. 31, 2010 4:13 pm

Stephen in Soky wrote:Okay, are coal forks a strictly southern thing or what?
Nope, that's a soft coal thing.

With anthracite there shouldn't be a need for one because its being sized. When you get a load of nut coal (many tons) you might have a bucketful of fines... For a variety of reasons that is not always the case.

When the coal comes out of the sizing plant you have a perfectly cleaned and sized piece of coal, then it bangs around on the chute, falls off the chute, then the loader comes around, then it falls into the truck or stock pile....

Where I was purchasing my coal for delivery they had big pockets, during the warmer weather these would be filled and they had screens and water jets. The coal would go through one more washing right before it went in the truck

 
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SemperFi
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Post by SemperFi » Fri. Dec. 31, 2010 6:46 pm

why not just burn the fines a little at a time? There cant be that much.

 
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I'm On Fire
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Post by I'm On Fire » Fri. Dec. 31, 2010 8:06 pm

SemperFi wrote:why not just burn the fines a little at a time? There cant be that much.
That's what I do. But I've noticed that the bottom of my tote is a lot of fines.


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