How Do You Handle Your Coal?

 
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hotblast1357
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Post by hotblast1357 » Tue. Mar. 18, 2014 8:04 am

i am trying to plan for next year, in where to put my coal bin, and how to handle it from my bin to my hand fed hot blast coal furnace,i have many places to put a bin, in the garage, in the basement right next to the stove, I am just wondering what everone else does, we all love pics! do you use a normal shovel to load your stove? whats the easiest thing to do, right now I am buying by the bag, stacking in my garage, carrying bag into basement, which is attached, pouring bag into small bin I built, then shoveling from bin to stove, way to much handling as far as im concerned, im switching to bulk this summer, I have a great spot for my bin but its talking the wife into letting me build it there, lol theres a window right by it that the dump truck can back up to, and I can build a chute so that he just dumps right into my bin.

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hotblast1357
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Post by hotblast1357 » Tue. Mar. 18, 2014 8:06 am

that is the window right above my oil furnace

 
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blrman07
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Post by blrman07 » Tue. Mar. 18, 2014 8:37 am

With all that room egads.....put in the bin and an auger to get the coal from your bin to the hopper. Bulk to bin, bulk to hopper via auger. At most that you way you might touch it once.

Rev. Larry
New Beginning Church
Ashland Pa. 17921

 
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oros35
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Post by oros35 » Tue. Mar. 18, 2014 8:39 am

I have an M105 Army trailer I fill with a skid loader, then back up to the basement door. A few feet inside the door is my stove. Shovel coal into 2 hods and carry into the house. Dump straight into the stove from the hods.
Summer time park the trailer out at the tree line away from the house.

 
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hotblast1357
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Post by hotblast1357 » Tue. Mar. 18, 2014 8:53 am

blrman07 wrote:With all that room egads.....put in the bin and an auger to get the coal from your bin to the hopper. Bulk to bin, bulk to hopper via auger. At most that you way you might touch it once.

Rev. Larry
New Beginning Church
Ashland Pa. 17921
i do not have a hopper, I have a hand fed stove

 
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Sunny Boy
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Post by Sunny Boy » Tue. Mar. 18, 2014 9:23 am

My bulk dealer has an old-time coal truck with the bed that raises and tips. It has the tailgate door and shutes to go right in through a basement window.

I built the bin coming out from the foundation wall that the window is on. made the sides go up to the basement ceiling for support and to be able to close up the bin completely to avoid dust in the basement while the bin is being loaded. My bulk dealer does a very good job of washing the coal, so dust during loading is not the problem I thought it would be, but it also adds strength to the bin sides.

Another local bulk dealer has an auger system that can do the same from his truck in through the window.

I made slots by nailing rails on both sides of the coal bin doorway so that I can drop boards down in those slots to close the doorway. The rails go almost to the ceiling so I can just drop them in from there. That way, I can take out only the boards I need to as I use up the coal.

Looks like you have plenty of space to do the same.

This summer, I'm planning on taking out some upper side boards and expanding it with another bin built on to the right side which can be filled through the same window by just angling the shute over to it. That's so I'll have at least 10 tons storage for when I get the parlor stove on line.

Here's pix of it filled to it's 6 ton capacity.
Paul

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hotblast1357
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Post by hotblast1357 » Tue. Mar. 18, 2014 9:37 am

i should have added, the problem I have is my coal man has just a plain single axle dump truck, I am going over there tomorrow to get some 5 gallon buckets to test run before I buy tons of it, lol I am going to see if he has a hand gate on his dump gate, which would work great, cuz if not I am going to have to build a chute wide enough for the hole tailgate, then narrow it down to the window size


 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Tue. Mar. 18, 2014 10:26 am

His truck has a coal door on the back. They should have a chute also.

 
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hotblast1357
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Post by hotblast1357 » Tue. Mar. 18, 2014 10:36 am

ok thanks rob! it is just a normal dump box though right? not a high lift coal box? I was going to haul it myself with a dump trailer but what the hell might as well have it drop it off, wont change the price so, I have to make up my mind though with my coal bin before obviously lol I was going to dump it in my upper garage, one bay that I do not use, but then I have to haul it to the house during the winter, which I do not like, but of coarse the wife is not on board with the bin in the basement, but she might have to just deal, lol im thinking that building it in this corner will probably be my best bet, being that he can back up to that window and dump right into the bin, and the bin would only be feet away from the stove, I have a lot of that green tin (plastic?), the flexible stuff used for god knows what, that is really slippery so was thinking of making the chute out of that going from the window to the bin

 
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windyhill4.2
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Post by windyhill4.2 » Tue. Mar. 18, 2014 10:55 am

Build the bin close to your stove (allow enough space for safety) that way you won't have so far to carry your full shovel,install a simple belt conveyor from below the window to center of coal bin ,you can drop coal down chute thru window onto belt conveyor,problem solved,no mess,no fussing around,get the job done with ease,& you should be able to fill your bin fairly full & close to the ceiling.

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Tue. Mar. 18, 2014 11:01 am

The bin location will always be a compromise of proximity to the stove, displacement of whatever was there before, and convenience for the truck driver. If you are getting bulk delivery, the truck MUST be able to get close to the bin.

 
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hotblast1357
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Post by hotblast1357 » Tue. Mar. 18, 2014 11:25 am

Right, and he can get within ten feet no problem, probably the safest distance from my foundation with that much weight

 
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windyhill4.2
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Post by windyhill4.2 » Tue. Mar. 18, 2014 11:29 am

Rob , not to argue,but why MUST the truck get close to the bin if a conveyor/auger is used from the truck to the bin,seems to me if conveyor/auger is used then the bin can be situated closer to the stove where it will be used from daily instead of 1 or a few times per yr.of loading the bin,just asking as it seems i'm missing/overlooking something ???

 
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Post by NWBuilder » Tue. Mar. 18, 2014 11:41 am

From your picture it looks as though your water supply line and meter are right in the corner so I would stay far enough away from that as to not be an issue in the future. Maybe start the corner of it where the laundry baskets are and go away from the window. If shooting the coal is an issue then go long wide and low rather then high and slim. Having it anywhere in the basement beats the hell out of having to carry it down from the garage. Just my 2 cents.
Also you can get closer to the foundation by putting a couple sheets of 3/4" plywood under the wheels of the dumptruck to distribute the weight more.
Last edited by NWBuilder on Tue. Mar. 18, 2014 11:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

 
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Sunny Boy
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Post by Sunny Boy » Tue. Mar. 18, 2014 11:43 am

Rob R. wrote:The bin location will always be a compromise of proximity to the stove, displacement of whatever was there before, and convenience for the truck driver. If you are getting bulk delivery, the truck MUST be able to get close to the bin.


And the farther the bin is from the window, the shallower the angle for the shute. Get it too shallow and the coal will back up in the shute and overflow onto the floor and/or outside on the ground ! :shock:

And allow enough depth below the window for the top of where you want the coal mound to finish up for the amount of coal you wish to store. The coal piles up in a mound under the end of the shute and once that mound top reaches the coal shute, the coal doesn't flow down the sides of the mound. Then it backs up in the shute unless someone is down at the bin pushing/raking it into the corners (which I have to do now).

For instance, if you want a bin that holds say 6 tons and is chute fed through a basement window, . . a bin 5 feet wide, 8 feet long, and 6 feet deep will hold that. But, if the bottom of the window is at 6 feet, you can't fill that bin with 6 tons from a shute.

You'd need a window about 8 feet off the floor to shute 6 tons into that size bin. So, build the bin wider (which I'm doing this summer) so that there's at least two feet below the end of the shute for the cubed volume of coal. An 8 x8 bin only needs to be 3-3/4 feet high to fit 6 tons and that gives more than a 2 foot drop for the coal to flow into a mound ending at 6 feet under the shute.

I'm widening my bin by removing a couple of boards from the right side wall, then adding another 6 feet width of bin space to that side. That will give me a total bin space of 8 x 11 x 6 feet high, with that lowered right wall dividing the new bin into two, connected bins so that I can use up one bin to clean out the fines as I work from the other half.

And, by angling the shute as it comes through the window so that it's end is above the lowered right side wall, it will fill both sides. Or, by shifting the angle of the shute, I can put nut coal on one side and stove coal on the other. Both can be delivered through the same window.

Paul


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