Lighting and Maintaining a coal fire

x2, what Paul says. Coal burning will follow the air it finds.

I'll check it tonight, Thank you.

how would i know if my baro needs to be adjusted/fine tuned and what are some things to watch as indicators. I do not have a mano plumbed in.

Hrdnox1 wrote: ↑

Wed. Oct. 30, 2019 10:58 am

how would i know if my baro needs to be adjusted/fine tuned and what are some things to watch as indicators. I do not have a mano plumbed in.

States on the tag on slider slot of damper "weight goes on right side slot for vertical pipe and left side slot for horizontal pipe"
Some stamped numbers too for rough settings.

McGiever wrote: ↑

Wed. Oct. 30, 2019 12:52 pm

States on the tag on slider slot of damper "weight goes on right side slot for vertical pipe and left side slot for horizontal pipe"
Some stamped numbers too for rough settings.

Yes, That much i do know.

What I'm referring to is how would I, without a mano determine if an adjustment is needed?

Ya wouldn't--------------------- Can't imagine doin a baro before a mano??????

Well, after some freezing temps, rain and some light snow last night this stove is rockin'.

The little lady was very happy going out to a warm garage and car this morning. So much so that she called me and thanked me for making this investment so she and the boys can have a little bit of comfort and now is talking about converting the house over to a coal boiler. Looks like I have some reading and studying to do. Any suggestions on where to start?

As for my stove setup in the garage... Its a work in progress: I'm no longer buying bags at $6/bag I'm going with the bucket method and paying $2/bucket 50lbs. Half ton at a time until I build a bin next summer.

Congrats on getting to this point...well done!!!

Great price for coal, pretty big buckets at 50lbs each.

A coal boiler will really make for a cozy happy family.

A good start...
AA 130 M Restoration and Installation

Nice H!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Once you get a blue flame coming off the initial coal your lighting then fill the stove with coal and leave it be until you see blue flame on top coal bed.

McGiever wrote: ↑

Fri. Nov. 08, 2019 9:57 am

Congrats on getting to this point...well done!!!

Great price for coal, pretty big buckets at 50lbs each.

Thank you M, I did forget to mention I'm not just putting nut coal in the buckets, I toss in a little bit of pea and buck, Why i don't know maybe because I want to get the most coal in the bucket that I can lol.. I'm sure that it will eventually settle down into the bottom of my bins or just get burned up as i scoop it out. Either way this Alaska Kodiak will chew it up.

I do have a magnetic gauge on the stove pipe no more than 18" above the top of the stove. Where would i put one on the stove with this specific model to get a semi-accurate reading?

Accurate readings and magnetic thermometers don't go together.

Most of us that want accuracy use IR guns - Infrared reading hand-held thermometers. They are not expensive now, read over a wide range of temps, and are much more accurate at all temps than the magnetics ever could be.

However, the magnetics tend to at least be consistent, so you could use them to compare changes in stove settings. Just don't expect the surface to be what the gauge reading says it is. The actual temperature can be off by a lot and the amount it's off by can increase as the temp increases.

Just by luck, the one I have on my range's stove pipe is dead on at the normal cruising temp I use during daytime for the range. If I boost the temps to cook or bake, the magnetic reading lags behind actual temp more and more as the pipe temp surface is increased. At close to 300 pipe temp the gauge is off by 75 degrees lower.

But, it is consistent, so I can see at a glance if it's lower than normal and I need to refuel.

Paul

I was actually just looking at the Milwaukee and the Fluke 62 Max, I remember seeing Lee use one in one of his videos.

Well, I let it die out this weekend and took the time to do a full clean out and replace the hopper gasket from 3/8" to 1/2".

I had quite the buildup of ash and something that looked like ash/klinker it was stuck together, light like ash and still in rock shape but would completely disintegrate if i dropped it or poked it.

This light up went off without a hitch... some kindling and a nice log with 4 scoops of coal, hit it with my lawn torch because.. Well, why not its awesome. Closed the doors and walked away came back 10 minutes later to blue ladies, tossed 5 or 6 more scoops on, closed the doors and walked away 10 minutes later had blue ladies and a nice bright edge to edge glow, dumped a half bucket on, closed the doors went to church came back... blue ladies and glowing brick to brick.

After doing this i thought that maybe the heavy ash and ash/klinker was restricting airflow to only the center of the firebox. and possibly i was consuming more coal than need be plus with the fire bed going up into the hopper it wasn't helping my cause. Also to could it have been the variations in the coal i was trying out?

I'm open to suggestions on how to prevent this so i don't have to keep shutting the stove down.