Tom burns pellets!

Post Reply
 
fig
Member
Posts: 1137
Joined: Fri. Feb. 12, 2016 2:36 pm
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Harman SF360
Hand Fed Coal Stove: T.O.M (Warm Morning converted to baseburner by Steve) Round Oak 1917 Door model O-3, Warm Morning 400, Warm Morning 524, Warm Morning 414,Florence No.77, Warm Morning 523-b
Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Clayton 7.1/DS Machine basement stove/ Harman SF1500
Baseburners & Antiques: Renown Parlor stove 87B
Coal Size/Type: Bituminous/anthracite
Other Heating: Harman Accentra, enviro omega, Vermont Ironworks Elm stove, Quadrafire Mt Vernon, Logwood stove, Sotz barrel stove,

Post by fig » Sat. Mar. 12, 2022 1:04 pm

Looks like we need a section for hand fired anthracite stoves that burn wood pellets.

I made a pellet grate out of 1/4” mild steel with about 1000 1/4” holes in it. Working good so far. I laid it on top of the broken grate. I didn’t take into account of the holes in the grate frame. I laid some stainless flat bar over them but still lost quite a few pellets there. I’ll come up with a fix for that. It’s really throwing heat and no soot or smoke.

Attachments

9D447D24-8510-4AB8-86A7-31174CDB5A04.jpeg
.JPEG | 446KB | 9D447D24-8510-4AB8-86A7-31174CDB5A04.jpeg

 
User avatar
warminmn
Member
Posts: 8108
Joined: Tue. Feb. 08, 2011 5:59 pm
Location: Land of 11,842 lakes
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Chubby Junior, Efel Nestor Martin, Riteway 37
Coal Size/Type: nut and stove anthracite, lignite
Other Heating: Wood and wear a wool shirt

Post by warminmn » Sat. Mar. 12, 2022 2:02 pm

Did you drill all those holes? Wow, Im interested to see how this works after a few days use. How are you getting the ash out? Burn times? I used to use them when I was losing a coal fire but then I figured out how not to lose my coal fire.... they did burn ok but didnt burn long for me.

 
fig
Member
Posts: 1137
Joined: Fri. Feb. 12, 2016 2:36 pm
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Harman SF360
Hand Fed Coal Stove: T.O.M (Warm Morning converted to baseburner by Steve) Round Oak 1917 Door model O-3, Warm Morning 400, Warm Morning 524, Warm Morning 414,Florence No.77, Warm Morning 523-b
Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Clayton 7.1/DS Machine basement stove/ Harman SF1500
Baseburners & Antiques: Renown Parlor stove 87B
Coal Size/Type: Bituminous/anthracite
Other Heating: Harman Accentra, enviro omega, Vermont Ironworks Elm stove, Quadrafire Mt Vernon, Logwood stove, Sotz barrel stove,

Post by fig » Sat. Mar. 12, 2022 2:46 pm

First fire so I’m learning. Control is a bit difficult. It wants to run hard. Had it up to 700*. Tried backing it down and after a while the flame went out at about 450*. Opened the air back up and it restarted quickly with a puff. That could be bad if unattended. It’s finally settled down at 450*. The winds are pretty gusty and that’s having a big effect.

I was able to run it in indirect mode but when the flame went out I put it back in direct since the smoke started building up. It was really throwing a lot of heat in indirect mode. Ran the dog out of the room. He started looking for a cool place on the floor to lay.

I’m supposed to work today but I might not be going in. I should have started much earlier. It’s about two hours in and probably burned 1/4 of a 40lb. bag. Actually there was only about 30lbs. left in the pot after they stopped falling through the grate frame holes into the ash pan. I didn’t dump them back in because I didn’t want to disturb the pot since they had stopped falling. These are pine bedding pellets for horses. Not hardwood pellets. The burn faster and hotter. Not that efficient but it had thrown an enormous amount of heat.

The house is 80* and its 19* out with a 9* wind chill. This is in a house with no insulation in the walls. Only 8” in the attic. With some more tinkering in might be a little more efficient. I was hoping for low and slow so it looks like it’ll take some work to get there.

I’m not sure about ash removal. Those holes in the grate frame might actually have been a blessing. The whole pile off pellets are funneling to it and since it is directly over the ash door air intake that is where the biggest flame is. I hear them falling through to the ash pan as the burn down.

I made the grate on a plasma burner. It took about two hours.

It’s just an experiment. I made a can stove one time. Sort of like a hobo stove. Two different sized cans. One inside the other. The inner can had holes all around the top. The outer can had holes around the bottom. They were welded together at the top. Air flowed in from the bottom and over the top. Filled it with pellets and lit it. It burned with absolutely no smoke. I burned it inside my house in the kitchen counter. There was no smoke until all the pellets had burned and the flame went out. I thought the way Tom is designed is somewhat similar. It has an over fire air ring around the top of the pot so I thought all the holes it the grate would restrict the air and force the over fire air to feed the flame once the pellets were lit. The holes in the grate frame changed all of that. It caused the pellets to sit at an angle in the pot funneling down to that hole and this became the primary burn area. The over fire air did work as well. Especially in indirect mode. I want to make a screen to cover the grate frame holes to try and get the primary flame up top of the pot. Hopefully that will give me more control over the burn. I’ll see what I can do about that. I’ve got a few ideas. I need to get some measurements once this has burned out.
Last edited by fig on Sat. Mar. 12, 2022 3:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

 
User avatar
2001Sierra
Member
Posts: 2211
Joined: Wed. May. 20, 2009 8:09 am
Location: Wynantskill NY, 10 miles from Albany
Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Keystoker 90 Chimney vent
Coal Size/Type: Rice
Other Heating: Buderus Oil Boiler 3115-34

Post by 2001Sierra » Sat. Mar. 12, 2022 3:23 pm

Once poured some pellets into my hopper fed Buderus and it was like I poured kerosene in there. Scary!


 
fig
Member
Posts: 1137
Joined: Fri. Feb. 12, 2016 2:36 pm
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Harman SF360
Hand Fed Coal Stove: T.O.M (Warm Morning converted to baseburner by Steve) Round Oak 1917 Door model O-3, Warm Morning 400, Warm Morning 524, Warm Morning 414,Florence No.77, Warm Morning 523-b
Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Clayton 7.1/DS Machine basement stove/ Harman SF1500
Baseburners & Antiques: Renown Parlor stove 87B
Coal Size/Type: Bituminous/anthracite
Other Heating: Harman Accentra, enviro omega, Vermont Ironworks Elm stove, Quadrafire Mt Vernon, Logwood stove, Sotz barrel stove,

Post by fig » Sat. Mar. 12, 2022 3:28 pm

Lol yeh it really took off and it took a while to throttle it back. There was a huge secondary burn going on in the top of the cylinder. It literally shot up to 700* in about 4 minutes. And took a while to get back down to 450. It’s at about 500 now. 85* in the room the stove is in. 80* in the other rooms. Way too hot in here. I cut the air back some more. I’m sure I’m losing a ton of heat out the chimney. A Heat reclaimer would be ideal for this.

 
rberq
Member
Posts: 6445
Joined: Mon. Apr. 16, 2007 9:34 pm
Location: Central Maine
Hand Fed Coal Stove: DS Machine 1300 with hopper
Coal Size/Type: Blaschak Anthracite Nut
Other Heating: Oil hot water radiators (fuel oil); propane

Post by rberq » Sat. Mar. 12, 2022 4:27 pm

Keep reporting your experiments! I'm anxiously awaiting further developments.

 
fig
Member
Posts: 1137
Joined: Fri. Feb. 12, 2016 2:36 pm
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Harman SF360
Hand Fed Coal Stove: T.O.M (Warm Morning converted to baseburner by Steve) Round Oak 1917 Door model O-3, Warm Morning 400, Warm Morning 524, Warm Morning 414,Florence No.77, Warm Morning 523-b
Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Clayton 7.1/DS Machine basement stove/ Harman SF1500
Baseburners & Antiques: Renown Parlor stove 87B
Coal Size/Type: Bituminous/anthracite
Other Heating: Harman Accentra, enviro omega, Vermont Ironworks Elm stove, Quadrafire Mt Vernon, Logwood stove, Sotz barrel stove,

Post by fig » Sat. Mar. 12, 2022 6:00 pm

Well that’s it. 5 1/2 hour burn. I dumped the other 10 lbs on about two hours ago. That didn’t really go very well. It caused a lot of burning pellets to fall through the grate frame holes into the ash pan.

Much of the burn time was way above necessary temperatures. I’d like to try and get more control at the beginning. I’ll work on that. I’d like to get 12 hour burns. Probably not possible but that would be nice. The wind played a big role. This chimney has a huge draft. It was very hard to find the sweet spot. I just have a mpd on it. Maybe a baro would help.
I’ll work on a fix for the grate frame holes and try it out again when I have a day off to spend with it. That might be a while.

 
KingCoal
Member
Posts: 4837
Joined: Wed. Apr. 03, 2013 1:24 pm
Location: Elkhart county, IN.
Hand Fed Coal Stove: 1 comforter stove works all iron coal box stove, seventies.
Baseburners & Antiques: 2014 DTS C17 Base Burner, GW #6, GW 113 formerly Sir Williams, maybe others at Pauliewog’s I’ve forgotten about
Coal Size/Type: Nut Anth.
Other Heating: none

Post by KingCoal » Sat. Mar. 12, 2022 7:00 pm

:clap: :clap: :clap:
Way to go brother fig, great idea and it just may work if you can get the under air cut down.
Any leads on getting a coal grate recast ?

steve


 
rberq
Member
Posts: 6445
Joined: Mon. Apr. 16, 2007 9:34 pm
Location: Central Maine
Hand Fed Coal Stove: DS Machine 1300 with hopper
Coal Size/Type: Blaschak Anthracite Nut
Other Heating: Oil hot water radiators (fuel oil); propane

Post by rberq » Sat. Mar. 12, 2022 7:44 pm

I should think the problem will be damping down the burn rate, without descending to the smoking, creosoting phase.

 
User avatar
mntbugy
Member
Posts: 2041
Joined: Fri. Dec. 23, 2016 2:36 pm
Location: clearfield,pa
Hand Fed Coal Stove: D S 1500, Warm Moring 400
Baseburners & Antiques: Art Garland 145,GW114 ,Clarion 115, Vestal 20 Globe,New Royal22 Globe, Red Cross Oak 56,Acme Ventiduct 38,Radiant Airblast 626,Home Airblast 62,Moores #7,Moores 3way
Coal Size/Type: stove and nut and some bit
Other Heating: Propain

Post by mntbugy » Sat. Mar. 12, 2022 8:05 pm

Fig, super glue grate back together. Spay it with white 2x primer. Write fragile on it.
Send to Tomahawk foundry or Duplicast foundry.

 
fig
Member
Posts: 1137
Joined: Fri. Feb. 12, 2016 2:36 pm
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Harman SF360
Hand Fed Coal Stove: T.O.M (Warm Morning converted to baseburner by Steve) Round Oak 1917 Door model O-3, Warm Morning 400, Warm Morning 524, Warm Morning 414,Florence No.77, Warm Morning 523-b
Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Clayton 7.1/DS Machine basement stove/ Harman SF1500
Baseburners & Antiques: Renown Parlor stove 87B
Coal Size/Type: Bituminous/anthracite
Other Heating: Harman Accentra, enviro omega, Vermont Ironworks Elm stove, Quadrafire Mt Vernon, Logwood stove, Sotz barrel stove,

Post by fig » Sun. Mar. 13, 2022 11:15 am

KingCoal wrote:
Sat. Mar. 12, 2022 7:00 pm
:clap: :clap: :clap:
Way to go brother fig, great idea and it just may work if you can get the under air cut down.
Any leads on getting a coal grate recast ?

steve
Thanks Steve. It’s just a fun experiment I’ve been wanting to try. I think the way you designed the stove lends to the principle of a wood gas stove. I’ll keep tinkering with it and see if it improves.

I’ve just been keeping an eye out for a replacement grate. With the season winding down I don’t have a desperate need for it right away. I’ll see if anything turns up over the summer. If I can get my hands on some cast iron I’ll see about making one myself. I found a 12 1/2” grate at a stove supplier for a Warm Morning but I couldn’t get them to provide the thickness dimension. That’s the only thing I can see would prevent it from working.
Last edited by fig on Sun. Mar. 13, 2022 11:49 am, edited 1 time in total.

 
fig
Member
Posts: 1137
Joined: Fri. Feb. 12, 2016 2:36 pm
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Harman SF360
Hand Fed Coal Stove: T.O.M (Warm Morning converted to baseburner by Steve) Round Oak 1917 Door model O-3, Warm Morning 400, Warm Morning 524, Warm Morning 414,Florence No.77, Warm Morning 523-b
Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Clayton 7.1/DS Machine basement stove/ Harman SF1500
Baseburners & Antiques: Renown Parlor stove 87B
Coal Size/Type: Bituminous/anthracite
Other Heating: Harman Accentra, enviro omega, Vermont Ironworks Elm stove, Quadrafire Mt Vernon, Logwood stove, Sotz barrel stove,

Post by fig » Sun. Mar. 13, 2022 11:48 am

rberq wrote:
Sat. Mar. 12, 2022 7:44 pm
I should think the problem will be damping down the burn rate, without descending to the smoking, creosoting phase.

Yes I agree. I could only get it down to about 450, any lower and it would smoke. Only about half of the ports in the over fire air ring would light off at lower temps. I think this happened because the largest portion of the flame was at the grate frame holes instead of the top of the pile. I hope to get a different result once I address the grate frame holes.

Post Reply

Return to “Hand Fired Coal Stoves & Furnaces Using Anthracite”