Sifting Coal Ideas

Hello all,

I recently got about 500 lbs of free coal out of a basement. It is rice size with some pea and nut mixed in. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas how to sift foreign material and larger size coal from rice size so I can burn it in my koker.

Tim

500 lbs doesn't warrant much time or trouble setting up a screen.Can you pour some out on concrete and rake through it with a tool with tines about as widely spaced as the biggest piece you'd feed your stove?Do it in a couple of batches if space is a problem.Crack,don't pulverize, the bigger pieces,and use that too.

Go to brick supply house an buy Stucco Wire mesh .Comes in 24 inch by 8 foot .The holes in meash will be three eights holes .Rice will fall through an mesh an pea an nut will be trapped .Cost about 10 bucks . jack

Why you old sifter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fred after cracking my deep mine basketball lump coal I first run or screen the coal for nut an pea size .Next leftover small coal is sifted through the stucco n mesh an then you have stoker or rice coal . jack

If you set the screen up on angle you can rake the coal over it.

DK made me a coal sifter out of a plastic milk crate and a piece of half inch metal fabric over ten years ago. He cut the metal fabric a little big so it would wedge into bottom of the crate. The crate has hand holds so I can shake it easily. That size metal fabric works well with pea, nut and stove coal.

The sifter works great! I shake it over a small garbage can. The four corners of the crate sort of fit on the can's rim so I can rest it there. I don't have to lift it hardly at all.

I, too, picked up some "free" basement coal last year and it was the dirtiest coal I'd ever seen. From the amount of soil in the bags I would guess they had it stored on the yard before bagging it. It also had a lot of fines from handling it so much. The soil and fines had settled to the bottom of the bags so we just shoveled from the top and only sifted when we got to the bottom of a bag. That way I didn't have to do a lot of shaking at any one time.

I also use the sifter when I've had to shut down the stove and there is a lot of unburned coal among the ash. It's not pretty but it was cheap and it works. Lisa

Urban mined coal comes with its challenges In the early eighties I mined my fair share it was a pain in the neck. Money was tight so I did what I had to. Even though it was free I still don't miss those days.