Feed Gearmotors

Hi everyone, I’m new here, I’ve been burning coal off and on since about 2001, had a hand fired stove (keystone) for my 1st stove (loved it !) sold with the house, then I had 2 stoker stoves, a Gnome 40 and a Hitzer 608 (wish I still had the 608, it was great), have the Gnome 40 setup in the living room now, problem is I got a rock in my coal bag and it broke 2 gears in the gearbox (blaschek coal) ! Called Alaska and got the new motor, 4 days later another rock !!!! Now I’m looking for a way to keep the gear motor safe, shear pin or something else that breaks before the gearbox. Any suggestions?????

put a screen/wire mesh over your hopper as you dump your coal in to sift out anything larger than 3/8-1/2" size?

If you could replace a screw or pin with a nylon one, maybe it will give more or shear off instead of the gears breaking? not sure if strong enough, but under a good load it should shear off or break.

Hi Dave, I have a bin I’m going to put wire mesh on and that will do 2 things filter out the “chunks” and dry out the coal, my last picture shows that block that connects the 2 shafts and was just looking for something for safety at a cheap cost, thought of drilling a hole through the paddle shaft and using a cotter pin but don’t want the shaft to brake or the pin to be too soft. I’m in WNY also, in Boston, Thanks Dave

Was looking at these to put in place of the block

i was going to suggest a clutch or plastic coupling of some sort. i think the mesh will be a easy solution.
You're probably about an hour or so drive. we're down here in Cuba, NY.

I'd try the mesh first. If you continue to have trouble drill a small hole and start with smaller tension pins as shear pins. You can work your way up if they shear prematurely. The only trouble with tension pins is when they shear you have to drive out 3 pieces. Maybe a cotter clip with the straight leg going through the hole and the bent leg going over the shaft? That way it can be a bit loose and if it shears it would fall out for easy replacement?

Don

Nice Don Thanks ! I did talk to Alaska about this and was told a guy in the north east (owns a machine shop) tried some things but it didn’t work, sometimes I think they just like selling motors ! (Nice upcharge ) the second motor is new just hit the market in August, talked to the manufacturer (they want the motor back to see what went wrong). Hope they fix and send back for a spare !

Unfortunately with all this I’ve been down for 11 days so far !!! 🥶🥶🥶🥶

I would use a brass rod with a cotter pin in both ends, start with 3/16 if it shears with no reason go bigger.

UPDATE got my feed gear motor about 6pm !!!!! Put it in and tested all seems well at this time added some coal to the hopper and fired it up . Running on low now !!!!

Nice! Now THAT'S a fire!!

Don

Thanks Don ! Only a little Gnome 40 but it does the job

I had a gear strip in my feeder today. Was brand new a little over a month ago. Alaska 140 paddle dual feed. The other burner no problem also my dual burner hyfire in my basement still going. I'll call the store tomorrow for one to see if they have another gearbox. I hope they can ship this one back defective. I've never seen any odd size coal or rocks in my coal. Never had a problem with any of my other feeders either. A shear key on the output shaft would make more sense to me. You would only have to take a nut off, pull the lever off and replace the key if something would jam it up

Gorpa wrote: ↑

Sun. Jan. 13, 2019 7:26 pm

I had a gear strip in my feeder today. Was brand new a little over a month ago. Alaska 140 paddle dual feed. The other burner no problem also my dual burner hyfire in my basement still going. I'll call the store tomorrow for one to see if they have another gearbox. I hope they can ship this one back defective. I've never seen any odd size coal or rocks in my coal. Never had a problem with any of my other feeders either. A shear key on the output shaft would make more sense to me. You would only have to take a nut off, pull the lever off and replace the key if something would jam it up

I don’t like the fact they didn’t put any kind of safety for the gear motor, $146 for a new one, is your new one a Gleason-Avery ? Sent the one that lasted 4 days to them It’s a new design as of August, hope they fix it for free and send it back ! Been sifting thru the coal and found some larger coal that would be too big for the paddle !!!