How Big Do You Make a Coal Bin?

35-40lbs

lsayre wrote:What does a 5 gallon plastic pail full of your coal weigh?

35-40lbs

I am planning an interior coal bin with fill capability from the exterior wall that the bin is next to. Both the room floor and the outside ground level are at the same level. Bin dims are 116"L x 48"W X 40"H = 6444 pounds = approx. 3.2 tons filled to the rim.
I am planning the 40" height because that is the same height of my Pick up truck bed. So if I cut a hole thru the 16" studs and make it approx. 20" in height. I will have a loading window of 14.5" X 20". 14.5 " should be enough to get a shovel thru comfortably. If I get bagged coal, I hope the bags will fit thru that hole size, that will save some carrying. But the bigger long term plan would be to create a hopper that would fit in this 14.5" X 20" hole. So remove any sheathing cover and insulation and insert the hopper, to be loaded by any small front end bucket loader that I may come across in the future. Kubota BX or the likes. Make the hopper the width of the bucket.
For that 116 " length wall, I am thinking, 2 lower vertical slide feed doors at floor level, 2 doors because of the long length and space them appropriately. There is not enough vertical height for a drop feed. I suppose it will just spill out onto the floor. This is a fab shop , and that is already SOP. When the bin gets low, I can stick a hoe in there and pull it forward. I am attempting this, because I want make things as easy as possible for the future. This bin will be a few steps away from the steel burn box.
One last thought on the 116 length access wall, I am thinking of not permanently screwing the vertical sheathing to the studded wall, so I can remove said sheathing and sneak in there if I need to move some coal around. Also the top which would be 48" x 116", primarily to keep the dust to a minimum. But fab the top in 2 pcs, so (58"x 48") times two. So I can slide one top onto the other, or just remove both as needed. Again, if I need to move /rake/hoe coal around to get it to the feed doors.
I was thinking an exterior bin with a feed door access from the interior, but I do not want to run the risk of frozen coal or the likes
Any comments or suggestions, have at it. thank you, R
oops, scratch the vertical slide doors, I will use vertical openings/top to bottom, 2 of them, and use loose boards placed in said openings as the bin is filled. I must be tired from shoveling coal.

5 gallon pails of my various brands of anthracite pea coal have weighed between 38 and 42 lbs. per 5 gallon plastic pail. But a 5 gallon plastic pail has about 5.6 gallons of capacity to the brim. Call it 5.5 gallons with a good filling of coal. That makes the various coals I've used (Blaschak, Stockton, and Harmony) weigh between 6.91 lbs. per gallon and 7.64 lbs. per gallon. Average = 7.273 lbs. per gallon.

My first guess would be to deduct about 2 lbs. per pail for Nut, and to add on about 2 lbs. per pail for rice (both vs. pea).

There are 7.4805 gallons in a single cubic foot.
There are 27 cubic feet in a cubic yard. That means there are 202 gallons in a cubic yard. And that means for mid-range pea a cubic yard weighs 1,469 lbs.
And a ton of coal fits into 1-1/3 cubic yards.

I just built a bin for my coal. Based on the 40 cubic feet per ton, my bin should hold a little over six tons. I just pull my trailer up along side of the bin & shovel the coal over the side into it. I put three tons into it yesterday & plan to go get another three tons next Saturday.







There's still a couple things that I want to do with it though. I'm going to put a hinged roof on it & I need to add a latch bolt to hold the coal gate open for shoveling coal out.

Nice job! Only question I have is how are you going to get the door open when the bin is full? Shouldn't the door swing out? Also I would consider a coal chute to make things easier.

coalvet wrote:Nice job! Only question I have is how are you going to get the door open when the bin is full? Shouldn't the door swing out? Also I would consider a coal chute to make things easier.

look to the right of the door,see the handle on the vertical slider? I would guess that is his coal access.

Yup see the handle now

Wow, you could pour cement in that thing and it wouldn't budge.

Nice bin. The door is the weak point though. It can pop open there at the latch with enough coal weight behind it. Two runners, one above and below the latch attached to the 4x4 will cure that problem. If it's not too late, an access slider in the door will save a lot of shoveling later on also.

Lightning wrote:Wow, you could pour cement in that thing and it wouldn't budge.

Lol, that's funny!
I figured that I'd rather have it "over built" than have it bust open spilling my coal all over the place.

I built it with the door swinging in so that it wouldn't be able to swing out. The door frame will stop the door from going any further. It's stronger that way.
You can't see it in the pic's, but the plywood of the door is about 2" wider than the framing that you can see. Plus, there is a door stop strip across the bottom to keep the door from swinging out. When the coal level get's low enough that I want to open the door, I will just reach over the top of the bin & sweep any remaining coal out of the way for the door to swing open. I did consider making two slide gates & will add another one lateer, if it becomes necessary.

If I was going to have the coal delivered by a dump truck, I'd build a chute for it. But, at this time anyway, I'm picking up the coal myself & I don't mind shoveling it. I could use the exercise anyway.... even at 61 years old. Lol