Auger/Gravity Coal Bin

I goofed up. Please see the reply below.

mdrelyea wrote:This is the best coal bin I've ever seen!

What was the reason for not putting a pitch (43*?) on the floor of the bin so that you don't have to hop in when it's getting low? Clearly you put a lot of thought in to this so you probably had a reason.

Hi, Thanks for looking at my post. First I would like to thank everyone for all the nice comments on my coal bin. You asked “What was the reason for not putting a pitch (43*?) on the floor”. Everyone told me I would need 3 to 4 tons of coal. I think I felt that aesthetically a 4x4x12’ coal bin would look the best. I ran the math and given ~42 cu.ft/ton, it would hold 5 tons, perfect. I thought of angled floor but If I was to put those two 45 deg pitches on the bottom I would lose over one ton of capacity. Also, there was a height limitation because of the height limitations of the truck (he said 10’ max). And, it had to be so high off the ground, given that the bin is 2’ away from the house, the auger had to be 3’ off the ground so that I could obtain the 45 deg angle needed to slide into the top of the hopper of the stove. So, to stay with my initial dimensions I decided to go with the flat floor. I thought that I was still ahead of the game if all I have to do is hop in there for a few minutes sometime in the spring. Given that I use about 2 buckets of coal a day and empty one ash pan every other day I figure I knocked off 80% of the work. I hope that answered your question. Thanks again everyone.

You were smart going with a flat floor for reserve capacity.

Beautiful job. I sent the video link to my brother-inlaw in case he wanted to use the idea to feed his new Hitzer stoker.

Remember, no one can call us lazy when we do such ambitious projects to be lazy!

That answers the question. I was sure you had a reason!

That is awesome. Now how about designing a system for us that does dustless removal of the ashes?

In a word WOW! Very nice job indeed.

That is a really nice setup, do you get much dust inside when your filling your hopper?

xandrew245x wrote:That is a really nice setup, do you get much dust inside when your filling your hopper?

Thanks for looking at my post. No, there is no dust. I fashioned a lid covering the top of the stove's hopper.

Jim, How fast does the auger turn? Do I need to reduce the RPM?

Hi, I think the auger was designed to run at 450 rpm. It came with a 7” pulley on the auger and they suggested a 2” pulley for the motor. I put a 1 ¾” pulley on the motor. To be honest I thought that 450 rpm would be way too fast. However, that speed seems perfect. Holding the switch for about 6 seconds drops 25# of rice down the pipe. My only thought I would like to pass along is that I am not sure that that rpm would work in the horizontal position if the auger was just lying in a trough. I think the motor would have a hard time starting with all that weight on it. So far, the Auger Assisted Gravity Fed coal bin system works great !! No problems. My stove is maxed out right now because of how cold it is outside but I love the thing. COAL IS COOL !! Thanks for looking at my post. Jim

Its nice to see a well planned project perform over its expectations..
Good work partner!!!

Jim, great job and work. Love how it blends with the house. Thats on my list to come up with some sort of bin with auger system. You are right coal is cool. 70 in house watching my neighbor getting oil delivered. I can see the tears in is eyes from here.

Very nice!!!

What is the minimum pitch to insure a coal flow?

Hi. The minimum pitch on the 4" PVC going into my basement is 43 deg. I did not really research the minimum pitch but I did test it a little. I spent about 1/2 hour testing and I felt I wanted nothing less than 40 deg. My advice would be figure 45 deg ALL THE WAY. That is to include any elbows. Make sure that everything is going 45 deg. Thanks for looking at my posts. Coal is cool !! Jim