Experimental Coal Vac

Thank's Dan, That is good info for calculating the increase in volume when switching to a larger diameter pipe. This is actualy something I was thinking about doing, but, I couldn't find PVC in anything larger than 4". One of the problems with doing this though, adding the adapters to get to the larger diameter will make the vertical section higher than my celing. I do have another idea along this front, hopefuly I will get around to it sometime.

Coal Vac V6;

I was thinking about Paulie's setup. He is using 1 1/2" pipe to suck coal out of the bin. That makes sense, smaller diameter pipe with the same force aplied to it will have more suction. So, I put a 2" to 1 1/2" reducer and a short piece of 1 1/2" pipe on the end of my suction pipe after the snorkle. This did not work at all. I think it doesn't work because the pipe needs to be the same diameter all the way up until the coal starts heading down. I have more 1 1/2" pipe, so I will make the whole run that size at some point to see what happens.
I also changed this
To this.
So now the shop vac's are "Y"ed together neatly. The 4" corigated drain pipe had been removed. I needed to get the shop vacs closer to the "Y" so I bolted an old coffee table to the side of the coal bin to set them on.
I also moved the 4" to 2" "Y" up as far as I could to allow a little more capacity. When I had it apart, I had to clean out a bit of coal in the "T" that is clamped to the celling.
This is working well. I put about 30 pounds in it tonight.

-Don

coalkirk ... can you give more details on your setup? would love to hear and/or see more of how it works.

Having a problem getting the video to upload. But here's the setup. I'm using a leaf vacuum system with a 6" hose to create vacuum in a 55 gallon drum. A 4" pipe comes off of the drum to suck up the coal. The drum holds about 400 # of coal and loads in about 3-4 minutes. The drum is sitting in the back of a cart which I then move to the coal bin, lift up in the air with an electric hoist and drain via gravity. I'll try to get the video to work when I have more time. I unloaded 7,000# of rice with this system.

Maybe you could upload it to YouTube and then just post the link..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX0SQJV7dnI&feature=youtu.be

OK that worked.

I don't have video of the second half of the operation but here's a still. A hoist picks up the drum, I open a blast gate at the bottom of the drum and the coal falls into a 4" pipe to the bin. It was not possible to get enough fall on this pipe so I use a backpack blower to push it through the pipe. It's a Rube Goldberg for sure.

That thing picks up coal effortlessly!!!

Nice!!!

-Don

StokerDon wrote:That thing picks up coal effortlessly!!!

Nice!!!

-Don

I sent you this video a week ago via a text message. Maybe it didn't go through.

Sorry I missed that coalkirk, but I don't do the text thing. I have a hard enough time typing on a big keyboard!

-Don

StokerDon wrote:Sorry I missed that coalkirk, but I don't do the text thing. I have a hard enough time typing on a big keyboard!

-Don

Oh OK. Well that explains that. I'm already working on changing this system to try and vacuum it right into the bin. Problem is its a pretty good distance from where I can get my trailer and the opening to the coal bin.

Very nice setup! What is the closest you can get your trailer to the coal bin?
Do you have any idea what the cfm rating is on your vac?

Paul

The image is what I would suggest for the coal pickup. The small green coal hole prevents plugging the pipe. Smooth elbows make the air flow in better.

Regards,
404

Pauliewog wrote:Very nice setup! What is the closest you can get your trailer to the coal bin?
Do you have any idea what the cfm rating is on your vac?

Paul

About 40' is the closest I can get the trailer to the coal bin. Not sure of the CFM of the leaf vac. I'll have to do some checking.

coalkirk wrote:

Pauliewog wrote:Very nice setup! What is the closest you can get your trailer to the coal bin?
Do you have any idea what the cfm rating is on your vac?

Paul

About 40' is the closest I can get the trailer to the coal bin. Not sure of the CFM of the leaf vac. I'll have to do some checking.

After viewing your video, I really think with a few modifications you can vac from your trailer up to your suspended drum and right into your bin.

With a single 6 hp craftsman shop vac rated about 170 cfm , Im able to lift rice coal 8' vertical and 30' horizontal thru a 1-1/2" pipe into my drum.

Your vac looks like it could suck the.brass plating off a door knob !

I would try the following:
1 Set up your drum exactly as you have it in the still picture, suspended outside the bin.

2. Run your 4" hose to your vac the same as you currently do.

3 Instead of the 4" intake I would use a 4" to 2" fernco reducer right near the top of the drum and into a 2" 90 degree long radius pvc conduit sweep followed by 2 - 45 degree sweeps and 40 ' of straight pvc conduit to your trailer or to a five gallon bucket of coal for testing purposes.

4. At the end of the intake I would install an air snorkel ( I posted a pic of mine earlier in the post)
Or a setup like 404 just posted above.

Im guessing your vac is closer to 500 cfm and if so Ill bet 404's version would work better. I would probably go with a 1" intake hole in that case.

Keep us posted !!!
Paul

There must be an optimal diameter of pick up tube. (I do not mean the green hole in the dwg.) Too big and the vac does not have the cfm to maintain an air velocity that moves coal. Too small and the coal jams. Smaller vacs need to use smaller tube. Ultimately a regular canister vac used to vac rugs might be enough.

An experiment of vac-ing coal off the surface of a pile would show what the small size limit is.

Less corrugated hose and more smooth pvc pipe with big radius bends makes more flow.

Does anyone have the vac set up outside the house? That way any dust blows outside and there is no need for a vac filter, just use a screen to keep wasps out.

Regards,
404

I intend to get another 3 tons of coal sometime between Christmas and New Years. Oh crap! It just occurred to me they may shut down for the holidays. Oh well, I've got lots of time to look into that.

I'm going to try your suggestions. I was thinking on my snorkel I might install a ball valve so I can adjust it for optimum performance. So the snorkel is to allow some air to get behind the coal as it travels through the pipe? I'm going to need to lift the coal as it travels from the trailer in the driveway to the drum. Is it better to lift it right away or gradually to the drum? I'm thinking lift right away and have a slight fall to the long pipe to the drum.

I guess it will take longer to load the drum using a 2" pipe but I won't have the travel or the drum rigging to setup and undo every trip like now. Should be quicker overall.

My next project is to try and automate somewhat the ash removal. I'd like to be able to use vacuum to load a plastic bag lined can on the exterior.