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Re: Coal Bin Design for an EFM

Posted: Mon. Feb. 13, 2017 9:55 am
by coalkirk
OK so if my geometry hasn't failed me this bin will hold 5.5 tons of coal which is just what I need for a season.

Re: Coal Bin Design for an EFM

Posted: Mon. Feb. 13, 2017 10:04 am
by Richard S.
windyhill4.2 wrote:
Seems like the sloped floor is a waste of time,money & space...
If you have a deep enough basement and build a big bin it would be worth it, smaller bin it's just taking up space.

Re: Coal Bin Design for an EFM

Posted: Mon. Feb. 13, 2017 10:13 am
by Richard S.
coalkirk wrote:OK so if my geometry hasn't failed me this bin will hold 5.5 tons of coal which is just what I need for a season.
Terry, wherever the auger is you pretty much draw a 45 degree angle from it all directions like a cone.

The other problem is without the drum that works against you....

I'd suggest trying out the drum, you can always add your angled walls later if it's not satisfactory.

Re: Coal Bin Design for an EFM

Posted: Mon. Feb. 13, 2017 10:52 am
by McGiever
You could add plywood pieces on top of coal after auger has drawn down coal to angle of repose, by adding then, the plywood would not need any support joists under it and you'd still have a couple tons of reserve coal stashed away for an emergency. ;)

Re: Coal Bin Design for an EFM

Posted: Mon. Feb. 13, 2017 2:09 pm
by waldo lemieux
:? What would be the purpose of the plywood at all? If your going to use the space under the plywood for more coal wouldnt you want to leave the plywood out so you don't have to remove it to use your coal?

Re: Coal Bin Design for an EFM

Posted: Mon. Feb. 13, 2017 5:50 pm
by McGiever
waldo lemieux wrote::? What would be the purpose of the plywood at all? If your going to use the space under the plywood for more coal wouldnt you want to leave the plywood out so you don't have to remove it to use your coal?
His desire is a hands off no raking solution.

With the price of only some plywood he gets to start every season w/ a clean bin and keeps from accumulating many, many years worth of siffted fines into the lower untouched reserves. :)

Yes, have your cake and eat it too. ;)

Re: Coal Bin Design for an EFM

Posted: Sat. Apr. 22, 2017 10:16 am
by mooseman100
My bin is appx 8' long, 5' wide and 4 1/2' deep. I sloped the floor on three sides to force coal to the opening of the dog house where the end of the worm sets. I put a guillotine door in the main coal bin directly over end of worm so I can separate coal bin from dog house, in case I need to take worm out and not have to empty bin.
I put linolium flooring on the plywood floor to help with slide, nit sure that made a difference or not, but was cheap.
My wood floors are not 45 degrees in all sides, so I do not get perfect slide to worm. The bin holds 4-4.5 tons, based on grain bags I use to fill it. When I get down to 2 tons I have to rake the coal down towards auger every few days, but is slides down hil easy enough.
I also wanted to have as little messing arou d with it as possible. I fill bin 2x per year
Have been considering a metal grain bin to feed into coal bin. Could hold lot of coal, just need a pto driven conveyor or auger to get coal in

Re: Coal Bin Design for an EFM

Posted: Thu. Oct. 12, 2017 10:39 am
by coalkirk
So I'm reviving this thread. Just tore out my old coal bin and am enlarging it and building it to work with the EFM bin auger. I appreciate all of the previous advice but have decided to build it with sloped sides anyway. Yes it wastes space but I have calculated that it will hold enough coal for a season. Everything is a trade off. I'm giving up capacity for ease of use. I want to handle the coal once when I load the bin and have minimal raking as the bin empties.
I have added the bin auger with schedule 40 black iron pipe. I'm gathering materials for the new bin. Oh and its October 12th and leaves are falling so I'm way behind. Here are some pics to this point.

Not sure what happened to the pics. I added them and included captions but they are AWOL. I'll try later. Gotta Run.

Re: Coal Bin Design for an EFM

Posted: Thu. Oct. 12, 2017 3:53 pm
by Lightning
Are you sticking with the same dimensions as the diagram above? I thought I'd check it for the amount of coal it will hold. I went over it a couple times, maybe the others could check for an error. I come up with 4.8 tons of capacity based on 35.7 cubic feet per ton, which is the figure that Matt from Lehigh gave us for rice.

If you can add a foot in one direction it should give you enough space for another ton.

Re: Coal Bin Design for an EFM

Posted: Sun. Oct. 15, 2017 8:37 am
by coalkirk
Yes the design will be pretty much that design and 4.8 tons is plenty for me for the season. I really want to empty the bin every year anyway.

Re: Coal Bin Design for an EFM

Posted: Sun. Oct. 15, 2017 8:48 pm
by mooseman100
I have a tractor with pallet forks. I store coal in 1.25 ton grain bags on pallets. I have one pallet with a hole in the middle for loading. When i lift it up over top of the bin on the outside, i put a wooden chute i built into the door. I can untie the bottom of the grain bag and it will fall into chute and then raight on into bin. After the first bag i have to shovel some over so there is enough room for the next two bags. I can hold 4 ton in the bin.

I sloped the floor from both sides towards the center. Then i put a triangle, think wedge, piece with flat part across the back and pointy part towards front where auger is. This caused everything to slope toward the auger hole. I put linoleum on the slopes. It did not really work. I am at a 30 degree angle. It was not enough. I am good for first 1.5-2 tons, the i have to rake down every couple of days.

Coal gets delivered to me in a 15 ton coal dump truck. We chute out of truck into the grain bags. I store them on a pallet. I stack 3 side by side and then put a piece of plywood on top and stack 3 more pallets on top.

Brent

Re: Coal Bin Design for an EFM

Posted: Thu. Oct. 19, 2017 8:47 am
by coalkirk
Making some progress. I replaced decking on my deck last year and am using the old 2x6 decking for some of the framing.

Re: Coal Bin Design for an EFM

Posted: Mon. Oct. 23, 2017 7:23 am
by coalkirk
Some more progress. I might be ready for coal in a week or so.
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Re: Coal Bin Design for an EFM

Posted: Tue. Oct. 24, 2017 7:40 pm
by StokerDon
So, I guess this means yer run'in the EFM this year?

-Don

Re: Coal Bin Design for an EFM

Posted: Tue. Oct. 24, 2017 8:31 pm
by coalkirk
Yes, and hopefully for many years to come. Rachel and I decided not to retire and go full time RV'ing. We did buy the RV though.
Our whole family now think we are losing our minds (and maybe we are) but after making lots of plans we both came to the realization that we wanted more permanent roots. So all of our good work installing this boiler won't go to waste after all!
Hope to finish the bin by the first weekend in November then make a coal run to PA.