Coal Bin Pictures and Designs

Tugcap, that makes perfect sense You bin looks sweet! Scott

I went with a portable coal bin for my garage, it holds 36 cubic feet, I'm hoping it has a capacity for at least a month. It was made from scrap metal, with the exception of the tin and the wheels. Junior welded it up for me. I lower it to fill with the tractor and to get in the garage door, then raise it with a long stroke (20") bottle jack to the proper feeding height. The lower cross bars were located for tilting with the short jack for flow, as the coal gets lower in the bin. Man that thing rolls hard, will have to put a cheap ATV winch on it when the boy goes off to college next year.

With all the time and labor saved by this brute, I say, like the the late croc hunter Steve Erwin used to say when looking at an ugly alligator, "shes a beauty!"

I think, it's pretty clever! The lift on the bucket was probably OK, before the addition of the casters. I believe, maybe a little diagonal bracing would be good to keep it from getting wracked, while moving it. Good job!

Yeah I thought about the cross bracing but it would be in the way of the center line jacking unless it was off center. The steel is ASTM 572 grade 50 so it's 50k tensile rather than mild steel 36k, it's high strength stuff. I was worried the sliding removable supports for the raised position might bend (they are 3/8 x 2-1/2) but it was not a problem

Some gussets in the corners or short diagonals might be all that it needed. The other thing, the ones, which might be in the way, could be removable via a quick detach method.

My other concern was weight, I think the beast must weigh close to 500 pounds, each wheel is rated at 600 pounds so I am near the limit when loaded

LsFarm wrote:

coalmeister wrote:"I'm gone typically 15-18 days per month, on the road, so I'd have a pretty narrow window for retail sales.."

Greg, What road would that be? The Jeppesen highway?

Yep, tonight from JFK was Radar vectors to DKK, FNT, BAE, ONL, DVV, ILC, then the Manteca arrival into Oakland Commiefornia Took 5:40 flight time, taxi time and flight added up to 6:25. 143 customers and two dogs..

Greg L

How is the passenger load holding up? Are the airlines in meltdown like everything else?

I just completed my coal bin this morning, in advance of 5 tons of nut being delivered November 28. The entry panels slide up and out, and this also permits adjustment of the size of the opening at the bottom from which I'll shovel coal into 5 gal buckets. Should be about 5-6 shovelfuls per day—no big deal--although kudos to all here for their gravity-based dispensing bins. This bin challenged (and may have beaten) my construction abilities already. For example, the studs are placed crosswise rather than on end against the joists. I did this partly out of ignorance and partly because I needed to have enough area to tack two separate sheets of board. I guess in this case it would have been better to put two studs back to back, but in the usual (stronger) orientation. The sheets are ¾ inch sub-flooring material, not plywood. The Home Depot guy thought it would work fine, and the lack of warp as well as the grooved contacts between sheets made it easy to work with and everything lined up well. It's pretty hefty stuff and I'm hoping it will hold up as well as plywood. The price was significantly less than plywood.

The bin is 95 inches long X 81 inches wide X 77 inches high which, at 40 cu ft per ton of coal , works out to about 8.5 tons.

I put Dry-Lok masonry paint on the floor and block wall, and used 5/8 inch concrete anchors for the bottom-most piece of lumber that forms the base of the walls (what's the term for that?). Those 4 or 5 inch holes of 5/8 inch diameter weren't fun to do in concrete, until I replaced my old, cheap Black & Decker with a Milwaukee hammer drill, which is my new best friend--like stepping out of a Yugo and into a modern car. It also made short work of a few pennies I used to make washers for the tracks--I had no washers small enough in internal diameter to accomodate the screws. So, when someone asks how much money I put into this project, I can say 8 cents.

The window will be accessible to the delivery truck, and there is enough room from outside the bin to place a ladder and re-install the window (single lever keeps it in place) after delivery.

Looks nice. I've got two pieces of advice for you though before your coal is delivered. With your studs turned flat on the outer walls, they will bow significantly. I'd recommend going back and adding studs turned on their short edge. Nail them to the side of the flat stud for extra rigidity. Also, add a coal corral at the area where you are going to shovel the coal or it will go all over the floor.

Thanks Coalkirk for the comments and good advice. It'll be a little easier to add those extra studs now rather than later, after delivery! Your corral looks more than a little helpful--I'll do it.

My studs are on edge and still are bowing. The next time my bin is empty, I'm going to double them.

I love the "Lincoln" washers there.

Coalkirk has given some good advice on the studs. I would take his advice. Even with the extra studs on edge you may want to add a couple of ratchet straps or a cable around the outside of the bin and hook the ends together on the block wall side to help hold everything from bowing out. They are cheap and easy to install.

One other thing worth mentioning. I don't know how your bottom plate is secured to the floor but old timers used to drive a steel spike or piece of rebar type material on the outside of the bottom plate to keep it from kicking out. A few of those couldn't hurt either.

Caolkirk--

I don't know how your bottom plate is secured to the floor but old timers used to drive a steel spike or piece of rebar type material on the outside of the bottom plate to keep it from kicking out. A few of those couldn't hurt either.

The bottom piece of lumber is secured to the floor with 5/8 inch concrete anchors. You may mean the bottom plate of each stud. If so, these are secured with screws into the bottom piece of lumber that lies along the floor. These may be my newest weak point . I'm going for the lumber now for reinforcement. I'll look to see what I can do to support the bottom plate holding each stud in place.

Thanks.