GW #6 magazine update.

That's a great reminder to all of us why we dont force or grates in shake down... If they get stuck figure out why... I'd of never figured such a large stone...

Just an update.

I've been continuing to test a 50/50 mix of nut and stove coal in the #6 mag for the past week. It only hung up that once I mentioned shortly after starting to use a mix. And a few taps with the poker and it dislodged.

And so far, no more stones have shown up in the bagged stove. I'm hoping (praying) that was a one bag anomaly.

Still waiting to hear back from pm to Paulie about his thoughts on making a mag pattern without the taper.

Paul

Keepaeyeonit wrote: ↑

Wed. Oct. 24, 2018 3:23 pm

I got a load of Lehigh stove 2 years ago and I was just as lucky you are had lots of rock!

I had hoped those rocks that I posted pictures of were just that one bag of Lehigh stove size. But,... several bags later,... this one locked the range grates open with this mornings shake and reload. I can only fit about 4-5 pieces on a shovel at a time. So, going in I can see each piece and they all look like good coal at that point.

Couldn't use the poker to move it around and work this one through from below like I did with the others. Just too large at 2-1/2 x 2 inches cross section to fit through the grate bar gaps during rotating them. I had to let the firebed burn down enough that I could rake most of the embers to one end and fish out this bolder from above with poker and BBQ tongs.

Luckily it's not bitter cold weather. There's no way I'm going to risk locking up the GW #6 grates with this stove coal. Even though they are the same size grate bars, the #6 firepot is a whole 'nuther heat beast than the range. It takes at least 24 hours for it to burn out so I can go digging down to grate level. And with the #6 now being my main heat source when it gets really cold,.....

Paul

Yeah, that does appear to be a rock, and not the anthracite type either. Did you crack it with a hammer to see what the interior looked like? In response to your question back a few posts, I haven't had any problems with rocks in the load of Lehigh bulk stove size I had delivered last fall. That's a head scratcher for sure...

I'm getting 4 tons delivered tomorrow, I'll keep an eye for them.

I took it outside and wacked it with a hammer. Definitely hard like stone. It made the hammer ring and only cracked it part way through. I pried it open and was surprised to see some traces of gray-ish black inside.

Paul

Kinda looks like a piece of chert (spelling)... wonder if its contemporary to the seam or contamination???

Chert huh ? That's kinda similar to the word I kept repeating when the grates locked up this morning.

Paul

WOW, sure makes me glad all my contraptions run on nut.

does this seem to be revolving around just the one basic size of lump ? it would be a pain but doable to pour a recharge worth of coal out on a flat surface and reject any of that size and see if you can prove it.

can't imagine doing this for a ton / tons though, best of luck.

steve

Steve,
So far it's the mid to largest sized pieces of the stove size. That would mean picking through and looking at pieces that make up roughly half of each bag. Thing is I've looked at each shovel full as I put it into the stove and I don't see how to tell the difference. It all looks like good shiny coal.

Over the years I've had occasional rocks in the bulk nut - likely picked up off the ground of a coal yard pile by a front end loader. But, I'm usually able to spot them before they get put into the stove because they looked like rocks with coal dust on them. The light rock color shows through. None of the stove has looked like that.

And I haven't checked if the smaller pieces of stove are turning out to be stone-like because those sizes will pass through the gap in the triangular grates when they are rotated daily.

I cleaned out the GW #6 yesterday to get it ready to fire it up again. Luckily, no rocks hiding in it's ash bed.

So, I'll stick to my original plan to just use the stove size in the range during daytime when we want higher cooking/baking temps. At least it's long and shallower firebed makes it easier to dig out jams without having to let the fire completely die out.

Paul

Fired up the #6 again yesterday. Kept track of how much nut size it takes to fill it as I build the firebed from a completely empty and cold start.

My #16 coal scuttles hold, on average, a measured 34-35 lbs of nut when filled to the max.

The 2 gallon paint pails from Lowes hold 17-18 lbs of nut-filled to the max.

I only filled them level to the top instead of max, so 31-32 for the scuttles, and 15-16 for the 2 gal buckets.

Started with a double layer of BBQ charcoal, and by the time the firebed was filled, fully burning, the BBQ charcoal burned up, and the mag topped off, it took two scuttles and one of the 2 gal buckets. That's 77- 80 lbs. My earlier cold tests only got to 75 pounds. But, as the coal is burning I noticed with both stoves that the firebed settles together bit more as the heat breaks some of the coal chunks, and sharp edges and pointy corners are the first to start burning off.

Compared to a standard GW #6 brick-lined firepot that holds 50 pounds without the mag that's more than a 50% increase in coal holding capacity.

The twice a day reloading times are still only taking less than ten minutes from first opening the dampers, rotating the grate bars to grind and dump ash, poke the edges of the firebed down in a few places to break the bridging, shake until I see a slight glow in the ash door damper openings, then being able to reset the dampers and leave it.

Back to the mag taper and it's potential to jam with stove size.
I've been kicking this problem around in my head and I still can't see why Glenwood made that taper to the mag shape. It can't help support the column of coal because the nut size weighs 10% more by volume and moves easily down through the mag. The taper does nothing to restrict it.

The bell shape at the bottom does not flair out much and only brings the diameter back to the same as above the taper. Watching the way the coal flows out onto the firebed the bell shaped bottom does not act like might be thought.

The good news is, I don't see much difference in heat output using all stove size, or a 50-50 mix of stove and nut, or just using all nut size. However, when it comes time to reload, it takes more to refill it when it's been using just stove size than if using just nut size. There being roughly 10% more nut by weight in the same space makes a difference in how long a full load burns.

After 12 hours of only using stove size, the mag would be completely empty and a gap of a couple of inches between the mag bottom edge and the top of the firebed. The firebed level has dropped overall.

With using all nut size, in 12 hours, the firebed is still full up to the bottom edge of the mag. And, sometimes there's still some coal up into the mag.

All for now.

Paul

That rock looks metamorphic (of course it just got roasted) but Anthracite is exposed to alot of high pressure and temps in it's making and I wonder if this may be a native rock from the seam?????

I wondering is it's rock-like coal that didn't get floated out at the breaker for the stove coal size processing ? I've gone though a dozen bags of the Lehigh nut, by now, and not found anything like these rocks.

Paul

I will say one thing for this GW #6 with a magazine,...

Every time the weather has turned cold and I start it up, not long after it warms up outside, so I let it go out. Then next cold snap, start 'er up again and bingo, it gets warm outside again,...

Oh boy, this thing can really throw off heat !!! And William now has his #6 back on line, too. Base heater global warming ?

Paul