Saving history...one antique stove at a time

William once told me he made a 2/3's revolution turn ( to end with a new flat up ) on each grate pair toward the inside of the pot then, just wiggled the handle inside a 45* arch for just enough to see the first ember then quit.

Sunny Boy will surely be along shortly to give the fine points of his grate practice to great advantage.

Tom , the 116 came out amazing. That shine looks incredible. As far as shaking goes , short choppy strokes back and forth. Sometimes the bottom of the fire pit will ash over and bridge. Just grab a straight point poker and push through the fire bed till you hit the grates. Then shake. I’ve always heard not to push the coal down from above because it would create large clinkers. Great job !

I did a write-up for Wren on how to use the triangular grates (Glenwood's term) both in her 116 and her range. The grate teeth are the same size, the technique varies a little because of the differences in firebox and firepot size

Here's a cut and paste from her 116 thread,... Glenwood 116 to Help Out Little Tiget
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
That's a lot of fused iron ash.

Here's some things to try if your not already doing them (or anyone else reading this).

Do you rotate the grates at least once every day ? If not, you should to help avoid getting large, grate-clogging clinkers like that one.

I find that the range only needs 1/3 turn in the morning to clear ash and grind up and dump a days worth of any clinkers before they get too hard for the grates to handle. If I'm away all day and let the range go for a long burn between tendings, I'll do another 1/3 rotation when I do tend the stove when I get home.

With the deeper firebed of the #6 (about the same as your 116), it has a much deeper bed of ash after an all night burn. For that, I do one and one third rotations every morning. And again if I don't tend it until evening. Unlike the range, the #6 will bridge the firebed. After I rotate the grates I use the right-angle tipped poker and gently push down between the firebed and the firebricks to collapse the bridging. I try to never push in the middle because the firebed is always hotter there and that can help push the burning coal - which soft and close to fusion temperatures - into forming clinkers.

By never rotating the grate just one turn, that way I'm not using the same grate surface two days in a row. That's to even out the wear and heat stress on the grates and prevent warping.

Then I shake the grates until see I the pan area start to get an even orange glow.

But, lets back up here.
Before I do anything with the grates, I open all the dampers to let the fire increase in strength and build up a "heat bank" in the chimney to increase the draft strength so that it won't drop too much and stall the fire when I open the stove and let in cold air and coal.

So, first thing, open all the dampers and let the fire build up and heat the chimney while you go feed the critters.

While the critters are eating, put a few shovels full of coal one layer deep and spread evenly on top of the firebed. Let that get burning well, while you make a cup of tea or coffee.
And, don't leave the loading door, or range top lids, open while you refill the shovel. Put the coal in and immediately close them. Cold room air is bad for the stove being able to maintain a healthy draft to hasten recovery.

When that coal is burning well, then you can deal with the ashes.

BTW. The ashes in the firebed retain quite a bit of heat. By waiting until you get some fresh coal burning, that ash heat helps feed the draft needed to get some coal burning sooner. If you shake ashes before getting fresh coal going there'd be less heat to feed the draft, it will slow the draft and make it take longer to get coal burning,... even though some people think they need to clear the ashes to get coal going sooner.

When the ashes are done, the firebed should have a healthy first layer of coal burning. Then you can top off the fire bed with additional layers of coal. Don't get in a hurry and pile the coal on. That has the opposite affect of what you want. A lot of cold coal put in quickly will stall the fire and actually make refueling take much longer, not less time.

If you don't do it in that order then, with both the range and the 116, it will take longer to get the stove to recover after refueling and shaking ash.

Paul

Thanks for compliments and info

I just tended the stove after a 12 hour burn, much better experience. The pot dropped only a few inches with it burning about 325 all night. I turned the grates 1/3 turn then shook them with short choppy strokes as suggested. I got a few hot embers in the pan and felt the tension of fresh coal drop to the grate so I stopped.

Although quite early in comparison, these grates are clean and easy to operate!

That’s how to do it, with my bb and these temps I only tended every 18 hours or so but it is also wayyyyyy over kill for my house too so even below 0 I never had to run it over 400

tcalo wrote: ↑

Sun. Mar. 24, 2019 10:03 am

I just tended the stove after a 12 hour burn, much better experience. The pot dropped only a few inches with it burning about 325 all night. I turned the grates 1/3 turn then shook them with short choppy strokes as suggested. I got a few hot embers in the pan and felt the tension of fresh coal drop to the grate so I stopped.

Although quite early in comparison, these grates are clean and easy to operate!

A very good start ! And as your finding they are easy. That's why triangular grates appear in so many later stoves ranges, water heaters, and furnaces, boilers,....

At that low of a temp range your not likely to have it bridge, or form much, if any, clinkers. However, in the colder weather (and depending on the quality of coal), if you need to run it hotter, you'll likely get more bridging and a deeper bed of ash after a long hot burn cycle.

If it gets to that, don't be afraid to rotate the grates more than 1/3 turn. That way you'll know for sure that you've ground up and dumped all the clinkers. If you don't get it all, whatever clinker-like ash is left on the grates will fuse with new hot ash, just get bigger, and may become big enough and hard enough to be a problem.

You'll feel the grates lose all resistance to turning when they have cleared all that crumbly stuff. Then leave them on a different face up than you started with, poke around the edges of the firebed to drop it, then do the shaking.

My #6 is basically the same size pot and grates as you 116. I find that after a night of barrel temps in the mid to high 400F, the grates need at least a full 360 turn to clear all the non-bridged clinker-like ash in the bottom of the ash bed. I does that with my bulk nut, and also Lehigh bagged nut and stove. Then I give the grates another 1/3 turn to expose a fresh face.

If you never have to run it that hot, then the 1/3 or 2/3 turn will likely be all you ever need.

With that wide firepot, I recommend you don't push down the bridge in the middle - for two reasons.

First is that the center of the firebed is always hotter and closest to fusion temps in these non-suspended pot stoves . Pushing in the middle raises the chances of pushing hot ash into clinker clumps.

Second is, unlike your C40, the edge of the firepot burns up and loses more heat than your used to. There will be a higher concentration of ash clinging to the liner at the edges of the pot. Especially if you ever use a magazine in that stove. That edge ring of ash will not shake down as well as the ash in the rest of the firebed. If you don't push that outer ring of ash down then quite a bit clings to the liner during shaking and you don't get as much fresh fuel in on top of the entire firebed. So you get a mix of fresh fuel and ash around the outer area of the firebed and even with a full pot, the heat volume drops off.

Paul

About 30 hours into using this stove and I love it. Compared to a suspended pot these grates are clean! Everything stays in the stove. With my suspended pot stoves there was always ash that accumulated on top of the slide grate. It made a mess when the slide grate was pulled out. Then there’s that clinker door...although handy for digging around it caused ash to fall out. Don’t get me wrong, I love both stoves. Each shine in their own way. I’ll save that comparison for a future post when I’m a bit more salty with the Oak.

I just tended it for the night after a 13 hour burn. The weather was mild today so I had her buttoned up tight just idling along. I wasn’t sure how low these’s Oaks would idle and didn’t want it to go out so I cracked one of the primary dials slightly to feed it a bit. I checked the barrel temp after work tonight and it was ~130 and pulling -.02. Now that ain’t bad!!! I opened up the mpd and both primaries and it sprung back to life. Simply amazing! I think it’s a keeper. So it looks like my summer project will be to get a hold of Paulie for a recast magazine and hunt down the parts for an indirect rear pipe.

I believe I know why my first tending was a flop. I think it was a mix of it being too early in the burn cycle and too great an angle while shaking. There wasn’t really an ash bed built up yet. Some of the coal jammed the grates open while shaking. This allowed a decent amount of good coal to fall through the gap before I can get the grate back to position. With the longer stretches between tendings and less agressive shaking it’s been flawless.

Overall...very impressed and pleased.

Good news Tom

I'd bet Skip has a complete back pipe set up stashed in a corner with your name on it and if we get lucky Paulie won't be working 200 hrs a week plus roaming the earth snatching up every stove not bolted down AND restoring stoves at record pace AND finishing off his green house AND hosting vagabonds from the fly over zone

I'm telling ya the man sleeps on the toilet if that

Triangular grates,.... to know them is to love them.

Paul

Sunny Boy wrote: ↑

Mon. Mar. 25, 2019 1:20 pm

Triangular grates,.... to know them is to love them.

Paul

Meh....

scalabro wrote: ↑

Mon. Mar. 25, 2019 5:45 pm

Meh....

I feel the same way about fuel injection.

D.lapan wrote: ↑

Mon. Mar. 25, 2019 6:08 pm

I feel the same way about fuel injection.

Haha

D.lapan wrote: ↑

Mon. Mar. 25, 2019 6:08 pm

I feel the same way about fuel injection.

LOL my feelings exactly