AA130

Yesterday on the way home from work, I stopped at the hardware store and picked up some nuts and bolts. They didn't have exactly what I was looking for so this is what we ended up with. .
The fan to hub bolts should be 10-32 hex head with an all metal lock nut. They only had 10-32 socket head bolts and Nylock nuts so we went with a normal non-lock nut and lots of Loc-tite. I also got the correct fan plate bolts, 1/4"-20, 2" long.

While we are shut down I decided to go in and fix a couple of things. Number one on the list is the grate rollers. I emptied the fire box and pulled the grate out. I dumped the grate into an ash pan and brushed all the ash off of it. This is a good shot of the ash slicing steps on the grate. There's those pesky grate rollers! The two back ones (closest to us) were easy to get out. The two front ones were fight to get out! The cotter pins were rusted in so I broke the ends off and filed down what was left. That might sound easy but, it's almost impossible to get both of your arms and hands inside of one of these things at the same time.

New grate rollers and the old flattened rollers. Some shots of the inside, rollers removed. For some reason the bottom of the fire box on this boiler is bent. I don't know how this could have happened, it's 1/4" plate steel. I figured I would brush out the swirl chamber while it was open.

It turns out that the outer part of the chamber has this black coating stuck to it, it won't come off. I tried scraping it and BreakKleen on it. It will have to wait for the re-furb so I can get in there and scrub it good. .
Today will be fixing the ash door braket, installing the new grate rollers (with lots of Anti-seize) and putting it back together. -Don

Hello Don,

Do you have a set of pin punches to remove the old cotter pin pieces??

I am not sure but the black material may be as a result of flue gasses pitting of the steel The only way to know for sure is to use a boiler tub brush on a small extension pole. you can buy them from Mcmaster-Carr.

You will not regret using the allen(hex head) bolts. Did you use red or blue loctite to secure the nuts?

Are you talking about the bottom lip of the fire tube being bent? On the side the grate access door is on?

If so it’s probably to help in eliminating fines from passing by the grate and onto the floor in the corner, I noticed mine builds a lot of fines up on the back side there, either my grate is going to far forward, or something just isn’t right.

lzaharis wrote: ↑

Sat. Jun. 23, 2018 10:43 am

Do you have a set of pin punches to remove the old cotter pin pieces??

You need to get 2 hands and arms in there to hold a punch and swing a hammer, not possible. We are going to run it without the cotter pins as I don't think they are needed.

lzaharis wrote: ↑

Sat. Jun. 23, 2018 10:43 am

I am not sure but the black material may be as a result of flue gasses pitting of the steel The only way to know for sure is to use a boiler tub brush on a small extension pole.

I used a brush, then Breakleen and then a screw driver, it's still on there. I think it is fried on oil from the bearing housing. When I re-furb it I should be able to get in there better. Right now it's another one of those things you can't really get to.

lzaharis wrote: ↑

Sat. Jun. 23, 2018 10:43 am

You will not regret using the allen(hex head) bolts. Did you use red or blue loctite to secure the nuts?

The socket head bolts should be fine. I used red Loc-Tite, it may, or may not hold up at 1,000 degrees. It's another thing that will be taken care of during the re-furb.

hotblast1357 wrote: ↑

Sat. Jun. 23, 2018 11:00 am

Are you talking about the bottom lip of the fire tube being bent? On the side the grate access door is on?
If so it’s probably to help in eliminating fines from passing by the grate and onto the floor in the corner, I noticed mine builds a lot of fines up on the back side there, either my grate is going to far forward, or something just isn’t right.

Good point about the fines, but this is a flat spot that is off center and doesn't look intentional. If it is damage, I have no idea how it could have happened being 1/4" plate. Even if the boiler was somehow dropped right on that spot it would have had to be from pretty high up to make that bend.

-Don

I installed the grate rollers and put the grate back in. I loaded the rollers, spindles and grate linkage with lots of anti-seize. The bottom pin in the left side ash door is broken off in the door bracket. I removed the broken piece from the bracket but I have no way to fix the door at the moment. Instead I drilled a hole in the door. then drilled and tapped a matching hole in the base. Now we can bolt the door closed. .
The Breakleen I sprayed in the swirl chamber yesterday seems to have broken down the black coating a bit. I was able to clean some of it up. I put everything back together, then loaded a pile of ash into the fire box. .
A lot of guys on the forum rave about this stuff called "Cowboy Charcoal". I had never seen it for sale anywhere before I moved down here. I picked up a bag on the way home yesterday. I put a little paper, cardboard and a bunch of Cowboy Charcoal into the fire box and torched it up! One setting I decided to change is the ashing speed. I increased it from 2 teeth to 3 teeth. .
I shut down the Van Wert this morning so it is cooled down now. I loaded up the dishwasher and the cloths washer to put a good load on it. We only got about an hour continuous run out of it. Even though the water heater is constantly calling for heat the 130M is more than able to keep up so it hits the HI Limit and takes a break for 5 or 10 minutes.

Here it is after an hour or so. -Don

Bravo Nicely done there SD

Now get out there and wash that truck

McGiever wrote: ↑

Sat. Jun. 23, 2018 8:40 pm

Bravo Nicely done there SD

Now get out there and wash that truck

Sorry, I hit the long, hot shower instead.

We managed to get it to run for about 4 hours, 20 minutes over the last day. Did lots of laundry and dishes. I cleaned out the bin and loaded what was left into the barrel. It's about half way full. We've still got 8 buckets full for next week. Well that's the end of the Pea coal. I called my coal guy yesterday, $185 per ton delivered to my bin for 5 ton or more. It's 190 per ton if you get less than 5 ton.

Current settings are;

LO = 160
HI = 195
DIFF = 10
HI LIMIT = 208
Ashing = 115 and 3 teeth
Timer = 1 minute, 15 seconds every hour.
Pump = 24/7 constant run

The pump is constantly running, pumping through the PEX loop to the basement. .
I have adopted a new strategy with these settings. The thermostat is not connected right now. This leaves the boiler to run on the LO LIMIT to satisfy DHW calls from the water heater. This means that the stoker does not need to run up to the HI LIMIT to satisfy the call.

I am hoping this will minimize the possibility of losing the fire due to the boiler being up against the HI LIMIT.

-Don

StokerDon wrote: ↑

Sun. Jun. 24, 2018 7:14 pm

I have adopted a new strategy with these settings. The thermostat is not connected right now. This leaves the boiler to run on the LO LIMIT to satisfy DHW calls from the water heater. This means that the stoker does not need to run up to the HI LIMIT to satisfy the call.

I am hoping this will minimize the possibility of losing the fire due to the boiler being up against the HI LIMIT.

-Don

I believe this is on the right track! Let's hope it brings success!!!

lsayre wrote: ↑

Sun. Jun. 24, 2018 7:19 pm

I believe this is on the right track! Let's hope it brings success!!!

I believe it is, but we aren't there yet. When I got home from work today the fire was out, again. It didn't push any fresh coal into the ash pan, so that's a plus. I stuffed in a bunch of Cowboy Charcoal and torched it up again. After about an hour. .
So one thing I have noticed all along with this unit is that the fire always seems to be on the high side. Other people have posted that when it's Summer and the boiler short cycles, the fire doesn't come up through the fresh coal. This one almost always does.

This was the case over the past few days too. I think I may have this ashing thing backwards. I was turning the ashing temp down to make it ash more, to lower the fire. Now, I think I should turn the ashing temp up to lower the fire.

I increased the ashing temp to 130 degrees and increased the ashing speed to between 3 and 4 teeth.

We'll see how that goes.

-Don

If all else fails, try different coal.

Rob R. wrote: ↑

Mon. Jun. 25, 2018 7:08 pm

If all else fails, try different coal.

At two junctures in the past this was the answer for me. Both times I endeavored to attempt Stockton coal I had repeated outfires and had to return to Blaschak. I don't even think about outfires with Blaschak.

My Coal Gun manual recommends lowering the ashing temperature during the summer months. I have no idea as to why it offers this advice. I leave mine at one setting year round. Lowering the ashing temperature raises the fire height. But I gave up on expecting to actually see my fire years ago.

I just loaded the hopper and computed our monthly coal usage for June (to date), and it is 13.04 lbs. per day.

The hotter the ash temp sensing, the lower the fire.

New current settings;

LO = 150
HI = 200
DIFF = 10
HI LIMIT = 208
Ashing = 130 and 3-4 teeth
Timer = 1 minute, 15 seconds every hour.
Pump = 24/7 constant run

lsayre wrote: ↑

Mon. Jun. 25, 2018 7:53 pm

Lowering the ashing temperature raises the fire height. But I gave up on expecting to actually see my fire years ago.

That is very interesting. This one is the opposite, you almost always see the fire. This is why I bumped the ashing speed up. I figure that if it's short cycling, you want to get the ashing done while you can.

hotblast1357 wrote: ↑

Mon. Jun. 25, 2018 7:57 pm

The hotter the ash temp sensing, the lower the fire.

Thanks for the confirmation H.B.!

I guess I am headed in the right direction. We'll see if we still have a fire in the morning.

-Don

Try:

Low 170
High 180
High Limit 215
Dump 215

My boilers fan fires off the low and shuts off at 10 degrees above the low. Drifts upward from there to about 200-210 (occasionally hits the dump) and then slowly cools to 170 and fires again.

My boilers internal pressure is in the 12 to 14 PSI (above atmosphere) range.

When it does hit the dump, it dumps to 195 degrees and then the dump zone is again deactivated.

In the winter months, if multiple zones open nigh on simultaneously when my boiler is sitting in the low 170's temperature range, it can be dragged down to below 150 degrees. Therefore at 155 degrees my zone circulator shuts off, and it only turns on again at 160 degrees. This is so we never take a cold shower.

SD has no digital controller so, no digital display and no hysteresis control. And he has a added wild card w/ factoring in "Clicks".
Not saying it would run just fine...but ashing numbers are not easily replicated against different user's different settings.