Axeman Anderson 1959 130M

lsayre wrote: ↑

Mon. Feb. 11, 2019 12:31 pm

Don, have you considered that by cutting your coal feed rate down to 5 lbs. per hour you have reduced your 130,000 BTUH boiler to a 61,250 BTUH boiler?

5 Lbs./Hr. x 12,250 BTU/Lb. = 61,250 BTUH

Larry,

Earlier in this thread I calculated the 61,250BTUH like you did but then took out 10% for shale, rock, bone and 80% boiler efficiency. Total, a Whopping 44,100BTUH!

The 5 pounds per hour has been pretty much verified by weighing the ash and calculating the amount of coal it would take at 18% ash. In cold weather it comes out just about perfect. In warmer weather 20% ash is closer, and that makes sense because more idle time makes the ash heavier making the ash a higher percentage of the coal used.

The amazing thing is that lowering the BTUH of one of these boilers does NOT effect the way the coal is burnt. It just burns less coal but the fire stays the same size.

I've tried this with other stokers and it just doesn't work. I think this has a lot to do with the "hand fired" nature of this type of boiler.

-Don

StokerDon wrote: ↑

Mon. Feb. 11, 2019 5:52 pm

The amazing thing is that lowering the BTUH of one of these boilers does NOT effect the way the coal is burnt. It just burns less coal but the fire stays the same size.

I've tried this with other stokers and it just doesn't work. I think this has a lot to do with the "hand fired" nature of this type of boiler.

One would think that could or would be a great selling feature too...but then, the modifications needed from a stock unit would increase the final cost, and extra cost at the bottom line might make for fewer sales.

Hey Don what kind of outdoor temps do you see?

I live in the tropics too.

-12 here this morning lol

corey wrote: ↑

Mon. Feb. 11, 2019 10:04 pm

Hey Don what kind of outdoor temps do you see?

I live in the tropics too.

Corey,
The average highs this time of year are in the upper 30's, average lows in the mid 20's. We are at a low elevation so when there is a storm, the temperature doesn't move much between daytime high and nighttime low. Today the high was about 35 and tonight's low will be about 30. Currently raining.

-Don

StokerDon wrote: ↑

Tue. Feb. 12, 2019 6:16 pm

Corey,
The average highs this time of year are in the upper 30's, average lows in the mid 20's. We are at a low elevation so when there is a storm, the temperature doesn't move much between daytime high and nighttime low. Today the high was about 35 and tonight's low will be about 30. Currently raining.

-Don

It hit 54 here today 47 right now the wind is really blowing they calling for 30 with chance of snow behind this front with the wind how it is it would not surprise me.

We at 2 thousand feet elevation here.

10 minutes after i posted that we lost power.

Well. I was all set to weigh some ash and do some calculating. It ran for 37.1 hours in 4 days. I looked in the ash pan and after 4 days, it's not very full. We'll let it go at least another day. In other news...

Even though I did get rid of one boiler, in return I got a never used, still mounted on it's original shipping skid, Onan DJB 6.0, 2 cylinder diesel generator. The panel is still strapped down and has never been removed. I don't think the engine was ever fired. This will be a good springtime project.

The result is, the garage is still way to full! -Don

Don,

Great find on the old Onan. I work on emergency generators for a living. While we do not sell onan units the company I work for has a huge inventory for Onan and I do work on them on a regular basis. The company I work for is a Distributor for MTU generators and we go as large as 3.25 MW standalone to multiple units in parallel.

I have access to all of the service books parts books and wiring prints for Onan. If you need and documentation or information do not hesitate to reach out to me.

Attached is a case study for a project where I was the lead commissioning technician for the generators

lprince wrote: ↑

Fri. Feb. 15, 2019 6:41 am

I have access to all of the service books parts books and wiring prints for Onan. If you need and documentation or information do not hesitate to reach out to me.

Thank you for the generous offer Prince! I will PM you when I get started on this project, I will need all the help I can get!

In the mean while, I started a new thread for the Onan over in the "General Interests" forum. I hope to see you all over there.
Diesel Onan Generator DJB-6.0 2Cyl 6KW
Thank you,

-Don

It's been 6 days since we changed the ash pan. 38.5 pounds of ash over six days, not bad! Current settings, no changes.

Anthrastat = 135
Fan RPM = 1725 (Stock is 2875 RPM)
Ashing = 2.5 Teeth
Auger speed = 2.3 RPM (Stock is 8.05 RPM)
6.675 grate cycles per hour, about 5 pounds per hour
Aquastat = 170

The auger motor ran for 50.3 hours over 6 days, 251.5 pounds, 8.38 hours per day, 41.92 pounds per day.

38.5 pounds of ash at 18% is 213.889 pounds, 35.65 pounds per day.

251.5 vs. 213.889 is close to 15% off. I'm not sure what happened here but it is getting confusing keeping track of run time with a clock over several days. I may have made a mistake in adding up the hours.

-Don

The average daily temperature [ (high+low)/2 method] in my area over the past week has been 29 degrees, and I've been going through about 55 lbs. per day over this span. About 4 lbs. per day more than I was calculating for consumption in advance. Perhaps its time for a boiler and flue pipes cleaning.

lsayre wrote: ↑

Sat. Feb. 16, 2019 8:27 pm

Perhaps its time for a boiler and flue pipes cleaning.

We cleaned the stove pipe and chimney a little over a month ago. We haven't even put a ton through it in that time. I'm pretty sure I missed something in the run time hours. We'll see how it comes out in a few days.
In other news;

We have further reduced the speed of the auger. We did this by replacing the 2" motor pulley with the 1.5" pulley, the gearbox is still 6". To keep the grate cycles per hour nearly the same we are now running at 3 ashing teeth. The math works out like this.
The auger was running 2.3 RPM at 2.5 teeth = 6.9 grate cycles per hour.
Now it is running 1.725 RPM at 3 teeth = 6.21 grate cycles per hour.

As it turns out, we were not really running at 2.5 teeth, it was more like 2.2 teeth because of slop in the linkage. This works out to 6.072 grate cycles per hour. Because of this I expect that we did not lower the feed rate by slowing the auger speed. I will be Dip-Sticking it over the next few days just to be sure the fire doesn't shrink.

This evenings Dip-Stick, about 2.5" to 8", 5.5" of fire. I haven't looked in the bin lately. I looked today and it has a very wide, shallow "V" in it. The auger was only about 14" below the bottom of the "V". I shoveled the coal over from the left side. Should be good for at least a few weeks now.

Current settings, changed >.

Anthrastat = 135
Fan RPM = 1725 (Stock is 2875 RPM)
Ashing = 2.5 Teeth
> Auger speed = 1.725 RPM (Stock is 8.05 RPM)
> 6.21 grate cycles per hour, about 5 pounds per hour
Aquastat = 170

-Don

*S.D.*, The big pocket watch...does it clock the fan run time or the auger run time currently?

McGiever wrote: ↑

Sun. Feb. 17, 2019 10:19 pm

*S.D.*, The big pocket watch...does it clock the fan run time or the auger run time currently?

It clocks the auger motor run time. The way we have this set up now the auger motor always runs when the fan motor runs. It pretty much always runs at the edge of satisfying the Anthrastat. This might be one of the keys to good fuel mileage.

-Don