Happy for you. Mine always looks like wet glass, boy does it barely put out any ash!BunkerdCaddis wrote: ↑Sun. Nov. 13, 2022 10:15 pmGot a load of Sherman stove coal delivered by member Idlorah BPUQ9991.JPG
The Bairmatic - Van Wert Project Boiler Saga Continues
- Retro_Origin
- Member
- Posts: 914
- Joined: Sun. Feb. 21, 2021 7:46 pm
- Location: Schuylkill county
- Stoker Coal Boiler: 1957 Axeman Anderson 130
- Coal Size/Type: Buckwheat / Pea
- Idlorah
- Member
- Posts: 520
- Joined: Wed. Nov. 18, 2020 6:31 pm
- Location: New Ringgold, PA
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Allen 700 stoker
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Gibralter MCC
- Coal Size/Type: Buck in the Allen and anything goes in the MCC, Anthracite
- Other Heating: None, maybe some wood in the MCC in the shoulder season
I have noticed that about the sherman to, i was usually about and ash pan every 3 days in my stoker I can go about a week and a half with the sherman coal.Retro_Origin wrote: ↑Mon. Nov. 14, 2022 8:29 pmHappy for you. Mine always looks like wet glass, boy does it barely put out any ash!
- BunkerdCaddis
- Member
- Posts: 708
- Joined: Sun. Jan. 18, 2015 10:26 am
- Location: SW Lancaster County
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Bairmatic-Van Wert
- Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Van Wert VW85H
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Saey Hanover II working when I feel the desire, Waterford 105 out on vacation, Surdiac Gotha hiding somewhere
- Coal Size/Type: pea/nut/rice/stove-anthracite, nut/stove bit when I feel the urge
- Other Heating: oil fired hydronic
Behind on posting the progress again but here we are, have had the hand-fired running about 2 weeks doing some fine tuning and getting used to the needs of a coal boiler.
But the VW VW85H and I got along fine after a bit as I learned her needs and limitations. I did fire up the Saey on the Sunday we had the hi of 35* but by Monday I was letting it burn out as I just didn't need all the heat.
One thing I learned pretty quick was coal boilers don't like reset thermostats, especially hand-fired units But the VW VW85H and I got along fine after a bit as I learned her needs and limitations. I did fire up the Saey on the Sunday we had the hi of 35* but by Monday I was letting it burn out as I just didn't need all the heat.
- BunkerdCaddis
- Member
- Posts: 708
- Joined: Sun. Jan. 18, 2015 10:26 am
- Location: SW Lancaster County
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Bairmatic-Van Wert
- Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Van Wert VW85H
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Saey Hanover II working when I feel the desire, Waterford 105 out on vacation, Surdiac Gotha hiding somewhere
- Coal Size/Type: pea/nut/rice/stove-anthracite, nut/stove bit when I feel the urge
- Other Heating: oil fired hydronic
Meanwhile I turned my attention this past week to the Bairmatic.
Got the Stove Pipe all painted inside and fixed in place. Starting out with a 3" pulley on the motor and a 31/2" pulley on the transmission to see how it goes. I used Nepacoal's idea for a timer and got one of the GRT8-S2 Mini Asymmetric Cycle Timers through Wallymart along with the din connectors. After some conversation with other forum members, I decided to add a RIB to ease the load on the Hydrostat relay. Had an old Honeywell box so I put everything in that. Not sure I did everything by the book but it does what I expected it to do.
Got the Stove Pipe all painted inside and fixed in place. Starting out with a 3" pulley on the motor and a 31/2" pulley on the transmission to see how it goes. I used Nepacoal's idea for a timer and got one of the GRT8-S2 Mini Asymmetric Cycle Timers through Wallymart along with the din connectors. After some conversation with other forum members, I decided to add a RIB to ease the load on the Hydrostat relay. Had an old Honeywell box so I put everything in that. Not sure I did everything by the book but it does what I expected it to do.
- BunkerdCaddis
- Member
- Posts: 708
- Joined: Sun. Jan. 18, 2015 10:26 am
- Location: SW Lancaster County
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Bairmatic-Van Wert
- Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Van Wert VW85H
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Saey Hanover II working when I feel the desire, Waterford 105 out on vacation, Surdiac Gotha hiding somewhere
- Coal Size/Type: pea/nut/rice/stove-anthracite, nut/stove bit when I feel the urge
- Other Heating: oil fired hydronic
For now I'm going to use a barrel inside to be the hopper for the coal. StokerDon was by to check things out and suggested I put the barrel up on a platform, so I did.
Cut out in Bottom of Barrel.
Forgive the romex I didn't have any multi conductor MC cable to go from the stat over to the timer box.
- BunkerdCaddis
- Member
- Posts: 708
- Joined: Sun. Jan. 18, 2015 10:26 am
- Location: SW Lancaster County
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Bairmatic-Van Wert
- Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Van Wert VW85H
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Saey Hanover II working when I feel the desire, Waterford 105 out on vacation, Surdiac Gotha hiding somewhere
- Coal Size/Type: pea/nut/rice/stove-anthracite, nut/stove bit when I feel the urge
- Other Heating: oil fired hydronic
Ran the motor till I had some coal in the bottom of the pot, put some split up pieces of left over 2x8 on top of some newspaper and lit it off...
Turned the motor on...
Then added some coal on top
Houston We have Ignition.
- BunkerdCaddis
- Member
- Posts: 708
- Joined: Sun. Jan. 18, 2015 10:26 am
- Location: SW Lancaster County
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Bairmatic-Van Wert
- Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Van Wert VW85H
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Saey Hanover II working when I feel the desire, Waterford 105 out on vacation, Surdiac Gotha hiding somewhere
- Coal Size/Type: pea/nut/rice/stove-anthracite, nut/stove bit when I feel the urge
- Other Heating: oil fired hydronic
- Idlorah
- Member
- Posts: 520
- Joined: Wed. Nov. 18, 2020 6:31 pm
- Location: New Ringgold, PA
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Allen 700 stoker
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Gibralter MCC
- Coal Size/Type: Buck in the Allen and anything goes in the MCC, Anthracite
- Other Heating: None, maybe some wood in the MCC in the shoulder season
Congrats on getting the stoker going, very nice looking install as well. I need to build one of those timers for my Allen one day because the Honeywell timer I have will quit one day again I did just replace it a year and a half a go with a used one anyway. The only difference with my Honeywell timer is it is a timer and the thermostat and aqua stat for the hot water both go into the timer box on mine. My honey well box is a model 883? if I remember correctly basically it is the brains of my entire stoker. And HVAC wiring is definitely not my forte.
- Rob R.
- Site Moderator
- Posts: 17980
- Joined: Fri. Dec. 28, 2007 4:26 pm
- Location: Chazy, NY
- Stoker Coal Boiler: EFM 520
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Chubby Jr
1" of foil faced foam with taped seams makes a huge difference in heat loss from the pressure vessel.BunkerdCaddis wrote: ↑Mon. Nov. 28, 2022 10:58 pmJust a hanger for the time being, I want to insulate it and make a jacket for it, I guess I could have found a piece of diamond plate...
Your fire looks good. Let it run for a few days and give that boiler a quick brushing. When they sit for a while and then get fired up again, stuff tends to peel off the heat exchanger.
- BunkerdCaddis
- Member
- Posts: 708
- Joined: Sun. Jan. 18, 2015 10:26 am
- Location: SW Lancaster County
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Bairmatic-Van Wert
- Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Van Wert VW85H
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Saey Hanover II working when I feel the desire, Waterford 105 out on vacation, Surdiac Gotha hiding somewhere
- Coal Size/Type: pea/nut/rice/stove-anthracite, nut/stove bit when I feel the urge
- Other Heating: oil fired hydronic
Yeah, it's like 89* in the room not that I mind it but... that's what I'm looking at doing.
Yes, i have noticed the strips coming off, I'll do that this weekend hopefully. I did bump the air up as the fire started to creep out to the edge more, it's kinda hard to tell what's dark chunks and what's not completely burnt coal.
- BunkerdCaddis
- Member
- Posts: 708
- Joined: Sun. Jan. 18, 2015 10:26 am
- Location: SW Lancaster County
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Bairmatic-Van Wert
- Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Van Wert VW85H
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Saey Hanover II working when I feel the desire, Waterford 105 out on vacation, Surdiac Gotha hiding somewhere
- Coal Size/Type: pea/nut/rice/stove-anthracite, nut/stove bit when I feel the urge
- Other Heating: oil fired hydronic
Thanks, I had never seen the din connectors before so that was a bit to figure out, they are nice to work with and the timer is not too difficult to grasp once you figure it out as well.Idlorah wrote: ↑Tue. Nov. 29, 2022 4:02 pmCongrats on getting the stoker going, very nice looking install as well. I need to build one of those timers for my Allen one day because the Honeywell timer I have will quit one day again I did just replace it a year and a half a go with a used one anyway. The only difference with my Honeywell timer is it is a timer and the thermostat and aqua stat for the hot water both go into the timer box on mine. My honey well box is a model 883? if I remember correctly basically it is the brains of my entire stoker. And HVAC wiring is definitely not my forte.
- Idlorah
- Member
- Posts: 520
- Joined: Wed. Nov. 18, 2020 6:31 pm
- Location: New Ringgold, PA
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Allen 700 stoker
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Gibralter MCC
- Coal Size/Type: Buck in the Allen and anything goes in the MCC, Anthracite
- Other Heating: None, maybe some wood in the MCC in the shoulder season
I guess my main hurdle for building a timer for mine is the box I have now contains the timer and the contactors powered by the thermostat and the aquastat. the contactors are connected to all 3 items. (timer, thermostat, and the aquastat) so when I build a timer I need to wire it that way as well. i would need some kind of switch or contactor the could be switched on by 24v? I believe that is what thermostats and aquastats run on. and wire the timer into that switch as well.BunkerdCaddis wrote: ↑Tue. Nov. 29, 2022 6:13 pmThanks, I had never seen the din connectors before so that was a bit to figure out, they are nice to work with and the timer is not too difficult to grasp once you figure it out as well.
- Idlorah
- Member
- Posts: 520
- Joined: Wed. Nov. 18, 2020 6:31 pm
- Location: New Ringgold, PA
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Allen 700 stoker
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Gibralter MCC
- Coal Size/Type: Buck in the Allen and anything goes in the MCC, Anthracite
- Other Heating: None, maybe some wood in the MCC in the shoulder season
This is an old post of mine but shows how the honeywell 883 is set up.
"HELP" Honeywell 883 timer replacement needed!
"HELP" Honeywell 883 timer replacement needed!
- StokerDon
- Site Moderator
- Posts: 7486
- Joined: Mon. Nov. 11, 2013 11:17 am
- Location: PA, Southern York County!
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
- Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
- Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
- Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood
NICE!BunkerdCaddis wrote: ↑Mon. Nov. 28, 2022 10:46 pmRan the motor till I had some coal in the bottom of the pot, put some split up pieces of left over 2x8 on top of some newspaper and lit it off...
THE MIGHTY BAIRMATIC / VAN WERT LIVES AGAIN!!!
-Don