New (to Me) Axeman 260

Doors and doghouse. Now, I know the doghouse will be covered with coal and incur the friction of moving coal but I just had to paint it!

The ash grate is simply massive. It appears that the original paint is still visible.

Started cleaning it and then primed it. Man, it is thick!

Auger work.

Auger painted.

Townsend,

I've been lurking along and watching your aquisition and rebuild. Really nice job you're doing. Looks like quite a boiler and should really serve you well. As Firewoodman mentions, that header piping is quite pricey but done right, make a huge difference to the efficiency of the system. I understand you have a one pipe system, as do I in my 225yr old house here on the Maine coast. They are an elegant and beautifully simple low pressure system. My pressuretrol is set on .05 of a pound p/sq in. and feeds 13 cast iron radiators. I have a brand new boiler just installed but its a dino juicer and primarily a backup system for that reason.
I thought I'd mention that my header piping is wrapped with insulation and actually all the pipes down there in the basement are insulated. Your boiler looks like a real beast and very well made. Best of luck to you.

SteveZee, I really appreciate the comments, thank you. Also, nice to hear you're keeping steam alive up there in Maine. I like the .5 pound of pressure too, that's the way to do it. 13 radiators is a good size load. I have a similar amount as you and will keep you informed when my refit is completed.

Also, so far I've named two of my dogs after lakes I like in your beautiful state of Maine that I canoe at. They are Umbazooksus and Chesuncook. (Umba and Chessie for short.) Umba is still with me, she's the Shepherd you may see tagging along in some photos, Chessie, a beautiful Black Lab, has unfortunately departed but lives strongly still in my memories.

Various attachments.

Outstanding Steve!
I will be following along as your project takes flight. You're so right about the one pipe systems. It was hard to find a guy who knew anything about them when I started out. The old timer I finally got ended up being an excellent source of info and I tried to pick his brain every chance I got. When I first mentioned that I wish It was a two pipe so I could go with hot water he looked at me like I had two heads! I learned to love the simplicity of the one pipe. Got a knocking radiator? Cut a couple shims off an old cedar shake, put them under the far end legs and bingo!

What great looking Lab, they are my favorite dogs. Cool story on how they were named. Really outstanding dispositions and just loyal want to please pack memebers. I miss my old mate Boomer too. He was yellow lab and an excellent companion. When I was still splitting wood he'd grab the piece off the splitter as soon as it fell and drop it in the pile! They just can't help fetching lol.

Thanks for the kind comments over on the hand fed. I'm really looking forward to NOT having an oil bill this winter! I'm gonna fill that tank once and that's it. I probably should have gone with a coal boiler as you are doing but at the time, I just couldn't swing it and my cellar isn't a full basement, but rather only centered over the main part of the house. I would not have been able to bin the coal down there. Honestly, this house was designed for stove type heaters and should do well with the Glenwood Cookstove and Herald. It's got two staircases opposite of each other and in the middle of the house so I'm sure with a little tuning, I'll get it circulating well. Keep up the great work. I'm off to the woods to see if I can see a bull moose today.

Steve Z

My EFM is also dressed in black, nice choice. Paint doesn't keep you warm, but it does dress things up and help protect the boiler in the off season.

Townsend wrote:The ash grate is simply massive. It appears that the original paint is still visible.

When you see what sits on top of it you will know why.

great looking lab. Lost my best buddy a few years ago...Sam RIP buddy miss ya

Nice pic FWM. Thanks.

Here is something that concerned me about this project. I ordered a new style DHC from Axeman and the flange assembly that goes with it. What concerned me is the lack of copper in the new style. As you can see the old style has 5 long coils and 5 short coils. The new has only 4 and 4 respectively. Also, the old style is longer if you take in account that the new one has to extend several inches to account for the the flange gap, and this extension is just the incoming and outgoing pipes. I tried to account for that in the photo by placing the main sections of coils together.

Certainly if you do the math for surface area the new style has less than the old. My question is should this be a concern for a two family house?

This seems to be a sign of the times. Perhaps the old coil was oversized for the rating? In any case, Axeman still gives their AA260 (with the new coil) a 5 GPM rating.

Rob, about the times, sadly I believe you to be correct.