Coalpail.com Forum

- Ok you guys rub it in. It only took a year to get this big blue beast going. It was well worth the wait. I'd like to thank the following folks for their hands on help their words of encouragement and advice. vanwertboilers - "Arnie"; scrapper_jr23 - "Steve and Ann Marie"; coal berner - "J.C"; markviii - "Rob"; Riley Closson. And Dave O'Neil for selling me the EFM DF520. I hope I haven't left anybody out.

This was a great learning process for me and I met a lot of great people along the way. Again thanks to all of you - John

Hey John,,,,,,, you are going to post pictures aren't you

Just had to throw out an update. Progress hooking up the beast has been slowwww Seems like I have hooked up boilers for the entire northeast and forgot mine So the last two weekends have been devoted to getting off the skeiks list of contributors. Seems like there is never enough or the right parts to do it. Last night I battled with the 1"Pex-al-pex to hook the boiler into the rest of the system. The stuff is not as easy to work with as soldering copper.
Progress stalled to a halt when I plugged in the stoker to check it out. There was little air flow out the pot so after taking off the fan assembley and checking in there, the whole fan stoker had to be pulled off to find the blockage. A family of chipmunks had turned the neck of the stoker into there own little Tag Mahal! Man they had so much insulation and seeds stuffed in there that it filled half a five gallon pail. Well, today is the rest of the Pex and some control wiring and then the startup. Maybe by tonight we will be easing down the coal road

When I finished pressurizing that DF520 last night I wondered how you were making out. The race is on...

Started it up tonight. Mannnnnnnn! This boiler is just soooo badass It is quiet, burns fuel economically, and has power to spare. I'll post pictures soon. I took a couple videos and hopefully can figure out how to upload. A great machine just came together. YEAH BABY!!!!!

I am helping Scott out with the video posting, here goes:

Thanks Rob! When are you posting pics of your uncles?

Nice presentation!!!! You are a regular Dirk Diggler!!!!! I know the stokers are a hobby, but you truly love playing with them don't you?! Any more GJ's in the back room? If you were up in Fellows Balls for the weekend, I could meet you and exchange an AA for the crusty ole GJ. How did you get Rob to pull that one off? Case back on this season? ...or are you goin' "Commando" this season? Jeddo has had some good reports from members.....time for bed you ole f...rt!

Scottscoaled wrote:Thanks Rob! When are you posting pics of your uncles?

When there is fire in it. Right now it is just a boiler with pipe fittings and beer bottles sitting on the top.

whistlenut wrote:Nice presentation!!!! You are a regular Dirk Diggler!!!!! I know the stokers are a hobby, but you truly love playing with them don't you?! Any more GJ's in the back room? If you were up in Fellows Balls for the weekend, I could meet you and exchange an AA for the crusty ole GJ. How did you get Rob to pull that one off? Case back on this season? ...or are you goin' "Commando" this season? Jeddo has had some good reports from members.....time for bed you ole f...rt!

DANG!!!!! I got to get me some of that. Whatever it is you are on. You just aren't natural. Must be why they keep spotting you up on Plum Island

It always good when the bottles are full. But they get too warm fer my taste if the boilers runnin

Nice!!! I love coal....

Glad it's Sunday, I'm going to be polite. Seriously Scotty, you have a destiny awaiting ewe with a 1300 EFM. Man-UP, and make Dirk Diggler proud. The 700 is like a can of sterno compared to the BIG BOY in the Jungle! Maybe Arnie will get you into a 4000 series Van Wert. Stop shaving your legs and strap on some SERIOUS BTU'S. PS: Good morning you ole dawg!

Scott, nice video that Rob helped you with. Boiler looks great and glad you are happy with it.

How has the unit been performing this winter? How much coal are you using?

Well this was not one of my restoes. I just painted the outside of boiler and the base after it was sandblasted. I had a new base but decided to sell the base with one that was going on the market. The top was just a little rusted here and there from sitting around in a pile outside. A quick pass with the wire brush and some paint and it was back in business. The inside of the boiler was painted with the high temp paint. Not me. It took too long to burn off. It seemed to collect flyash and made a big layer. It started to really chew up the coal.I insulated it and I gave The heat transfer surfaces a good scrubbing with a wire brush. Then my coal consumption dropped off the edge of the table. I was running around 120# a day. Heck I'm down to 50# a day If warmer, 80# a day if colder. It is doing better than the old 520 that it replaced. Still havent worked the kinks out of it and it is heating an uninsulated barn. I still haven't taken the time to figure out if it would work better turning up the rate and letting it run hotter. It is really impressive on the higher heat settings. All the squeeking and sqwuallking noises have departed and it sounds real smooth, like the EFM's do
So how about you? Is the coal junky ready to buy a semi load yet? It never gets old opening up the door and watching the "caveman TV"