Auger Pipes

My dad's EFM sheared a pin today, and when checking it over I noticed a small pile of coal dust under the auger coupler. I took the coupler apart, and discovered that the end of the (aluminum) bin pipe had worn away, and part of it actually detached and got snagged by the auger...it was loaded with fines. The coal dust on the floor was coming out of a pinhole in the pipe just past the coupler. The pipe was shot, but thankfully I used anti-seize on everything and it came apart very easily. Augers looked good, nice and straight. I cleaned out the drum and didn't find anything stuck in the auger, but I did notice that the end of the aluminum bin pipe was worn and very sharp. The pipe has been in service for 3.5 seasons, and moved about 20 tons worth of coal.

I blame the wear on the coupler end of the pipe on me not getting a square cut...I remember a gap about 1/8" between the pipes when we assembled it. Last year dad burned buck in this unit and commented that it made more noise, especially at the coupler area...I wanted to take it apart, but since it was running fine otherwise he opted to leave it alone. This year he switched back to rice and it was nice and quiet....until yesterday, Apparently he found a pail of buck in the barn and put it in the drum this past week, I guess it finished off the worn out pipe this morning.

The good news was that the pot auger pipe appeared to be in good shape. I wanted to go get a piece of steel pipe at the hardware store, but dad suggested using a piece of PVC that he had in the barn. He said in 30 years at the farm he never had to replace a PVC auger pipe on the grain bins, and he couldn't think of a reason that it wouldn't work fine on this. There is no heat to contend with on the bin side, so I agreed and put it together with 2" schedule 40 PVC. The pipes fit together tightly in the coupler and seem to work very well. Nice and quiet, and you can crank coal up the auger with two fingers.

At this point I can't recommend PVC to anyone else, but at the end of the season I will see how it has held up. I will NOT be replacing it with an aluminum pipe after seeing how thin it was at the coal end. Stainless or steel from now on....and definitely a tight fit between the pipes. Actually, I might just make a single pipe and eliminate the joint completely.

That's my kind of fix - cheap, or free is for me!

Will be interesting to see how the PVC holds up.

Wood'nCoal wrote:Will be interesting to see how the PVC holds up.

I will inspect it at the end of the heating season. If it still looks good I might just keep running it.

Nice fix Rob--I'd bet the PVC will look just fine come spring.

Sweet, nice job.

Def keep us updated.

Wouldnt you think pvc would wear faster?
You are right heat does not get that far, but coal should grind it down faster
since it is softer than alum, steel or stainless, correct?
Wear just from coal rubbing against insides, not from being off on the joint

I know a guy who has been using PVC for about 4 years now on the lower pipe. If your blue pipe was original, it's schedule 40 steel. Aluminum was used on the upper side.

Try using a length of ductile iron pipe. My favorite metal besides gold.

Why? The PVC will work fine.

stoker-man wrote:I know a guy who has been using PVC for about 4 years now on the lower pipe. If your blue pipe was original, it's schedule 40 steel. Aluminum was used on the upper side.

It was not original, schedule 40 aluminum.

You're going to want to paint that PVC pipe...

Update. PVC pipe still looks/works good, going to run it another season.

just to be clear , the burn pot pipe ( ) is aluminum? Does this mean that it doesnt corrode as easily? I just put pvc bin pipe in as the iron pipe was corroded and giving me a noticeable increase in fines at just three years in....

Yes. Still running the factory aluminum tube from the coupler to the pot.

Rob R. wrote:Yes. Still running the factory aluminum tube from the coupler to the pot.

What might be a reasonable time frame to have to change that out