Axeman Anderson 1959 130M

i have had the a/c in my room and the coal stove going at the same time a few times this spring.
my room is the only room on the second floor it gets warm up here when it's sunny.

that peanut roaster is looking good Don!

lincolnmania wrote: ↑

Fri. Apr. 19, 2019 9:12 pm

that peanut roaster is looking good Don!

Thanks!
It is one Crazy Peanut Roast'in Contraption!

It's been 7 days, time to check the ash and do the numbers. We had an outfire on Sunday and another on Friday. This will make a mess of the coal feed vs. ash numbers. 4677.9 hours 37 pounds of ash. The auger motor ran for 28.7 hours X 5 pounds per hour, over 7 days, 143.5 pounds, 4.1 hours per day, 20.5 pounds per day.

37.0 pounds of ash at 18% is 205.555 pounds, 29.365 pounds per day.

143.5 vs. 208.333 is way off. Hopefully This is due to the outfires we had this week.

Current settings, no changes.

Anthrastat = 135
Fan RPM = 1478.57 (Stock is 2875 RPM)
Ashing = 3 Teeth
Auger speed = 2.3 RPM (Stock is 8.05 RPM)
8.01 grate cycles per hour, about 5 pounds per hour?
Aquastat = 160

-Don

When we did the re-light on Friday I shot some video of it. This Cowboy Charcoal stuff really spits out a lot of sparks when you light it!


-Don

The same thing occurs with the matchlight charcoal I use or when I soak crushed Kingsford charcoal for a few days with charcoal lighter fluid to make my fire starters.
I have found that the Blue Diamond "Strike A Fire" compressed sawdust fire starter sticks with the Sulphur coating on the end really work well. I break one in half and shove it under my homemade Firestarter and then I light it and it takes right off and after 10 minutes or so I turn the stoker on.
I make a good fire starter from scratch by using finely crushed matchlight charcoal or finely crushed Kingsford charcoal that
was soaked with charcoal lighter fluid and left in a large coffee can to soak it up.
I still make a fire starter by packing the crushed charcoal tightly in toilet paper tubes and wrapping it and sealing it up with some news print and after a few minutes I lay a toilet paper tube of rice coal wrapped in some news print on top of the fire to help with getting a bigger coal fire burning across the flat 3 grate stoker I have.

Another 7 days in the book. It's been pretty warm most of the week. 4705.5 on the meter. 36 pounds of ash. It's getting harder to mound the coal up for the week. It will be time to throw the barrel in soon. The auger motor ran for 27.6 hours X 5 pounds per hour, over 7 days, 138.0 pounds, 3.942 hours per day, 19.714 pounds per day.

36.0 pounds of ash at 18% is 200.0 pounds, 28.571 pounds per day.

138.0 vs. 200.000 is still way off.

Interestingly enough, if we use 7.25 pounds per hour for this week and last week, the numbers match up perfectly. Maybe we are at 7.25 pounds per hour???

I changed the ashing to 2 teeth from 3 teeth to see if we can get the feed back down.

Current settings, changed >.

Anthrastat = 135
Fan RPM = 1478.57 (Stock is 2875 RPM)
>Ashing = 2 Teeth
Auger speed = 2.3 RPM (Stock is 8.05 RPM)
>5.52 grate cycles per hour, about 5 pounds per hour?
Aquastat = 160

-Don

Another 7 days goes by, not much happening. 4732.3 on the meter Ash. There is more mostly burnt black rocks and not much clinker this week. Last week we decreased the feed to 2 teeth. The next day I saw the ash all the way up near the feed pipe. I changed it back to 3 teeth. Today I set it at about 2.5 teeth. 35.5 pounds of ash. The auger motor ran for 26.8 hours X 7.25 pounds per hour, over 7 days, 194.3 pounds, 3.829 hours per day, 27.757 pounds per day.

35.5 pounds of ash at 18% is 197.222 pounds, 28.175 pounds per day.

194.7 vs. 197.222 is pretty close. I guess this means with an Axeman Anderson the feed rate will change as the consistency of the ash changes.

This actually makes sense because in reality, these things are really "ash stokers" not coal stokers.

Current settings, changed >.

Anthrastat = 135
Fan RPM = 1478.57 (Stock is 2875 RPM)
>Ashing = 2.5 Teeth
Auger speed = 2.3 RPM (Stock is 8.05 RPM)
>6.9 grate cycles per hour, about 7.25 pounds per hour?
Aquastat = 160

-Don

7 more days, time to take some readings and weigh some ash. 4754.5 on the meter. Last week we turned the ashing down to 100 degrees just to see what would happen. I never saw the blower run without the auger so, I don't think this changed anything. We will leave it then. Ash is still pretty rocky. 28.5 pounds. The auger motor ran for 22.2 hours X 7.25 pounds per hour, over 7 days, 160.95 pounds, 3.717 hours per day, 22.993 pounds per day.

28.5 pounds of ash at 18% is 158.333 pounds, 22.619 pounds per day.

160.95 vs. 158.333 is STILL pretty close. I guess thinking of it as an "ash stoker" not coal stoker works!.

Current settings, changed >.

>Anthrastat = 100
Fan RPM = 1478.57 (Stock is 2875 RPM)
Ashing = 2.5 Teeth
Auger speed = 2.3 RPM (Stock is 8.05 RPM)
6.9 grate cycles per hour, about 7.25 pounds per hour?
Aquastat = 160

The coal bin requires raking twice per week at this point. The Summer coal discount prices start this month so it's time to start thinking about the next load of coal! -Don

The first 4 days of this week it was way colder than normal. Since then, it's been 70's and 80's. 4782.6 on the meter. 34.5 pounds of ash. Ash is looking a little better with some small clinkers. The auger motor ran for 28.1 hours X 7.25 pounds per hour, over 7 days, 203.7 pounds, 4.014 hours per day, 29.1 pounds per day.

34.5 pounds of ash at 18% is 191.666 pounds, 27.38 pounds per day.

203.7 vs. 191.666 is a little off, but not too bad.

Current settings, no changes.

Anthrastat = 100
Fan RPM = 1478.57 (Stock is 2875 RPM)
Ashing = 2.5 Teeth
Auger speed = 2.3 RPM (Stock is 8.05 RPM)
6.9 grate cycles per hour, about 7.25 pounds per hour?
Aquastat = 160

Next week or the week after, it will be time to throw in the barrel. Coal needs to be raked every other day now. -Don

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND EVERYBODY!!!

The hot and humid Summer weather is here, AC is serviced and running. If it's anything like last year it will be running into October. The barrel is in and filled up. It should last about 2 weeks. The ash is looking very rocky. We might try running without the timer now to see if that helps at all. Currently running 1 minute, 20 seconds every hour. 45.5 pounds. 4810.4 hours on the meter. The auger motor ran for 27.8 hours X 7.25 pounds per hour, over 8 days, 201.55 pounds, 3.475 hours per day, 25.193 pounds per day.

45.5 pounds of ash at 18% is 252.777 pounds, 31.597 pounds per day.

201.55 vs. 252.777 is a WAY, WAY off. I think the rocky ash is really screwing us up.

Current settings, no changes.

Anthrastat = 100
Fan RPM = 1478.57 (Stock is 2875 RPM)
Ashing = 2.5 Teeth
Auger speed = 2.3 RPM (Stock is 8.05 RPM)
6.9 grate cycles per hour, about 7.25 pounds per hour?
Aquastat = 160

-Don

nepacoal wrote: ↑

Sun. May. 26, 2019 7:35 pm

25 lbs per day seems a bit high for summer DHW... Those AA's/AHS's are very efficient in the winter. I wonder if there's a setting or change needed for summer to reduce that. I'm burning 12.46 lbs per day in the kaa-4.

I make no summer changes, and I burn 11.5 to 12.5 lbs. per day in my AHS S130 during the summer months.

I am hoping to get it down under 15 pounds per day for DHW only. It's going to take some tweaking though!

The rocky ash is caused by the fire being to high and thin. With this set-up, it means we are ashing too slowly. Basically, because of the very short amount of time per day this thing actually runs it can't ash enough.

Yesterday, to correct this we sped up the auger speed (and the ashing) by reducing the gearbox pulley from 6" to 4". The motor pulley is still 2". We increased the ashing to 3 teeth and the ashing temperature to 120 degrees. We also shut off the timer. This should make the fire thicker, I measured 4" to 10" with the Dip-Stick after a long run today. Today I removed the stove pipe and emptied all the flyash out of it. The 45* section was about half full and very heavy!!! I blew it all out with air and re-assembled it without the baro for the Summer. Current settings, changed>.

>Anthrastat = 120
Fan RPM = 1478.57 (Stock is 2875 RPM)
>Ashing = 3 Teeth
<Auger speed = 3.45 RPM (Stock is 8.05 RPM)
>Grate cycles per hour = Unknown, I still have to figure that out
>Pounds per hour = Unknown
Aquastat = 160

We'll probably leave it run like this for the week and see what happens.

-Don

StokerDon wrote: ↑

Mon. May. 27, 2019 8:23 pm

I am hoping to get it down under 15 pounds per day for DHW only. It's going to take some tweaking though!

The insulation of the boiler would likely help.

lsayre wrote: ↑

Mon. May. 27, 2019 8:38 pm

The insulation of the boiler would likely help.

While insulation won't hurt, is not going to cut the DHW coal consumption in half. We've been down this road before. The lowest DHW coal consumption we have achieved here is in the 14 pound per day range. That was with an un-insulated boiler with a lot more exterior surface area than the Axeman.

Besides that, there really is no good way to insulate a 130M. The moving mechanical parts are close in to the boiler.

-Don