Axeman Anderson 1959 130M

I must be bored to death with this COVID 19 lock down! Today I put a fan on the front of my Axeman. The idea was to blow air over the boiler to better heat the garage. It turns out that this is not a great idea. Also, having a large, open fan running is a bit dangerous!
After playing around with it for a while and having some fun, I came to my senses and took it off. We did shoot some video of todays Madness!!!


-Don

That video popped up in my YouTube suggestions about an hour ago... I thought you'd lost your mind there for a minute! That was a scary sight. I was worried about your garage cat.

Yah, that turns it into a REAL cat eating machine!

I was waiting for the boiler to start creeping across the garage lol. That was awesome

Taxying for take off?

Brilliant! What are the results from it running through the night?

swyman wrote: ↑

Sun. Jan. 17, 2021 6:42 am

Brilliant! What are the results from it running through the night?

Sorry, we took the fan off. I was afraid it would eat the cat!

2 days of running. Now we are back to our normal schedule. Over the past 2 days;
Fan reading, 135.4 - 118.9 = 16.5 hours of fan run time, 8.25 hours per day.
Ash reading, 84.0 - 74.7 = 9.3, hours of ashing, 4.65 hours per day. 12 pounds of ash. Coal usage by ash weight estimate. Ash is closer to 12% than 15%.
12% = 100.00 pounds, 50 pounds per day. 6.06 pounds per fan hour.
15% = 80.00 pounds, 40 pounds per day. 4.84 pounds per fan hour.
18% = 66.66 pounds, 33.33 pounds per day. 4.04 pounds per fan hour. Current settings,

Fan RPM = 1293.75 RPM (Stock is 2875 RPM)
Ashing = 3.0 Teeth
Auger speed = 3.45 RPM (Stock is 8.05 RPM)
Grate cycles per hour = 10.35
Pounds per hour = Between 4.60 and 6.90 pounds per fan run time hour
Aquastat = 160*F (Inkbird), PID
Anthrastat = 125*F (Inkbird), Hysteresis = 0.5*
Low flue temperature cut off = 160*F, Hysteresis = 0.1*

-Don

Another 7 days. It actually got down to normal Winter temperatures by the end of this week. Over the past 7 days;
Fan reading, 201.9 -135.4 = 66.5 hours of fan run time, 9.5 hours per day.
Ash reading, 126.5 - 84.0 = 42.5, hours of ashing, 6.07 hours per day. 2 ash pans this week. 46 pounds. Coal usage by ash weight estimate. Ash is 12% or less.
12% = 383.33 pounds, 54.76 pounds per day. 5.76 pounds per fan hour.
15% = 306.66 pounds, 43.80 pounds per day. 4.61 pounds per fan hour.
18% = 255.55 pounds, 36.51 pounds per day. 3.84 pounds per fan hour.

Current settings,

Fan RPM = 1293.75 RPM (Stock is 2875 RPM)
Ashing = 3.0 Teeth
Auger speed = 3.45 RPM (Stock is 8.05 RPM)
Grate cycles per hour = 10.35
Pounds per hour = Between 4.60 and 6.90 pounds per fan run time hour
Aquastat = 160*F (Inkbird), PID
Anthrastat = 125*F (Inkbird), Hysteresis = 0.5*
Low flue temperature cut off = 160*F, Hysteresis = 0.1*

-Don

This week I would bet we burned significantly more coal the normal. We've had the monster radiator in the garage turned on for the past 4 days to help dry paint on the 1991 Axeman project. We also used a whole bunch of coal fired hot water to clean and flush everything out. Over the past 7 days;
Fan reading, 290.5 - 201.9 = 88.6 hours of fan run time, 12.66 hours per day.
Ash reading, 176.2 - 126.5 = 49.7, hours of ashing, 7.1 hours per day. 55 pounds of ash. Lots of nice clinkers in there! Coal usage by ash weight estimate. Ash is 12% or less.
12% = 458.33 pounds, 65.48 pounds per day. 5.17 pounds per fan hour.
15% = 366.66 pounds, 52.38 pounds per day. 4.14 pounds per fan hour.
18% = 305.55 pounds, 43.65 pounds per day. 3.45 pounds per fan hour.

We had to swap the ashing lever and ashing assembly from this boiler to the 1991 because we had borrowed it. Didn't have time to clean it up or anything, just bolted it on and adjusted it. Current settings,

Fan RPM = 1293.75 RPM (Stock is 2875 RPM)
Ashing = 3.0 Teeth
Auger speed = 3.45 RPM (Stock is 8.05 RPM)
Grate cycles per hour = 10.35
Pounds per hour = Between 4.60 and 6.90 pounds per fan run time hour
Aquastat = 160*F (Inkbird), PID
Anthrastat = 125*F (Inkbird), Hysteresis = 0.5*
Low flue temperature cut off = 160*F, Hysteresis = 0.1*

-Don

And, here is a nice snowy day Axeman video.

Relaxing... Nice video!

Why the long lever that goes up and down without actuating anything? Is it just a weight to keep the bearing in contact with the eccentric loop on the tube?

Kevin

KLook wrote: ↑

Sun. Jan. 31, 2021 7:05 pm

Why the long lever that goes up and down without actuating anything? Is it just a weight to keep the bearing in contact with the eccentric loop on the tube?

Kevin

That is one purpose. The other is you can use it to manually crank the ashing gear if you need to.

-Don

KLook wrote: ↑

Sun. Jan. 31, 2021 7:05 pm

Why the long lever that goes up and down without actuating anything? Is it just a weight to keep the bearing in contact with the eccentric loop on the tube?

Kevin

The long lever has a stop clamped on it and is adjusted by sliding left or right to set the clicks on the ash ratchet as well as ash manually. It also is where the solenoid latch locks out the ashing action as needed.

With all this other Axeman excitement going on I have not been pay much attention to this one. I haven't even looked in the coal bin in over a week. When I went out in the garage this morning to grab some parts for the "Axeman Heats Wood Boiler" project,

I noticed the temp was down to 130 degrees.
I took a look at the fire and the pot was less than half full! Then I looked in the bin and I could see the poor auger in there gasping for coal! I shoveled some over to get it feeding again and hand fed it some and all is good again. -Don

It's been a rough week for the 'Ol 1959 Axeman. Some time Friday night I ran it out of coal. When I fix that I stuck the wood block in to defeat the ashing until it recovered. I finally remembered to take the wood block out this morning! On top of that, the transfer head ran out of coal early in the week. It turns out that while I thought we had a 2.5" auger drive pulley, we actually have been running a 2.0" pulley. So I have been reporting that the auger was running at 3.45 RPM, it actually has been running at 2.76 RPM. I switched it to a 2.5" pulley driving a 4" pulley, auger speed is now 4.31 RPM. Over the past 7 days;
Fan reading, 358.3 - 290.5 = 67.8 hours of fan run time, 9.66 hours per day.
Ash reading, 216.9 - 176.2 = 40.7, hours of ashing, 5.81 hours per day. 41 pounds of ash. That is not a good reading though. I stole a bunch of this nice ash to fire up the "Axeman Heats Wood Boiler" project. Coal usage by ash weight estimate. Ash is 12% or less but our readings are completely jacked up this week.
12% = xxx.xx pounds, xx.xx pounds per day. x.xx pounds per fan hour.
15% = xxx.xx pounds, xx.xx pounds per day. x.xx pounds per fan hour.
18% = xxx.xx pounds, xx.xx pounds per day. x.xx pounds per fan hour.

We have been running the Harman SF3500 in the basement most of the week so the Axeman has been only heating the garage and DHW. Current settings,

Fan RPM = 1293.75 RPM (Stock is 2875 RPM)
Ashing = 2.0 Teeth
Auger speed = 4.31 RPM (Stock is 8.05 RPM)
Grate cycles per hour = 10.35
Pounds per hour = Between 4.60 and 6.90 pounds per fan run time hour
Aquastat = 160*F (Inkbird), ON/OFF, Hysteresis = 5*
Anthrastat = 125*F (Inkbird), Hysteresis = 0.5*
Low flue temperature cut off = 160*F, Hysteresis = 0.1*

-Don