Axeman Anderson 1959 130M

 
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StokerDon
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Location: PA, Southern York County!
Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood

Post by StokerDon » Mon. Sep. 26, 2022 6:37 pm

McGiever wrote:
Sun. Sep. 25, 2022 10:43 pm
Don, why does your AA have pillow blocks??
That’s not stock!!!
there ain't nuth'in stock about my AA Mac! :lol:

Last year we put the AHS insulated fan plate and fan on it. This is the first year I have gone through Spring, Summer and into Fall with no problems with this Axeman.

-Don


 
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StokerDon
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Posts: 7484
Joined: Mon. Nov. 11, 2013 11:17 am
Location: PA, Southern York County!
Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood

Post by StokerDon » Fri. Oct. 14, 2022 8:08 pm

AHS fan assembly repair update!

A couple weeks ago I got the new fan shaft from AHS.
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The rear pillow block bearing where the shaft was worn was wiped out from the vibration. I swapped in one of the originals. It all sounds good now!
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Transfer head problem!

A couple weeks ago I got a call from Jan at the Axeman Heats Woodboiler Project. He said the ring that holds the transfer head packing ring in had come off and was rolling around in the transfer head! :o
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I took a look in mine and found a BIG surprise. 2 of the 3 screws were missing and the third one was very loose! :what:
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It looks like I didn't put lock washers on those screws. My fault. :oops:

Before we fire it up for Winter we'll clean it up and use a little Blue Loc-Tite and a lockwasher on each screw.


-Don

 
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Idlorah
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Posts: 520
Joined: Wed. Nov. 18, 2020 6:31 pm
Location: New Ringgold, PA
Stoker Coal Boiler: Allen 700 stoker
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Gibralter MCC
Coal Size/Type: Buck in the Allen and anything goes in the MCC, Anthracite
Other Heating: None, maybe some wood in the MCC in the shoulder season

Post by Idlorah » Fri. Oct. 14, 2022 9:22 pm

StokerDon wrote:
Fri. Oct. 14, 2022 8:08 pm
AHS fan assembly repair update!

A couple weeks ago I got the new fan shaft from AHS.
20221014_184510.jpg

-Don
I watched you video on youtube about the shaft problem. I was going to offer to make you a new one, but I forgot you can still buy parts for those. I'm used to my allen where when something breaks I need to make the parts I need. Any way the offer still stands if anyone would need some machine work done to fix there stokers I would be more then happy to help! Glad you got it going again Don.

-Isaac

 
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StokerDon
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Posts: 7484
Joined: Mon. Nov. 11, 2013 11:17 am
Location: PA, Southern York County!
Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood

Post by StokerDon » Sat. Oct. 15, 2022 9:05 am

Idlorah wrote:
Fri. Oct. 14, 2022 9:22 pm
I was going to offer to make you a new one, but I forgot you can still buy parts for those. I'm used to my allen where when something breaks I need to make the parts I need.
Thanks for the offer!

It's pretty easy working on things that they still make parts for. Even if the parts are on the wrong boiler. :D
The AHS folks are nice to deal with too. It's a family owned, central PA business.

-Don

 
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Idlorah
Member
Posts: 520
Joined: Wed. Nov. 18, 2020 6:31 pm
Location: New Ringgold, PA
Stoker Coal Boiler: Allen 700 stoker
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Gibralter MCC
Coal Size/Type: Buck in the Allen and anything goes in the MCC, Anthracite
Other Heating: None, maybe some wood in the MCC in the shoulder season

Post by Idlorah » Sat. Oct. 15, 2022 9:13 am

StokerDon wrote:
Sat. Oct. 15, 2022 9:05 am


It's pretty easy working on things that they still make parts for. Even if the parts are on the wrong boiler. :D
The AHS folks are nice to deal with too. It's a family owned, central PA business.

-Don
Can't beat that.

 
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Retro_Origin
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Posts: 900
Joined: Sun. Feb. 21, 2021 7:46 pm
Location: Schuylkill county
Stoker Coal Boiler: 1957 Axeman Anderson 130
Coal Size/Type: Buckwheat / Pea

Post by Retro_Origin » Sun. Oct. 23, 2022 8:06 pm

Don have you ever done the math on the what the approx lbs/hr feed rate is for a constantly ashing run would be? for example:
1 click 6 lbs
2 click 10 lbs
3 click 15 lbs

or something along those lines?

 
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StokerDon
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Posts: 7484
Joined: Mon. Nov. 11, 2013 11:17 am
Location: PA, Southern York County!
Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood

Post by StokerDon » Mon. Oct. 24, 2022 7:26 pm

Retro_Origin wrote:
Sun. Oct. 23, 2022 8:06 pm
Don have you ever done the math on the what the approx lbs/hr feed rate is for a constantly ashing run would be? for example:
1 click 6 lbs
2 click 10 lbs
3 click 15 lbs

or something along those lines?
We've done the math to death in this thread. First of all, don't focus on the teeth. You have to know how many grate cycles per ashing hour you are running. A grate cycle is one trip back and fourth. I am running 15.11 grate cycles per ashing hour.

Some of us have tried to figure feed rate by ashing hours. Some of use have tried to figure it by fan run time. At the end of the day, the Axeman/AHS is an ash stoker, not a coal stoker. The fact that ash is inconsistent makes it pretty difficult to figure out how much coal one of these uses unless you measure what you put in.

-Don


 
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Retro_Origin
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Posts: 900
Joined: Sun. Feb. 21, 2021 7:46 pm
Location: Schuylkill county
Stoker Coal Boiler: 1957 Axeman Anderson 130
Coal Size/Type: Buckwheat / Pea

Post by Retro_Origin » Mon. Oct. 24, 2022 8:06 pm

StokerDon wrote:
Mon. Oct. 24, 2022 7:26 pm
We've done the math to death in this thread. First of all, don't focus on the teeth. You have to know how many grate cycles per ashing hour you are running. A grate cycle is one trip back and fourth. I am running 15.11 grate cycles per ashing hour.

Some of us have tried to figure feed rate by ashing hours. Some of use have tried to figure it by fan run time. At the end of the day, the Axeman/AHS is an ash stoker, not a coal stoker. The fact that ash is inconsistent makes it pretty difficult to figure out how much coal one of these uses unless you measure what you put in.

-Don
Ok, but isn't there a fixed value of clicks to grate cycle? I thought I read 72 or something near that on a different thread. I do follow your point about it being an 'ash stoker' and I guess probably the best way is just to go for several weeks with a large amount 500ish lbs of coal in and then time the solenoid closed time to determine approximate lbs/hr of specific settings. Thanks!

 
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Lightning
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Stoker Coal Boiler: Modified AA 130
Coal Size/Type: Pea Size - Anthracite

Post by Lightning » Tue. Oct. 25, 2022 4:06 pm

In my opinion, the most accurate way to determine usage without measuring what exactly it is eating would be by measuring combustion fan run time. But, the fan run time would need to be measured above a particular exhaust temperature because fire ramp up time is always variable based on the health of the fire.

So, for example... Let's say the fire has been sleeping for 4 hours and is getting lethargic. It might take 5 minutes of fan run time for the exhaust to come up to 250 degrees, then it might run another 5 minutes to get up to your set boiler water temperature. Then, in another example, the boiler only slept 30 minutes and needs to run after a short heat demand, but in this example we'll say that this particular heat demand is finished before the combustion fan kicks on. Since the fire is already healthy it only takes 1 minute for the exhaust temp to reach 250 degrees and another 5 minutes to reach your boiler water set temperature.

In both these examples, the same amount of fuel was used, but one was 10 minutes, the other only 6 minutes. The only consistency is that it took 5 minutes after the exhaust was 250 degrees for the the boiler to reach it's set temperature. So, we would only want to count the time after the exaust was 250 degrees.

In an effort to get an accurate usage based on time you would need to collect a couple weeks of data consisting of exact measurements of how many pounds the boiler used and how many hours the fan ran above 250 degrees exhaust temperature. Do a little math and bingo, a reliable usage based on combustion time without weighing coal anymore..

I plan on doing this as soon as I can but unfortunately it'll be a while because my bin is full lol.

 
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Retro_Origin
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Posts: 900
Joined: Sun. Feb. 21, 2021 7:46 pm
Location: Schuylkill county
Stoker Coal Boiler: 1957 Axeman Anderson 130
Coal Size/Type: Buckwheat / Pea

Post by Retro_Origin » Tue. Oct. 25, 2022 5:41 pm

Lightning wrote:
Tue. Oct. 25, 2022 4:06 pm
In my opinion, the most accurate way to determine usage without measuring what exactly it is eating would be by measuring combustion fan run time. But, the fan run time would need to be measured above a particular exhaust temperature because fire ramp up time is always variable based on the health of the fire.

So, for example... Let's say the fire has been sleeping for 4 hours and is getting lethargic. It might take 5 minutes of fan run time for the exhaust to come up to 250 degrees, then it might run another 5 minutes to get up to your set boiler water temperature. Then, in another example, the boiler only slept 30 minutes and needs to run after a short heat demand, but in this example we'll say that this particular heat demand is finished before the combustion fan kicks on. Since the fire is already healthy it only takes 1 minute for the exhaust temp to reach 250 degrees and another 5 minutes to reach your boiler water set temperature.

In both these examples, the same amount of fuel was used, but one was 10 minutes, the other only 6 minutes. The only consistency is that it took 5 minutes after the exhaust was 250 degrees for the the boiler to reach it's set temperature. So, we would only want to count the time after the exaust was 250 degrees.

In an effort to get an accurate usage based on time you would need to collect a couple weeks of data consisting of exact measurements of how many pounds the boiler used and how many hours the fan ran above 250 degrees exhaust temperature. Do a little math and bingo, a reliable usage based on combustion time without weighing coal anymore..

I plan on doing this as soon as I can but unfortunately it'll be a while because my bin is full lol.
My brain must work differently because I see this as being an entirely different experiment. My question is more about how much coal is being FED through the system. Not how much is burnt, the only time it's feeding is when it's ashing so really it's all about ashing time and has little to do with fan time. Like how at 4 clicks on a 520 is 10lbs/hr or whatever you can do math and say "Ok my timer runs 4min/hr that means in one day I'm PUSHING through 16 lbs(whether burnt or unburnt) as long as there is no heat calls or low limit violations" - in essence being able to quickly look at a clock wired in with the ashing and get a rough idea of how good of a day you had.
I'm not saying your experiment is flawed but maybe I just failed to explain myself :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Tue. Oct. 25, 2022 7:55 pm

Oh ok.. I thought you were looking to determine coal usage by measuring ashing time. I don't know if that'd work out since while it's sometimes not ashing while the fan is running, it's still burning coal while the ashing is halted.

In your comparison to a 520, did you mean an EFM? That might be different in the respect (if I understand them correctly) - that they have a direct displacement feeding system whereas the Axe does not.

 
Jkohanski
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Coal Size/Type: pea
Other Heating: fuel oil
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Post by Jkohanski » Tue. Oct. 25, 2022 8:03 pm

If one could have the boiler on transducers, so you have its weight, and a transducer under the ash pan, for weight, and all the other parameters( ash cyles, fan run,etc) then you would have the in, out, and everything else you may get close to actual burn rate, but at what point is good enough. For me, apples to oranges with net is ok.

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Tue. Oct. 25, 2022 8:12 pm

I get you... It'd just be nice to have a method that the operator can have confidence in, and is somewhat accurate to determine usage without having to fill buckets 😆 my back is getting sore.

 
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StokerDon
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Posts: 7484
Joined: Mon. Nov. 11, 2013 11:17 am
Location: PA, Southern York County!
Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood

Post by StokerDon » Thu. Dec. 29, 2022 7:58 pm

THE FINAL CLEANUP!!!

Well, I have 3 Axeman 130s now. I pulled this one out of service early this month and installed another 1959 that has been restored by Orbie Pepley of Shippensburg PA. Nothing wrong with this one, I just figured if I was keeping one, I should keep the freshly restored one. It's very likely that Orbie restored this one about 25 years ago. I picked it up about 5 miles from his shop. It will be listed for sale in the coalpail.com classified section.

So today we did some scrapping inside the swirl chamber and in the cyclone separator.
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This stuff is real hard to get off. Basicly you have to chip it off piece by piece.
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This is a piece of it. Its rust on one side and hardened ash on the other.
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After that we filled it with HOT water and some CLR.
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Drove it around the driveway to mix it up good. Then flushed it all out. We got a whole lot of crap out of it! :o
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While it was nice and hot I blew it all off with compressed air to dry it out.
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Then I put it back together, mostly...
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I just got this auger back from Axeman Anderson. Its in good shape but they had to take a slight bend out of it. They have a big press that they use to straiten new augers.
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Roll the last video!

 
Jkohanski
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Posts: 252
Joined: Mon. Nov. 25, 2019 11:11 pm
Location: ringoes, nj central west jersey near pA border
Stoker Coal Boiler: ahs s260
Coal Size/Type: pea
Other Heating: fuel oil
Contact:

Post by Jkohanski » Fri. Dec. 30, 2022 8:15 pm

The end of an era. Hope it finds a good home. Thanks for sharing all of your info on this boiler. Look forward to posts on your new one.


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