I find it interesting that this 1959 transfer head has the "coal chip slot" in it the same as my 1991 130M. Others on the forum have reported that their older 130M's do not have this slot. I wonder why some have it and some don't???
Maybe I'll do a quick cleanup on this one, slide it in place and fire it up.
I pulled this out of an interesting install. It was in a small shed across the driveway from the house. This made for a short run of underground piping, about 25 feet. The small boiler room was about 1/3rd of the shed. The rest was a coal bin able to hold 4 ton. The auger and doghouse went right into the bin. Nice!
Hopefully this one won't need much of a restoration though. There will be a playlist of tedious, boring videos of me and the cat fumbling around with this thing.
Here's a shameless plug for my other 130M thread. AA130
And the video playlist associated with it.
I connected power to it to see how it ran. I found it very strange that this armored cable for the power input has 3 black wires instead of black, white and ground.
I used an Ohm Meter to figure out that the wire with the red maker comes from the timer. The wire with the black alligator is hot and the one with the red alligator is neutral.
It ran fine, no noises from the motor, gearbox or bearing box, the belts are old and squeaky though.
Junction box wiring. The cable coming in on the right by the green alligator is the main power plus timer.
The aquastats are pretty clean looking too. I have no idea how old they are. The High Limit aquastat is actually a dual aquastat. I think I can wire that one as a dump zone as well as a High Limit, Nice!
They also wired a Kill switch and mounted it in the High Limit aquastat, also Nice!
I used a pry bar to lift the grate enough to get a look at the grate rollers. The two back ones don't have flat spots worn into them so they should be good. The roller on the right moves fine but the roller on the left is stuck.
Since this Axeman was installed in a shed with the chimney pipe going strait up through the roof, when they shut it down for a few years, all kinds of debris got into the cyclone separator.
There was about 10 pounds of crap stuck inside filling the cyclone separator more than half way. This debris completely rusted way the cone at the bottom of the separator, we will need a new one of those.
I pulled the grate out. It has ash caked on it as expected. This is what happens if you shut one of these down for a long time without cleaning that ash out of it. It's not a big deal to clean off.
Theirs no chance this bolt isn't totally rusted in so I just tried to snap the head off. I ended up rounding the head so then I cut the head off with the grinder.
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Then it was time to get it sealed up for the pressure test.
I got the nipple that was cut off out of the return with the big pipe wrench and the 4 foot cheater pipe. Then I installed a ball valve so it can be flushed out.
Yesterday we made quite a bit of progress on the old Axeman. I even got around to creating a Playlist for the videos.
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I wheeled it outside and hooked the hose to it, then filled it up.
The first leak was the boiler drain, no surprise there, it seems they always leak. It will get replace during the install. For now I tightened the packing nut and the leak stopped.
I pressured it up and at about 30PSI or so, the PRV started burping just like it should. I left it at 30 and checked for leaks. The boiler and DHW gasket are OK but the big gate valve on the supply started leaking. That's a shame, I wanted to use it just because it looks so cool.
NO LEAKS!!! PRESSURE TEST === PASS!!!
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Then we moved on to some cleaning. I pulled the bearing and fan assembly out. The fan looks good. I will do a closer inspection later.
With the fan assembly out of the way, I removed the 2 bolts that hold the ashing lever to the base, this includes the electrical junction box.
Then I removed the 2 aquastats and the Anthrastat. After removing the mounting nuts from the rubber isolators on the front of the base and the big nut on the rubber foot, I was able to remove the whole motor mount assembly. This allowed me to remove all of the wired electrical components without disconnecting any wiring.
This boiler has had a repair ring welded into the swirl chamber. This is a high ware area in the Axeman Anderson. The fan constantly pelts this area with ash and debris. After a few decades, it wares through the boiler plate.
The other boiler ware area is the bottom of the fire chamber. This area is actually part of the ash slicer and wares down over time. This boiler has had a "half moon" welded in to repair this area.
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Next will be more cleanup and getting it ready for paint. I don't know when I will be able to paint it, the humidity down here has been insane and it isn't going way anytime soon.
Though, you do have enough fire power to dry some stuff out if'n you were feeling overly froggy about getting this thing painted.
I've done that before by closing up the garage and turning the heat on for a day of two. That drys it out real good. If I tried that these days I would just pass out from heat exhaustion!
Tonight I fought with the grate rollers.
The good news is, after the penetrating oil worked it's way in, I could turn the two stuck rollers. The bad news is, the cotter-pins were rusted in place just like my 1991 130M. I ended up cutting them off.
Yea...that's the overly froggy part. I about died just being outside this afternoon watching the kid bounce on the trampoline. How he did it is beyond me.
Those rollers can't be that pricey, can they? Or is it possible to just rotate them 180 on the install to use the other side. Think they make a full rotation?
Or is it possible to just rotate them 180 on the install to use the other side. Think they make a full rotation?
The part that gets flat-spotted is the part that the grate sits on making it easy to roll the grate back and forth. It needs to be round or the grate drags back and fourth. Eventually they will make a full rotation.
Once fly ash and dampness get together between the shaft and the roller, the roller can become stuck on the shaft. The roller stops rolling and the grate drags back and forth on it wearing it flat.
Probably not, let me go see if I can find the receipt for the parts I bought for the other Axeman,,,,
....I found it! Grate rollers - $10.21 a piece, $40.84 for a full set. I still have to order the cone so I guess I could spring for a set of new rollers.