The Epoch of the Axeman

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Tue. May. 26, 2020 6:19 pm

Lightning wrote: ↑
Tue. May. 26, 2020 6:13 pm
What's the "right" way to shut this down. Just kill the power, or run it out of coal?

Either way.

hotblast1357 · Post by **hotblast1357** » Wed. May. 27, 2020 8:59 am

Lightning wrote: ↑
Tue. May. 26, 2020 6:13 pm
What's the "right" way to shut this down. Just kill the power, or run it out of coal?

I run mine out of coal, then kill the power.

Post by **coaledsweat** » Wed. May. 27, 2020 11:17 am

Keep your auger end covered with coal. The mice get in there and build a resort you'll have a field day trying to clean it out. Don't ask me how I know!

Post by **Lightning** » Wed. May. 27, 2020 11:57 am

coaledsweat wrote: ↑
Wed. May. 27, 2020 11:17 am
Keep your auger end covered with coal. The mice get in there and build a resort you'll have a field day trying to clean it out. Don't ask me how I know!

Wow, that sounds like great advice lol.
How did you get it outta there??

Post by **coaledsweat** » Wed. May. 27, 2020 12:08 pm

I was fortunate enough to have a Macneil Wheel Boss brush shaft (carwashing stuff) that is a long square extrusion with a groove in each flat. I jammed a piece of flat stock into the groove that fit the augar's spacing and used a very large adjustable wrench to screw it down. That said, it wasn't easy as it would compress the nest. I then put a hook instead of the flat stock to get the compressed nest out into the bore. I did each process several times before it was cleared, not fun!

Post by **Lightning** » Wed. May. 27, 2020 12:26 pm

Holy!! Yeah, we'll wanna avoid the kind of chaos

Post by **Lightning** » Wed. Sep. 23, 2020 12:26 pm

The Axe has been running smoothly since lighting a couple weeks ago. I just realized that I haven't yet oiled the electric motor. Could anyone offer some guidance?

nepacoal · Post by **nepacoal** » Wed. Sep. 23, 2020 1:15 pm

Don't over oil... 2 to 3 drops per year in each end is all you need.

Post by **Lightning** » Mon. Sep. 28, 2020 4:58 pm

So while I have the bin mini in place I can do some measuring. That'll change when my coal guy brings my bulk load of 6 tons. This is with Lehigh bagged pea size.

09/19 bin level/empty tubs
Date - #'s - average OAT(F)
09/20 23 45.6
09/21 80 46.2
09/22 0 50.4
09/23 80 55.7
09/24 0 54.0
09/25 80 54.0
09/26 0 53.5
09/27 80 65.5
09/28 70 63.0

Coal Total 413#'s Ash 60#'s
Coal vs Ash 14.5%
Days 9 ... 45.9#'s per day
Minus 12#'s for loop and DHW
37.9#'s/day for heating 2900 sq ft
Ave Temp 54.2* -- Ave HDD 10.8*
3.509 pounds/HDD (base 65)

--------------------------------------------

Some interesting notes.. 14.5% Ash vs Coal ratio. Not bad. But, the pounds per HDD is pretty lousy at 3.509 pounds lol.. During cold weather I remember it being closer to 2 pounds. But, that is to be expected. The stand by heat loss isn't heating anything and we've had the windows open most of that 9 days while the house was 75 degrees. Cooler Weather starting tomorrow so that'll shape up. Also, I just filled my hot tub which easily used 20 pounds

Post by **Lightning** » Mon. Sep. 28, 2020 5:22 pm

I was just reviewing some past posts and I gotta admit that I'm kinda on the fence about adding digital controls or tinkering with the anthrastat location. It really runs just fine the way it is. I suppose if any of these analog controls fail I could replace them with digital. It's my struggle within I guess lol.

hotblast1357 · Post by **hotblast1357** » Mon. Sep. 28, 2020 7:27 pm

That’s the same thing I’m doing..

I did the digital control board for ashing because mine only had a timer..

But I want to do a digital controller for the fan, but that aqua stat is working just fine lol

Post by **StokerDon** » Mon. Sep. 28, 2020 8:00 pm

In my opinion, changing the aquastat to a digital control probably won't make much difference.

A digital ashing controller might give you a bit of an advantage. It will react faster than the Anthrastat but you can adjust the Hysteresis if you need to.

.JPG | 332.6KB | IMG_6940.JPG

-Don

Post by **Lightning** » Sun. Oct. 04, 2020 3:58 pm

So me and the wifey took a 3 day much needed hiatus to Cove Haven in the Poconos.. I left a rookie in charge of keeping the mini bin in good supply. I don't think it got checked quite enough lol. The auger end was totally exposed and the coal feed tube was empty. The fire pot was only about 2/3 full as well. Good thing I checked it right when I got home. It's not that the mini bin was empty, but the coal tends to stack up a nearly vertical wall down to the auger end as it takes fuel.

Anyways, I defeated the ashing by blocking up ashing lever, ran hot water and proceeded to build the fire back up. It wasn't a problem, took about a half hour.

Toddburn · Post by **Toddburn** » Sun. Oct. 04, 2020 6:19 pm

Glad you got away Lee. Did you fire the rookie

???

Post by **Lightning** » Mon. Oct. 05, 2020 7:32 pm

Toddburn wrote: ↑
Sun. Oct. 04, 2020 6:19 pm
Glad you got away Lee. Did you fire the rookie ???

Thank you, the mini vacation was a great way to reset

But the rookie is possibly my future "step son in law" and a city guy, so I didn't get after him about it