GJ-5-C Gentleman Janitor

I never thought I'd see The Great Pope StokerDon of the Coal Parish shelf his faithful Axe...next thing you know he'll be burning would pellets....

Retro_Origin wrote: ↑

Sun. Sep. 24, 2023 12:21 pm

I never thought I'd see The Great Pope StokerDon of the Coal Parish shelf his faithful Axe...next thing you know he'll be burning would pellets....

I guess it's time to update the 'Ol "Stoker Madness" thread.

Post by StokerDon - 7 Years of Coal Stoker Boiler Madness!

StokerDon wrote: ↑

Sat. Sep. 23, 2023 12:31 pm

NOPE!

All 3 are for sale pretty cheap if you want one.

-Don

Trade for a Keystoker K6?! You don't have one of those in your collection... *nudge *nudge

StokerDon wrote: ↑

Sun. Sep. 24, 2023 10:02 am

I've always struggled getting the Axeman to run right under light loads. Meanwhile, my Van Wert runs perfect under light and heavy loads. I think this little GJ will be very similar to the Van Wert.

We'll see!

SO, not to nit pick...but I have a pretty good memory: Per page 32 of your "Axeman Anderson 1959 130M" thread,

StokerDon wrote: ↑

Thu. Jan. 31, 2019 9:06 pm

I would have to dig through my other boiler threads to get all the data but, just shooting from the hip, The Ol' Yellow Flame would have used 120 to 130 pounds over the past day. That is 2.5 times more coal than the Axeman. And that's why I don't 100% believe it yet. I never would have thought that you could consume less than half the fuel by just changing boilers.

-Don

StokerDon wrote: ↑

Thu. Jan. 31, 2019 7:51 pm

We are in the deep freeze now. This morning was -4, high of 18 today. Yesterday was a little less cold but some seriously high winds. The Ol' Axeman just pulled right through, even in these skimpy settings, Amazing!!!
...............
The auger motor ran for 39.1 hours over 4 days, 195.5 pounds, 9.775 hours per day, 48.875 pounds per day.

35.5 pounds of ash at 18% is 197.222 pounds, 49.305 pounds per day.
...........
Pretty full ash pan this time. I have never, ever gone 4 days on a ash pan in cold weather before. I think I can get used to this!

It's been over a month since we dropped the fan speed from 2875 RPM (stock) to 1725 RPM. It's been over 3 weeks since we dropped the feed rate to about 5 pounds per hour. We are now in temperatures that are as cold as it gets down here and this thing just pulls right through.

I'm still Amazed!

-Don

I mean, if things just got BORING...I get it, but I thought your test alterations were mostly a success?

Retro_Origin wrote: ↑

Mon. Sep. 25, 2023 6:10 pm

I mean, if things just got BORING...I get it, but I thought your test alterations were mostly a success?

Things are never really boring with an Axeman!

Full throttle heat output during the coldest days is where the Axeman really shines and gets great fuel economy. And that is the real problem. We only have between 10 and 25 (est) days like that per year down here. The rest of the heating season, when he load is light is when it don't work so great.

The idea here is that this switch to the GJ will better accommodate the other 125-ish days of the heating season. In a few months we will know if I was right.

-Don

StokerDon wrote: ↑

Mon. Sep. 25, 2023 6:32 pm

Things are never really boring with an Axeman!

Full throttle heat output during the coldest days is where the Axeman really shines and gets great fuel economy. And that is the real problem. We only have between 10 and 25 (est) days like that per year down here. The rest of the heating season, when he load is light is when it don't work so great.

The idea here is that this switch to the GJ will better accommodate the other 125-ish days of the heating season. In a few months we will know if I was right.

-Don

Yeah that make sense. I can't argue with your frustration with the outfires in the warmer weather. Too bad you can't get buckwheat from your supplier...I like it - quieter and smoother.

Don , You are going to like that deep pot . She will hold a fire for hours and hours .

Thanks Dave!

Today I took the New Old Stock stoker apart for clearing and painting. This base was cleaned and painted when I got it but had some surface rust from sitting. Especially on the bottom. I wire wheeled it to get it cleaned up. Hosed a few coats of silver on the bottom. and sides. Flipped it over and painted the rest. There, now the boiler and the base are ready! Now we just have everything else to do... -Don

Nice color scheme!

Retro_Origin wrote: ↑

Sun. Oct. 01, 2023 4:10 pm

Nice color scheme!

Thanks! Glad you like it!

More Painting! I was going to go with Red for the side plates but the cans that I had all stopped working shortly after I started spraying. So everything got painted the same color.

Stoker plate. Blower housing. Auger plate. Clean out cover got painted Black. We'll leave this stuff dry out for a day before we do anything. I started working on a video that describes how the GJ works. I should be done soon and coming your way!

-Don

Don, summarize for us, how does this GJ compare to your Vanwert, AA, and Yellow Flame in terms of BTU output, boiler gallons and pot size?

Retro_Origin wrote: ↑

Sun. Oct. 08, 2023 7:51 pm

Don, summarize for us, how does this GJ compare to your Vanwert, AA, and Yellow Flame in terms of BTU output, boiler gallons and pot size?

Sorry but there isn't much information about Gentleman Janitor stoker boilers available. I have a brochure that shows the GJ-60, 61, 62 and 63. This is the smallest GJ so I am going to assume it is the GJ-60 or the GJ-50 in size. They made a bunch of different versions over the years so there is no way to be sure.

According to the brochure:
GJ-60 = 16 pounds per hour, 95,000 BTU.
GJ-61 = 18 pounds per hour, 106,000 BTU.
GJ-62 = 27 pounds per hour, 146,000 BTU.
GJ-63 = 40 pounds per hour, 211,000 BTU.

This is probably rated for Buckwheat coal. For reference, the VA-600 is rated at 18 pounds per hour on Buckwheat in stock trim.

I have no way of knowing how much water they hold.
-Don

Last night I place the concreate block pad where it needs to be and set the base on it. Then I high temp siliconed some flat rope gasket to the surface where the stoker plate goes.

Then I tried to put the stoker pale on, and it didn't fit! After some die grinding on the bolt holes and some mounting stud bending it finally fit. I ran the original brass nuts on the wire wheel to shine them up. Then I put some wood blocks in the ash pit, set the stoker on them and bolted on the motor/gearbox mount pipe and the lower blower housing. I sealed the blower outlet to the air pipe with high temp silicone. You don't want the blower to leak air because that will pressurize the fire box and that ain't good!
Then I lubed up the pot and auger bushings. Slid the auger assembly in. Then bolted on the gearbox, motor and the rest of the blower housing. Installed the feed pipe and set the grates in.

Ready to Rock! Ran it for a while and everything looks good. The next thing to do will be to put the bin pipe/auger on it and start doing feed rate tests.

-Don

Looks good so far Don. Interested in the feed rate testing.

That paint color is pretty intense. What are the factory colors for GJ ?