New problems..

 
epidioxte
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Furnace: Stokermatic Mountainman 85

Post by epidioxte » Tue. Feb. 18, 2020 11:55 pm

Good evening, me again!

Y'all helped me solve my issue with the shear pin in my Mountain Man 85 and now that I have it running I've run into a few new problems.

1. Despite clearing out all the coal from before and now filtering the coal with some 3/4" spaced chicken wire (cheap solution haha) - I'm still shearing pins! I've replaced three now, each working for about 1 day before shearing. I'm hesitant to do another as I fear damaging something.

2. My motor is making a weird clanking sound. It did not do this before. It also appears to have trouble starting. I hear it attempt to start and sometimes it just makes a buzzing sound till I give it a boost by tugging the belt.

3. No flames. I've attached a picture, my coal gets red hot but there's not flames. I feel no heat from the air being blown out, super cold. But obviously it's pretty hot if I stick my hand in the chamber haha.

Attachments

IMG_20200218_214506.jpg
.JPG | 297.6KB | IMG_20200218_214506.jpg


 
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coaledsweat
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Post by coaledsweat » Wed. Feb. 19, 2020 7:25 am

Make sure the pins your using are of the proper material that it calls for. The motor may have a bad capacitor, a small mound of electrical gibberish attached to the motor. YouTube and a meter may help clarify that.

 
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europachris
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Post by europachris » Wed. Feb. 19, 2020 8:01 am

Sounds like the fan might have come loose from the motor shaft? Or, the motor bearings have worn enough so that the fan is rubbing or contacting the housing and making noise and/or binding up.

 
lzaharis
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Post by lzaharis » Wed. Feb. 19, 2020 9:21 am

Hello and good morning Epidioxte,

With what you are describing it sounds like you have a motor that is failing and the windings are breaking down.

If you have a volt meter and or a clamp meter that will help you define more readily what is wrong with it too.

 
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CoalisCoolxWarm
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Post by CoalisCoolxWarm » Wed. Feb. 19, 2020 9:34 am

If a hard piece of foreign material gets jammed in the feed or slide mechanism, it could cause troubles.

Was your coal ever on the ground? Possible to have some gravel or a stone in it? Have you cleaned that section out when you had earlier troubles?

 
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11ultra103
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Post by 11ultra103 » Wed. Feb. 19, 2020 1:31 pm

epidioxte wrote:
Tue. Feb. 18, 2020 11:55 pm
Good evening, me again!

Y'all helped me solve my issue with the shear pin in my Mountain Man 85 and now that I have it running I've run into a few new problems.

1. Despite clearing out all the coal from before and now filtering the coal with some 3/4" spaced chicken wire (cheap solution haha) - I'm still shearing pins! I've replaced three now, each working for about 1 day before shearing. I'm hesitant to do another as I fear damaging something.

2. My motor is making a weird clanking sound. It did not do this before. It also appears to have trouble starting. I hear it attempt to start and sometimes it just makes a buzzing sound till I give it a boost by tugging the belt.

3. No flames. I've attached a picture, my coal gets red hot but there's not flames. I feel no heat from the air being blown out, super cold. But obviously it's pretty hot if I stick my hand in the chamber haha.
Are you positive this is designed to burn bituminous? I saw in your video the door lists stoker coal sizes. I have a feeling this unit is made to burn anthracite

 
epidioxte
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Furnace: Stokermatic Mountainman 85

Post by epidioxte » Wed. Feb. 19, 2020 9:13 pm

Thank you for all the prompt responses. I'm going to take a video to give more detail as soon as I'm home with the stoker again.

To answer some of the comments, I'm not 100% sure whether or not it should use anthracite or bituminous - although it had been working with the coal I have before.

My coal unfortunately did have quite a few rocks in it from the supplier. I had thought filtering the coal to the appropriate size would still negate any problems from rocks. I haven't cleaned the entire thing out - although it appears I may need to do that.

I did feel quite a bit of air coming from the mechanism beneath the motor (not sure what it is but I'm assuming its purpose is to blow air beneath the coal?) Maybe air isn't getting to where it's supposed to be.


 
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CoalisCoolxWarm
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Post by CoalisCoolxWarm » Wed. Feb. 19, 2020 9:22 pm

Many stokers will suffer from a buildup of fines in the sliding and moving parts. Movement of coal often breaks it down some.

...and that is Anthracite. Bit coal will break down much easier.

In my experience it is much more common to get clinkers and rocks in Bit coal than Anthracite.

Not a certainty, but certainly worth checking out. Take some pics of everything while you have it cleaned out. It might help us help you better ;)

Hang in there. It takes a bit of time to get these beasts tamed and on the right diet, but then they often chug along like the Energizer Bunny. LOL

 
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Post by europachris » Fri. Feb. 21, 2020 8:23 am

If the unit sat for awhile (particularly if in a garage, etc) you might have ended up with mice building a nice cozy housing development inside the air tube. When I was first testing my Iron Fireman stoker I thought that there should be a lot more air coming out of the pot. Once I started disassembling it I found the air tube packed full of nuts, fuzz, etc. Once I cleaned that out it blew a relative tornado by comparison.

 
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coaledsweat
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Post by coaledsweat » Fri. Feb. 21, 2020 9:16 am

I made the mistake of running my Axeman auger down to empty in the spring at shutdown. The mice built quite a resort in it. It was a real treat getting it cleaned out.

 
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carlherrnstein
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Post by carlherrnstein » Fri. Feb. 21, 2020 5:32 pm

It will be very helpful to know WHAT GENERAL PART OF THE COUNTRY YOU ARE LOCATED IN, coal is very different in different parts of the country and the stokers are made differently to accommodate differing burn characteristics. I live in southern ohio I burn bituminous coal from Appalachia. This type of coal burns best in a clinkering type stoker. Anthracite burns best in a "rotating ring" stoker as does sub-bituminous coal from Wyoming. Without knowing what type of coal you are burning and the general construction of the stoker it will be near impossible to be any help.

 
epidioxte
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Post by epidioxte » Tue. Oct. 27, 2020 11:16 pm

Following several tips from the community here, I pieced apart the stoker and got it all cleaned up. It is working wonderfully now except for the motor issue I mentioned earlier.

I took a video here to show the issue. I ranted quite a bit in the video to show my thanks and demonstrate some of the issues that the community here resolved for me, although the beginning of the video shows the sound and the motor attempting to run.

Here is the video:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/WegkrfqAPLkdvQcy5

While I've been home today, I've noticed that the motor will make that buzzing sound as the blower activates. They always activate together so that part doesn't surprise me. Interestingly enough, the motor will make that noise 4 or 5 times with about 5 minutes between each buzz and then either the blower and the motor will shut off or the motor will begin to work.

Thanks again in advance! Ya'll have been lifesavers!

Now... if any of you know where I can buy Coal in Utah... that will be my next step. I'm hoping to find a supplier with coal of the correct size and not so much rock content. I've had to filter out almost half of the ton I purchased.

 
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Post by McGiever » Wed. Oct. 28, 2020 12:28 am

That buzzing sound is your motor with "locked rotor" and it is repeating the cycle by the "motor overload" protection.
This particular motor overload is the type that does "auto-reset" by itself.
I would recommend to disconnect the motor from it's electrical source before the motor flashes on fire.

Motor needs replaced as small fractional horsepower motors are not economical to have rewound/repaired.

Take off the belt to be able to see if there is something binding in or around the auger...no use burning up your brand new motor prematurely.
Maybe a socket, ratchet and a long extension would turn the auger manually easier while checking for any binding??

 
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carlherrnstein
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Post by carlherrnstein » Wed. Oct. 28, 2020 10:31 pm

You probably won't have a "fire" what will happen is the insulation on the windings will melt. The windings will arc and short out and there will be some smoke an the breaker will trip and have no heat till it's fixed.

Can you jog the belt by hand or is it locked up?

If it's locked up the motor is probably fine and you have a large piece of coal or debris jammed in the auger or some other part of the mechanism.

If you can jog the belt how tight is it?

Some fractional hp motors have almost no torque when starting and a too tight belt can keep it from starting. Ones that have a capacitor on them have more starting torque.

As far as how hot the motor should get there should be a spec on the motor that is something like 40C AMB-CON that would mean 40 degrees Celsius temperature rise during continuous operation.

How is the hearth set up is it like the one in the picture?

The smoke coming up through the coal in the hopper is annoying. It's happening because the combustion fan is running and you have the lid open or the lid seal is bad. It happens because the pressure in the retort (bottom of the fire where fresh coal enters) is higher than in the hopper and coalgas is pushed back through the coal in the auger tube and into the hopper. My stoker has a tube that comes from the windbox to the top of the hopper to equalize the pressure on both sides of the auger tube and smoke only comes up like that if I forget to turn off the stoker when I fill it and it happens to kick on with the lid open.

Your coal looks like bituminous coal and it looks to burn like bituminous coal. It also clinkers like bituminous coal. Coke is black, crumbly, an spongy exactly like lump charcoal. Those are not coke trees those are clinkers.

I can't help with a coal supplier but I will say Google maps is your friend. Rock won't cause you problems so long as it's small enough to go through the auger and not jam anything it will come out with the ash/clinker.

Attachments

hearth.jpg
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hopper.jpg
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stoker compartment.jpg
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motor detail.jpg
.JPG | 303.9KB | motor detail.jpg

 
epidioxte
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Furnace: Stokermatic Mountainman 85

Post by epidioxte » Thu. Oct. 29, 2020 1:43 am

Thank you so much for the quick responses!

Mcguiver, I'll give the auger and parts around it a closer look when I head up back home this Saturday. Thank you for the suggestion.

Carl Herrnstein, I can manually turn the belt by pulling on it and both pulleys turn pretty easy, especially after I oiled em. I hope that's what you meant by "jog" them, if you meant something else I'll give a better answer haha.

The belt itself doesn't seem to tight. This isn't a measurement but I'd guess I have nearly a 1/2" of give when I pull the belt gently off axis towards me.

Concerning the torque suggestion, there have been occasions when I've given the belt a pull and the motor ran well after that... Meaning I think that your torque suggestion may be in affect occasionally.

But there are often times when a little tug doesn't help at all.

Thanks for the tip on motor heat and hopper smoke. I've noticed the smoke only comes up now with the lid open... It used to pile out all the time before I had cleaned it. I was curious why it seemed smoke only billowed out when opening the hopper after I cleaned it. I didn't know pressure was involved at all, thanks for the info!

The hearth looked pretty similar to that, yes.

I may be wrong, but I feel like I get much more clinkers (thanks for the correction) than I should. I have nothing to compare but I feel like I have to empty em daily or they fill the chamber. Anything I can do to reduce the amount or get a "fuller" burn?


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