Coal bin remote feed?

[jibs1723]

I have a gentlemen janitor boiler in my garage that you all helped me get set up a few years ago. Still runs flawlessly no issues there. I had a thought though a couple days ago about my coal bin. Right now it is about 3 feet from the boiler and I have an auger that pulls out the bottom. Bin only holds about a ton and with how it's situated in my garage I have to shovel it in from my dump truck. Not the most streamlined process. Has anyone ever done a gravity feed system to the auger? My boiler is below grade by approximately 6 feet compared to the outside grade and I have flat ground there. I was thinking to create a sloped bottom bin the lives outside at the upper elevation and has a~4" PVC pipe out of the bottom and run that to a hopper of sorts that the auger goes to. This would allow me to reclaim valuable garage space and also to fill the bin directly from the truck and enlarge it to accept 2-3 tons. Has anyone done anything like this? My concern is how well would the coal feed down a tube like that and is it large enough? Thanks!

[Rob R.]

I know someone on here has a setup like you have described, but I can't remember who it was.

What kind of slope will you have on the pipe? I think a larger pipe would be better (6-8").

[jibs1723]

Cool hopefully someone will chime in with some pics! I was thinking the 4" might be small too. After looking 6" isn't crazy money like I thought it would be. I was thinking 30-45.l degrees. Have to see what I did in the bottom of my bin now. No issues with that feeding down to the auger. Thought was if I match that I should be ok. Flatter the better though I think just to make things easier to get through the wall

[Rob R.]

You can browse through the thread below for ideas.

Coal Bin Pictures and Designs

[Den034071]

J look up jim in Macungie Penna .I saw his outside bin hold 4 ton .He augers in toThe basement from outside right to the heat coal unit jack

[BunkerdCaddis]

Here's the UTube link, nice setup.

[StokerDon]

After looking 6" isn't crazy money like I thought it would be. I was thinking 30-45.l degrees.

Rice coal needs a minimum of 45 degrees to go down a normal coal shoot. It's gunna need to be steeper if you're trying to gravity feed it through a pipe. Also, if your bin it outside, the coal will freeze and nothing will come through.

A lot of people use 6" farming augers to transfer coal from one bin to another. It's worth looking into.

-Don

[davidmcbeth3]

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Common-7-in-x-11-in-x-11 ... k/50113084

As for the concrete vertical blocks used. I considered using such when I built a 16'by24' shed. Decided on using deck blocks, shown here:
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Common-7-in-x-11-in-x-11 ... k/50113084

I used 54 of these deck blocks, connecting the blocks to the joists with 4by4 treated wood. The height difference between lowest end to highest end on the slope is 2 feet. Added cross connecting 2by6s to connect 2by4 of different rows when over 16" from ground to bottom of joists.

So about 1 deck block per every 7 sq ft. Got a permit, passed all permit requirements.

Might be cheaper today to install concrete and 4by4 posts vs using deck or concrete footings.

These 3 vertical mini-walls don't look good, are they OK technically...I don't know.

But its a vid just as an example.

[plumberman]

somewhere in coal bin pics, is my version of his setup. I used 2 grain augers in stead of the high block setup. works sweet as can be.