Auto Coal bunker

[Rgillard]

Hi guys,

My Mam's friend recently told me of the trouble she has filling a bucket of coal from her bunker. She asked me was there some way in which i could make the coal fill up without her having to bend down. She also finds it hard to get the coal out when it is very full up.

I was considering trying to implement some kind of conveyor at the bottom of the bunker, raising the bottom of the bunker over the height of a bucket and sloping the sides of the bunker into the conveyor. I was also thinking if i put some kind of plate above the conveyor (8"-9") it would mean that the conveyor would fill from the side and reduce the weight of the coal pushing down on the belt.

Do you think this would work. I was going to run the belt with a motor. Any comments would be appreciated

[bobodu]

Don't know of any coal being used in this part of the States for 60 years..so that's INTERESTING! But sorry..no first hand knowledge.Maybe add some paddles to the belt? Any chance of finding a section of grain auger laying about? Probably need a worm drive (rototiller comes to mind...but that would still have to be belted down).

[Egon]

What size are the chunks of coal?

Would placing a bucket under a sliding plate on the bunker work?

We had a coal furnace with a stocker on the farm. The stocker had a hopper feeding an auger going into the furnace. Driven with electric motor and activated by the thermostat.

Egon

[bobodu]

Found this picture of a screw on a wood pellet stove...might give you some ideas.

[mark777]

A few years ago, a gentleman needed something similar to what you just described.

As I worked for a while with an airline company as a "ramp rat" which is a luggage handler, we used belt loaders constantly.

What we designed was much the same. It consisted of hard rubber rollers purchased from a boat trailer manufacturer, the larger rollers already have the "V" section molded in the center. Small motorcycle sprocket and chain on the end driver roller.

The project was designed to add all the stone, mortar and materials to a second story add on to his home. It moved all the stone to extend his fireplace, mortar, lumber and related materials. It worked quite well.

It is certainly feasible to build a scaled down version of something like this. Hope this helps, and good luck on your project.

Regards, Mark

[PineRidge]

Well I'm still young enough to remember helping my dad work on more than a few old coal furnaces that used augers to feed the coal to the cast iron fire pot. I would think if you were lucky enough to find one of those old relics (augers) that it would suit your purpose real well. They were pretty simple in the way they operated. Just keep all your body parts away from the screw when its rotating.

[beenthere]

We used to have a coal stoker that had coal in it (shoveled it in from the coal bin about 10' away) and had an auger in the bottom that fed the coal into the bottom of the furnace. Then just had to keep removing the clinkers with some fancy tongs on a long handle and remove the ashes.
Pellet stoves and corn stoves operate that way now too, with the pellets or corn being pushed up from under the fire.
Not sure how close this relates to what is called a 'bunker' but maybe its close.
A search on "coal stoker" brings up a lot of hits.

[Rgillard]

The pieces of coal range from slightly bigger than a golf ball to about a piece 8"x4"x3". Thats a bit of a guesstimate. Would an auger not be harder to set up than a belt and would it transfer the material without getting jammed???A belt with paddles sounds like an easier method. Would the weight of the coal stop the belt from turning???

[Rgillard]

Here is a picture of the type of bunker im on about

[Egon]

Put That Bunker on a stand so the outlet is at a convienient height.

Should be easier than conveyer belt.

Egon