Coal stoker tuyere?

Steve Minnich · July 11

I’m told this is, or part of, a coal stoker tuyere? Can anyone tell me which it is, and what it’s purpose is?

HomerJSmith · July 11

An interesting side note. When I was a kid, I worked for the inventor of the coal stoker furnace. It use to be, one would have to get up in the middle of the nite to shovel coal into the firebox.
The stoker stove made it possible to sleep thru the nite. It was called the Risdan Stoker stove. He had a bunch rusting on his property. He told me that 2 bankers that he went to for financing stole his business. Concerning bankers, some things never seem to change.

Ya, I'm that old.

Steve Minnich · July 11

I watched Angela’s Ashes again this past week for roughly the 10th time. Watching a young Frank McCourt working for a small coal delivery service reminds of how easy we had it.

HomerJSmith · July 11

You mean, "we have it now"? If you watched it 10 times it must be good. I'll put it on my list.

Steve Minnich · July 11

No. I meant past tense. It was much, much harder when I started than it is now. One medium sized guy could carry a boiler into the basement and hang it on the wall himself now.

EBEBRATT-Ed · July 12

@Steve Minnich
Just think of the last 40 years

cell phones (remember phone booths)
fiberglass ladders (remember wooden ladders)
battery tools (100ft cords...if you could find an outlet)
Turbo Torch
digital meters
pex, propress
refrigerant leak detectors (remember the halide torch)

Steve Minnich · July 12

Haha. My first 5-6 years were all wooden ladders.

Steve Minnich · July 12

And I was cutting and threading 2” by hand. Screwing in and hanging 10’ lengths of 2” black pipe solo from an extension ladder. wooden).

ratio · July 12

It's almost as if maybe, just maybe, easier isn't really better...

BobC · July 12

When I was in grade school one of the neighbors was an ice delivery man after the war, by the early 50's most had electric or gas "iceboxes". Lugging a chunk of ice up a five story walk-up in August is no fun.

Bob

retiredguy · July 12

To @Steve Minnich, That is a coal stoker tuyere. If you want to know from what mfg of stoker it is from I have a contact you can call. They were "big time" into coal and I believe that they bought the Auburn and Wilbert stoker designs.

Steve Minnich · July 12

Thank you @retiredguy! What was it’s purpose? To move or remove the ash? Is it a stand alone piece or was it used with another component?

retiredguy · July 12

This piece is part of a whole line of similar pieces that were used in a bottom feed type stoker to channel the combustion air to the under side of the coal. I believe that piece is from a Wilbert Stoker but I am not sure since I only serviced the units mostly while firing and only rebuilt 1 or2 in 35 years. Wow I hated the dirty coal .

STEVEusaPA · July 12

Where's our coal stoker guy? Finally a post for him

leonz · July 14

Steve Minnich said:
I’m told this is, or part of, a coal stoker tuyere? Can anyone tell me which it is, and what it’s purpose is?

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Is there any chance that the burn pot and auger are still intact and you could take a another picture of them and upload it??

If I remember the wilbert stokers correctly the burn pot rotated as the coal was being augered into the base of the burn pot at the same time the combustion air was being blown through the auger tube.
I THINK the Wilbert Stoker has a cam arm and gear that meshed with the teeth cast in to the burn pot along the top edge. There is a cam arm that was rotated by a gear attached to the coal tube and spun the pot at the same time the auger was feeding the coal.

If you contact the folks at marks supply in Shenandoah, pa they can tell you what it is and whether is belongs to a Wilbert or Iron fireman coal stoker or another brand of post world war one coal stoker.

From what I remember of the Van Wert coal stokers with the stationary burn pot with the underfed coal burn pot that uses a combustion fan with a gear box that also rotates the coal auger with a roller chain drive system through a belt driven electric motor.
It uses replaceable steel rings in the burn pot to allow the combustion air to enter the bottom of the burn pot using gasket rope to seal the rings and the base of the burn pot.

The EFM coal stoker also uses stationary burn pot with an underfed coal auger with a through drive system for the gearbox that rotates the auger as it the electric motor rotates the combustion fan with no V belts or chain drive.
Rather than using air diverter rings the burn pots on the efm units use heavy screens to allow the combustion air to enter the cast burn pot for the combustion air.

The Wilberts and the iron fireman and others used a lot of coal to make hot water or steam and I believe that they also had replaceable combustion air diverter rings and sealing gaskets.

The older stokers either spun the pot with a cam arm and gear that rotated the pot OR had an ash cutting ring that was lifted and lowered with a gear driven cam arm as the stoker was fed the rice anthracite coal in to the base of the burn pot to replace the burned rice coal that was flowing to the edge to be cut cut off the dead coal ash clinker that would fall into an ash basket.

There are some videos on you tube that show how some of the older stokers and the new stokers work.

To this day I regret not purchasing the Van Wert VA 400 coal stoker 37 years later as I would not have had the problems I have had with this keystoker that I had to have repaired and I would have eliminated my use of oil entirely for hydronic heat.
I hate my baseboard heat as I do not have enough thermal mass/water to keep my heating slow and even like I would with gravity hot water or 200+ linear feet of small radiators with 500 gallons of water in the system.

retiredguy · July 15

To @Leonz: I have only worked on a few Wilbert stokers and rebuilt a couple but I do not know of any that used a rotating grate. The Wilbert had a stationary grate that fed air up from underneath the coal for combustion. The coal was fed from a bin mounted at the rear of the mechanism or could be fed from a large storage bin many feet away. There were many other types of stokers but they were a rare breed in and around western Pa. The Wilbert screw feed and the Auburn ram stokers were quite simple in operation. The Wilbert screwed the coal in and the Auburn rammed it in . A cleaner burn could be accomplished by the installation of a set of overfire air jets that introduced fresh combustion air just above the burning coal or in a retrofit situation the installer could add a heavy brick arch to reflect some of the heat back onto the burning coal. Some of the guys that I worked with were much better than I was on coal units since they rebuilt many of them. The biggest units that the company rebuilt were LaCleade Chain Grate Stokers. These were monsters and a sight to see both being rebuilt and in operation. I never saw a Van Wert or Iron Fireman but I did manage to see a Detroit. The company had a man "Jack C" that probably knew more about burning coal than anyone else in the country. By the way all the above mentioned stokers were only used with soft coal. They were not designed for hard coal. If you think that you you should be burning soft coal think "smoke, soot dirty , and a lot of maintenance!!
I believe that your Keystoker is designed for hard coal only. I do not know what you are trying to accomplish with your heating system but if you do not like it there are a lot of things you can change. If you want thermal mass add it. you could switch to cast iron standing rads or convecters or cast iron baseboard . All types are still available and there are a lot of guys out that will install the system that you want. Oh and gravity, you could install it but why would you?

Steve Minnich · July 15

@retiredguy Thanks. I’m not retired yet but I don’t work with the tools anymore. I’m still in the boiler business and I’ve upped my game of collecting really old boiler parts. The tuyere is one of my latest and I knew next to nothing about it.

retiredguy · July 15

To all you guys; if you are looking for any information on coal units, boilers, stokers call 412-821-8900. If you get the right person they can answer almost any question

Coal stoker tuyere?

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