Well Kap I gave up on going to Rathbun, water to high. Went to Brushy Creek for the week and fishing was good. Crappies & Bluegills biting. Couple days of rain but that's fishing. Got home and found another 2 1/2 inches in the rain gauge. Only 50% of the corn is planted and no soybeans in the ground. Looks like we probably won't get anymore planted this year!! Lick our wounds and collect crop insurance. One for the record books. Hope fishing was good for you too.

kappel15 wrote:



Kap, where you going fishing? I'm going down to rathbun for a week,leaving June3. Hope it warms up by then.
Furnace should run out within the hour. Relight on Thursday. Done burning for the year.LP if it gets to cold.

As of this morning we have 11" on the ground.

would guess that the barn cleaner will feed the unit.. will make for a slick setup!!

do you have to go through some type of drying process before burning??

It's been a strange winter to say the least.. We just got 5" of powdery snow,now let the winds blow!!
Nogas hope it doesn't raise too much havoc on your area.

Same here..

North Iowa is one large sheet of Ice.
we have about 2/10 of ice cover and still raining (sleeting)
Temp Hanging around 31°.

Pulling outside air back down your chimney???

Well in theory it all looked good.... I built a 2" auger 6' long and using a barrel as a temporary hopper. The problem is that the pellets pulled very hard and the little 1rpm,120 in/lb motor couldn't hack it. The only gearmotors that would handle it are very expensive. Put it all in the corner for this year and will continue to look for cheaper components. The mix was just about what I normally run.

Just a thought why not start with 100% combustion air and work your way down. If your running on high fire all the time it will form a clinker that blocks the upper holes. As Nogas suggest mix a few pellets in. Any change you make give it 12 hrs before readjusting.

Couple of days ago I started using pellets from a new pallet.

They are Indecks and I have been using them for three years (about the only thing carried in this area).

OMG these thing are the dirtiest,sootiest burning things I have ever seen. Foul smelling smoke just burns your nose.

The heat output seem OK. going to be a long winter as this bunch should get me through the season...

Did you have a little friend build a nest in there??

I'm not sure the drive motors would handle the extra drag of coal. maybe if you could find motors in the 200+ in lbs of torque it may do the job. just my guess...

The reason I went with a power vent was cost. Powervent cost me a little over $400 and cost of a class A chimney was $800. Now I would do it even if it cost more because of the continuous positive draft. I can set the draft to where it does the best job for proper burning.

I have to right click on pic and open in new tab to see it all.

I am thinking about adding another hopper,building an auger and running one hopper for corn and one for pellets.
At the present I mix about 25% pellets to corn.
The auger for corn runs at 4rpm,looking at a 1rpm motor for the pellet hopper. This should give me a mix of 20% pellets and 80% corn.
Anyone see major flaws in doing this?

Just getting lazy...
John

I would guess that static electricity will be your biggest enemy..

Nogas wrote:



Cold this morning!!!! temp is 21° with a 30mph wind. wind chill 3°. wind gusts to 47mph. Long shot from the 54° yesterday.

Thank You. Happy thanksgiving to all...