Using Coal Fines

[gmbobnick]

I have around 1000# of coal fines that I need to use.  I can use a little wetted fines to pack around and help manage my fire, but there is still a lot left.  The thought of forming/pressing it into small chunks (briquettes) to make a better fuel comes to mind.  But I am not sure how that would be done properly and usefully for forging. Any ideas out there?  Forging or otherwise.

[ThomasPowers]

I assume that they are bituminous coal fines and not anthracite coal fines?

We get our bituminous coal as coal fines out here and to use we store it in a bucket of water, take out a shovelful and let it drain against the inside of the bucket and add to a going fire.  Be sure that there is plenty of breeze (coked coal), when you stop for the day to get started with "dry stuff" the next time.

I do not see the utility of making coal briquettes and I would think the common binders used for charcoal briquettes---like starch or other additives like clay would work at coal temps and might add to the production of clinker.

[gmbobnick]

Yes, bituminous.

[ThomasPowers]

The stuff I use will coke up into chunks when added damp to a going fire.  The coke chunks work pretty much the same as coke from larger sized coal; a bit more friable I'd say.

[anvil]

Like Thomas said. I manage it a little different, same end results.

I fill a 5 gal bucket with fines. Mix up with water to slurry consistency. 

Clean out your fire pot.

Put the slurry around the sides of your fire pot, not in it. This becomes your "green coal".

I make a mushroom shape out of 3-4 sheets of newspaper. 

Light the "stem" of the mushroom and put it in your fire pot stem down.

Cover the lit newspaper with coke and add air.

Done.

I usually put a bucket of slurry on each side of my "green coal" to maintain my fire.

When you add new slurry, add it to the outside. Keep the green coal wet for fire management and move it into your firepot as it cokes

Use your clinker ball and poker/rake to keep the ash and clinker out. 

Basically everything moved inboard and down out the ash dump,,, except the heat. 

[Frosty]

Fines added to the outside of the fire burn just dandy. If you wet them first they work better. bituminous gets sticky gooey as it begins to pyrolize and once it starts acting like hot asphalt pavement you can pretty much treat it just like any coal fire.

Anvil definitely works in a larger fire than I do, I haven't burned a full 5gl bucket of coal or fines in years. When a friend and I work together we might go through a bucket or two but he likes much larger fires than I need. Sometimes he'll have 5 gls. going in a giant blaze but he's collecting the coal himself, LIKES big fires and tends to leave me buckets full, so I don't gripe.  

The fines from what he's been collecting aren't fire worthy, there's way too much clay in it and we don't transport it or handle it enough to generate clean fines. 

I won't go into how I I light a coal fire, I've done it enough and it's not really important. Some work better than others but that can change depending on a number of variables besides the coal, it's size, etc. The size of the fire is probably the single most important in the how of it.

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

That's the reason we get fines out here; our supplier gets coal in large pieces as it's easier to pick out the non-coal stuff and then has a crusher to produce something we can manage. Unfortunately it's output is fines...

[anvil]

I started with fines when I started my first shop from Carbondale, CO, MidContinent Co mine. It was waste/ drop beneath the overhead system of moving coal from mine to trains. We could load as much as we wanted for free. For a Sixpack, the yard man would load us with his loader. My 3/4 t pu would haul about a ton plus over 5 mountain passes. Depending on my workload, that lasted about a year.

I went thru 2 centaur forge rectangular firepots. With my setup I could make anything from a small trench fire for differential tempering up to the biggest stock i ever handled was 2 lengths of 2" square stock.

I most always worked alone.

I never had big roaring fires with high flames, just the size needed for the work at hand. I'm too frugal with my primary consumable for that.

I'm setting up my 3rd firepot for my new shop. Its not from Centaur forge, but another contemporary made one with the same dimensions.

Another ramble down memory lane.  

[gmbobnick]

Thank you all