Tell ya a little story from many many years ago.
I was new into dump trucking, and as a freelancer you take what you can get in the way of work.
A fellow called me and asked if I would haul him a truck load of Hazelnut shells.
I got the directions to the plant and to his house, so off to do the run.
I had no idea what the dude was doing with the shells, but he wanted them dumped on a plastic tarp in the side yard, and they quickly covered them with more plastic.
Curiosity was killing me, so I asked what the deal was, and was escorted into the house and shown the pellet stove munching away happily on the shells.
Hmmmm, we had been using a wood stove to heat with for years in our new house, and the cost of the wood and the hassle was getting old.
Earth Stove at that time had their factory about 10 miles away, and call revealed that they offered "Blems" (Cosmetic) at good prices.
We soon had a new Earth Stove pellet stove in our place and a large quantity of 55 gallon barrels full of shells all good to go.
Then it happened, in the weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee hours of a Sunday morning I awake to a cold house.
A quick investigation revealed that the stove is not feeding and the hopper is full.
Soooo, remove the back cover of the stove and SEE WASSSSUP.
The feed system on these stoves uses two motors, one to run the feed cup, and one to run the auger, and I find the coupling between the feed cup shaft and the motor is broken and laying in the bottom of the mechanical cabinet.
This broke for a reason ??????????????? so I cleared the hopper and discovered a stick about the size of your thumb jamming the feed cup.
Now remember, it's 2 am Sunday and the coupling is broken, Arrrrrrgh
I stick the coupling halves together and ponder the issue, then the sink or swim light comes on.
I head to the garage and within a minute or so have a automotive type hose clamp in hand and are heading back to the living room.
A few minutes later the coupling is back in place, hose clamp tight, and it's off to the rodeo.
The thought that this stick was likely not the only one in the lot dawned on me as I am pouring shells back in the hopper and so I spread the bucket full out on the garage floor and checked them out.
Ohhhhh yeah, many many more.
Picked out the trash and got the stove going again.
Later in the day we hit the hardware store and got a 2 gallon metal bucket and some 1/2" hardware cloth (course screen) and set about removing the bottom of the bucket and installing the screen with some pop rivets.
From that point on, every bit of shells gets screened before it goes into the stoves.
We still use that same bucket today, 22 years later.
We have used up several plastic scoops over the years that we use to scoop the shells into the screening bucket.
That lesson learned one cold Sunday morning was well learned indeed.
Junk getting into the auger system will cause troubles
Just a side note.
To my knowledge, the hose clamp is still in place on that coupling, as the current owner of the house asked me about that anomaly. (I was introduced to the owner by his neighbor who I know)
A trip down memory lane
Snowy
