That's what keeps us going. I really enjoy the videos. Thanks

Good day Jim, Good luck with your experiment. Stay warm.

Morning Jim I'm really looking forward to seeing the results and hearing how well it works out for you. Nice project!

That's awesome because I want to try something similar. Thanks for the great vid.

Nice work Jim, can't wait to see how it works. You know who to call if you need that coal analyzed!

Morning Jim, Definitely want to see the new coal grate in action. Fitting it, loading it, lighting it, and how much tending it takes as compared with hard wood fire 🔥. Thanks for sharing.

There is more to life than trimmer frame, good video stay warm be safe.

Good morning Jim. Definitely be interesting to see how that works out. Big warm up tomorrow. Huge Tom hugeeeeeega! Hahaha. Stay warm brother!

Morning Jim. Very cool of your boss to let you use the shop. It must have been great working in shirt sleeves. Looking forward to seeing how it works out. Timber framing is how I found your channel, but I enjoy all your videos. Have an awesome Sunday.

Awesome video

Found the issue with your van.. right there on the front in the middle of the grill. Hope your Friday is going well and keep up the good work!

Wow Jim, looks like someone got some new boots from Santa.... lol

Great video!!! You are a sharp person

Hi Jim. It should work. I grew up in PA. Always liked hard coal, soft coal has more klinkers doesn’t burn as well in my opinion. The good news is it is warming up here the bad news calling for freezing rain. Headed your way. Looking forward to the updates.

Interesting Jim. I like how you think. Have a problem, figure out a way to fix it. I've always wondered if you could get an older stove and burn coal in it. Guess I'll have to find one that vents from the bottom. Be sure to share the results. Tim

Morning Jim, very interesting. MK

Hello Jim, A science experiment show today. Looking forward to see how it works.

It would be cool to see if that works. I have to go see if our tractor supply store in Canada sells Cole. I have not seen it there before. But when I go there I tend to get distracted. The cold can stop any time now. Have a good one man

Good job Jim and morning to you sir good luck with this one hope it works for you I can’t see why it shouldn’t. Nothing worse than getting up two or three times a night at my age I have no choice have to shake the mig torch not fun. Cheers bud interesting as usual

My wood insert burns 24/7 during the winter. I had it installed two years ago. Travis Industries makes it and i heat my whole house with minimal help from my gas furnaces. Pack it at 10 PM and there are hot coals to easily restart in AM. My house is 3400 sq ft and I enjoy cutting the wood and feeding the fire. Family loves the comfort of the fire, as well.

Jim you got to do what you got to do. Keep battling on

I'm really looking forward to this subzero weather to break. Congrats on 5k. I know what you mean about screaming children. One of the reasons I am eager to build my workshop is I want a stress free place to work. Another bad thing about this weather. 3 kids stuck inside the house full of energy. Take care man. Hope the stove works out.

Hay love child ....that comment was hilarious...thks for the laugh out loud....

Cool and no I don't miss freezing my ass off in the apple I am a Oklahoman now spent 42 yrs of my life in hudson ny. Great video bub

We throw a piece of lump coal in the burn barrel out on the desert at night before bed. She burns good and hot. Gives us an easy start up in the morning to get timber going for breakfast. Good luck. I hope it works out.

Hi Jim, John from Putnam County. I've burned coal for years. We have a coal supplier in Brewster that used to have every size of coal. I usually get stove coal - once I got a bunch of boulder size lump coal. To fit it in the stove I had to break it with a hammer. I found this coal burned very hot because it had coal oil in it. ONE thing to check is the need for fire brick. My stove is made with 1/4" boilerplate. I got it from a factory that was discontinuing them. Even though it's made from boilerplate steel, the firebox is lined with firebrick. Anthracite burns hotter and leaves you with less clinkers than Bituminous coal. Good luck with staying warm - woke up to 2 degrees down here.

Interesting experiment. Never know until one tries.

Coal is dirt "dirt cheap " I really appreciate your humor. My catalyst stove was expensive but goes 12 hours on a load of wood. Burns really clean, good for air quality.

can't wait to see what happens ...... oh wait I can I was so late getting to this vid headed there now

Grandpa had a big stove in the basement. He cut tons of wood to use most of the season, but when he really had to run the stove hard he had a coal room in the end of the basement and could load it up to make it thru the whole night. He would burn wood because it was almost free, just some gas for the saw and a chain now and then, all the firewood he cut was from loggin or the forest service cleaning up firebreaks and cutting roadways for the loggers. But he bought coal really cheap as he was in the coalfields of southwestern Virgina. Lived in that house over 50 years and dad put grandpa in an oil stove for his 90th birthday and paid for all the oil it used. But grandpa still built a fire and kept it off most of the time. If the stove is good and hot most of the time the ash will be very little. Don't throw it out, keep it and put it on your garden spot it will help build the soil up. I don't know what minerals is in coal ash but grandpa just spread it out all winter long and then tilled it under in the spring. It might help with the pH of the soil.

Good morning Jim, twenty below here this morning. Great project! I have a Classic wood stove by Central Boiler. I've had it for twenty one years and your project is giving me ideas! My stove has a large air vent to the side, about four or five inches up from the bottom of the wood box which is opened by a solenoid when the water temperature reaches a certain level. The stove works great and is one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life. Only problem is, I'm getting older and cutting twelve cords of wood each year is reaching my limits. Your coal idea is very interesting and I was wondering if it would work in my stove? I'm looking forward to the outcome of your project. What kind of stove are you adapting? Thanks for another great video.

cool Jim

Hey Mr. Tradesman, Did your coal conversion grate work?

My dad had a coal furnace and I believe it was cast iron. They got rid of it in the 70's. I would think in your line of work there might be a few still around.

How can you tell between a coal And a wood parlor stove . I would like to know .

I'll be curious to see if the mig welds hold up to that kind of heat. Looking forward to an update.

New to the channel.....just stumbled upon it......reading through comments I see you were not pleased with the grate and bought a coal stove. Any insight/recommendations on a stove? Been burning wood all my life. Currently burn a US stove.... Clayton 1500 from tractor supply since 2008. Takes 30" log. Been poking around at coal or wood/coal combos.......reviews appear to be conflicting although informative! THOUGHTS?????🇺🇸

Morning Jim! You seem to be aware of most of the problems of changing a wood-burner to Coal already, but be careful .... Anthracite burns HOT and it can warp and even crack the walls of your wood-burner! I have a small (5KW) multi fuel burner in my main room and you are right the airflow needs to come from below on Coal and above for wood. There is usually a griddle grate to allow the ash to drop into the dustpan, but this is just a "proof of concept"! One other thing to watch for is if you have been burning wood at low temperatures it can cause the chimney to act as a condenser and condense Creosote out of the wood smoke ...... which can cause chimney fires! In the UK the fire brigade would just pump water down the brick chimney to put it out, but with your wood constructions it may be a bit more of a sphincter test for the home owner ;O) Also all coals are not equal! You can get coal with a high tar content that may not be too good for this type of fire ...... but I will stop telling you stuff you probably already know! I expect to see a video that starts off with you lighting her up, stoking her up, banking her down ..... and then changing to the Mrs filming you with your feet up dozing off in comfort ;O) May I sugest this as your background track to that video? kzfaq.info/get/bejne/m8enf5mSr5jScpc.html .... It is probably an English Thing!

Interesting to say the least. Kinda miss you freezing your jewels off. hehe. Coal, what is this coal you are talking about? Around here there is absolutely no coal to be found. I've been into Tractor Supply, Orschlens, Lowes, HomeDepot, and other farm related businesses and have NEVER seen a bag of coal. Must be a northern thing. Lots of silly bundles of oak flitches for $4 per, but never coal. Will be waiting for the firing up in the wood stove. Nice to see you not freezing for a change, Jim. Keep warm.

Some great comments here... at first I was concerned that burning coal would coat your chimney with a powder that could ignite or start a chimney fire. That would be my concern. Can't wait to see the results...

Nice band saw Jimmy. Tell Logan to get the damn thing fixed

Hi Jim just a couple of observations, as kids we used to have coal fires in the Uk until the Clean Air Act banned its use, don’t worry I’m not going all environmental on you just to make the point it was along time ago. Wasn’t anthracite the clean burning high temperature coal used in steam engines? Ours came small size like you showed, very hard and black delivered in hessian sacks it burned very hot and relatively quickly, my folks originated from Midlothian in Scotland, up there the family got coal delivered as lump coal very large brown rocks (lignite? My memory fades) often 6-10” in size, relatively soft, it burned slowly with jets of flame coming out of it as some volatile substance vented off as it burned. Don’t know if you get the choice but Large lumps will burn slower than the small pieces you showed. Isn’t anthracite the blacksmithing coal of choice crushed to small chips?

Nice to be in a heated shop for a change....how's the coal working for you?

Jim, can the wood stove take the heat as produced from coal. My concern would be that the metal may crack or the metal will oxidize at a much higher rate than would be considered acceptable.

I was SOO busting your chops regarding the crappy working height on the table/cart. Tell the boss he needs better RAISED working surfaces to prevent back injuries.

With all the sawdust you make why not make a sawdust heater? They are reported to have a very long burn time.

Hmm...using one of dem girly welders in a warm shop huh. j/k, its cold up there and I like migs too. Interesting project, so does it work? Coal can be frustrating to learn, its almost backwards of burning wood. Keep the bed deep and the ash clear and you will be warm and happy.

I have not seen your stove, but you are on the right track, your also wright you will not get a month out of it never mind a season but again depending on the wood stove design, if it is light gage you will see some funny bending if you don't put some heavy plates in it, finnaly sitting at warmer temp of -10 an snow, next 5 days should be only -10 to -15..

I thought about coal whenI lived in Minnesota but found out the sides of my stove weren’t thick enough done be careful I have heard coal can burn through lite steel easily.

Buying it like that is $600 per ton, that's pretty expensive. I don't know where you're at but you can buy coal where I'm at for $30-$85 per ton depending on the quality. And you're going to want to use lump coal for what you're wanting to do because that small stuff will burn up way to fast where you are wanting it to burn all night!

Just get a coal stove with an over fire.

Just a heads up, coal fires can burn hotter than wood and your chimney may not be rated for coal...

show off and make a shaker grate

There's not a damn thing wrong with your welding Jim. I see much worse daily sadly from people paid to do it. Also, for what it's worth, I can' run mig for crap. It seems like it's easy, but really getting in there with adequate penetration is very difficult. Mig only looks pretty most of the time and welds aren't jack unless you're a true master at it or running some nice fluxcore or dualshield that actually gets in there. Frankly, there's a reason why it's not used much at all on critical welds, i.e. pressure vessels, pipe, etc...

I don't think momma is gonna like the soot.

No time to watch now warmed up an pipes showed water running every were. But yes a wood stove can. As a class A welder I have done many

5:07. We call that technique the “Bruce Jenner”

No you don't you just need a bed of wood coals

5 yrs old video with zero follow up.I’d say it didn’t work