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Allis Chalmers Kilns

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Wizner85 View Drop Down
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Joined: 07 Sep 2018
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    Posted: 07 Sep 2018 at 4:20pm
I’m new to forum. But I’m a die hard AC equipment fan. Except I don’t work on the tractors I work on their Rotary Kilns and Mining Equipment.
Plenty of the stuff is still out there and running.
I’m always looking for pictures, plaques, or other information on their mining equipment since that is what I do for a living.
If you ever have a question on a kiln or some other piece of mining equipment built but AC I might be able to find the answer....

Thanks
Andrew
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DiyDave View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DiyDave Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Sep 2018 at 6:28pm
C.H. Wendell's book, The Allis Chalmers Story would be a good read, for you, if you don't already have a copy...Wink
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Sugarmaker Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Sep 2018 at 7:31pm
Welcome, Some pictures of the mining equipment might be neat!
Regards,
 Chris
D17 1958 (NFE), WD45 1954 (NFE), WD 1952 (NFE), WD 1950 (WFE), Allis F-40 forklift, Allis CA, Allis D14, Ford Jubilee, Many IH Cub Cadets, 32 Ford Dump, 65 Comet.
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Ray54 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ray54 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Sep 2018 at 10:41pm
Welcome always like seeing different stuff,and maybe learn something.

There was a mercy (quicksilver)mine real near me. They cooked/heat rock in what was called a retort here, would that be a rotary kiln?   It was a big drum that rotated. 

Aa oh more reason for me to lose my marbles from mercy that may have got away. I know the one old boy that tended the retort at night suffered mercy poisoning.



All long gone now EPA showed up about 2000 and is a super fund site now still monitored. Several adjacent land owner claim EPA spread the problem farther.  
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Wizner85 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Sep 2018 at 11:54am
Pretty certain a retort kiln is batch. Pile in rock cook it and empty.
Rotary kiln is continuous. Never stops except for maintenance...

But could be wrong.
Rotary kilns used in cement, pulp mills, lime calcimine plants and a pile of other applications.

I’m going to Northern Sweden in 3 weeks where AC supplied a grate kiln pellet plant in 1967 for iron ore pellet making. It’s still running...

AC is one of the most well known equipment suppliers from 1900s until they sold to the Europeans.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote darrel in ND Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Sep 2018 at 12:37pm
This could get very interesting. I don't know much about mining equipment, but very eager to learn about it. Thanks for joining us, Wizner. Darrel
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Ray54 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ray54 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Sep 2018 at 7:56pm
Thanks for the reply. The son of one operator is a friend,so will ask.

I don't think it stopped. I know there was a hopper they loaded with loader up top of the mountain. Down in the plant the hot rock would fall into extra big bucket on a track loader. A new HD 6 for a time. The mercury was vaporized and condensed in big tubes. The tubes feed out on a table with 6 inch sideboards they called the consentrater table,had powder on it,I think lime.Had a garden hoe and push the powder around and little puddles of mercury would form.

Dad rented pasture from the one operator. Dad talked while he worked and I was told to push the hoe around in the powder. The table was sloped to one corner, when there was enough mercury they put a steel flask under the spigot and filled it. A flask is one quart,it and mercury was over a 100 pounds.

The story was mercury had impurities in it and government was buying a lot of it and could tell where it was mined. So they just stacked filled bottles as they referred to them in little alcove like cord wood. No fence or door as I remember real hot in warm weather nice on cold day. Two men ran the plant 24/7 as it took a lot of oil to heat to operating temp. They got vacation when they did matinence on the furnace. The operators were not the owners so I think that is why most families in the area had a pill bottle full of mercury to play with. We never did,but didn't mean I never played in it. In the latter days of this mine some woo's ran off with a few flakes in the trunk of a car. Town was 20 miles away and police were waiting. The car was easy to spot the back end was dragging the street.

This rock was unusual for mercury bearing rock as it had sulfur in it. There was a good area around the plant that was bear from the sulfur being to high but never had a real bad sulfur smell. Took 10 to 20 years after shutting down before trees brush and weeds grow near it. The big pollution left behind is the high acid waste.


Sorry for running off with your post Wizner85. 


Edited by Ray54 - 09 Sep 2018 at 8:01pm
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Coke-in-MN Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Sep 2018 at 5:57pm
A place near here was using a large rotary kiln for drying silica sand which they made light weight building blocks from - it was a Swedish concern that set up the plant but it never caught on or met all the codes here and after about 5 years they went out of business . Next place that took it over used just one of the rotary kilns to process molding sand . There were 2 kilns - both AC and about 50' in length - gas fired on one end hopper fed and conveyor into storage bins inside another building . 
Faith isn't a jump in the dark. It is a walk in the light. Faith is not guessing; it is knowing something.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Calvin Schmidt Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Sep 2018 at 7:40pm
I have some sales literature and manuals on A-C kilns and mining equipment.
We have built silos at mines, cement plants, and a lime mine but never ran into an A-C kiln. 
Nothing is impossible if it is properly financed
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DaveNWWI_OAN Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Sep 2018 at 10:42pm
One of the remaining parts of A-C that is still going is A-C Equipment Services in West Allis. They still do kiln building and repair. We featured them in a past edition of Old Allis News.
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Mikez View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mikez Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Sep 2018 at 10:54pm
There's a cement plant near me that we went to on a school trip and my highlight was the big AC kilns they had. I've heard that they've been replaced but we're sitting in the yard still. I want to find someone that works there to see if they could get pictures and maybe a name plate or something. Thanks for joining and welcome
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jerbob Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Sep 2018 at 5:05am
This was all very informative everyone and thank you for posting. The more I read the more impressed I am with the accomplishments of AC and the depth of their engineering.
HD16DC, Bobcat 863 Turbo, Oliver 1855, John Deere 855,
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote shameless dude Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Sep 2018 at 11:32pm
i'm eager to learn too!
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Reindeer View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Reindeer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Sep 2018 at 5:44pm
Sounds like you have gone or are going to  Kiruna, Sweden.  The iron mine of Sweden. 
My daughter and son in law lived about an hour north west of Kiruna for a year while she did a post doctorate on permafrost.
I visited once, and my wife had an extended stay when the volcano in Iceland blew up after she got over there.  Bit of an adventure.  One week turned into three weeks of visiting.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SteveMaskey(MO) Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Sep 2018 at 10:39am
When I worked for Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical in their Mexico Missouri fire brick plant they had a Allis Chalmers Rotary Kiln. It is long gone now but I still have the shaded glasses that you used to look at the material as it was coming down it. Still remember the 10 gauge on the tripod to shoot the clay balls with
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SteveM C/IL Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Oct 2018 at 11:43pm
Steve,please explain the deal with blasting clay balls.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DMiller Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Oct 2018 at 7:26am
Probably similar to the shotguns in the power stations, used to bust up the big chunks that refused to break up in the mills, at the coal power plants they use similar to break up sl*g hangs that refuse to cut loose.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SteveMaskey(MO) Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Oct 2018 at 8:51am
Sometimes when you let it get to hot the material rolls into a ball and as it comes down the kiln it gets bigger and bigger. If you don’t bust it up it will destroy the burner which is at the outlet. The shell has a zinc load because lead or steel would contaminate. The shades clip on to hard hat
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SteveMaskey(MO) Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Oct 2018 at 9:00am
Here is the shell
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CAL(KS) View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote CAL(KS) Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Oct 2018 at 9:30am
interesting!

Me -C,U,UC,WC,WD45,190XT,TL-12,145T,HD6G,HD16,HD20

Dad- WD, D17D, D19D, RT100A, 7020, 7080,7580, 2-8550's, 2-S77, HD15
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Wizner85 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Nov 2018 at 10:01am
Do you live near the New Idria mine site in CA?  They had 4 gould rotary vessels that processed a rock for mercury.  There is a guy who took some nice photos of the plant in 2004, but the place is off limits now.  Love these old pieces of equipment. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Wizner85 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Nov 2018 at 10:02am
Calvin - I'd love to see the picks of the literature.  If you're interested in selling it let me know .
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Wizner85 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Nov 2018 at 10:06am
Hey Reindeer - I've been to Kiruna several times.  They have 4 iron ore processing kilns there.  Oldest 1967 - Newest 2008.  The newest kiln is 24 feet or so in diameter and 180 feet long.  The Riding Ring that the kiln rotates on is 4.5 feet wide, 3 feet thick and 30 feet diameter - I think it weighed 190 tons or so.  The roller for that kiln is 5 feet wide and 8 feet in diameter.  Allis Chalmers made massive pieces of equipment for mining.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote allis g Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Dec 2018 at 10:16pm
Wizner no Ray isn't near New Idra neither am I. It's about 75 miles from here.  Lots of real strange people running around up there though. Used to be a drug rehab place.  Like Ray said nothing grows around the Mercury mines.  Sad part is most of them are hazerdus waste sites now. Feds want them cleaned up and wet the land owners to pay for it when it was the feds that wanted the mercury for the war effort during WWII.  Friend has an old mine on his ranch but doesn't talk about it, the entrance was blasted shut and bulldozed over years ago. Lucky for him.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ray54 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Dec 2018 at 8:19pm
The biggest of the  oldest workings west of Paso Robles Ca is the Klauit started back in the 1800's. I do not have a copy of book that has time line for it. Worked for several years when price of mercury was up and then left for years at a time. Only to be reopened until prices were to low for profit. My first observation would of been 57 and all buildings had been razzed and equipment removed.

But a 1/4 mile east the Buena Vista mine was just getting started good. I believe all crushers and retort/furnace were all new in the mid 1950's. It was complete new operation. All open pit until about 1964. Operation ceased about 1970. I believe the summer of 72 they processed remaining stock piles of ore.


The operator of the Buena Vista bought the Klau works in the 1960's. There was some work there high grading old ore and processing dirt from around the old production site. 


In the 1970's there was a bit of work to control runoff which was all very high acid. In the 1990's EPA took a much bigger hand in things. By 2000 it had been declared a SUPER FUND site. EPA removed all processing equipment, and place all tailings back up the hill in the old pit. Making a bigger mess than ever before by the adjoining property owners reckoning.  But there is a lot of trees and brush growing again on parts the had been bare until now.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Wizner85 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Apr 2019 at 10:24pm
Hey - I have been digging around in the files lately and ran across some nice Allis Chalmers photos of the equipment I work on.  I'm actually going to Minneapolis in 3 weeks for a conference to be held on Iron Ore Pellet Plants - which AC originally supplied.  I will be talking about the Rotary Kilns mostly...
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mikez Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Apr 2019 at 10:39pm
Awesome thanks for sharing.back when we built things
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote JohnCO Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Apr 2019 at 1:25pm
There is an article in the Feb 2019 issue of Car & Driver magazine about all the vintage American cars that (mostly) guys own in Kiruna.  Summers are nice but I don't think I could handle the winters there, 90 miles above the Arctic Circle.  Of course most of the mine is 4,500' below ground and they drive to work, takes 15 minutes once they enter the mine tunnel.  They have 300 miles of paved road underground in the mine and the temp is 78 degrees.  Doesn't sound that bad but I don't like being underground, much less nearly a mile down!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Wizner85 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 May 2019 at 3:12pm
I was in Kiruna last week. They drive their old American cars around on a Thursday. Saw at least 20 1950s-60s cars. All chromed uo and polished.

I prefer winter because there is more to do. Skiing snow mobili g fishing etc.
Summer time everyone leaves Kiruna for their vacations and the town is pretty dead except for Kiruna fest. Now that is a good time.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote wade89 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 May 2019 at 12:25pm
Pictures are pretty cool. #1 and 2 in that picture are gone but I did a 16 day shutdown on line 3 a couple months back.
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