Built a new ash shovel

I've got the standard department store 3 piece stove/fireplace tool set. Had it for years. I've always hated that stupid little ash shovel. What should be a 1 minute job turns into 10 minutes. My plans for today got cancelled, so I figured it was time to rectify this little annoyance.

First step was to cut a fire brick to size to get rid of that little ash hole/drawer plug ear in my 30NC so the bottom of the stove doesn't have that stupid cleaning obstruction in the bottom of it. I never use it anyway. Second...build a shovel that isn't the size of a child's beach toy.

1/2" round solid handle. a piece of 20 gauge sheet metal. a piece of 1/8" 1 1/2" angle iron to support the back, and a piece of 1/8" flat bar for the leading edge. All pieces of scrap that I've picked up off various job sites. Paint er flat black...done. I put the shovel from my 3 piece set beside it for size comparison. Ignore the welding job. My mig welder isn't exactly the best machine for doing anything with thin sheet metal...and I don't claim to be a great welder. LOL.

 

Nice job , bigger and prettier than mine

 

Nice work! I tend to find that the tools we really need are not usually made and available to purchase. So, you modify or make what you need.

I need to find an ash shovel at a yard sale/ CL whatever, and cut the bottom out and weld in a wire mesh so I can separate the ashes from the coals.

 

Wow, that's like the Cat D9 of the ash shovel world!

 

Scotty Overkill made one like that

 

Exactly. It's the perfect tool for that job.

 

The cat's ash?

Lol

 

Oh you’re in business now!

 

I like the long handle on yours. I'm currently using this hamburger spatula. It’s chromed..... sorta.

 

I made something like that and found that it made so much dust while using it that i reverted to just stirring the hell out of the ash in the stove so the coals would come to the top.... less messy.

 

Yeah, maybe. I think a little tweak might keep the ash down. Instead of lifting up the coals, maybe make it at more like a rake. As in the wire mesh is the tines of the rake, and you just pull the coal rake forward. Then all the ash stays in back and can then be shoveled out.

 

I am planning on using my ash pan this year. I used it for the first time and was amazed at how little fly ash came out raking it down through the hole. My Madison has a cast iron plug for the hole. Last year I would shovel the ash from the stove into a pan; and no matter how careful I was to take the shovel to the ash in the pan and very slowly slid the ash off the shovel I saw fly ash floating around. Then there was the times I would hit the coal lip on the front of the stove.

 

I emptied the stove for the first time today since building the super ash shovel. 2 scoops, and she was clean. I did have to up the size of my ammo can (ash can). Fortunately, I had one that's longer than average with locks on both ends. The lid lifts right off. The whole scooping out operation took less than a minute...closer to 30 seconds I'd say. I love it when things work as designed.

 

Now thats a shovel !

 

Old shovels never die , who needs a handle anyway