As many have experienced, when emptying out the stove, I get a lot of unburnt coals in the mix. This is at least 1/4 to 1/3 of the volume of what I'm emptying out of the stove. I decided to build a coal lifter / ash sifter (out of free scrap metal of course because I'm a cheapskate. ) to bring the coals up out of the ash so they'll burn. Now to build a small coal rake so I can drag them all up in front of the dog house air inlet (Englander 30NC stove) so they'll burn before I empty the ash.
Very nice! I've found this to be a challenge as well...looks like it'll do the trick perfectly. I have moving my coals to one side of the firebox, shoveling the ash out, then moving the coals to the other side so I can get that side's ashes out. Not ideal, but it works.
Ok. Just whipped up a quick coal rake too. Bent the tines on one side outward a bit so I can get back in the corners a little easier. Works pretty good. There's a glowing bed of coals right up in front of the door cooking themselves away. Sorry for the crappy pictures. This phone of mine isn't exactly a Canon SLR.
Wow. Im really liking the expanded metal sifter. Hummm....I thought I had a piece of that in the shop somewhere. Ok...Ill make dinner for the kids and if I have any motivation left, Ill fab one up. Thanks for the link TurboDiesel !!!
Looking great blacksmithden!!! Looking like something used at tbe steel mill! HDRock made a thread for this sorta thing, What y'all using for a coal rake ??
I couldnt find any expanded metal in the shop last night so I made it this way instead. It works ok, but I think expanded metal would be better. Ill see if I can scrounge a piece from my buddy. Hes a welder and we're going out to cut wood on Tuesday. Coal seperator shovel
this thread reminds me of a test that dads in the old days used. question to their sons, WHAT ARE THE THREE MAIN PARTS OF A STOVE? SILENCE from the boys. well boys it is simple, the answer is LIFTER, LEG, AND POKER! HAPPY NEW YEAR
Ok. I managed to lay my grubby mits on some 18 gauge sheets, and some rolled 1/2 and 3/4" expanded metal, as well as some raise 3/4" stuff. Unfortunately, I had saw chains to sharpen, wedges to make, and fuel to mix tonight for tomorrows dead tree carcass gathering expedition. I'll see how much energy I have left tomorrow night. If not then, then I'll make a shovel out of all 3 on Wednesday and post the results. Cheers guys !
Great job on the coal rakes blacksmithden ! I should've thought a long time ago about making one for my coal forge, that's a great idea. I am going to be at my forge in the coming weeks to make a few things for my house and for a couple of people soooo if there's enough stock leftover I think I may have to throw one of those together as well!
Sorry I didn't get on this today guys. The wood gathering expedition yesterday went a little better than expected. We bucked up enough to fill my pickup, and 1/2 my buddy's pickup. We also brought back his big tandem axel trailer HEAPING with logs. I had no idea that thing would carry that much weight. I bucked up another pickup load for me, and the rest we cut up for him. I'd say we must be in the 4 to 5 cord range all said and done. I came home tonight and split and stashed all of mine. The wood shed is again full to the brim. that'll be it for this winter for sure. Anything else we grab will be for next year. I'm sore, tired, dehydrated, and that's all there is to that story. Mrs BSD has decided that we are going on a family road trip tomorrow to Banff Alberta (google it...nice place....postcard type scenery). Just as well that I have a day off to sit and relax even if it is in a minivan. LOL. I'm still going to make up a couple more sifting shovels to try out. Once I get to it, I'll post up some pictures and the results.
All right. I've been building and modifying today. This seems to be the best design so far, so I'm going to leave it at that. I even painted it this time. The sides are 5" high, and it's 4" across, and 10" deep. The idea being, I can rock it in a rotary motion, keeping stuff from spilling out the sides. It's long enough to get a fair bit of material into, and height/width wise, I can easily rotate it to dump out the coals without hitting the baffle boards in the stove. The mesh in the bottom is 1/2-13R expanded metal. The side sheet metal is 14 gauge. The handle is just another piece of 1/2" round bar I salvaged from somewhere. The paint is cooking dry on top of the stove right now, so I held my keys up for a size reference. The second incarnation of this thing, I used 3/4-9R expanded metal (bigger holes), but it was letting too many larger crumbs fall through. I also made the sides a lot shorter on that one, and with a side to side rocking motion, I was spilling too much/wasn't going through the mesh. This seems to be achieving exactly what I wanted. I put a piece of rectangular bar on the end of the handle for something to grab onto to get the side to side rotary motion.
