Ho Ho Ho Green Giant you're not so tall.... Oh, wait....Hooooooe..... like Hacksaw Jim Dugan? Yes HD... I was just waiting for someone to handle the item a little more tenderly than I normally would-
I made mine out of a garden rake. I have a side loader so I had to reconfigure it a little. I would think with a front loader, you could leave it as is, just shorten the handle to suit you.
I've been using a kids snow shovel as a dustpan in the workshop for years. Finding a metal kids rake may be a challenge though. Probably metal with wood handle will be the best?
That's what I use, a kid's garden rake, see first post in this thread, I paid 10 bucks for mine, ordered it from a local Ace Hardware, AmesĀ® Kid's Garden Rake (KGRM) - Rakes - Ace Hardware Amazon.com : True Temper Kids Garden Rake - KGRM : Ames True Temper Real Tools For Kids : Patio, Lawn & Garden
I bought a cheap stove shovel and put it in my vise. It turned out like in the pic I found, its the bottom shovel in the pic. I push ash and coals back like a bulldozer and pull hot coals forward with it. Works great and is cheap as end of year sales at like a tractor supply you can get those shovels for a couple bucks.
I use a standard size garden hoe (Easy Boys! Note the 'e'). That way I can stand back away from the stove while raking the coals and ashes back and forth. The end of the hoe is flat and does not have slots but I do not really need them as the grate sifts the ashes out anyway. I did try a much smaller, real stove tool rake but it was too small and the handle was much too short; when the stove is full of coals I just cannot get that close to the stove without getting a sunburn. Brian