Hi Y'all--
A while back I was whining about getting ash all over the place when having to clean out a stove with live embers and lots of heat, etc., etc. etc. I ended up going to Sears to buy a 20 foot, 2 1/2" hose--cost about $25.00. What I do now is put my shop vac out on the patio, run the hose in to the house through the patio door (pushed to) and over to the stove and put the water pickup attachment on the end (it's like a big upholstery "brush", but without any bristles--y'all know which one!). I have a 10-gallon galvanized bucket with lid. I open the stove and start scooping while I hold the end of the hose and attachment about 1/3 in from the side, level with the opening. I don't even have to be very careful. If any ash is generated, the suction from the vac pulls it in. What, if any, falls off between the door and the bucket, which is only about 6", gets sucked back into the stove by the draft, BTW, I close the draft damper all the way to make all the draft goes through the door, thus pulling the fugitive ash back in the stove. I wear an LED headlight when I do this, so if any ash DID escape, I would for sure see it. Before using the vac, this headlight showed all sorts of ash coming off the hot coals and settling on everything, which did not make Lynda happy, but she accepted it as part of the warm she was enjoying, so it wasn't bothering her as much as it bothered me. So, anyways, this works well. Any ash that might make it out the exhast of the vac is outdoors and "gone with the wind" as it were. After removing all the ash, I vac up any ash or general wood debris lying about and all is tidy once more. The only caution is that you will want the vac hose and attachment toward the edge of the container, leaving yourself room to dump shovelfuls of ash so that they won't be sucked directly into the vac. Once I dump the load, I move the attachment to the center of the bucket opening and face it down just a tad. Haven't sucked anything live in yet, but I could see a great fire out in the vac if you sucked a live one in and there was anything combustible in it already. SO, try it, you'll like it, but be careful, as always. It's so simple, even a woodburner, er, uh a caveman can do it. :lol:
A while back I was whining about getting ash all over the place when having to clean out a stove with live embers and lots of heat, etc., etc. etc. I ended up going to Sears to buy a 20 foot, 2 1/2" hose--cost about $25.00. What I do now is put my shop vac out on the patio, run the hose in to the house through the patio door (pushed to) and over to the stove and put the water pickup attachment on the end (it's like a big upholstery "brush", but without any bristles--y'all know which one!). I have a 10-gallon galvanized bucket with lid. I open the stove and start scooping while I hold the end of the hose and attachment about 1/3 in from the side, level with the opening. I don't even have to be very careful. If any ash is generated, the suction from the vac pulls it in. What, if any, falls off between the door and the bucket, which is only about 6", gets sucked back into the stove by the draft, BTW, I close the draft damper all the way to make all the draft goes through the door, thus pulling the fugitive ash back in the stove. I wear an LED headlight when I do this, so if any ash DID escape, I would for sure see it. Before using the vac, this headlight showed all sorts of ash coming off the hot coals and settling on everything, which did not make Lynda happy, but she accepted it as part of the warm she was enjoying, so it wasn't bothering her as much as it bothered me. So, anyways, this works well. Any ash that might make it out the exhast of the vac is outdoors and "gone with the wind" as it were. After removing all the ash, I vac up any ash or general wood debris lying about and all is tidy once more. The only caution is that you will want the vac hose and attachment toward the edge of the container, leaving yourself room to dump shovelfuls of ash so that they won't be sucked directly into the vac. Once I dump the load, I move the attachment to the center of the bucket opening and face it down just a tad. Haven't sucked anything live in yet, but I could see a great fire out in the vac if you sucked a live one in and there was anything combustible in it already. SO, try it, you'll like it, but be careful, as always. It's so simple, even a woodburner, er, uh a caveman can do it. :lol:
I'm sure I could cobble together something to do it though... 
