It's baaaaaack. I was really hoping to not post in this thread again.
Ya, same problem...clunking...binding...slide plate gouged up. Fortunately, I knew what the fix was.
In a previous post, I stated the bottom of the hopper was making contact with the top of the slide plate. That was incorrect, the top of the slide plate was making contact with the feeder weldment.....kind of...
Going back to the previous fix, I figured I hadn't smoothed the underside lip of the feeder weldment sufficiently, and it was making contact again...until looking at the photo of the slide plate from the last time I fixed it. My freshly gouged slide plate has gouges/wear in different areas. After looking more closely, I noticed a very deep gouge that actually had a bit of rolled up metal at the end of it. You can see what I'm talking about in the pic below. As I was re-sanding the weldment, which was fairly smooth still, I noticed I was knocking abrasive particles off the emery cloth. I said, "Oh, that cant be good..sand in the stove"........then it all became clear as to why this keeps happening. SAND!
I then remembered a cleaning I did earlier this season. I opened the little door on the front of the burn pot to vacuum out the crud in there and noticed sand sitting there. Not fine beach sand, but tan and brown gravel-y sand. It was NOT carbon, though there was some in there as well. Didn't think much of at at the time as it's generally windy around here. I figured sand blew in the OAK and that's where it ended up and was no big deal.
Anyway, yep, sand in the pellets. The pellets I'm currently burning are tree to chip so the chances of getting sand in the mix are much higher than Turmans or the like.
So, after cool down and a quick and easy 15 min fix (I'm getting very good at this
) she's back up and running, quiet as can be...for now. Still have a ton and a half of those pellets left 
Ya, same problem...clunking...binding...slide plate gouged up. Fortunately, I knew what the fix was.
In a previous post, I stated the bottom of the hopper was making contact with the top of the slide plate. That was incorrect, the top of the slide plate was making contact with the feeder weldment.....kind of...
Going back to the previous fix, I figured I hadn't smoothed the underside lip of the feeder weldment sufficiently, and it was making contact again...until looking at the photo of the slide plate from the last time I fixed it. My freshly gouged slide plate has gouges/wear in different areas. After looking more closely, I noticed a very deep gouge that actually had a bit of rolled up metal at the end of it. You can see what I'm talking about in the pic below. As I was re-sanding the weldment, which was fairly smooth still, I noticed I was knocking abrasive particles off the emery cloth. I said, "Oh, that cant be good..sand in the stove"........then it all became clear as to why this keeps happening. SAND!
I then remembered a cleaning I did earlier this season. I opened the little door on the front of the burn pot to vacuum out the crud in there and noticed sand sitting there. Not fine beach sand, but tan and brown gravel-y sand. It was NOT carbon, though there was some in there as well. Didn't think much of at at the time as it's generally windy around here. I figured sand blew in the OAK and that's where it ended up and was no big deal.
Anyway, yep, sand in the pellets. The pellets I'm currently burning are tree to chip so the chances of getting sand in the mix are much higher than Turmans or the like.
So, after cool down and a quick and easy 15 min fix (I'm getting very good at this
) she's back up and running, quiet as can be...for now. Still have a ton and a half of those pellets left 
