Pagey said:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/31452/
That is a real nice idea that you had ,pagey.
For people without welders, a split aluminum tube or brass, copper or steel & a couple of machine screws, 8x 32 or 10 x 32 with nuts and lock washers will do the fastening of the handle.
Here is how. Cut a slot down the center of the pipe with a hack saw about 4 to 6 inch long & force this over the grill rods of the ash sifting box & then bang it somewhat flat with a hammer or squeze it flat with a big vise grip or water pump plier. Drill a couple of holes for the nuts & bolts & you have a handle affixed without welding.
The box pagey shows in his thread looks much similar to a deep fry basket & I have seen similar stuff in chinese dollar stores.
& it also reminds me of a basket that you may get with a dish washer to put odd shaped utensils in for the dish washing cycle. So you might want to look at your old busted up dishwasher or try an appliance store to buy a new one to make into an ash sifter.
You can also make one up out of 1/4 inch square steel chicken wire but my will probably have to add some sheet metal stiffining supports.
It seems to me that the only place that you would care to sift these ashes for unburned charcoal is inside the stove so that the draft from the flue will suck up the ash that always floats in the air, thereby keeping it away from you.
I hate breathing that ash or getting it on my face or hands.
Another idea I had about this is to take a flat (ash transport) shovel of a size to fit into your stove & cut out a portion of the bottom of the schovel
(& here to do, this use a sheet
metal cutter if it is a sheet metal schovel or an electric schroll saw or jig saw with a metal cutting hack saw blade if it is a heavy gague steel schovel.
bolt down some 1/4 inch square chicken wire screen across the hole that you just cut out in the bottom of the schovel.
then you bend a 1/4 inch or 3/8th inch lip across the front of the shovel mouth ,using a vise, pliers & a hammer & some yankee injun-new-wity.(creative spelling,too!)
The lip is small enough to allow you to shovel the coals into the schovel but big enough to keep the coals inside the schovel when you are shacking the schovel side to side or tapping it against the inside of the stove, to shift out the ashes.
Be careful not to tape the schovel against any brick stove liners because they(creamic bricks) crack & break real easy, even when you don't bang stuff against them.
So here is your Project Impossible, Mr. Phelips, should you choose to accept it.
You computer will now self destruct within the next 6 seconds so that this vital information does not fall into the wrong hands!
(not really,just kidding, your computer will be fine!)
You however, will self destruct, at some time in the future.
We sometimes call that old age.
In the mean time , enjoy sifting your ash. :coolsmile:
