Broken Shaker Grate Post

You are right that if you are catching pieces of coal, you are (she is) probably shaking/rocking too far. Next time if this happens, let it burn for a while instead of palm smacking it. 30 min or so and that stuck piece will burn up or be soft enough get back to neutral.

SteveZee wrote:You are right that if you are catching pieces of coal, you are (she is) probably shaking/rocking too far. Next time if this happens, let it burn for a while instead of palm smacking it. 30 min or so and that stuck piece will burn up or be soft enough get back to neutral.

Thanks for the great advise partner

Update: Got the grate in today.It took a week from US Stove company to get it to me. It showed up just in time too! It was getting increasingly more difficult to get ahold of that nub with vise grips to shake it down. I had to squeeze the vise so hard that the teeth were actually starting to flatten and smooth out which caused it was to slip off. I didn't season the new grate, since most people felt it wasn't needed. Installing wasn't very hard to figure out.
I'll be more careful this time! Don't reef on those grates!!

Lightning wrote:Update: Got the grate in today.It took a week from US Stove company to get it to me. It showed up just in time too! It was getting increasingly more difficult to get ahold of that nub with vise grips to shake it down. I had to squeeze the vise so hard that the teeth were actually starting to flatten and smooth out which caused it was to slip off. I didn't season the new grate, since most people felt it wasn't needed. Installing wasn't very hard to figure out.
I'll be more careful this time! Don't reef on those grates!!

glad you got it going again. Vise grips are great until they start to eat away at the metal, then it just starts to piss you off!

This year When I had the furnace all cleaned out I had remembered that there was a little slop between the front grate and the back grate. The back grate wouldn't rotate quite as much as the front. I pulled the grates and noticed if I put the newer one in the back that I purchased last December, they shook better since they fit more tightly together. That means the old one in the front would have to endure that torque of both grates. Well, you guessed it. I broke the post again exactly like the other one last year. (See pics Above) Lucky enough, The local Farm and Tractor Supply has one.. At least the manager said he did. Hopefully its the same one, they are for the HotBlast 1500s. I'm pretty sure they are the same.

Possibly build a new shaker handle, maybe one that is more "T" shaped promoting a twisting action not an offcenter pushing motion, like the bent handle you have.

One of mine broke in my Hitzer 983 last year. It wasn't the end like yours, but the prongs on the grate were snapping off. The previous owners used it for wood and I think it abused the heck out of the grates.

At any rate, it was so badly disfigured from the heat that I had to get in there with my Dremel and a cutting attachement and shave the metal around it to get it out. Got a new one for around $50 and it went right in. Works great now, no issues.

I am with the majority, new is probably the best route to go.

Short Bus wrote:Possibly build a new shaker handle, maybe one that is more "T" shaped promoting a twisting action not an offcenter pushing motion, like the bent handle you have.

Wow, what an excellent idea. Your right, the off center back and forth motion is putting unnecessary forces on that nipple. I never considered that. Thats probably most of the reason I'm busting them there. What I'm thinking is a handle with a left and right side to hold. One side would go up while the other side would go down, eliminating the odd forces of the single handle. I think your onto something there

Probably a tool like this.

Short Bus, I nominate YOU as my official hero of the day. I examined my handle to discover a 5/8 inch square opening on the backside as well as the front. The light bulb came on.

While picking up my new grate this morning, I hunted several stores to find some 5/8 square steel stock. Found some. I bought a foot of it. I brought it home and stuck it in the center of the orange glowing coals in the furnace. Then bent it as you see in the pics below. This will solve the problem

This is in referance to my advice, as my father was fond of saying "even a blind squirrel finds an acorn, somtimes".
Nice solution, glad to give the seed of the idea

Nice, simple fix guys--outstanding

Thanks Fred! I'm letting the coal burn down thats in the furnace since I broke the grate yesterday. I might be able to put the new grate in tomorrow sometime. I'm excited to try it. I also need to quit shaking it so hard. I must be over doing it a bit. I mean, I'm not exactly the wimpy type :box: , I'm 240 pounds and do quite a lot of lifting at work.. The first few days I had it lit, my triceps where aching lol. That should have been a red flag I'm thinking

It took 36 hours for that load of coal to burn out and I was running it a bit hot to try to hurry it up! I put the new grate in this morning. Nice to be burning again, we missed it, I mean the few hours it was down and started to cool off in here

The grate nub has lasted nearly 3 full heating seasons of abuse since installing the piece of 5/8 steel in the shaker handle to balance the twisting motion of shake down. Tonight it finally gave up. Yep.. it broke again.. but now that I'm armed with a clever solution, I hope to never have this problem again.

Tonight at shake down it broke right as I was finishing. I didn't add any fresh coal. What's left will burn thru tonight and she should be cold by 1:00pm tomorrow when I get home from work so I can perform the surgery. My plan is to turn the whole grate set around and use another piece of 5/8 inch square stock to shove into the female end of the grate which will now be accessible at the front of the furnace. The 5/8 square steel will also fit into the shaker handle.. The female end of the grate is much more substantial than the male end that broke off, so this should be a winner and won't even cost me a new grate..

I'll revisit this thread tomorrow to post pictures of how this issue hopefully won't be a problem anymore..