Re-Vamping Shaker Grates in USSC Furnace

hello again, after all the help you all gave me im gonna try to give help! been running good for a few weeks, but had to break down once or twice cause the back and only the back of the fire box wound die out and everything I did would not bring it back to life. found out it was a lot of ash building up in it. then I found out the male and female ends that the 2 grates slid into to make one had A LOT of slop in it, the back would not move nearly as much as the front. so I took a drill, drilled a hole in the male and female taking care that I did not drill through the cradle that the female end lays in the framework. I did not have a roll pin, so I inserted a cotter pin, worked just as good. I also slid smaller cotter pins in between the male and female to make the connection even tighter. what ya all think? have any of you guys ran into this problem? let me know

Hi Mudman,

There's more than one way to skin a cat! I'm wondering how long that cotter pin will last? Had a similar situation with my Harman SF160. The connection of the shaker handle to the connecting rod came loose so that you couldn't shake the grats at all, so I drill a small hole both rod and shaft and put in a 8/32 screw and nut. It lasted one week and sheered right off, then I drilled it out for a 1/4" screw and put in a grade 8 - 1/4-20 bolt. So far that has been holding up fine.

Good luck
JB

The shaker grate stub to socket, it's a squared of stub and square socket right? You can file the stub nice and square, then insert pieces of steel shim, like pieces of feeler guage [they are very hard steel] or shims cut from 20 gauge or 18 gauge stock... This will fill the gap and tighten up the slop without drilling a hole and putting a shear on the pin or bolt.. the flat shim will not shear or wear very fast.

Hope this helps.. Greg L

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very good points guys! just like anything, its a learning curve. if it fails I will try a grade 8 shear pin we use on our round baler at the farm. or even try the shim that lsfarm suggested. anyone else ever have these problems??????

You could wrap a piece of shim around the end of the stub, postion it so that it would ride on the flats that do not have the cotter pin or roll pin. Force the stub into the socket, and put in the roll pin.. reducing or eliminating the slop will make the pin last longer before it shears..

Hope this helps..

Greg L

I have had this problem also when I first got my furnace.I bought spare grates and now I "match" them so they don't have so much slop.Some of the grates I have vary so much that I had to grind the male end so they would fit together.The grates and grate holders are a poor design with these furnaces.Cast iron is so cheap that you think they could come up with something that works better and doesn't vary so much.I even ground down the grates so they would swing more.I found that if they swing about 1.5" up and down the shake down is much EZer.As I sit here tonight I'm looking at Woodsmen parts to see if I could modify some other grates for my furnace.BTW Clayton uses a better grate system but they won't fit the hotblast (side shaker).
DON

If you use a roll pin, make sure the split in it is aimed to the side of the grate (the split should be aimed at the direction of travel/torque load) and not aligned with it lengthwise. If aligned lengthwise it will "spring" when shaking and fail much sooner.

so far all is good. ashes shake down a lot better. if I ever have to break down the fire I might replace the cotter pin with somethin else

well shoot. now I gotta break down the fire, AGAIN, and take the grates to my friend who is a welder. went to shake it down this mourning and the square shaft that comes out to connect the handle to it broke right off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love this furnace, but hate these shaker grates. good thing he has nickle weld rod for the cast!

I broke the nub off on one of my grates also.Welding doesn't work so well with cast iron.If you heat the grate and nub red hot and then weld it, it might work better.
DON

Cast should be heated to about 800* prior to welding. Heat the whole thing up evenly, the larger heated mass will help it's temp come down very slow. If it cools quickly the weld will be prone to fracture.

I have an Ashley ASA7 -USSC 4027 front loader that seems to be exactly as you describe as far as the slop goes. I really have to dump the front shaker to make the rear shaker move. I am going to let it slide for the season and straighten it out over the summer. Other than that my stove burns like an angry dragon.

Bushman