Powder

GaryFerg wrote:Does anyone make a covered shovel? Like with a hinged cover to hold the ash in while shoveling. That's the key hold your ash while shoveling!

my stove has a try that pulls out and I dump it.

Midnightmadman:

You stated that the dust was grey in color. When I first started burning my Jotul 507 I had grey dust all over the living room where the stove is located. I thought it was fly ash, however, after paying attention to the stove I found out that it wasn't fly ash as my fly ash was a dark brown color; it was coal dust. I was not being careful and mindful of the dust I was creating while loading the stove or bringing coal into the house. I no longer bring the bags of coal into the house and dump them into my coal bucket; I fill the bucket outside and I am careful when shoveling the coal from the bucket into the stove. Once I started this practice I no longer had grey dust. As far as fly ash in the house if you have a good fire going the draft will pull the fly ash up into the stove and not out the ash door. I pull my ash pan back even with the door opening and by doing this it makes the door opening smaller yet I can still see the grates. By doing this I do not get any ash falling out the door or fly ash. All fly ash is pulled up into the stove. As far as your wood working, your probably getting wood dust into the house. As an owner operator of a high end wood furniture shop I deal with the fine wood dust your creating in your garage. The only wood I have ever worked with that can create a grey like dust is purple heart. There are a couple of other exotic hard woods that might possibly create the grey dust, however, I still believe that your grey dust is a very fine layer of coal dust. I'm not saying I know anything or that this is your problem or will solve your problem; this is just my experience with my coal burning setup.

the snowman.

hmm. I am working with maple plywood.

midnightmadman:

So, what is the maple plywood telling you it wants to be made into?

the snowman

Gary - as pointed out by others, I open then door a bit when shaking, gets rid of a lot of "dust" also if I may - Shovel??
Our stoves both came with an ash pan to catch the ashes- the ashes are the dumped into an ash tote. Both are matched in size, if you wait until the ashes are cold, there is almost no dust when they slide out of the ash pan into the tote.
Best, Baldeagle

I've got the coal and the burning down pretty good, the ash disposal not quite. My ash pan fits into a spackle bucket, I can pull it out and gently place it in a spackle bucket without much dust. I have tried to cover the bucket with an old t shirt and withdraw the pan, helps a little. I've taken the pan and bucket outside all at once too. My little place is pretty dusty. Speaking of which, I better go dump a panfull....

I think my shop vac may be a big part of the problem. I put a new filter in a couple months ago but I have a feeling when I clean up and around the ash door its being blown back out of the vac and I cant see it until it settles... anyone else have this happen"?

MidnightMadman: You have got another post going about difficulty keeping a fire going past 3 days or so. Is there any chance you have had 1 or more fires you have not been able to revive and had to shovel out all of the partially burned coals, then sweep or vacuum up If so this could be a big source of ash all over your house

Disregard previous post, it's Mountainman that posted about the short burn times, it looked like Midnightmadman after a few beers

The point still holds though, that if folks are shoveling out partially burned coals expect a mess