Getting the Ashes Outside

My ash pan doesn't hold much, so I usually have more in the pan than I should. Plus, it's usually too hot to handle and I have to get an outside door open. So, I created a lid with folded down edges for the pan. This allows me to cover the pan, let it sit until it cools and keeps the dust from blowing all over, while I'm getting to the door.

You must be emptying that ash pan a few times a day. A cover is a good idea. I use welding gloves to empty my pan so I don't have to wait for it to cool.

You did a nice job bending up the cover, why not make a second ash pan, to swap with the full and hot one. Then you can let pan cool before taking it outside.

Greg L

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So far, I only take it out about once a day. I forget, whether I was taking it out more often last year or not. Maybe, when it gets colder.

An additional pan would be a good idea!

The weather has gotten ahead of me. The "dusting" seems to have gotten beyond and gone to an "advisory"!

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Holy cow! I've been looking at the weather on my desktop on and off all day, according to that it should be snowing like mad here. I thought it wasn't true 'till I saw your photo.

Oh it is True I have 5 to 6 inches out there on the trucks
I am looking for my shovel & firing up the snow blower soon
I am not ready for this yet

It's true, we have it here now, abt. 3 to 4 inches, no shoveling, though. The temps going up and mother nature will take care of it.

"Hauling Ash" is the bain of our existences, ain't it?

I agree with Greg; fabricate another bin so you can do a quick swap and let 'er cool.

My stoker furnace grate empties into 17" square x 11" high (~2 ft3, ~15 gal) galvanized ash bins. Depending on how full I let them get, it's between 30 and 45# of ash coming out. (That's the yield from 180-250# of fuel input, so 15-20% by weight is my operating ash:fuel ratio. Because my unit is a stoker, the ash contains noticeable amounts of unburnt coal (which pissed me off last year but I'm over it now ), so FWIW that's a misleading number for evaluating the ash content of my fuel.)

Anyhow, last year, I used 3 mil contractor bags, into which I could dump two bins of ash. And it's not recyclable here, so it goes out with the regular trash. But 90# of ash in a plastic bag is, well, a pain in the ash, so I think I'm going to go to cheaper bags this year and use one per bin-full.

I think we've kicked this around before, but what can be done with large quantities of coal ash? It's one thing if you're on a farm or have a gravel road that you can fill holes in, but does anybody know what our ancestors did with their ash when coal was commonly burnt in the cities?

stockingfull wrote:
does anybody know what our ancestors did with their ash when coal was commonly burnt in the cities?

Thats a good question, I never really thought about that.

I'm filling a metal garbage can to keep at the top of my driveway to use for a traction aid, it's a gravel driveway anyhow so it's all good I guess.

I can attest that coal ash makes an excellent cover for ice.

Filling potholes in the roadway was a common use. After it gets wet, it hardens rather nicely. There is a thread from last year that mentions mixing it with a bit of Portland cement for making a good base for paving, as well as for making cinderblocks for construction. Not as durable as cement blocks, though.

I fill up a 5 gallon galvanized ash pail and dump it on my property away from the house where it's overgrown. I do the same with wood fire ashes. By the spring I end up with a bunch of ash mounds, I knock them down with the blade on the tractor.

I also fill low spots in the yard, and use it to get the tractor up the slight incline to the wood shed when it's icy. I have a gravel driveway but I don't spread the ash on it, if all that ash got tracked into the house...well...you probably know what would happen to me.

stockingfull wrote:I think we've kicked this around before, but what can be done with large quantities of coal ash? It's one thing if you're on a farm or have a gravel road that you can fill holes in, but does anybody know what our ancestors did with their ash when coal was commonly burnt in the cities?

Well I didn't grow up in a big city, but in a small northwestern NJ town. Most homes were two stories on a small lot. Coal ashes were put out in buckets for pickup twice a week. They were emptied by hand into a small dump truck. The town saved the ashes until the next snow storm when they were loaded on the same truck and spread on the roads for traction. A guy in the partially raise dump bed just hand shoveled them where needed. In Spring those living at the bottom of the hill had a good collection well re-cycled coal ashes. The same truck and the same workers loaded the ashes one more time, this time to be used for fill on the road to the towns dump. Talk about re-cycling!

Yanche wrote:

stockingfull wrote:I think we've kicked this around before, but what can be done with large quantities of coal ash? It's one thing if you're on a farm or have a gravel road that you can fill holes in, but does anybody know what our ancestors did with their ash when coal was commonly burnt in the cities?

Well I didn't grow up in a big city, but in a small northwestern NJ town. Most homes were two stories on a small lot. Coal ashes were put out in buckets for pickup twice a week. They were emptied by hand into a small dump truck. The town saved the ashes until the next snow storm when they were loaded on the same truck and spread on the roads for traction. A guy in the partially raise dump bed just hand shoveled them where needed. In Spring those living at the bottom of the hill had a good collection well re-cycled coal ashes. The same truck and the same workers loaded the ashes one more time, this time to be used for fill on the road to the towns dump. Talk about re-cycling!

What town was that, may I ask?

John from a small n/w New Jersey town.