Us Stove fixes here

hey i just stumbled across this thread and figured i would break it out of the wood work. this is my second year burning coal. i really enjoy the hotblast. i have not had any problem burning coal in it, except for the stupid grates. a few nites ago had a few buddies in the basement with a few beers, and i was loading with coal, shaking, and all that. they were intrigued with coal. they were watching the game at the table and i went over and gave her a shake. they hit the deck when i threw the handle across the room and screamed. broke the front stub off. not the first time. probably more like the third time in just over a season. not good
brings me to my next point. i also poke and slide from underneath with a small rod steel poker i made. i did this to limp it along till the weather warmed up outside. as i poked and slid, and after some liquid encouragement with my friends, i had a brainstorm . what if i made these grates a slide type of grates, kinda like the big brother "clayton 1600?" the stove is cooling down now, in gonna do this tonignt. i will be sure to take pictures of my progress and post with my blackberry phone. my thought is taking my poker and "stabbing" it through the hole in the center holes of the grates. the poker is now the handle. if i can cut out some of the grates with my sawzall or something, anything to make the grates slide front to back an inch i think this would work. what are your thoughts and comments? and dont worry, no beer till i am done.

well went a different route. when i got looking, to make a long story short i saved myself a lot of work and thought of a different and better solution. i simply spun the grates around so the female end of the grate is exposed. i then went to my shop and looked for something close to 5/8 square stock. didnt have, so i took a large bolt and ground it on my grinder to 5/8 square. slid it into my handle, bam, now have a handle for a male end. i think this will have more meat to grab onto. way i look at it is if the female ends are not breaking off and the male ends are, should be good? what is everyones input . burning wood now in it, it is slightly warmer out, 35 and rain tonight, will post more when i start burning coal again.
john

update: i used it just a little to shake down some wood ash i had and to expose the 2 shovels full of coals i put into the fire last nite to keep the fire going. it has a much tighter fit than the old way. before the hanlde had a lot of slop between the handle and the nub. thats a lot of tourque, not only with the 70 or 80 pounds of coal, but that constant slop being chucked back and forth. i think this will work.
John

another update: been burning a week now and i think this might be a great fix to the ongoing saga of us hotblast users. this should be the ticket! other than farting around with these shaker grates this has really been a great stove for me. i suggest to all hotblast owners either wait until ya break off the first nub or break it off yourself and spin them around. some more grate suggestions:
1. drill and tap where in the middle section and screw a few studs in so the slop comes out of the 2 grates where they join.
2. use short, choppy motions to bring that ash down.
3. make a poker to poke underneath and after every other shake or so poke and slide back and forth till you see a nice orange glow.
4. cut off the back of the ash pan so you can scoop up the ash that falls behind the pan and scoop up ash after you do your pokes from underneath the fire.
5. season the grates in either an oven or by making 5 kindling fires, first one a small, then slightly bigger and bigger

you really need a good draft with these suckers. USSC suggests a draft between .05 and .06 measured by a correctly cabrated manometer. i have one constantly hooked up so i can check it when its 30 degrees out or 30 below.
i use a manual damper when using wood. if you do also make sure the manual damper is before the baro. also when buring wood i take the baro off and insert a piece of sheet metal cut in a perfect circle into the baro tee and set the actual baro flapper aside. burning wood with the baro will gum up with creosote, throwing off calibration.
so dont get discouraged.
trust me, last year i was ready to throw this furnace on craigslist and just get rid of it with all the problems i had. but with the help of this great forum and charles (thanks a lot) i was able to get this thing down to a science.
so how has all you hotblast owners doing? lets hear some feedback! stay warm, worked outside today in 15 degree weather and house is 72, and the blower fans are off.
John

Here are pics of what I ve done. Female end sticking out instead of the male end. I made a new shaker handle a while ago, old one broke. All I did was ground down a bolt and made square on both ends to accept new design