[Stoves] Small Scale Charcoal/Ash Screening

Ray Menke ray.menke at gmail.com
Mon Jan 1 10:09:50 CST 2018


I use a cone made from expanded metal lath, like used for stucco.  The
ashes and char are shoveled out of the wood stove into a large stainless
bowl and carried outside via a basement door.  Then I pour in as much water
as I can, and stir it up.  Later, I empty the bowl into a five gallon
plastic bucket, add more water, stir it up, and pour the thin slurry
through the cone.  The ashes and char less than about 1/4" go into the
second bucket.  (Repeat if necessary.) After this bucket sits for a day or
so, there is clear water on top, which is poured off, leaving the ash/small
char which is poured into a 40 gallon plastic barrel out in the yard.  The
charcoal is added to a pile in the yard.  It will be dried, screened, and
bagged for later use.
I'm looking for an use for these ashes in the barrel.  One idea is to mix
some in with Portland Cement, but how much to add?  Another idea is
aircrete, where Dawn soap is made into a foam and mixed into concrete.
Perhaps the ashes could be added to the mix and the result could be used as
a "cast in place" lightweight insulator.  Any idea if this would work?

​

On Mon, Jan 1, 2018 at 9:02 AM, <Woodstoves56 at juno.com> wrote:

> I burn wood for heating the house using an EPA certified fireplace
> insert.   The wood species is mostly ash, and hardwoods.  The burning wood
> rests on an insulated firebrick bed located in the bottom of the stove.
> After the stove has cooled overnight, there is a mix of approximately 2/3
> ashes to 1/3 charcoal left.
>
>
>
> I found that an easy way to screen the ashes from the charcoal is by using
> a cylindrical mesh cone.  The mesh material is ¼” galvanized hardware
> cloth.  The top opening measures 12” in diameter, the length is 24” which
> tapers to a closed point on the bottom.  The cone can be easily made by
> drawing a template onto the flat wire mesh, cutting out the pattern, and
> rolling it into a cone shape.  I used bent steel wire pieces to clip the
> edges together.
>
>
>
> The cone is filled 2/3 with the ash/charcoal mixture.  Using one hand on
> each side of the cone top, the cone is shaken vertically until all of the
> ash and charcoal fines fall through the screen.  (Usually takes about 30
> seconds)  The remaining screened charcoal  is dumped from the cone into a
> fireproof sealed charcoal receptacle. (Just in case there are any live
> coals in the mix).  The charcoal is dry and ready for use.
>
>
>
> This simple method works well.  I have yielded several hundred pounds of
> charcoal per heating season.  The char is good value and smokeless, used
> for cooking and grilling.   The charcoal pieces are usually 1” or less in
> size, so a ¼” stainless steel mesh is used as a fire grate inside the
> charcoal stoves and grills that are used for cooking.
>
>
>
> I would be interested to hear how others process their stove “tailings” …..
>
>
>
>
>
> Jim T.
>
>
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-- 
Ray  Menke
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