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[DaveWertz]

Hey All!
I have some warped shaker grates in my H4, I got new replacements I am just wondering are these difficult to change yourself? I noticed the bottom grates have a bow to them, these are designed to just be flipped over correct. 

What kind of cleaning do you guys do to your stoves  i.e. As of cleaning soot from inside, how often are you pulling your ashes after they fall to bottom of stove. I have just been leveling mine out so they can act as an insulator, not sure if it helps or not lol. New to the OWB so I have tons of questions I hope I can get some nice info from the vets. Thanks fellas.

[Brauma]

I'm new to OWF too. New to this board as well. Hopefully this is an active forum and someone will answer all your questions (all of our questions).

I've only been using my H2 for two months so I'm still figuring it out. But I will say that as far as ashes go, I have been raking them forward, spreading them out as I go. I scoop out about two shovels full of coals about every 4th day right at the door. I try not to remove any chunks or glowing embers - I just want to remove ash. And the ash is like powder - very fine.

I burn a mixture of wood: pine, poplar, locust, dogwood, cedar, and oak.

[jd40mo77]

to rake out the ashes I built a pretty handy "tool" out of 3/4" galv. conduit about 6 foot long and welded a piece of approx. 1" angle iron about a foot long to the end of it.............you can just rake all the ashes out...........then I found a piece of old guttering off of a large metal bldg. about 1 1/2 foot long to catch the ashes............then you station a 55 gal. metal drum to dump them into....

[AirForcePOL]

I don't know much about the shaker grates but with the normal grates the warped ones can just be flipped over like you mentioned.  To prevent them from warping in the future try to keep the ashes from piling up too close to the grates. I would leave at least 2 inches between the grates and ashes. 

It sounds like you are doing the right thing with the ashes.  That's pretty much what I do.

Welcome to the site and don't hesitate to ask questions.  There are tons of experienced people on this board who are willing to help.  Stay warm!