I never use the ash pan in my stove. It's dinky and useless. The "plug" in the floor of the stove is essentially a small steel plate with a loop protruding into the firebox. It makes raking coals and shoveling ash a pain. Is there anything wrong with just flipping that plug over so the floor of the stove is relatively smooth? Is there any reason I should actually be using the ash pan? As opposed to just shoveling out the ashes as needed and carefully transferring them into a bucket? I currently use a 1 gallon galvanized bucket and dump the ash into an abandoned armadillo hole out back. If the stove was warm while cleaning and the potential for stray coals exists, I wash the ash down the armadillo hole with my water hose.
And if you're wondering how I know the armadillo hole is abandoned, see my blog post here: (broken link removed)
And if you're wondering how I know the armadillo hole is abandoned, see my blog post here: (broken link removed)