Hello all, I'm new here... my first post. I have been working hot iron for a couple of years now but on others coal forges. I just bought a used Centaur forge with a nice cast iron pot, but the tywere damper or "clinker breaker" was missing. Working from pretty vague pictures and sketches I fabed one in the shape of a three winged "ball". My question is, will this work OK? what was the original like? a simple solid triangle shaped ball or a winged ball like I made? Or something completely different. I'll try and post a couple of pix too. Thanks for looking.
Joe B

They sell replacements.

That sure looks like a clinker breaker to me!

That's a fine 3-sided unit. What I would question is..
Can air get through it to feed the forge? My turn of the century 3 sided ball covers about half of the air opening.
Are the wings too long? They probably are, but will burn down in short order. You may get some false readings of burning your work up(sparklers), and it will be the long edges of the wings trimming themselves down.
I would drill and tap at least 1/4 inch set screws into it. use lots of high temp neverseize on the threads. The allen heads will guaranteed burn off, so you will have to weld nuts to the burnt setscrew pegs to get them out. Not a big deal, I end up doing that to mine every couple years or so.
You did a good job. I'm not cutting you down at all. This piece will see a lot of bad days, you can expect it to take some abuse. Have fun with it.

Thanks for the input. What Mike said .... Ya' I suspected that I was covering too much of the throat. I'll cut the size down some before trying. As of set screws, I had planned to pin it to the shaft with a stainless steel pin.
Joe B

I don't have a clinker breaker in mine, just slots in a plate, works fine. I have no sign of any burning after 4-5 years of use. But that's a fine looking clinker breaker and it should be fine and now you know how to make one. Good luck.

Look at Centaur forge's website, there are some pictures of both types of breakers.

Phil