You know, I've seen on this site a lot about brake drum forges and 55 drum forges and such, but I want to know from what and from where can someone acquire a more professional firepot?

 

Also, while I know the old saying of "use what you have until you can get what you want" is applicable to blacksmithing, I have to ask, if you could have what you wanted, what would your perfect firepot shape, size and fuel type and material composition be?

Check out the New England Blacksmiths web site. They sell new fire pots, swages and hardie hole cones for a decent price to members, memberships are $20.

You can buy a new firepot from several places

 

John Newman of Hamilton Ontario casts them and sells them himself in Canada, he sells in the USA. His firepots are thick at around 1'' thick.

 

Roger Lawrence casts and sells them as well. He is based in the USA,  they are much cheaper of you buy directly from him. They are  also around 1'' thick

 

as stated above, New England Blacksmiths sell a firepot as well. There's is also 1'' thick.

 

I believe all of the above have roughly the same dimensions, based on the old firepots of a century earlier.

 

Centaurforge sells firepots, they are the cheapest but probably not the best value. The two 'coal' firepots are 3/8'' thick, while their 

'heavy duty' coke firepot is 3/4'' thick.

Also you can weld a firepot from mild steel if you choose too. It will work well. I would use 1/2" thick steel minimum. The sides are generally a 60 degree angle Off horizontal the depth should be at least 4" , the length and width should be determined by the work you intend to do. 

I've heard very good reviews of Laurel Machine and Foundry  fire pots, and if I remember correctly they are thicker than 1" and very sturdy. Like I said in another post they have a fancy new website, and you need to call or email to get a price quote, but from everything I have heard they are far and away the best. I think I remember Frank Turley bought them for his forges at the school and loves them...

You know, I've seen on this site a lot about brake drum forges and 55 drum forges and such, but I want to know from what and from where can someone acquire a more professional firepot?
 
Also, while I know the old saying of "use what you have until you can get what you want" is applicable to blacksmithing, I have to ask, if you could have what you wanted, what would your perfect firepot shape, size and fuel type and material composition be?

Do you mean from scrap easily available? If so I saw a nice looking firepot made from the top of an oxygen bottle. I forget the name of the gentleman who'd made it now but it looked to be an excellent firepot. It was very thick and a good size too.

Obviously you'd need to be 100% sure that the bottle is empty before you cut into it...

I welded my own up from 10mm mild steel and lined it with fire bricks. I've no complaints so far. Though it isn't overly pretty, it does work well which is the main thing.


As for my perfect fire pot, I could happily have one the same as I have now only a little shallower. Though I've only recently switched to bottom blast, I haven't seen any big difference to a side blast.

A cast steel pot with a 1" wall thickness does sound pretty decent though.

Andy

Weld caps for black pipe make good firepots. You can go to the local plumbing supply house and buy a 10" sch 40 weld end for not much money. Cut a 3/4"x3" slot in the pot bottom and use a couple pieces of 3" pipe (or short nipples) for ash dump and blast pipe. A piece of flat iron on the bottom of the ash pipe and you are done.

Gentlemen,

                  I have just had a new firepot made for my buffalo forge (200) hand blower.  The fire pot is pretty close to the original dimensions of the fragmented cast iron pot. The pot has been made from 6mm bisalloy. The boilermakers at work did sterling work for a slab of dry cider !!   Should I consider clay lining the pot? The forge will be under cover and will only get light use in the near future. I will be using either charcoal, or some coke when I can get it.   I have an old riveting forge which had clay line cast into it so I did oblige.  If any are interested I can post a picture or two, 

 

Kind regards

 

Gordon

Clay lining is only to keep the thin cast iron pans surrounding the pot from breaking under thermal stress. If your forge is mild steel plate and the new fire pot is welded, no need. Clay is never used in the fire pot itself.

 

DO NOT dump water in a coal forge to extinguish the fire, put the coals out with a poker and dump them in a bucket of water. Use a sprinkler can sparingly on an active fire to control the burn rate. Water dumped in a fire has killed more forges than coal and coke ever did.

 

Have fun, and show us your work. We love pics.

Do you mean from scrap easily available? If so I saw a nice looking firepot made from the top of an oxygen bottle. I forget the name of the gentleman who'd made it now but it looked to be an excellent firepot. It was very thick and a good size too.

 

 

I've cut up quite a few compressed gas cylinders over the years. The dive shop I used to work for would get large industrial cylinders from the hydro shop that failed hydro cheap ( scrap rate). We' cut them down and tack them together to sink them as fish habitats.

 

Wall thickness of steel cylinders a fairly thin on most cylinders. 3/16" thick max at best. Heavier walls were on the really high pressure cylinders, like the 4500 psi or 6000 psi compressed air cylinders the fire departments used for their air pak banks, but those weer few and far between. If I remember I doubt they topped 1/4" walls at best.  Alum cylinders were much thicker, closer to 1/2" thick, but useless for this use.

 

Gents here is my new fire pot, made of 6mm bisalloy at my place of work. The original clinker breaker had its shaft repaired, the whole thing was duplicated well. I have bolted it into the pan of the Buffalo Forge No 650 forge, but into over size holes in the pan and there is a small gap around the pot to allow for expansion.

 

 

Cheers 

 

Heelerau

Looks nice.