clinker breaker question

[Nick O]

I recently bought a coal forge that had the blower body acting as the tuyere. I also bought a forge blower because the one that came with the pan was very old and cracked so now I have to make a new tuyere or chop up the blower case. The clinker breaker and air grate was missing so I had to by a clinker breaker off of Centaur Forge now all that's left to do is cut a hole in some 1/4in plate steel for the clinker breaker. What I need to now is should I make the hole oval or round? Also how much of a gap should I leave around the clinker breaker?  I'm using coal about the size of your thumbnail. the clinker breaker is 2 1/2in long by 1 1/2in deep and 2in wide.                     Thanks for you time also happy late Easter!

                                                                                                                                                                               Nick O  

[Kozzy]

On my centaur firepot that takes the triangular breaker, the hole in the bottom of the pot measures slightly ovoid at 3-1/16" x 2-7/8".  The long dimension is in-line with the axis of rotation of the breaker.  The breaker measures 2-1/2 in that dimension implying about 1/4" of gap all around the breaker as new from the factory.

[SReynolds]

I took a number of pictures of a forge I found this weekend.  It has three slots in firepot (tuyere) 3/8" wide by 2.75" long. 

What blows me away is the clinker breaker.  It has a cast iron wedge that is located about 1-1/4" below the air slots.

Think about that and form a mental picture. Some company designed and manufactures these. What's the point? Is the clinker 1-1/4" BELOW the firepot?

I see another popular breaker is a slotted nozzle that rotates side to side. Ok. So . . . . .tell me what cleans out the slag/clinker from THE SLOTTED HOLES where the the air passes?

This is my own design.  A 2 and sone inch solid steel cylinder that rotates inside of a hole. It destroys slag and clinker cuz the air passes s between the sides of cylinder and o.d. of the hole. The knobs welded to the cylinder chew up anything you place near it.

Maks sense to me.

I use a champion firepot with clinker breaker at a  historic village and guess what. I have to use a 1/4"steel rod forced down into the air slots to break up the clinker etc to revive the air flow. 

 . .

[ThomasPowers]

on my slotted tuyere the clinker breaker is a cast curved T so that when you rotate it the edge of the cross bar fits up through the slot