Someday.  For that to happen though I will need to get my blower out of the garage where I stored it after buying it and use it. The latest hairdryer (liberated from my wife) will have to die first. I am lazy and just leave it running the entire time. Maintaining a small fire is not something a constant supply of air is useful for. 

On 5/22/2020 at 4:52 AM, Irondragon ForgeClay Works said:

Have you seen this one. It's about as good as a firepot you will find. Why reinvent the wheel?

http://www.bamsite.org/firepot.html

Thanks for this.

I think I might try this one, I am getting a bit tired of experimenting TBH, and would just like something that I know is tested and works optimally (for coke or coal, not bothered about charcoal). I had designs for my own sideblast welded firepot, which would be really cool in a way, but I don't feel like taking a chance on it.

Safest way seems to be to go with a conventional bottom blast, they just seem to work for so many without any fiddling.

 

Have you considered a bullet grate? A 2” pipe cap with a 3/4” hole drilled in the top will shed slag in a nice donut. 
 

You were supposed to drop by some time and give me some advice on optimizing my pot, Charles. When do you think might be a good time for that?

At what stage, Vegetative or flowering? Photoperiod isn't everything you know.

Frosty The Lucky.

14 hours ago, DHarris said:

You were supposed to drop by some time and give me some advice on optimizing my pot,

Needs more Cal mag .  Just playing.

Pnut

 

I was just reading about grow op's moving from NM tribal lands to OK ones.  Not enough water out here evidently.

When I was in High School in NJ my Chemistry Teacher sang in a CW band and performed  that song for me at the HS talent show.  Only problem is that my Mother was from Humphrey, near Altus; although we have kinfolk in Muskogee...

(The year Oklahoma was playing Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl made for some tense times at home as all of us were from AR save for Mother!)

Like a Mother is ever outnumbered in her house.  

Frosty The Lucky.

My son in law is a fan of that college from that state up north. I am just glad THE Ohio State University has beaten them every season i have known him. 

The college where I work was the last in-state school to beat USU in football. Admittedly, that was in 1921.

Billy; you let him marry into your family?!  The horror!   I used to love game days when I was in Columbus Ohio, a nice no traffic no crowds shopping time---just be sure to head back before the hoards erupted!

On 6/9/2021 at 7:54 AM, Charles R. Stevens said:

Have you considered a bullet grate? A 2” pipe cap with a 3/4” hole drilled in the top will shed slag in a nice donut. 
 

Do you weld it in place?

On 6/15/2021 at 12:35 PM, ThomasPowers said:

a nice no traffic no crowds shopping time

My favorite time to go out shopping as well. Stores are about empty of other people. 

No, and a short nipple is optional. The original bullet grates were solid, but unless you have one cast or turned your kind of SOL. 

Do you think I could modify this to work?
 

When Glenn sent me a copy of the missing  BP, I thought at first it could be. The pipe at the bottom fits neatly inside my tuyere. But it is too tall and the opening at the top is too wide. 

If you have a welder, add wings to adjust the depth in your tuyere.  IF no welder then bend some Z brackets to adjust the height.  Clay up any openings so all the air goes up the new tuyere.

As to the size of the opening, insert a pipe of the right internal diameter and weld it in place or add some shims to hold it in place.

Making things work is always faster than trying to make enough excuses to cover everything.  Not picking on you, just saying fix it.

It didn’t turn out quite like I expected it might. Whatever that piece is, it was not structured like I thought it might be. The nipple at the bottom is too wide to be slid into the top. I had thought I would use it to decrease the size of the opening. That nipple is very thick walled and would have left me with an opening of 1.5”.  I could have ground it down to fit, but that would have been a lot of work and I didn’t think I could grind it evenly. So I just cut the top third off of the top piece, necked down a short piece of 3” pipe and welded the 3” piece to the top piece I had cut off. 
 

It works ok. The opening is 2” wide, but I don’t seem to have a problem with coal falling through it. The coal clumps together so that isn’t a problem. The clinker mainly flows down below the top of the “bullet” grate. The opening does get clogged with clinker, but clearing it isn’t a problem. The 3” pipe down the tuyere holds the grate in place while I clean it out. I am not sure how long it will last. It has melted just a little around the opening. 

One thing I wish I had not done was flare out the bottom of the 3” pipe. I did it thinking it would help with air flow, and it may very well do that, but what I had not expected was the bloody thing would get wedged in place by ash and small bits of coke and clinker. I will have to pry it out. 

This is it now. The top is 2.75 inches from the top edge of the fire pot. The top of the bullet grate is two knuckles on my middle finger to the bottom of the pot. 
 

It does work. Clinker forms and falls down in a ring around the grate.  Clinker does form and clog the opening, but my poker can clear it without disturbing the fire. 
 

The problem is it melts quite a lot during each session. I need to try something else. The grate is carbon steel of some sort. Perhaps that is why it burns. This evening I went back to using bits of square stock placed over the tuyere opening. Better air flow. And don’t have to unclog the opening as often. 

The advantage of parallel bars is that you can clear them simply by dragging a poker between them.

Forge clinker ball. Once you try it, You will wish its what you started with. 

You will have to show me Arkie.  It seems to be mainly glass. 
 

I was a little surprised that grate melted so quickly. 

1 hour ago, DHarris said:

You will have to show me Arkie.  It seems to be mainly glass. 
 

I was a little surprised that grate melted so quickly. 

DHarris, I don't believe I am a party to this conversation....

Nope. Was Anvil. Dirty lenses I guess.
 

 

12 hours ago, DHarris said:

I was a little surprised that grate melted so quickly.

The problem is that you've got the "bullet" sticking too far up into the firepot. That exposes more of it to the heat, so it oxidizes faster. You want it lower down, so that it's below the fireball.

On 7/12/2021 at 10:48 AM, anvil said:

Forge clinker ball.

12 hours ago, DHarris said:

You will have to show me

I think anvil meant the CF clinker breaker. They're included with all the CF firepots, but replacements are also available on the website.