"New" (to me blower) And new fire pot

[bluerooster]

 The blower is a Champion. and the firepot is one I made, to replace the shallower one that I made.   I had gotten used to the 3" depth of my old firepot, and the new 4" deep one will take some getting used to.  One thing happened that I'd never experienced until now.  After working for a while, I noticed the tuyre was getting hot, red hot.  After some investigation, I found that the air inlet had a ledge of sorts, (despite my best effort to make it flush) which managed to catch a chunk of hot coke, which then invited all it's friends to join him. Thus ending up with a plug of burning coke in the tuyre. I opened the ash dump, and a little came out.  But the plug was still there.  So, I shut down for the day, and will deal with it later.  

  End result; That old worn out Champion blower is way better for air control than my hairdryer with wastegate.   And a 3" deep fire pot is a bit more versatile than a 4" deep fire pot.   I can have a 3" deep useable fire, or a 6" deep useable fire, depending on how I mound, and work the fuel with the 3" fire pot.

  Another thing I learned is this:  do not build you fire pot with the grate above the bottom of the pot. I believe that is where my blockage problem came from.  What had happened (I think) is fine coke got below the grate, thus heating the grate, with plenty of air to burn it out. chunks fell through, and got caught on the ledge, then subsequent chunks got caught amongst the ones that fell through before. Thus filling the tyure with hot coke.  Put the grate on the bottom of the pot.  Whether it's 3" or 20" deep. Don't just raise the grate to make the pot shallower.  It doesn't work.

[anvil]

Got any pics?

[bluerooster]

I didn't have yesterday, but I do now.   And everything worked very well today.  I do like the old Champion blower.