A guy at the Toledo forge meet said my coal fire was starving for air, and he was right
I argued with him for 10 minutes about my 6 inch firepot being fine, then went home and drilled out my grate holes from 3/8 to 1/2 inch and my welds stopped coming out cold, so now I'm wondering what else I've been stubborn about, has anyone else had a fire overhaul like this change their whole heat?
I had the same thing happen at a demo in Gary, Indiana about five years back. My firepot was 8 inches and I swore it was plenty, but a guy told me my clinker was building up because the air couldn't get through the coal fast enough. I drilled my grate from 1/4 to 7/16 and added a second row of holes, and my heats got way more even after that. The welds quit coming out cold and I could finally hold a good orange without pumping the heck out of the blower. Funny how a little more air changes everything you thought you knew. I ended up going back through my whole setup after that, even cut my firepot down an inch and rebuilt the tuyere.