Coal Cooker Stainless Ring

Mr. Crane the Younger made the statement a couple months ago to the effect that folks tended to remove the stainless rings that sat at the bottom of the firebox at grate level. That's certainly the case for my model 88. I wouldn't even have know there had been this feature, had he not mentioned it.

As I watch the bottom of my refractory cement grind slowly down, and coals slip past into the ash box, I suspect there was something to the idea of having a smooth wall at the bottom of the fire box. That makes me wonder why folks pulled them out. Doug, insight?

Wondering if anyone has one of these fabled rings they's want to spare, or better yet, anyone have the means of fabricating one with the improvement that DC mentioned, namely, three tabs that would key down into the grate supports. This would be to keep the ring from shifting around at the box bottom.

Discuss.

mjb

the stainless ring was very thin and because of this it tended to warp and not stay perfectly circular, it was be very easy to almost use any type of shim (lets say 3/16th thick 1" bar stock cut to 1" length) welded to the 3 "V" shaped firebrick supports to protect the brick. This would not only protect the brick but create less friction surface as you shake, you could also still remove and replace the firebrick when needed, and it would stop any issues of a warping ring that gets in the way.

I cant see an easier, better, cheaper fix than this...

Does anyone have one of these stainless rings so we could learn the original thickness and then could fabricate something a bit thicker to avoid the warping? Do these rings move with the grate when shaking down? Mike

stovepipemike wrote:Does anyone have one of these stainless rings so we could learn the original thickness and then could fabricate something a bit thicker to avoid the warping? Do these rings move with the grate when shaking down? Mike

thicker will not help, tried it (more thickness will only create a binding that prevents shaking all together), the next step would be a cast ring (never tried that), the ring can move when shaking as its not secured in any fashion to the brick, the grate or the stove. My suggested practice has always been to use the ring until it fails, then simply remove it, ideally when replacing firebrick you would use a higher quality abrasion resistant cement (I recall reading some insight into option for "abrasion resistant refractory cement", I just forget what section it was in)