Interesting thread! This is a job I am contemplating soon as mine is burnt through the center like they all do sooner or later.
My take on the curved spokes is that they allow expansion and contraction without cracking so have to be made that way, if made in steel is this still necessary?
Made a new ash pan a while ago, made it to fit much tighter at the front so less dust gets out when riddling (or rustling as my wife says)
Gritineye, i found curving them to be the easiest/best way to get them to fill the space with out cutting out too much air flow or having big gaps that coal would fall through, plus i think it helps with the riddling, and i'm sure the expansion too as you say.
nice ash pan, have you tried it yet? i could imaging that top front part coming all the way across to the sides and top like that blocking air flow?..
Hi Ragnarok, Good points re the curves, it always helps to get advice form someone who has done it before..think I'll pretty much copy yours, you've done a good job there!
The front part does not block the air as there is a gap low down inside on the left below where the 'riddler rod' passes through, this is exposed under the side splay of the pan where air can pass along the sides.
I have folded the leading edge of the pan bottom over to stop wear as it slides in.
If I made another one I would put the handle socket lower down, in the 3rd pic you just can make out the weld penetration where I had to tack a couple of ribs inside, as the top was starting to bend out under the weight of a full pan.
It has been in use for about a month, it stops a lot of dust no probs. The old one has lasted 37 yrs since we bought the Raburn new, so mine might be slightly over engineered ..
nice one, might make an ash pan at some point, though we've been planning to upgrade to a central heating rayburn at some point, the 355sfw so might not be much point doing alot to this one haha, and yeah it's not that hard, if you don't have oxy-acetylene/propane, you could just cut the bars and bend them just past 90degrees and weld them back together probably!
this finally gave out today haha been running 24/7 over the winter so not too bad for some scrap haha not sure what I'm going to try next, we're planning on replacing the rayburn with a wood burning one this summer so perhaps a bodge to get it through the last of the cold weather (fingers crossed)
iv'e replaced a few of my grates with mild steel square bar, i usually get 3 or 4 years out of them, and thats just the center couple of bars burn away, and i just replace those. Only had one where the welds cracked, and that was gas welded. Full penetration vee'd welds are a must.
yeah, this one burnt out from the center, welds didn't fail from what I can tell, the middle just burnt away completely, I think my parents tend to run it a bit hot really or turn it up when refuelling and forget to turn it back down so it's not surprising they burn out, it got the job done anyway, that rayburn is coming out soon, got a 355sfw central heating one on order.