Grate lenght?

[whalems]

I am rebuilding a 4' vermont arch. I have all the castings and fire grates. The problem is some of the grates that I have are very warped and need replacing and I can't seem to locate any the lenght I have. They are 40.5" long I only see 36" or 48" available in the catalouges and web sites. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks Mike

[Flat47]

Try calling Bascoms - they've always got a bunch of older used grates and castings.

On another thought, did your old grates run front to back, or side to side? I've seen both, and I'm guessing yours ran side to side given the length you stated. One option may be to switch to front to back grates. 48" grates are readily available from lots of sources.

[danno]

Or, save a ton of money and cast some grates or build them out of fire brick. I used T steel on it's back spaced every 4" or so to support the brick and drilled holes in the brick for forced air. They work great.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

If you are building air injection over top of the fire, just pour a grate out of castable refractory cement. Will cost you a little, but probably not as much or any more than new grates if you bought them or do what has been mentioned and take firebrick and drill 3 holes in them 3/4" and support them with angle iron or channel steel.

[whalems]

Thanks for the responses. Sounds like doing the fire brick thing or castable refactory cement is the way to go. Thanks, Mike

[brookledge]

You can get 39 1/4" from Bascom's I know it is a hair shorter than 40.5" but they might work. Or as it was said call Bascom's or any of the manufactueres they might have some old grates kicking around
Keith

[markct]

why not make your own or have a local shop make them for you? i have been running for 2 years now on my homemade angle iron grates with the v upward and filled with sand and ash. not a bit of warpage and the angle is only 1/8 thick. infact the paint is still somewhat intact altho disclolored on the bottom of a few of the sections

[whalems]

So I decided to go with the angle iron homemade grates. The question is what is a good spacing between the grates? I was thinking somewhere between 1" to an 1 1/2". What have others done? What seems to work well? Thanks for any input on this. Mike

[markct]

my grates are like 1.5 inch angle spaced about 3/4 of an inch apart. i will try and get a picture today, they work very well and show no signs of warpage or scaling at all after 2 seasons of use, actualy the paint is still on the bottom of the v on most of the pieces!