This week, one of the metal bars in my fireplace grate finally burned through. Other parts were some the worse for wear, too. The front rail and outside crossbars were still in pretty good shape.
A bit of rebar helped put new life into my dying grate. I don't know if grates are made out of special steel. Will rebar hold up well in the fireplace?
Rebar would probably work just fine though for all your time and trouble you could probably get a whole new grate. We got one recently at Menards for less than $20 and it's made of 1/2 inch square stock. Should last quite a while [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
IM with you, fix the old one. Infact if you have the resorces make one from scratch. Thats what i would do. Looks good and it should last. Thats why its nice to keep scraps of bigger projects. The little freebies help offset the cost of bigger projects.
Larry
I burned out one fireplace grate in the 35+ years I have burned wood in the fireplace, and it didn't take too long to do that (maybe 3-4 years). It was never replaced and I found that the fire is much nicer (for me) when on a bed of ashes and the hot wood coals then keep the fire going longer. Raising the fire up (on a grate) gives it too much air, and consumes wood faster, and requires much more wood to keep the fire going. Just a different approach to what we like and don't like. If the wood is real dry (3+ years under cover) and split, then burning on top of the ashes works best for me. To start the fire, I make a narrow trench in the center of the ashes, then lay a split piece towards the front across the trench, and build the fire with kindling behind the split piece (the trench is for air to get to the kindling). I add another split piece on top of the kindling and off we go. If hot coals are there at night, often they are still there for more wood (no match) the next day.
I was going to say that myself thats the way a campfire burns and it works real good, but i figured Egon would slam me [img]/forums/images/icons/ooo.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img]
The grate I "fixed" came with the FP insert, and of course, fits nicely in the firebox. The perimeter is really in pretty good shape and I was looking for an excuse to fire up the welder. Repairing the original is cheap and fits well.
This grate is not cast, but seems like plain old steel bar. Maybe that's why it burned out so fast. I can see how a nice one could be made from scratch, but I only had kinda thin material to work with.
One good day of burning and the ashes are over the grate anyway. That's about as high as I let them get. After a good day of burning, I'm cleaning out the ashes the next morning before lighting up again.
Never thought of just not using one. I could probably get by without the aesthetics of a grate, but it helps a little to keep logs from rolling out (which sometimes happens to me anyway, even with the grate). Thanks for sharing your "ashes only" technique.
OH-OH what did I do now?
Never fear I'm short round and old so don't slam anyone.
But I sure like my campfires even if one has to put up with the noisy frogs, birds that don't keep quiet and bats flying around. The worst are the fireflies always flashing their lights.
Prowling mosquitoe bombers and them danged little devils you can't see with old eyes are also a little disserting.
Egon
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