Hi gang.
I believe I could have mudded the core back together like a jigsaw puzzle as Matt suggested, but I figured it would give me trouble in the future since the structure was compromised so I went searching for another method.
Looking around the shed, I eyeballed an old SCUBA tank. I had originally picked this up to charge with C02 for brewing but it had old style threads and I couldn't find anyone to fill it for me. So, out comes the cut off wheel! If you look carefully, you can see the hole that I'm cutting at the top and where I started at the bottom.
I cut a trough out of the bottom portion to create a feed area and cut a hole around the top on the side hoping that it would help swirl the flames as they exit. I thought I snapped some photos with my phone after I cut the tank before placing in the ground but I must have done something wrong. Dang! The photos arent there. I decided to place the burn chamber in the ground as to effectively lower the cooking area. So far, it seems to work well. Also what's hard to make out is the fact that I sloped the burn tunnel upwards towards the riser thinking that the firery hot plasma will naturally flow upwards and Mr. Gravity will help assist the ash clean out. I also drilled a hole in the bottom of the feed area to allow rain to drain. I broke up the old casting and filled it around the tank. I also placed the old bits that I cut off the tank around the exit area.
Here's a video showing the burn and a little cooking. It's not pretty because I didn't have the patience to clean up the feed area:
http://s215.photobucket.com/user/drewba ... d.mp4.htmlHas anyone tried this stuff? It a German soy-sauce like meat favoring. Man, it's yummy!
Success! The flames exit the burn tunnel as predicted! Notice that I didn't center the barrel over the riser. Instead, I offset the barrel and punched a hole to the side providing me the opportunity to cook over the hole and provide other area to heat/cook. Now I just need to find a junk weber. Hmmm....
Here, we are takeing a peek into the blazing cavity:
http://vid215.photobucket.com/albums/cc ... ab8pne.mp4This ended up being less work than I put into the previous casting but now I'm reduced to a 6.5" burn tunnel which doesn't seem to burn as violently as the cast did. Heck, the 8" used to shoot flames up and out of the riser with the barrel off which I can't get this one to do. I boiled water and had a harder time that I thought I would have had and I ran out of time before a violent boil. Matt, I used your grease-can riser method and I don't have the top insulated. I'm talking about the last foot or so... I ran out of vermiculite too so I might just pack earth around the area. I also have some fire bricks that I could probably put around the 8" pipe.
The entire project has been absolutely enjoyable--the successes and the failures. I gained some fast hands on experience with casting and fast experience using two different sized burn tunnels.