Homemade Bialaddin Bowl Fire cage

Just got my first Bowl Fire, which came with a cage. After very little trouble I got it to work, sort of..



The cage is in reasonable condition, but while I had something to measure and copy, I decided to make a new cage from scratch. This is how you can do it if you want. It's a bit fiddly, but fairly straight forward. It just takes a long time if you follow the 'measure twice cut once' rule. It took me a good 8 hours spread over two days.

The original cage is made from two different thickness of wire, a thicker one for the circles, and thinner wire for the spokes. To make things a little easier I made the whole thing from 3mm steel wire bought in straight lengths.



The first job is to make two circles, one 10.5 inch inside diameter and one 3 inch diameter. These were formed over wooden circular templates and brazed closed with high temperature silver braze material (Silverflo 20 from Johnson Matthey). Subsequent brazes of the spokes were all made with a lower melting temperature Silverflo 55, so that the circles brazes didn't remelt.

After the circles are made the two cross pieces are cut to length (15.25 inches and 10.75 inches) and then formed and brazed in place with the shorter one kinked to fit under the longer one where they cross.



then the small circle is brazed onto the cross bars





At this stage the frame is still flexible enough to be straightened and aligned symmetrically across what will eventually be the vertical axis..

Then the spokes are copied in length and shape from the original. They can be shaped by hand and are best made in pairs to fit opposite each other across the vertical axis. I started with the shorter spokes for the top half first, brazing the three pairs in place one pair at a time starting at the outside.





Finally the five pairs of larger spokes are made and brazed into the bottom half of the cage, again in pairs starting from the outside with the tops being clamped while the bottom braze is made first.






then the ends were ground flush, and a general clean up. The clips were easy, just bent steel strip.

It fits well









and is a reasonable copy of the original (top)






Have fun!

 

Nice work Duncan. The use of two different melting point silbrazes is a handy technique. Silbraze and soft solder too for suitable jobs.

John

 

Thanks John, I will be bringing the BF to Snowdonia with its new cage.

 

Super work Duncan. Have you guys seen the silver solder that comes loaded in a syringe... very clever, it has the flux already mixed in and is in liquid form, -comes in various melt-points. Just squeeze it into the joint and heat.
I've only used it once - on a ring that had a delicate stone set, but it worked a treat. I wouldn't have been 'game' to do the job with 'normal' hard silver solder, (-would have had to de-set and then re-set the stone after soldering) but this stuff made it a breeze.

 

Thanks Julián. I have seen the syringes of silver solder but never used them.
I usually cut off small pieces from flattened silver braze wire and stick them on the joint with flux paste. However they frequently need to be held in place with a wire ‘poker’, so I will give the syringe method a try.

 

Yes mate that's the technique 'we've' always used, but the syringes make it just so easy.

 

@Julian Whittaker Thanks for the heads up about the stuff in a syringe. I’ll look out for some.

 

It's probably only available at Jewellery maker's supplies.

 

A fine creation and collectors are often looking for those guards.

 

Thanks Jeff.

 

Just received a new washer kit from The Fettlebox (Viton V5 kit), and after fitting them the bowl fire is much better. Thanks Ross @spiritburner .