Then it needed a little clean up to make sure the plate fitted nice and flat. A friend just down the road welded the plates in place for me, so that all needed a clean up. I gave it all a good going over with a heavy flapper disc on the grinder to get rid of the old paint and the bit of surface rust.

I set it up with a couple of blocks to hold it still and make sure it was more or less secure for the marking out of the next step. Having the flat plate on the ends made this easier so I was pleased that I hadn't started with a complete bottle for a start as I might have had to do it on the curve surface.
Finding the center of the plate both verticall and horozontally was a simple matter, so after leveling the line accross the front (and rear as well) I was able to do the vertical which allowed me to mark the top center mark where the handle will go.

I have seen various measurements for the offset of the gas inlet from 10degrees to 30 and as the idea is to make the gas swirl round the inside of the forge I went with 25 degrees. Marking a square on the board and a 25 degree line in, I could go up the line by haf the dia of the bottle and get the measurement away from the center line that would give me a 25 degree offset.

So that can be marked on the top of the bottle ready to be drilled for the gas inlet.

That is where it will have to sit till the gas bits and the insulation get here in a few days. I will need to get the exact height of the insulation plus the fire brik floor before I cut the opening at each end.