We are going to use a piece of square tubing for a damper under the door. There will be a plate inside of it to control the air flow. Today I tried to do some forging for the first time ever. I took a round file and made it into the handle for the damper.
I used some fire brick, a piece of car exhaust pipe, and the blower from an inflatable snowman. My pile of scrap wood got soaked with rain so I had to weed out a few low quality osage staves for the fuel. I enjoyed heating and shaping the metal. Everything went pretty smooth. I singed some hair off my arm and a piece of slag caught my shirt on fire. I think I'll set up a permanent forge up off the ground sometime.
I flattened out the bottom for the handle and flattened out the center part of the rod so the plate can attach to it.
After it cooled off I cut the bottom off and rounded the edges out. I'm going to put some wood scales on it next.