New forge, maiden run, design questions

[Sidmand]

Howdy all.  I built a new charcoal forge and took it for a test run today.  Forge body is from an old school desk, lined with about a 60/40 mix of fireclay and sand, with some wood Ash in there just for kicks (probably not more than about 3 or 4 cups of wood Ash).  The blower is a Chinese style bellows blower, hand operated, it's that thing in the end.  It's sort of a side blast I guess, without about 2 inch diameter turyere.  It gets HOT, I burned up some 3/8 rebar cause I didn't pay attention to what I was doing and pumped to me ch air in there.

Here is some.pictures, note the training wheels, lets me roll it into the basement.

[Sidmand]

Here is my question about design.  I think my firepot is to deep, and I'm wondering if I can maybe build an air ramp to get the air into the fuel more.  But, does it matter?  I know I need to seal the bellows a little better, I'm leaking air around the top, and I'm.gonna cool the air pipe with a water bath of some kind to.  While I'm doing that, should I raise the bottom of the pot a little?  It's about 5 inches deep, maybe 4, and I seemed to need to get the metal in there deep to get it hot.  Maybe I'm.just over thinking it since I know it got hot enough to burn the steel?

Couple more pics cause I took em, my anvil and the stump of thump.

[Bryce]

It’s hard to say without seeing it and watching it heat up. But the easier it is to control the air flow the better. Along with getting as such as you could possibly need to help keep that temperature somewhat consistent

[TRiggs]

I think I would be worried that your going to catch that wood frame on fire, a coal forge will burn steel to nothing be careful and good luck.