Sounds like a good plan, but be careful with steel wool. We learned to start fires with it in boy scouts by touching a 9v battery to it. If you stretch it out and get one end going, it's really cool to watch closely at night on the floor in the garage.
Anyway, just make sure no sparks are traveling in that tube.
Why don't you use the guts of a lawnmower one and just spruce up the cover?
MoocH