Bad forge day

[rfb343]

Well yesterday after church I came home and put the family down fer a nap and thought I'd sneek out back and bend a little metal(as I have a mothers day gift to finish before mothers day) well apparently smithing counts as not resting on the Sabbath so after burning through the fancy spiral/heart/courting candle I was 90% finished I swore off this stupid craft and decided to goto home depot to see what I could get with the $100 dollar gift card that was burning a hole in my pocket... so below are pictures of what $105.00{less fasteners, which I had} will get you with about 5 hours of labor. My new shop should have a reall roof by next week to keep out the rain. I hoping this will let me get more forge time as I'll be able to work in inclement weather and I should have less set up/shut down work since I wont have to drag everything back and forth to the shed.
The dimensions are 12x16 8 ft high in the back and 10 in the front

[dablacksmith]

should work great! 12x 16 is big enuf for a good shop ! I would go with tin roof.... fireproof cheap and holds up well...

[simmonds]

Looks to me like your bad forge day turned out to be a pretty good one.

[dragonflySmithy]

I would go with the tin roof. Mine has held up well and no fires yet.

[FieryFurnaceForge]

If you do tin don't do it in th rain or snow! Me and my dad roofed our house in snow and rain with temp. of about 25-30 degrees. I sliped twice but landed in the valley of the roof.

[rfb343]

I'd have to say that I managed to wrangle some good out of the day, I'm either planning on tin or Ondura depending on which one works out to be cheaper and lighter weight. I post the progress pics as soon as I get some more $$$

[MooseRidge]

Ondura is asphalt based and needs LOTS of support... I have Ondura for a firewood drying rack and it needs the extra support boards.... also its heavier and not any cheaper (at least where I am...)

[rfb343]

Originally Posted by MooseRidge

Ondura is asphalt based and needs LOTS of support... I have Ondura for a firewood drying rack and it needs the extra support boards.... also its heavier and not any cheaper (at least where I am...)

Thanks Moose, thats jsut the kinda input I needed, I figured it'd be heavier and as I'm trying to keep things as light as possible up there I'll pro'ly end up with metal and I think I can get it long enough to not have to have a horizontal seam.

[ThomasPowers]

I'd get some angle bracing up first before the winds pick up! My first shop building is roofed with pro-panel sheet steel. The coal forge shop I'm working on will be pro-panel too---but hail damaged stuff that was a friend's tear-off I think a forge will do OK with a "hammered look" to it.

[Frosty]

And that counts as a bad forge day exactly how?

Go with tin on the roof, the other stuff is also kind of fragile if you ever have to walk on it or a limb falls on it. Unless I'm thinking of something else. The local Home Depot has the same (looking) stuff and a display piece has a corner broken where someone just snapped it off.

On the other hand if you use Ondura you can put a clear Lexan panel in for a skylight over your layout and assembly area.

More support and angle bracing is definitely in order as well. A couple windows will be nice but it's easy to put too many in. Light is only part of it, cross ventilation is important, very important.

Good for you all round.

Frosty