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I Forge Iron

Show me your shop!


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On 1/6/2016 at 6:42 AM, yesteryearforge said:

This is mine

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I know this is a bit late on asking, but i'm going to ask anyway.

How do you like the treadle hammer? What pound power hammer would you say it compares to?

Re-building my shop and I think having one would be a good add-on since I can't pay for a power hammer.

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If you are going to buy one I've bought 4 powerhammers each for less then the going cost of a treadle hammer; if you are going to build one why not build a power hammer like the tire hammer?  A treadle hammer is not a replacement for a powerhammer!  And a powerhammer is not a replacement for a treadle hammer.

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  • 1 month later...

This is my shop that we previously lived in for 4 years before I built the house and I can say it makes a waaaay better shop than a house. Only about a 3rd of it is blacksmithing and metal working the rest is a wood shop and a stall to work on cars. It's 30 x 40" It Has a full sized beer fridge and I love it.

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27 minutes ago, Frosty said:

Dust comp a good piece of equipment in a shop mixing wood with hot work. Nice looking shop.

Frosty The Lucky.

Yea I really have to make sure I keep it clean for the fire reasons and I have spark barriers I put up when I forge. Also always come back in the shop about 20 min after I shut down just to check. It has me pretty parinoid sometimes if I have been grinding or forge welding.

thanks

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Yeah, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean you're wrong. Have you been following the thread about thermite? Wood and metal IN dust comps are bad BAD combinations.

I'm so paranoid I think they're out to get OTHER people!  :o

Frosty The Lucky.

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  • 2 months later...

I am currently fitting out my small shop. Its in 1\3 of a 24'x36' tin building with concrete floor. Other 2/3 is my wood shop.

I have hand built all I can and am now down to attaching a chimney to the hand built forge hood. It will vent straight up. I wanted to bend some 18g sheet in a hex column but its looking like I may be purchasing 10" duct. I'm thinking one section of "black" pipe then galvanized rest of the way up.

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Welcome aboard, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the Iforge gang live within visiting distance.

Depends on how long a section is but at least 36" and you'll be fine going with galvy stove pipe afterwards.

Please tell me you aren't going to use that brake drum for a fire pot. Semi drums make TERRIBLE fire pots even if you're planning of forging things like anchor chain they're just too large and deep they're fuel hogs for the work they'll do.

Even a 1500 pickup truck brake drum is a little on the large side, front disk rotors are a lot more popular amongst the guys using brake parts for fire pots.

From what I see of your shop I wouldn't use a brake drum on a bet. You have a buzz box and a torch so unless you don't have a ruler and soap stone you don't have an excuse for not making a GOOD fire pot. Check out the solid fuel forge section here and find out what folk like and why. If the new platform has wiped out the existing plans, drawings, photos, etc. someone will be more than happy to post them again I'm sure.

Do you have a blower to go with that treadle under the forge table? That could be a bit of coolness worth tinkering together. Not that a foot treadle forge blower is very practical but it'd sure look cool. Oh heck hook it to a grind stone or wire wheel. Hmmmm.

Frosty The Lucky.

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The air grate is WAY over sized in fact the basket you made or are using for the air grate is actually a lot more practical size for the fire pot itself. for most uses an air grate around 3" dia. is more than enough and a lot of guys do large work with a 2" air grate.

A brake rotor with the disk flat on the table and the hub inset. Then it's easy to make a simple bolt flange with the tuyere attached. I used 3" exhaust pipe for the vertical and 2" for the horizontal air supply. The ash dump is just an exhaust flap cap clamped to the bottom with a little extension to the counter weight to keep it closed but easily opened with anything that'll reach. Just flip the counter weight up and the dump is open. It also is an excellent escape valve if coal gas explodes in the tuyere. That sounds worse than it usually is, it's usually a pop but on occasion can blow coals out of the fire.

I think everybody over builds their first couple pieces of equipment. My first coal forge is 3' x 4' but I'd used a fire pot with another smith who was sort of a . . . Ricardo and I tried a "Duck's Nest" in reaction and discovered I really prefer a duck's nest. My large forge has a salvaged brick table with about a 5" sq. hole over the air grate and I make the fire's shape with fire brick around the air grate.

I made my air grate out of 3/8" plate with a pattern of 25-30, 5/16" holes bordered by the 3" dia. tuyere pipe. In no time I'd blocked all but 6-8 holes with rivets. Even then it was generally more air than I usually needed and I kept my blower mostly closed with a pivoting choke plate. 

It is really too easy to build WAY more than you'll ever use, been there done that, still do in fact. I still have a couple of my first forges taking up space, my original propane forge and my first couple coal forges are still around. Heck I don't burn coal it's too hard to come by anything that isn't more coal shale than useful in a forge. Anywho, having a couple few . . . call them prototyes in corners or under benches is a fine blacksmith tradition.

Welcome to the club. ;)

Frosty The Lucky.

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  • 2 months later...
7 minutes ago, ledhed said:

Is it just MY browser and settings, or are a ton of these photo links from all of these past-years of posting unfortunately "dead" and lead to nowhere?  

The links stopped working after a forum software update a year to two ago I think.

Admin are aware of it, but have not asked us to repost the lost images.

Presumably Glen is still paying for their storage on the server while the software suppliers are trying to fix the directory malfunction.

Alan

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 months later...

I was doing a couple of hours weekly in a blacksith shop not far from here but the master became ill and the weekly dried up. I decided that "Now or never" and started looking for equipment. I became lucky and found a farmer who was selling off his surplus junk. I bought his best anvil, a field forge (for cavalry farriers in the field) a bick and - a rare find here - a postvise.

 

I started in the yard behind the house and the first job were some foundation irons for a gazebo. Next job required the vise to be set up so I made a heavy workbench 4" square legs and 2" top.

The shop was a tarpauline. Next step was to clear some surface in front of the old carpentry shop and to position the bits and pieces there. I moved them around until I got a layout that I liked. The shop was still the tarp but It started to get organized.

Next year saw the erection of a framework around my workplace and a roof of steel sheet that I got for free. My 'shop to be' survived the winter with walls of plastic sheeting. Next year I put up the walls built doors etc.

I post here the layout and a picture from the outside. Under the green sheet is the snow blower that I have only used twice this winter. The sacs contain coal and the two barrels are for carpenting scrap. One for untreatred wood that goes to the bonfire, one for treated that goes to destruction.

I will post pics from the inside a little later.  

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You have style Gote, that's a pretty little shop you've built. Were that my shop I wouldn't crowd the lathe with the work bench like that and would separate the forge and bench. I'd definitely not attach anything to the floor till I'd used it a while. No matter how much thought and planning you put into a floor plan you WILL want things a little different before you're happy with it.

I REALLY prefer the post vise mounted on a corner if mounted on a bench. This allows clearance to bend long pieces over the jaws and clear the floor. Mounted in the center you only have clearance to the bench. Oh you can bend long pieces but not all the way around, visualize making a loop or ring on a long piece say garden or campfire gear.

If you put the grinder on a pedestal you can free up that wall for shelving or similar. I'd be tempted to push the large, main bench to the center of the wall the lathe is on, maybe rotate it 90* with the vise on a corner closest to the forge. The forge can move a little more towards the center of the room. That puts more tools closer to the forge and clears room all around it and frees up  more floor space.

It frees up floor space by widening paths between equipment.

All that said it wouldn't take a lot of adjustment for me to work comfortably in what you have laid out as draw.

Well, that's probably more than enough rambly thinking for now, I seem to be on a roll this morning. :rolleyes:

Frosty The Lucky.

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Frosty,

I appreciate your good intentions in giving friendly advice but this floorplan is the result of my trying out various positions and ending up with a layout that suits me but perhaps not you. A shop layout is never final. The day there is not need to change, it has turned into a museum. The same for a home by the way.

Said that, I have used this for soon two years and I have not felt any need to change the central triangle of forge anvil vise. The lathe came in later and forced some moves and I have moved the tub up but that is all.  I always work as much as possible with long stock that I can hold in my hand and prefer to have the bench close to the forge since that allows me to use the bench as support for the stock that is in the fire. To me it is an absolute requirement to have the bench adjacent to the forge. There is sufficient space to work the lathe. The only awkwardness is that I have to walk around the benchplusforge to get to the gears but I seldom cut threads so I can live with that.

A previous owner messed it up but the post vise is designed to be able to rotate around a vertical axis and one day I will make it do that. For the case you envisage of bending a large piece, I would today bend it in the horizontal plane instead. Re distance to tools, I put the tools I intend to use on the bench so they are close eough. The hotcut lies on a shelf in he wall close to the anvil. Since my stock rests on (a support on) the bench I am free during the heat to move any gadget as required. I always start with an empty bench so anything I need can be put within reach. I am gradually cluttering the walls up but I do not have that assortment of tongs and hammers so many seem to acquire.

I post two more pics:

#1 from the door towards the left corner showing anvil forge, tub, grinder vise etc (I am looking for a better grinder) Note the piece of wood on the bench that gives support in 1" increments to the cold end of the stock

#2 from the anvil towards the lathe showing that and the second vise.

You may note that this is not a pole barn design but a cross brace one. This is the normal way to build a country place shed/outhouse here. The colour is very traditional. Cottages for pople have white corners. workshops etc have black.   

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I was perhaps not quite clear, I first tested out the floor plan then I built a shell around. The drawing is just documentation of the result. By the way, I usually put a rim of clay brick around the sides and back of the forge to allow a deeper fire. A coupleof them can be seen below the forge. Dong it that way it is easy to remove one to get a "window" for a longer piece. I think the flowers are a cute touch - especially when they sit in a rather expensive champagne bottle trying to make believe that this is the normal drink on the premises.;) 

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