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I Forge Iron

What do you think


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I can see the wagon becoming a forge table. Cut out the center to take a drum or brake disk and maybe cut down the sides a bit unless you raise the pot and floor with bricks ( My preferred method since it would eliminate sharp edges and make it still keep it looking like a wagon for interest.)

 

Sledge looks good. How did you mount it? Looks like you drilled the stump and set it with something like expanding foam. I like it.

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That wagon would work wonderfully as a forge table.  I'd put a layer of red bricks in the bottom and use a 2" pipe nipple as an extender to get the heat up and away from the thin sheet metal.  

My first forge was similar, though it was a cast iron body and a little bit thicker than that wagon's sure to be.  Still, I never had a problem with a layer of regular red bricks (the joints will soon fill with coal dust and scale, so they don't move around on you.  You just want to be sure to get the heat up to the top of the bricks so you can lay your stock horizontally through the center of the fire.

As for raising it up to waist height.... no need if you don't want to.  Forging from a seated position can be mighty comfortable if you have all your kit laid out right and your stool fits well.  I'm partial to old tractor seats that really hug the bum and give you plenty of surface area.  Lots of smiths sit down to forge, or squat, or kneel.  All depends on what the body likes.

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 2-3" of rammed sandy clay will distribute the heat enough it won't warp. One of my first more or less "real" forges when I was a kid was the lid from an old washing machine turned upside down with a hole hacked into it so a brake drum would rest on the rim. I then packed it with adobe. . . several times, I kept mixing it like mud instead of ramming damp. I think I was in Jr. high, 1964 maybe? I stole Mother's hair drier, the OLD school kind with the plastic hair bag, hose and briefcase size blower heater unit.

Anyway, that wagon will work fine. Don't over think it though. If you're going to burn charcoal think side blast, it makes for a really simple forge. Charles will walk you through it.

Frosty The Lucky.

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