dwayne

Hi guys , well thanks for the comments , firstly yes it's a 30MPH speed limit sign as a surround . Well the Adobe clay mix was complete failure left it to dry slowly for a week but too many cracks , so I did a kiln dried sand and cement 2-1 mix . I fired it up last night for the first time , I didn't intend to do any forging just wanted to fire it up to check the lining . I burnt a bit of wood first then chucked on 2 kilo's of charcoal which filled it to the brim , I had some 40mmx8mm flatstock handy so shoved it in and turned up the fan after about 20 mins it was a bright yellow going down to a cherry red for about 3 inches and more pliable than I would have thought , I bent the end over and put it back in the forge for another 10 minutes bent bit down into the heart of the fire . Now I can't say I have seen white hot before to compare but it was almost too bright to look at and the metal sparked in the air . I really have no idea how hot it could get or how hot it was , but I was really pleased with the first firing no cracks and the outside of the propane tank though too hot to touch didn't sizzle with a wet finger . I'm going to have a go at making something out of a 3/4 inch stainless round bar I have , not really sure what yet or even if it will get hot enough for a stainless bar of this thickness , just give it a bash I guess and see what happens .... Any tips greatly appreciated . I think my addictive personality will suit this hobby Edit : I used a pulse width modulator for the fan switch makes it fully variable , fantastic way to control a 12 volt fan that normally uses resistors or a reostat , they waste energy and burn out . I ran the 200 watt fan for 1 hour on half speed on a 45 amp 12 volt battery starting voltage 12.9v end 12.8v , great if you want to forge in the middle of a field .

Well I finally managed this weekend to finish off construction of the charcoal forge , I enjoyed the process so much I just want to make a new gas one but figure I should use this one first . I just like making stuff . After my first post in the introduction forum there was a couple of changes to the design as to the legs and the tue plate , thanks John B for the advice there . So it is the top 7 inches of a 19kg propane tank with 2 cutouts 2 inches down , I cut the bottom of the cut outs to the same the internal radius of the tank so they would weld on perfectly as work support I then needed to think about what to use as an ash pot and blower , I phoned a couple of plumber supplies with no luck another one did supply but didn't bother to get back to me , what is it with companies taking your number and not calling back ? gets my goat, needless to say didn't get my custom The same afternoon at work I was cutting down a wrongly positioned speed limit sign and thought why not just make one from the post which is 3inch diameter ant 3mm wall width , then the thought to use the sign as a forge surround and steadier base , the cut out for the forge is bent at a slight angle and fitted to the front to cover the 12v 200watt auto blower motor , this will also hold the variable switch (30 amp pulse width modulator)still waiting for this to arrive from Hong Kong . A Top View , tue plate is 4inch diameter and 3/8 thick with 10mm + 6mm holes , the plate is mounted to the tank using 1200 deg c fire cement about 1 inch away from the inside I fabricated a blower box to fit over the blower pipe , the ash plate was going to be my tue which is a circle cut out of a diamond discutter blade as advised it would be to thin for the tue it found another use , mechanism is simple and operates well The final stage was to go out to the fields and dig a big hole to find some clay , I made this into a consistency that would squeeze through the fingers and pick out all the chalk nodules once clean I added an equal amount of kiln dried sand , the sort that is used to sweep into block paving , then added a handfull of wood ash , put all this inside a t-shirt in a plastic bag and allowed the water to seep out over the last week , it was a nice consistency to mould the firebowl yesterday .The adobe clay mix is about 1-1.5 inches thick . Not sure whether to leave it to dry slow or fire it up and bake it , any suggestions ? As with anything I do I like to research so as not to make too many mistakes , so would welcome criticism /opinions xxxx just want to fire it up now

I always use plusgas as a penetrating fluid it works the majority of the time but exhaust and head bolts and the like are prone to snapping if that happens now , if possible I weld a new nut on the broken bolt , high temp of weld usually does the trick .

Hey guys , I,ve been looking to use a 12v blower from a car .I wanted it to have a variable air flow on a switch using dimmer switch or potentiometers and resistors , trouble is heat build up in the resistors and dimmer the 150 watt one I'm am going to use pulls 19 amps on start up constant at about 9 on full running .Probably all cars have a few blower settings but never heard of one with a full variable switch .Also all that heat build up is a huge waste of energy . I researched a bit more and came across PWM's ( Pulse Width Modulators ), basically the modulator just switches on and off really fast , the off longer to varying degrees to give a lower fan speed . I got one on order from ebay , coming from Hong Kong so may be a couple of weeks till I can let you know how it works but looks promising . I want to use my forge whilst out camping sometimes so has to be 12v , at home I'll use something like this power supply not cheap I know but sure I'll find other uses .

Thanks for the welcome guys , I will make a home forge from a brake drum , as soon as I come across one , but ideally I would like to forge out and about , love to get out in my VW camper and wild camp so hence the 12 v blower and legs that screw off . Ahh Mark , dreams are what make a man , my life has gone off on lots of tangents because of dreams , made for an interesting life and one hell of a ride

Hi guys / girls , first off what a great site , a wealth of knowledge and brains for me to pick I'm Dwayne from Essex UK and work in construction , I've been lurking now for a few weeks trying to find a forge design for a first one I am going to use solid fuel , I haven't seen much about using anthracite but as I have an anthracite fuelled boiler and have it delivered at 5 ton a time, so it's cheap , I guess first question any thoughts on using this fuel , pro's /cons ? So I started building the forge today , big thanks to Leeroy ( aquamanir ) for his design I just loved it jumped out of the screen at me , it's simplistic and aesthetically pleasing . What's more all materials to build it came free from work ,so just the cost of mig wire . I still need to fit the blower and pipework to the freon tank following Leeroys' design it looks like 2 inch pipe. I was thinking to line it with an adobe mix of clay , kiln dried fine sand and couple of handfulls of ash . and place a used 4 inch diamond cutting disc with holes drilled in for airflow to the fuel . Airflow will come from a powerful 12v blower fitted with a variable speed control . Freon tank is 300mm/12 inches in diameter , it's been cut to a depth of 6 inches with the cutouts at a depth of 4 inches . Nuts are welded on the side and threaded 10mm bar used for the legs , and I have a circular plate for the bottom of the legs to give stability and somewhere to place tools . So these are my plans , now for a few questions . 1 How thick should I make the side walls of the adobe? , should it be cone shaped or bell shaped ? 2 Assuming after adobe I have 8 inches of hearth size left should I be aiming to blast air to all of the coals or say a 4inch hotspot in the middle ? Well I guess thats about it for now , thanks for your indulgence , and look forward to your thoughts / comments , a couple of piccies of work so far Last one 12 inch diamond disc , perfect for utilising the last of the heat for a sweet tea :lol: