intrex

Hey Everyone, Very long time no post here. I have moved into a new property and finally have a space for a proper workshop. The house came with a 40 x 50 pole barn. No walls or electricity but we will get to that. I have a fire pot and blower I was planning to use to build a new coal/coke forge but also ran into this recently. Have any of you guys seen one of these before? Seems like a specific kind of hearth forge? Not having side entry would be a deal breaker for me but seems like it would be easy enough to cut a hole in either side for heating the center of long stock. Maybe that is a bad idea as the fire will end up being horizontal?

I had a rivet for as my main forge for several years. From my experience they are pretty prone to cracking from heat expansion if you don't line them with refractory cement. Others may have had better luck using them as is but I wouldn't start forging in one again without doing this first. If you ever wanted to sell it as a collector piece you can easily chip out the cement.

Hey Everyone, Thanks for all of the pointers. This worked out fine and we completely smelted and forged the bracelet in one night which I thought was pretty impressive considering we started at 6pm and took a break for dinner. The first try without borax was a complete failure for smelting. The picture below will show all of the crud. After adding borax and putting it back in the forge everything melted like butter. Forging bronze without overheating it is pretty tricky. I ruined the first run. Thankfully I smelted enough bronze for two tries and the second one turned out just fine.

Thanks for all of the info frosty. I am going to be doing this outside and wearing a respirator. We are going to be super careful about moisture as well. After all of the feedback and thinking about this in detail the plan is going to be to carve out the shape I want in fire brick. Cut the rods up and place them in the mold and throw the whole thing in the forge. Then I can just turn on the forge until they melt and let it cool hard in the forge before moving. That way I avoid having to deal with molten metal with improper tools and lack of a real crucible. I will be also be purchasing a crucible this weekend in case I run into this situation again My bro will take pictures so you guy scan see how this goes.

Yeah, I could sacrifice a firebrick to make the mold as well.

Thanks Hotshoein4, My main concern was how to get the bronze out of the metal mold since it sticks to steel in the right conditions. If worst comes to worst I would just cut it out on the band saw.

Hey Everyone, My brother wants me to forge a bronze bracelet for his 10 year anniversary. Unfortunately he told me this today and his anniversary is Monday. After checking with all local suppliers and hardware stores the only way I find any silicon bronze is by using pure bronze brazing/welding rods. The problem is that they are only 3/32 in diameter and I really need about 1/4 square bar to forge what he wants. I know that I could try to wrap the rods together and forge fuse them together but I am worried that this is going to be a tricky process. I have done something similar to this with silver wire before. The other option I can think of is to weld up a mild steel box that is roughly the volume of the stock size I want. Put the box into the forge to heat it up to red then start slowly adding in the rods. I may end up doing the heating with the oxy torch while adding the rods. Has anyone on here attempted to do something like this? I obviously don't have a proper foundry setup in the shop.

Hey Kutanra, I have had an old anvil and pole vise that I couldn't find any markings on at first. After cleaning them both with a wirebrush on an angle grinder I was able to find markings on both of them. Doing this will knock off the years of crust on the anvil. Don't do this if you are planning to sell this as an antique as it may devalue the anvil. I use all of my antiques for forging so I wasn't worried about it :).

In my coal rivet forge this wouldn't have been possible to do at all because it just can't heat a long enough section of steel. I had to use my 2 burner gas forge that can heat a 1.5 foot length of steel. For the twists I heated up a large section and then dipped each end into the quench tank to cool everything outside of the twist area. Figuring out how to hold and work with something that large all on my own was the main problem. I ended up using a chain hold down over the heel and a spring hold down in the hardie of the anvil.

Hey ColdironKilz, The color in the pictures is off for some reason. The hardware is actually all nickel and the forged piece isn't nearly as dark as what the picture looks like. I may end up forging hardware for the door as well but I need to have the door intact and working for at least a few months before starting another project on it to keep the wife happy :).

Hey Guys, I wanted to show off and get critiques from my first installed architecture piece. This started as a 1" square bar. it has 3 drifted holes, two rubix twists, two tenons, upset ends and a mounting plate. I routed out the door to the same depth as the steel plate so the plate sinks into the door flush. There are holes through the plate, the door and the tenon feet. The holes in the tenon feet are taped with 1/4 threads so I was able to use counter sunk bolts to attach everything together. I also laid a bed of silicone under the plate so no moisture can get in. All of the pieces are sealed with trees wax at a low black heat. The plate was put into the forge and cooled several times just to get some scale on it so that it has a forged look. I am kind of shocked at how long this whole project took. I didn't keep track of my hours but I have been slowly working away at it on and off for more than a month now. I did fail at the first 2 tenons I tried at the anvil and failed at trying to drift a large monkey tool out of an axle. Maybe I could do it all in under a day if I were to do it again but seems like it might be close. This process shedded light on what I would need to charge for a project like this to be profitable if I were to give this a go as a business. Of course having a power hammer would be a game changer when working with 1" square. I really need to get me one of those. Thanks for any feedback,

Hey Frosty I do have a drill press and decent shop skills. What I don't have is a lot of is free time. After rebuilding a few pole vices, belt sanders, anvil stands, drill press, torches, coal forge, and making more tooling than I can keep track of I am starting to see the value in purchasing some things for the shop. It seems like I have spent more time making things to make things than actually making things if that makes sense. We will see how much shop time I can get in this weekend and if I can get around to messing with these designs. Thanks for all of the guidance

Hey Guys, Thanks for the feedback and suggestions. I only wish Frosty had some passion about burners and forges :). It looks like the two brick forge with a purchased burner is the way to go to get my mini forge setup and running quickly.

Hey Everyone, I have a coal burning rivet forge and a clam shell (with hinged walls) 2 burner gas forge. I am not sure how many hours I get out of a 40lb tank but it can't be more than 8 hours at the most. After filling up my 40lb tank and a regular 20lb tanks I was thinking that I would use propane much more often if my forge was more efficient. Over the last few years the majority of the forging that I do is on regular shaped stock 1" or under in thickness stock. For the vast majority of what I do a small single burner forge would be fine and I have the 2 burner if I need it. I am looking at getting something like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/Atlas-Mini-Forge-propane-knifemaking-forge-w-30K-BTU-burner-and-regulator-/112007645631?_trksid=p2352135.m2548.l4275 size to be my new primary propane forge. Do you all have any recommendations for mini forges of this size? If possible I would want one that I could easily replace the fire brick in. I also don't want something with wool in it that is going to require a lot of maintenance. I am decent with a Mig and could build one myself but am inclined to buy one at the 100-200 price range. Thanks for any suggestions,

Hey David, Sorry for the delay in response. I can't find my receipt but I am pretty sure this one was specifically made for propane and it was about $130 if I remember correctly. I was pretty meticulous about making sure all components were specifically for propane or rated for both. I have a friend who spent several months in the hospital from 3rd degree burns due an acetylene tank accident and it isn't something I was willing to take any chances with.