Burns31

Should I scrape the paint off? I'm wondering if the fumes are harmful. Also, will my stainless steel screws give off any harmful fumes? As for the forge's design: I know it's not the best, but I've already invested a lot of time and effort getting all these pieces together. I am primarily interested in bladesmithing, and hopefully will work my way up to long blades in the future. As for the trip hazard, I'm hoping to set things up so that the horizontal pipe is completely out of the way. I'm also taking a look at some other designs on this site. Thanks again for your advice, and I appreciate any more!

Hi all, I'm getting started in blacksmithing and I have some safety concerns I wanted to ask about. I'm building my forge based on this guide: http://www.stormthecastle.com/blacksmithing/how-to-make-an-easy-cheap-blacksmith-forge.htm My fire pot is made out of a lawn mower cover flipped over to contain my charcoal. That is going to be attached to a brake drum that I drilled holes in for the screws to hold eveything together. The pipe that I'm hooking up the blow dryer to is black steel pipe from home depot. This is going to be attached to the brake drum with a pipe flange. What I was wondering is if I need to scrape off the paint on the pipes and on the lawn mower cover, or if I need to be worried using stainless steel nuts and bolts to hold everything together getting hot and giving off anything nasty. I was very careful about getting nothing that is galvanized, and I was hoping you all could give me some advice. Thanks for any help you can give!