Solid Fuel Forges

I need some ideas, I need to rebuild my forge for a couple reasons, first its old and wore out. next, I need to for some things I now do. what I am wanting to come up with is something like a gas forge but coal. what i have now is about 12" square, that tapers down about 12" deep. it is a bottom blast. What I need is one that is about 18" long, that will heat evenly the entire length. so i was thinking about some kind of difuser so there is no cold spots. I know I could use gas, but I like coal. I need it deep also as I will be doing welding mostly. The next problem I can see is I use a side draft hood, I can see my shop will be smokey if it is that long. I'M not sure ho…

here ya go, you even can catch a glimpse of the pitiful piece of metal i call an anvil

i an wanting to make a new fire piot from a old farm dish blade an welding a 4 inch ring around the top to add more coal or charcaol to it with a tee thype pipe at the botton for a bolwer an ash dump , will line it with fire clay , what is your thinking on this the disk blade is about 18 inch across an will drill a tryee hole in it for climker clean out , what say u alll

Hi all, This looks like a hopping form. I've banged around on some metal about ten years ago (coal, hibachi and a hair dryer), and started welding: welding up a trailer, sawmill, jeep bumper, winch plate, and a few other things since then. I got a book on blacksmithing from santa, and am wanting to do more hammering hot metal, mostly to make wood working and logging implements. I picked up a forge blower and was going to weld up a forge tomorrow morning with some stock left over from my tandem axle trailer project. Have a couple of questions: Is a 'T' pipe connection pretty standard under the tuyere? It looks like a handy way to get ashes out. As an alternativ…

Hi guys, I'm trying to get this cast iron Alldays forge going. The plates in the bottom of the forge look original - about 1/2" thick and seem to be made of the same stuff as the forge, but the fit is horrendous! There seems to be a triangular section of plate missing, but the plates that are present hardly fit together at all. (For scale, the tape measure is set at 12"). The way I see it, all the coal will fall out the bottom. This can't be right? The really odd thing is that there is vertical separation between the two main plates - one is higher than the other (at one end only!) - seems odd? Would it normally have some kind of lining, or should I expect to b…

Hello,sorry it took so long,here's pictures of champion blower i got for $100. and forge pot I made.

Hey, I've always wanted to blacksmith, but I dont know how to make a forge. I don't want to use gas. I want to use charcoal or coal. Any ideas?

I've been using a homemade forge made out of a disk blade and a hair dyer and now an old friend sent me a champion 400 blower and the only markings on the forge is 402. I don't know if all the parts are there or not. It seems that the blower fits on a bracket off of the forge but it don't fit well. Does it have a locking ring or what? Any help would be great. Thanks.:confused:

Well i started building a forge about a month ago and fired up for the first time today. Built it out of a old grill body to hold everything, then fire bricks and a brake rotor for a pot. ran air in underneath with steel pipe. Fired it up using royal oak. Then started practicing on some cold roll steel. Apparently, the grill body wasn't the best choice. i burnt through it in about 45 mins. So i let it cool down and started over. Since i live in ga. (red clay capital of the world), i buried the pipe and dug the brake rotor in to the ground and bricked it up for insulation. I'm also apparently having a problem regulating my heat. I melted my metal. I was just trying to beat…

Hey guys and gals, Just found you site yesterday. So this is it . . . I just bought an old coal forge the other day and it is missing the tuyere. I was able to rig up an old cast iron floor drain cover (short term fix) and it worked pretty well. The question is any suggestions on how to make one or where to buy one? Someone selling on Ebay but they look as if they will not last very long (not very thick and also not cast iron). Looked around on iforgeiron and did search but did not find anything relevant. The ID on the up pipe is 2-3/4" (3" pipe?) and the bolt spacing center to center is 3-7/8". Attached is a picture of the forge. The whole coal forge thing is n…

Cracked right through the firepot on both sides of the grate. The gap is probably an 1/8 inch. What to do?

I've already built a really good coal forge and it drafts quite well. It actually has a hood that overarches the firepot perhaps 2' above it and reaching over about 50% of the firepots diameter. Here is a rough view So I am wondering if coal forges that actually encase the entire fire pot, and mimic the design of gassers, heat hotter or are more efficient? Seems lke an ecased coal forge would work like an oven and reach higher temperatures quicker then the average firepot design where most of the heat is instantly lost into the non-enclosed atmosphere or right up the flu. Can someone tell me if I am correct in these assumptions?

Hey guys, I found a forge over the summer and just got around to playing with it a few weeks ago. Information from this website and others tells me it is a Buffalo "rivet forge"... or something...I guess. I have no idea how old it is but it was in the basement of a barn for a long time. When I first got it it didn't look like it was in too bad shape, the bottom of one leg is rusted to pieces, and it needed a good cleaning. As well as a new belt. A few weeks ago I finally bought some coal and tried it out. Worked great, no problems at all. The next weekend I lit it up again to attempt some tongs...utter failure. First off it was acting a little funny, when I pumped…

I am a woodworker by hobby, but i also do volunteer work at a pre-revolutionary farm. I, along with others, have built a replica of the family's 1st log cabin, corn crib, root cellar, and blacksmith shop ( he was a blacksmith when he migrated to the carolinas). While we have built the structure for a small (open on 3 sides) shop for period-life demonstrations. We do not yet have a design for period accurate forge. I have several photos of other forges, (mostly from the mid 19th century) but i don't have good plans for a period accurate forge. I have plans for a double chamber bellows, and i will be building that soon. For the past few years, we have had offer of some loca…

This is my first attempt at forge building, so please post your comments and offer your experience and helpful ideas. Well here's my forge project so far. It's built from a 24" diameter farm disc harrow blade 1/4" thick. The firepot is 6" in diameter and 3 1/2" deep. It's formed from a 6" X 3" industrial pipe reducer. The clinker breaker is 1" thick mild steel stock, shaped to the contour of the 3" reducer bottom. The clinker breaker operating rod is 3/8". The legs are 3/4" pipe and will get threaded pipe caps to finish off the ground contact end. I have a 3" industrial tee which will finish the ash dump and allow access for the blower system. I'm going to make the blower…

ok. my dad and i use a brake drum forge, and i was wondering if it would be more eficient to use rock coal rather than charcoal, could i possibly get some advise there?

I`am starting to build a 2nd portable forge:o! Its goin be a side draft . The frame will be 45" x 24" inches. The table will be 1/4 " plate , it`ll have a brake drum fire pot. The frame will be 1/8 x 1 1/4 x 1 1/4 angle.I`am going fab up a mont for my handcrank. Also am going to build a mount on one side it to bolt my post vice to;). I need to find a 10 or 20 gallon barrel though:confused: I `am going use it as the hood (sorta like Richard T `s portable forge) anyone know where I could get a 10 or 20 gal. barrell?????(Iv`e seen them but not sure where) I`ll will post the progress on this thread so keep watching the build. I plan to use it at Perryville reinactment (with…

Im thinking about making a forge for metal work. Would A forge made from bricks and cement work. And if so then are there some sort of special bricks or cement.

Just getting started first off. but...i have an anvil, some hammers, and picked up a nice brake rotor for a fire pot. I have an old grill body to use as a shell so to speak to hold everything together. Now for my problem.....went to the hardware store today looking for pipe to make a (not sure of proper term) but pipe to bring air into the forge from the bottom. Around what size pipe should use? i found a video on youtube of a guy making a forge from a brake drum and used like 3 to 4" pipe with a verticle section running to a T-joint, and a section running horizontal for air intake, then a cap at the bottom. However, my home depot doesn't carry anything near that size... …

Okay I have never forged anything. I was a machinery designer for twenty some years and have done a fair amount of machine work. I am a long way from a tool maker. I am getting ready to start to build a coal forge. I did visit one of the members from here and look at a forge he is in the process of building, this helped me with a concept. I am going to build one similar to the one hammer kid shows on this forum. Here are a few basic questions.1) How large should the bottom of the fire box be, length and width? 2) What are the dimensions of the top of the fire box, length and width? 3) What is the angle of the sides of the fire box? 4) What should the depth be of the fire…

I have the chance to buy it but I havent ever seen one like it, It looks well made, thought some of you veterans might know something about it thanks for the help and Godbless,Charlie

I built my first forge today and fired it for the first time. It seems to work real good, but then again this is my first time forging at all, let me know what you think. I used a 12" brake drum, hair drier, 2" black pipe and fittings, 3/16 plate steel, and an old table saw sand. Heres the pics of the forge.

Just thought that I would share this moment with all of you. This is my first forge and first fire all in one day... I feel full of win. The firepot is out of 3/8" diamond plate scrape. I purchased the pipe, and the frame of the forge is from 2" sqr tube that was left over from our barn doors. Welds are rough but they will hold. My welder is a little under powered and I am rusty. I still have to put some plate on the top all I have to do is cut it to fit. Let me know what y'all think. Best, Archiphile

hey all, so when building my first forge im using a 2 inch flange to connect the firepot to the tuyere. problem being that the flange is galvanized. is this one part going to be an issue, or will the potential fumes be negligable?

I join yesterday and read some on making a forge, I got thru my head just how this tuyere works as far as grate being installed to prevent the fire from falling thru. But was wondering if the tuyere sticks up inside the fire pot and if so how high, or is it flush with the bottom of fire pot? If the tuyere that attachs to the bottom of the fire box was black iron pipe and threaded on the end furthest from fire chamber, then I could use copper pipe for the tail piece and the horz. air inlet, would both pipes have to be the same dia.? and would a y-fitting work better than a tee as far as directing the air upwards to the fire chamber. I also read about air pressure being mor…