Early Cuyler

I used to use one which used a mid-sized drum mounted into the middle of a 1/4" plate hearth which is 2' x 3' and legs welded on. Also scrounged up enough old bed rails from the dump to weld a nice lip around the outside edge of the hearth to keep coal, etc from falling off. Drum forges are quick and fairly easy to build, almost made for the pipe-flange that connects to the bottom for your air, but.... The cons are that you have the lip of the drum sticking up above your hearth which is a pain, not only for your stock being placed in to be heated, but also getting enough coal in. To slot the sides of the drum to allow your stock to sit flatter in the pot requires a lot of grinder blades or someone with an air-arc setup to cut it as it's a bugger. I finally got sick of the drum due to the limitations, bought more plate and welded up a new pot. Welded it flush with the hole in the hearth so the top is nice and smoothe with no obstructions to get in the way and I couldn't be happier. Plenty of coal laying about the hearth to pull into the pot as needed and no aggravating lip to keep the stock out of the fire. I didn't realize that the bigger stock would need so much room til I tried the drum and that's another I switched. Save yourself some frustration later on and get the stock to build a firepot or just buy a pre-made pot. Mount it flush to the bottom of your hearth and I bet you'll be very glad you did Good luck with your forge

Nice stamps by the way and thanks for sharing the info

Good work on the chairs...I like the looks of those

Dragon poop?...lol I save all mine as pets. Got bored with the rocks and I think the pet clinkers are much nicer to look at :-)

A friend of mine plays drums and there for a while, had some complaints from the neighbors. He hung sheets of egg-crate mattress to sound-proof his little practice area. Might work for you, but I'm sure there's other options. Plain ol' Blue-board insulation might help some. Good luck with it and let us know how it pans out :)

If it's that old and needs that much work, I think I'd oil it up, wipe it down and make a wall hanger out of it. Pick up a piece of 2"-3" black iron pipe and arc weld it to the end of a length of leaf-spring. Heat up the eye and flair it for your handle and thin the edge out a bit. Might just do you til you get your forge setup. If you do decide to re-work the old froe, I hope it all comes out good for you :-) Post up some pictures when you get it finished