ledson

Could one be modded at the pressing ends and used for forge work?

The rough sketch is what I meant, I see square box type at the fire pot through the wall with the round pipe attached vertically so I'm not sure if I'm wasting my time using the round pipe at my fire pot then run it vertically off it.

I don't want to put a hole through the roof if I didn't have to, so if cutting the pipe in two sections and putting if through the side of the shop would work, then that's what I'll do.

I still have the 55 gallon barrel and if using it as my hood and then run my 15in pipe straight up off it through the roof would work better, then I'll do that. I need to know which way would work the best because I screwed it up the first time and I do not want to get smoked out again.

Like this wonderful skitch I have attached?

reason being is I don't want to put a hole through the roof if I didn't have to, so if cutting the pipe and joining them in this fashion would work, then that's what I'll do.

Someone is giving me 15 feet of pipe, 15 inch in diameter. My question is could I make a side draft hood out of it then have the remainder to be the vertical pipe off it? my fire pot is 12in by 12in.

I could be wrong, but after looking at your pictures it looks like all the metal around your forge is galvanized. Including our ash dump. Other than the barrel and flue, it looks like the pan and stand around your fire pot are galvanized. These could heat up enough to let off the poisonous zinc that may have made you sick. Again i could be wrong. If the metal surrounding your forge is galvanized, i would remove it and start fresh with some steel sheet.

My fire pot and the table top around the pot is all plain steel, the frame work and ash dump is galvanized. I know the frame is no threat to me but unsure of the ash dump so I will clean the zinc off it soon.

With all the information everyone gave me, I ‘m ripping everything off it and starting from scratch. I found some 15 inch steel pipe by 15 feet long, so I’m all set to build a side draft. Would I be able to use it in 2 parts to make the hood and flue pipe?

Thank you all! Appreciate the help.

I'm feeling better now so I went out to my fathers old farm and took a few pictures of my newly built/work in progress smithy we built out of rough lumber, all the materials in it was stuff laying around. That's why I used the size pipe for the flue in which I will tell you the dimensions now.

There was a 6in flange laying around so I used that for the hole on top of the barrel hood because we had a reducer that went from 7in to 6in, so I used the reducer first to hook to the flange in the barrel, then it went from that to all 7in pipe. So in short I have a 6 inch hole in the barrel to a 7in pipe. (1st mistake I know) but it was all free stuff and I had hoped it would work. Other then that the pictures are self explanatory I think.

Even though the hole in the hood is 6 inches; I think it's likely to far away from the fire too. What do you guys think? is there any saving what I got by doing a modifications or do I have to rip it out, dig my wallet out and start fresh?

This may be a stupid question but did you use any galvanised steel in the construction of you firepot e.t.c.? I am only asking as burning zinc can be quite hazardous to your health.

No metal fume fever going on with me, no galvanized fumes in the smoke I ingested but great point

A lot of great information here and kind words! Thank you, thank you, thank you

My conditions took a turn for the worst last night with my cough. My cough up till then was pretty controllable but last night it became out of control, I couldn't get any sleep so by 4am I got in my car and went into out patience. They did the regular tests and decided to keep me in till 7am for x-rays. The x-rays showed infection on the long side of my right lung, the doctor on duty still couldn't diagnose what I had going on such as the flu or not. He said I was an interesting guy sorta speak. He prescribed me an antibiotic plus a puffer, he hopes it will help and if not by next week for me to see my family doctor.

Reading the info from you guys and my systems are what they are, leads me to believe it's not the flu. I'm actually worried now about the sulfurous acid and CO poisoning as stated earlier. If that's the case, is there a cure? Will I continue to get worst before getting better?

Thank you all!

Yeah I got to see a doctor then because I never been sick like before. When I feel better I will take detail pictures of my forge and hood so you can see what I have going on. I really do appreciate the help on the hood, it's something that needs to be addressed sometime anyway, it's just the least of my worry's at this point but I'm happy to hear your idea's the same time.

I'm sorry, I wasn't clear enough. The question is about me inhaling all that coal smoke and not knowing how bad and what kind of damage it could do to a guy in that period of time I was in there. I have no idea if I am sick right now from it or not. I reread my current post and could see the confusion, again sorry. My main concern was the affects of coal fumes and not why my hood didn't work, but I do appreciate the response on it.

I have finished building my forge and smoke hood for it, fired it up for the first time and the hood didn't do what it suppose to do, smoke poured out of it everywhere but up the flue pipe. Needless to say I kept it burning for half an hour or so to experiment as this was my first time and I was having too much fun to stop. I left feeling pretty sick and I've been that way since for (72 hours) I have flu like symptoms, cold chills to burning up and one hell of a lower aching back, headaches and a cough. I've had a bit of a cold beforehand but it's a mystery to me if the coal fumes did me in or it was something that was just going to happen?

btw, the shop had no door or windows installed at this point so the smoke wasn’t confined in the shop. I will say I will never do that again and will redesign my hood before firing it back up.

Could someone shed some light on this topic while I lay here and suffer some more?
Thanks

Thanks again everyone, so I've been working on it bit by bit as I have time and when it's done I'll post up some pictures. Then like you guys said, I'll see then how it works for me. As far as fuel goes, I'll likely make my own charcoal for it until I find a place to buy coal.

That's great, you all helped me a lot in this. Thank you very much

My fire pot is made out of 3/8" plate, we cut a 3" hole in the bottom for the pipe and tee'd off of that for the blower pipe. I felt it was to deep so we brought the pipe up a 1" or so, and I used refactory cement in the bottom to level it out. I bought the cement at a brick yard and it is made for the high temps. .I don't have any pictures of that set up but if you would like to see some PM me and I'll post some. The grate I used I bought from Centaur Forge and every thing is holding up great.

How deep was your pot before you raised it? where i never used a forge before plus and I'm building one, I would like to do it right the first time so I don't have to redo things later. Thanks for you help. I would like to see pictures of your set up for sure :)

As far as the bottom goes the two things to consider are the type and size of the fuel you plan to use and air flow.
I use an old cast iron drain cover with slots in it.Others tell me they prefer just bars spaced far enough apart to keep the fuel in but let clinkers and plenty of air pass thru.

The depth of the pot depends on the type of work you plan to do most and also whether you plan to line it or not.

would you suggest I line it? if I can get away without doing it I would. If I had to line it, what would you use?

thanks

I had bought this piece at a metal yard with hopes that I might be able to use it as a forge, attached are some picture and the dimensions are as follows...

19in deep
6in in dia
The two fittings going into the side of it are a little more than an inch in diameter on the inside.

Now I'm not sure what exactly the liner inside the stainless outer piece is made out of, there is some packing between the inner and outer shell too. I think maybe it was used for steam at one time in some sort of factory.

I have started with this pot so far and I'm looking for suggestions towards it being workable or not. Here are the dimensions.

5in deep
12in wide both ways on the top
3 3/4in at the bottom

I also need to know the best way to make the screen for the bottom, examples like if it should be a plate with a certain amount of holes or if i should just run 4-5 bars across it?

Thanks

Ok that's great, that helps me to make my mind up about using one or to make my own fire pot so I will weld up my own fire pot. I have a question for you all about this. Can someone tell me the best dimension for the pot.

thanks

Would a brake drum off a big truck work for a fire pot?

I'm in Canada, Nova Scotia.

This is a great site btw, I might even build my own forge after seeing some forges people built here.

:)

Thanks for the help everyone. I am waiting to hear back about if the blower works like it should and how sound the metal is on everything.
It's a long drive for me to look at it so I'm searching for all the info first.

thanks again

Hi all, this here is a picture of a forge I am interested in buying. Thing is I don't know enough about them to know if it's worth what they're asking. I can get it for $250 obo

what do you guys/gals think?