Well I finally managed this weekend to finish off construction of the charcoal forge , I enjoyed the process so much I just want to make a new gas one but figure I should use this one first . I just like making stuff .
After my first post in the introduction forum there was a couple of changes to the design as to the legs and the tue plate , thanks John B for the advice there .
So it is the top 7 inches of a 19kg propane tank with 2 cutouts 2 inches down , I cut the bottom of the cut outs to the same the internal radius of the tank so they would weld on perfectly as work support
I then needed to think about what to use as an ash pot and blower , I phoned a couple of plumber supplies with no luck another one did supply but didn't bother to get back to me , what is it with companies taking your number and not calling back ? gets my goat, needless to say didn't get my custom
The same afternoon at work I was cutting down a wrongly positioned speed limit sign and thought why not just make one from the post which is 3inch diameter ant 3mm wall width , then the thought to use the sign as a forge surround and steadier base , the cut out for the forge is bent at a slight angle and fitted to the front to cover the 12v 200watt auto blower motor , this will also hold the variable switch (30 amp pulse width modulator)still waiting for this to arrive from Hong Kong .
A Top View , tue plate is 4inch diameter and 3/8 thick with 10mm + 6mm holes , the plate is mounted to the tank using 1200 deg c fire cement about 1 inch away from the inside
I fabricated a blower box to fit over the blower pipe , the ash plate was going to be my tue which is a circle cut out of a diamond discutter blade as advised it would be to thin for the tue it found another use , mechanism is simple and operates well
The final stage was to go out to the fields and dig a big hole to find some clay , I made this into a consistency that would squeeze through the fingers and pick out all the chalk nodules once clean I added an equal amount of kiln dried sand , the sort that is used to sweep into block paving , then added a handfull of wood ash , put all this inside a t-shirt in a plastic bag and allowed the water to seep out over the last week , it was a nice consistency to mould the firebowl yesterday .The adobe clay mix is about 1-1.5 inches thick .
Not sure whether to leave it to dry slow or fire it up and bake it , any suggestions ?
As with anything I do I like to research so as not to make too many mistakes , so would welcome criticism /opinions
xxxx just want to fire it up now