JimsShip

Way to scare him away guys! Now I'll never be able to get him to finance my electric hammer idea.

Wouldn't enclosing the whole thing like that prevent you from being able to use long stock?
I was thinking of enclosing1/3 of mine and having a hood lip extend over the center. (My forge is square with the tuyere right in the middle.)

I have the Champion 104 in the middle pic. without a hood. Do you think that one is custom made? I'd love to know the specs on it, do you have any other pictures?

Why is the tuyere 2" higher than the bottom of the pan? Shouldn't it be flush at the bottom?
The 2 forges i've restored had it that way, in fact the lining actually covered the edges of the tuyeres.

I also used the 3 parts sand to 1 part portland cement (not concrete) recipe for my linings and have had no issues yet (Thanks Old 'n Rusty!)

Nice job, but where's the rum? Why isn't there any rum?

If the wood is that bad, then i'd take it apart anyway, just so it doesn't crumble while in use and fall over on you!
Weigh the anvil and find a nice chunk of wood. (call your local tree remover and find out where they'll be cutting down some big trees!)

Don't give up on it yet!
I would make a small candle holder or something, go back and give it to them and apologize for bothering them. Leave your card and tell them if they ever wanted to sell the anvil before it rusts away, to give you a call. (assure them it will be preserved and put to good use, in case it's Grandpa's old heirloom!)

Some country folk are a bit mistrusting of strangers coming to the door, suspecting theives or gas drillers scoping out the land.
You may not get the anvil, and still may be met with the same poor attitude, but you'll leave with the good feeling of being the better person, and they will have a constant reminder that there are some decent folk outside the fencelines.

Here's my completely inexperienced opinion..

1. I don't beleive there's a set height requirement for the forge. It would only protect the fire if it's back is to the wind anyway, so i would guess it would have to be at least as tall as the forge is wide so that the wind wouldn't just blow over the top and hit the far end of the fire. (Did that even make sense? In my head it did...)

2. I'm thinking of making a small hood for my rivet forge not only to help raise the smoke higher than eye level (I hope!), but also because it would shield the sun a bit and help me see the color of the metal in the fire more accurately.

3. OK by who?

Nice Job!

I would lower the bottom of the ash dump to allow some accumulation before it obstructs the blower airlow. Looks good though, nice save on the blower!
I made my brake drum ash dump using an exhaust flap-cap (like the big rigs have) I bought at tractor supply. You just need to weight the flap end down when you flip it upside down. (I used a small bar that I could kick to dump the ash. Eventually i'd like to make a dragon head for it!)

_{Wow, that certainly looks sinister! I like the idea of the oil tank, and I'd like to do the same thing on a smaller scale with a 55 gallon drum. (I like the extra fuel and work area it would provide!)
Mind if I modify your idea for a brake drum forge?}

Also, thanks for the magazine link. Good stuff.

Porcelain! *Slaps head*
I knew that. I don't know why I said enamel.

This doesn't look as deep as you'd expect, and I figured if I used enough cement/sand to line it it would be shallow enogh. I was just concerned about the enamel because the left hand side is a flat work surface for drying dishes or something.
It looks something like this-

I saw an old enameled, cast iron kitchen sink the other day, and it got me thinking about using it as a forge.
I already have a small champion forge, but it doesn't have a lot of table space for new coal and workspace, and I was thinking if I lined it, it would be pretty practical.
My question is, can I use this? Would I have to remove the emamel?

My Brothers-in-Law showed some interest in my blacksmithing, so the family chipped in for a blacksmithing class at The Farmer's Museum in Cooperstown.
My son stopped in for a visit to proudly show everyone his "anvil shirt".

That is awesome indeed. Simple enough to make for an audience and turn out fast enough to sell!

That's awesome.

That no burn ban does NOT apply to blacksmiths. All the NYSDB meetings are still going strong, despite the "ban".

It does for me. I use a small forge outside my garage in a residential area, where this past Friday the 13th some dope set 7 fires in our little town. They caught a suspect, but everyone's on high alert. My neigbor had an open fire pit for marshmallows and the Fire dept came by and told them to douse it.

Sadly, we have a "no burn ban" here in Upstate NY due to the lack of rain, so not open fires allowed until May. (It's really too bad too, we've had some perfect Spring forging weather)
Hopefully tonights storm will help things along.

Not sure why that didn't upload using the regular loader, but at least you can see it.

I always enjoy seeing your work Beth, and this is no exception.
I recently came across a picture that made me think of you, and the way you use old items to make new art.

shovel.bmp

_{Another post in this forum made wonder how old this may be. (They had mentioned that the P.W. anvil they had had 3 handling holes which they thought would make it pre 1852) Is this true? This has handling holes on the left and right sides, as well as one at the bottom. Just curious, Thanks!}

All I have in my upper right hand side is a tab for Messenger, notification, my profile, and sign out. When I click my profile a small chat box appears and asks what's on my mind. If I click sign out, well, it signs me out! (signing back in isn't a problem though!) The link did take me directly to my settings though, and my address is ok, so I guess we're all good on that front.

***EDIT***
Pay no attention to the ramblings above I found the tab for my profile (under the comment box) I'm not sure why I didn't see it on my work computer but can see it on the laptop. (We have all sorts of filters and blocjked sites so maybe it's affecting how i see the page at work.)

Sorry about that. (Stuff like this is why it's hard to be a web designer!)

Is the gap between the tuyere and the bottom of the pan, or the underside of the forge pan and the pipe?

I'm probably as new as you are to all this, but while restoring my own Champion, I noticed a gap between the tuyere and the bottom of the pan, but I sealed it when I put in the cement/sand mixture lining reccomended to protect the pan. (I filled the pipe for the ash dump and blower with some rags to keep the mix from falling in there) It works fine, and aside from the fear of never being able to access the bolts for the tuyere again without removing the lining I think (and hope!) it's what I was supposed to do.

Is that what you're describing?