October 24th, 2015 - Saskatchewan Canada For the last few years I have lurked this site, I have read and I have dreamt. Well today, I got my coal in the forge I fixed up, and I have actually fired it and hit some metal! It has been about 6 months in the making to this stage, from organizing what I am going to need, securing products/base tools, and getting to it. I did a recording of my first day and put it on my youtube, so if you want, you can check it out The forge was sitting outside in the bushes on a farm here for over 40 years, and had rusted away in the middle of it, but there was enough steel around it that we could utilize something to bolt to it and make things work again. We took an older heavier gauge steel drum lid and cut a circle out of it. Then drilled through the center of it 5 times to where the blower intake was. Bolted everything together. As you can probably hear from the blower, it has some kind of rattle, and that's probably due to being well used and being left outside. We did manage to take the cover of the gearbox off, and the fan blade housing. It was clear and the gears were still really well greased, so I am not 100% sure on what the actual cause of it is. It does rattle, but not all the time, it just did it bad in the video cause it knew I was recording... The only tools I have right now, are a pair of vice grips, a really small ball pein hammer that is just far too small for what I am doing, but it is going to have to do until I can get a 2lb hammer or so. The anvil has no markings visible other than the markings from inspectors etc, that they all do, but I figure it's around 30-40lb anvil. There are a lot of chips around it, and I will probably be putting some pictures up to see if someone can help me out with it, if there's anything I should fix on it. The edges on the top seem pretty good in most parts so I think it'll be good for now. The base it is on is metal, and I wasn't happy with it. It isn't bolted to the ground (Is it going to hurt the vibration back into the work piece if I put it on the ground outside so it doesn't jump around? That piece I made, I am going to use it until I can actually make proper tools, but I have to get good at working with the coal forge. I have been researching it and I think I was doing it wrong. I burned through almost 1/3 of a 5lb bucket of coal. I think it was in too big of chunks, and I was just feeding the coal right into the fire, instead of converting it to coke first :/ But you live and learn. I was given two 5lb buckets from a friend who heats his house, so I know it's not the right stuff, but I think it'll help me get started and at least make the basic tools. If there is any questions or comments/suggestions please leave them here. I will be checking and updating this as I go.