TomN

Sadly none of them could think of anywhere sensible. Should have mentioned that in my original post, but it was late and I was tired. Not sure on what the rules are for just using a forge randomly in public....I imagine not very welcoming!

I've not had a chance to use my forge for a few years now and its been grating on me for ages. Circumstances forced me into rented accommodation, where I cannot use my forge. I have everything safely stored up and I would love to use it again. Not least because I have just joined a historical reenactment society and being able to make things would be hugely beneficial. I can't for the life of me think of anywhere sensible to set up my forge. I thought I would ask you good people and see if you can come up with something. Any thoughts?

I cannot find adequate words to describe my jelousy. That kind of shop I can only dream of. Good luck with the rest of your build.

All that mead and a load of smithing. Wow. Heaven! Hope I can make it.

Excellent stuff! They look fantastic and will really add a lot of character to pieces. Some of them look really fiddly.

After being made redundant (again) and looking for work, this would have been perfect for me. Doing something I love and gaining additional skills. Shame i'm in Oxfordshire.

Hi Giles. I may be going to the Thame show with the missus. If I come along I will come and say hello.

Well this is interesting. I was originally going to be in the running to be on this programme, but couldn't commit to it in the end due to going to Tanzania to climb Kilimanjaro for charity and then taking on a new job. Strangely I found Joel on Facebook and never knew he was on here, or on that programme. Will have to get round to wathing this at some point.

Good luck blackleafforge. Perservearance is a virtue. Hope it goes well for you.

Nice stuff. Very well reproduced curves. Very consistent. Thats a very appropriately named town you come from.

Good luck Debbie. I'm from West Oxfordshire, so about an hour and a bit away. I can't recomend the blacksmiths guild highly enough. John will set you right on just about anything you want to learn, or the craft in general.

What a stunning bit of artistic design. I wish I had a tenth of your creativity. That is a lovely piece in design, function and execution. I hope you got a good price for it, because it deserves one!

I'm 32 and wish I could get an apprenticeship as a blackmsith as well. Good luck Gary. Hope you have better luck than I did!

Hmmm, the Stepney City Farm sounds very promising. I will get in contact with them and see what the deal is. Not had a chance to do any forging for some time, as I have been busy training and fundraising for a chairty climb of Mount Kilimanjaro, I am doing in February. As for the Widdecombe forge...........I suposse I could divorce the wife and live in the forge there. Haha. Thanks for posting these up John. Great find!

I have had to take a bit of a break from the rebuild at the moment, as I am climbing Kilimanjaro for charity in February and my fundraising wasn't going well. Needed a lot more time spent on it. At the latest I will be back to finish this off in late February, early March.

I will be trying hard to get to this. If only to see the iron smelt.

Right, i've got some more HSS drill bits and my angle iron frame. Now all I need is for this accursed rain to stop, so I can get on with it! Been hammering it down for the past three days. I've got some anchor bolts, threaded bar and all the things I will need to get set up. I also had a friend of mine tell me about a local wood merchants, where I can get some sheet materials for cheaper, as well as some good advice on what to go for.

Went to my local metal merchants ad have ordered my framework. Should be ready in a few days time. 40mm, by 3mm angle iron. £26. Not bad at all. Now onto souring the wood panels and the roof.

Measured up the heights of certain areas around the workshop site. The heights are as follows; Garage = 97''. 8 feet. Shed roof = 82''. Shed door = 67''. Post = 63''. I've been given permision by my landlord to anchor bolt the frame to the floor. He is also getting me a few of the anchor bolts from work. He also gave me some threaded bar as well, to make the fittings, for attaching the wooden walls to the frame. Drawn up a few rough plans and if I go for a height of ~ 85'', then there will be a 22'' drop over the 72'' length. Should give me a good angle for rain to run off of the roof. My plans are for the long side to be 71'' long and the shorter side to be 65'' in length. This works out to be 13.4 metres of angle iron. Going to go and get priced up tomorrow. The anchor bolts will be 18mm, so I think angle iron of around 1.5'' should be ok. Bigger would be better, but it all depends on cost. Once I get the frame up and secured to the floor, then the wood 'cladding' on. Once that is sorted, then I can sort the roof out. Can't wait to get this sorted out, then I can get back to making stuff. First job is to get the new anvil stand welded up and deadened up to sound a bit. Going to fill the legs with expanding foam and cut up an old car tyre to act as a spacer between the anvil and the stands base.

Those were my concerns with the corrugated roof as well. I just couldn't think of anything better. Nice to have the know how of so many others to draw on with this site. I was also envisioning a relative flat roof as well, because it will need to be above the height of the shed (or at least the top of the shed door) and this would also make it easier to weight down, on top of the garage. The fibre glass roof sounds great, in terms of letting in light etc, but that sounds costly to me (I could be wrong and apologise if I am) and I wonder if it would stand up to the heat of the forge...... I'm guessing the roof is going to end up at around 6'4'' in height, at the lowest, where the forge will most likely go. Thats pretty high I suppose. How would I secure the fibreglass down though to the angel iron though? As for moving it to a new house, I don't think that will happen for quite some time anyway, but I am unlikely to get a large enough garden to build a big workshop in anyway. So it would more likely than not be more of a case of just making two opposing walls turn the structure into a square, rather than an L.

Thanks for the reply DSW. I had also thought about the possability of using posts and wood. The only problem I have with that is that I will need to sink it into the ground and I don't want to wreck the garden. Me and the wife are renting this place from a friend, so I don't want to push my luck with the guy, as we are very grateful to him, to allow us to rent there for cheap. I currently quite like the idea of making the walls out of angle iron. This way I can use cheap wood, bolted to it. Also it means I will be able to have a really solid structure, that will last. Plus I may be able to take it to another location, for when we manage to get a mortgage. The total ideal, would be to take those two walls and use them as the basis for a bigger workshop, in the garden of a new place when we move there. Sadly I have no idea when that will be though, as we won't be able to get a mortgage until I have a fulltime job. Not having much luck with jobs at all at the moment. Later on I will go and measure up the heights of the shed and garage sides. At least I will have a better idea at roughing out the heights etc. Will try and come up with some more plan drawings for this. I'm thinking of using some corrugated iron for the roof. Presuming this will be relatively cheap, but will also last well. Bolting it to the frame is a concern though, as well as weighing it down, to stop it being blown around.

Congratulations to young James on winning the trophy. A very arty sign bracket, which demonstrated a lot of traditional techniques, including fire welding. That lads got a bright future in the craft I think. From what little I know that is! Didn't realise there was a cash prize though. I'd enter next year, but think its been over three years since my first day on the taster course. I got very little done at the AGM, other than chatting to nice, like minded people. It has got me inspired to get my workshop rebuilt though.

I'm looking to rebuild my mini workshop. I will use this as a sort of 'blog' to document my progress and also try and call upon the varried knowledge of others on here to help me make good choices. I used to have a really cheap gazeebo up, that was used to keep the rain off. I had the whole thing weighed down with breeze blocks in each corner and the whole thing lashed down with ropes. It worked well for a while, but during a period of high winds the gazeebo, bent and sort of tore itself apart. I had to scrap the whole thing and put all my forging gear into storage. Now i'm looking for a bit more of a semi-permanent solution. Essentially I am looking to form a much more solid surrounding for my mini workshop that will stand up to the wonders of our British weather. It would be an added bonus if I could move the resulting construction to a new property, when the wife and I manage to get a mortgage. I have taken some photo's of the area I am aiming to build in the workshop in, as well as some roughly drawn (and coloured in like a child) plans, for a very rough beginning idea. The area in question: The concrete area, where I hope to construct the workshop Little alley between the garage and metal store Shot from further back, from grassy area, which contains a dumping ground for grass clippings etc. Flammable, so needs protecting! Garage on left, metal store to right. Shows height difference. Shed and garage side. Shows that roof will need to be set onto the gargage, rather than the shed roof. Left of shed, showing bushy hedge This goes to show that I have a nice (if small) section of concrete to build around. My thinking is that if I raise two walls to protect the hedge and grassy area, then I have a nearly enclosed box in which to work. I hope this means that I will not have to worry too much about fire risks, from hot sparks and other things, effecting my surroundings. The next step is to get a rough idea of where to build the walls and 'rough out' the workshop and roof. I did some measurements around the area to get a rough idea of what sort of area I had to work with. Stupidly I forgot to measure the height of the garage side, to give me a rough idea of what sort of height I would need to make the walls. Below is a picture of a very rough (not to scale) plan I drew out of the site. I messed up the measurements, thinking I was doing it in mm's. I was actually doing it in inches. So remove the final 0 from each number and that is what it is in inches. E.g. - 910 on the picture, really translates to 91 inches! I have corrected the measurements on all future images, when I realised just how dumb I had been. Below is an idea for where the walls should go. The walls in RED have been given a rough sizing. I need to leave a path up to the left of the shed and another opening, onto the grassy area opposite the shed. Below is an image of a rough out of the small workshop 'layout/floor plan'. I think a sliding door to the right will be a sensible solution, as this will allow me to close off the workshop to the outside world and also maybe lock it as well. Below is an image of the plan with an area highlighted in orange, where the roof can go. This should make the workshop pretty well wind and rain proof. If I can get that area closed off, then I will have a nice little workshop to work in. I think I will need to build a small hood and extract to allow a lot of the heat and fumes out. Now I need to think about how to construct the walls and out of what materials. Also the roof needs consideration as well. Need to select a good material, work out how to secure it to the walls and work out a sensible slope for rain run off etc. More to come soon!

I can't even put my jelousy into words right now! Looks fantastic. Can't wait to see the finished shop.

I will next time. Now I now who you are, I can at least. Yes I was in the forge right in the corner for a bit. Had a few goes at making some bevelled scrolls and a set of bending forks. It was pretty warm right in that corner. I was a bit cack handed with the hammer for a while, until I got used to it again. Not really picked up a hammer for over 10 months. Really need to set my forge up again at home.