rdennett

Thanks for your help. I don't really see myself working steel much larger than about 1" in diameter. I actually did make a box bellows, but the piston kept getting stuck due to the inaccuracy of the tools I used to fashion it and the flexibility of the plywood it was made from. Also, I think the valve holes may have been too small to move the amount of air I wanted. I then made a set of double lung bellows, but I think the plumbing was too narrow and the firepot too deep. I have modified that, but I have not done any forging since. In any case, I know where I can score some empty pickle buckets with lids that will work, so maybe I will just experiment. I have also been thinking of a way to make centrifugal fan out of a bucket, so I may have a go at that as well. Thanks, Rob

Fortunately, the taper isn't so severe that a flexible gasket can't take up the slack. I am not quite sure what info you need, but my forge is a small charcoal forge that I would like to be able to get to welding heat without breaking my arm. Thanks, Rob

How big should a bellows be in terms of volume of the chamber(s)? I am specifically wondering if a 5 gallon bucket is large enough to make a Japanese style bellows out of. Thanks, Rob

The nozzle is 1/2". Actually, it is 1/2" schedule 40 pipe. What that means in human measurements, I have no idea.

Essentially my set up now is a Lively-style forge (except the bucket is round, has the top 6" cut off and has all the air holes in the center of it) acting as a fire pot hung from the bottom of an upside-down lawn mower body. My bellows are too small for it and the center of the fire is too deep to get heat in the middle of long pieces of stock. The bellows are about the size of the ones seen here. I was thinking I would construct a forge with one wall and a piece of pipe with a coupler on the end of it embedded in the wall so that I could screw a short nipple into the wall to put the air blast into the middle of the fire and replace it easily when it burnt out. The other wall would be made from dry stacked fire bricks which could be removed to accommodate irregularly shaped pieces. I use charcoal, btw, not for historical purposes, but to avoid annoying the neighbors and because it is easier to get than coal. Thanks, Rob

Kitty litter is made of bentonite, IIRC. I don't think that is the same as fire clay. I was just wondering if I could make home-made fire bricks or gas forge lining will stuff in my back yard.

Is it possible to make home-made fire clay? That is, mix it with stuff you dig out of the ground? If so, what type of earth should I be looking for? I live in Austin, Texas. Thanks, Rob

With charcoal, is it better to use a side blast forge or a bottom blast forge? Also, if it is better to use a side blast forge, does the tuyere need to protrude out of the wall of the forge into the coals, or can it merely be a hole in the wall? How high up from the bottom of the wall should it be? Thanks, Rob

To add to what Jayco said, the reason that the briquettes don't get hot enough is the binder that they use doesn't burn, so it steals some of the energy from the burning carbon. There are "natural" briquettes which are bound with starch that burn much hotter than tradition briquettes. That said, I stick with lump charcoal. Rob

I have tried that and the pot broke on the first firing.

I live in the 'burbs and to escape the ire of my HOA, I use lump charcoal in my forge. I am only a hobbyist, so I don't usually forge for more than a couple of hours. I used to use coal and when it came time to stop forging, I would just separate the coals to reduce the thermal mass and they would go out on their own. With charcoal, I need to extinguish it. I have been slowly pouring water on in little dribs and drabs until the coals just go out, but the bottom of my forge is lined with adobe and I don't really like getting that wet. Does anyone have any other suggestions so that I don't waste a bunch of fuel every time I forge? Thanks, Rob P.S.: Is a side draft forge better for charcoal?

I was looking at the mechanic's exercises in The Complete Modern Blacksmith and one thing I know I need to learn is how to accurately saw with a hand hacksaw. If I scribe a line on a piece of metal and try to hacksaw it, the cut will invariably be out of plumb. I know that practice makes perfect, but does anyone have any tricks for accurately starting and maintaining a hacksaw cut? Thanks, Rob

One of the projects that I want to tackle is to make some wood working tools, among them, a bowsaw. I am curious as to how I could make a blade of uniform thickness without building a rolling mill and without starting with stock of the appropriate thickness. The only thing I could think of would be some type of dies for a Smithin' Magician, but I don't have one of those. Is there a simpler way that doesn't involve making a lot of intermediate tools? Thanks, Rob

So it can't be saved? Rob

I finally got my new forge running and I was rather disappointed in it. Before I go back to the drawing board, I was hoping that you fine folks might offer some simple tweaks that might improve performance. In an effort to avoid confrontation with my local home owner's association (hopefully, I can start making presents for them soon, but first things first), I decided to use charcoal. This is available to me year round and is not too expensive for the amount of forging that I do. I constructed a small forge out of a discarded lawnmower body and am using an adobe-filled bucket with a one inch pipe passing through it for a fire pot. The pipe has two 1/8" holes drilled in it. I constructed a small, double-chambered bellows (about 18" in diameter) which has a 1/2" pipe nipple protruding from it. This is attached to the tuyere pipe via a piece of 3/4" flexible water heater conduit. I have never really used charcoal before (I have always used coal) and am unfamiliar with its nuances. When lighting the fire, I put a lit piece of newspaper over the tuyere and got it going like the flame coming out of a blow torch (in terms of sound), but It took a long time and a LOT of pumping to get the fire hot. I put a piece of 3/8" rebar in to the fire and it seemed to take a long time to get hot. Additionally, I couldn't get the steel above orange heat (although it was hard to judge in the light). I was using natural lump charcoal, not briquettes, by the way. Does anyone see any obvious tweaks here? I would also like to add that the shop has no power (or I would have used a hair dryer) and I have limited tooling (my arc welder is in storage and I have nothing to plug it in to). Thanks, Rob

I was always under the impression that tongs should be made from mild steel, but at a meeting recently, a smith made a pair from some railroad spikes. He also suggested that one make them from old coil springs. What do you make yours out of? Rob

By "yore", I meant from antiquity to the beginning of the 19th century. Also, I was only interested in new iron. Presumably, they recycled it whenever they could due to the expense. Thanks, Rob

Assuming that he wasn't located near a bloomery or anything, where would a smith get new iron? In what forms could it be obtained? How was it distributed? Thanks, Rob

Sounds like you are good to go then. Rob

New guy, What sorts tools and materials do you have available to you? Do you have access to a junk yard? How about an illegal dump site? Does your garbage company have a bulky trash collection day? Also, are you using charcoal briquettes or lump charcoal? Rob