HeavyHammer

My old shop was in the bottom floor of a two story barn. I had no way to put a chimney through the roof and all that, so I put my forge right inside the door. To work i simply opened the large door and hoped the smoke went out. Usually it did, if the wind hit wrong it would come inside but i never had any real problem with it. The barn itself was massive so it is possible that it made up for any smoke brought into the shop. Later on i nailed an exhaust fan into the door from and it sucked all the smoke out for the most part. Just watch any wood surfaces i.e. door frame, ceiling...

Well, Pyro thanks for the pics! Got a good idea of the direction I'm going to go with the piping. But, the wind storm friday ripped about 3/4 of the roof off my barn, so I'm going to have to fix that first... Thanks again for all the help guys.

Well, I can't thank you guys enough for the help. And pyro I would really like to see those pics, sounds like a very close setup to mine so I may be able to work something out here. I'll take pictures as it porgresses along.

Okay, So what I think Im going to do is just run a pipe out one of the windows and add a squirrel cage blower on the outside of the bend to add a hand to the draw. Now if I do that will it add any back pressure or anything and have a negative reaction on the draw? Thank you all for the help.

Well, I've moved into a building. Its concrete walls, dirt floor, big doors for ventilation (barn) basically perfect. Except I have no way to get the smoke, from my coal forge, out of the building. So lately I just set my forge outside the door and use it like that. The stainless steel sidedraft hood that I have would be perfect in every aspect but I am allowed in this building only if I'm not going to damage the property. Such as cutting a hole in the ceiling and feeding a pipe through for my hood.... So I am left with a dillema which I am not sure how to fix. How do I get the smoke out of the building. There are 2' long by 1 foot high windows ever 10 feet or so along the wall. I figured if there was a way to get rid of the window and just put my pipe through there I would be set. But that would put an angle in my pipe and everyone I have talked to has told me thats about the worst thing you can do to a coal smoke hood.Another problem is that my side draft hood already has a pipe directly welded to it for keeping the smoke off of the people during demos, and that pip hits just above the top of the window, so Im evidently going to need a new hood...any suggestions?? So if any of you happen to have an idea that could help solve these problems, I would be greatly obliged. Sorry for the long post...

Two questions. First off, im trying to remove a rivet from an old pair of nippers to forge into tongs. How exactly do i go about doing this? I haven't got really any power tools to work with so a way to go about this with hand tools would be most desirable. Second off, everytime I rivet something together, I get as far as having a nub of metal sticking out one side ready to be turned into a head, and after that it always ends up just a bent piece of steel. Which never seems to work. So any tips or hints would be appreciated.

Theres a video of a chasing procedure. http://www.lucianaveryblacksmith.com/smithing/videochaseing.htm link may have to be entered manually

the smaller one is already reserved :!: . If anything changes i will alert you though. sorry

Yea most likely. Id say just start looking around at flea markets and going to the local blacksmith guild.

I live in Jackson Center Ohio...ohh about 20 minutes from sidney ohio. In the great USA.

Well, you can buy off of E-bay but the prices( and the shipping) can be quite high. Going to local meets and flea markets can land you one as well. Older fabrication shops sometimes have them in a back room along with old machinery if they never disposed of it (rare to find anymore). Other blacksmiths can help greatly.....in fact if you are interested i have two anvils that i would like to get rid of. A 100 pound Vulcan in great shape and a 200 pound wilkinson wiht a broken off heel. Shoot me an email if you are interested. weapon_store@hotmail.com

Thank you everyone soo much... Ive come to a desicion to just keep the anvil the way it is. Ill work on it for about a year before i make a final decision. But right now its just gonna stay a little dammaged...when i finally got it home the chunk missing looked a lot smaller then in the pictures. So i think its gonna be fine. Agin thank you everyone for all your help..tho i have one more question. Does anyone have a good idea for a stand that would help reduce the ring of this thing. Ive heard of caulking the area the anvil sits in, magnets, chaining it down..etc...any one have any expirience of if any of these work or not..Thank you again.

Thank you!!! everyone!! That blueprint will help a lot...geuss i should of looked a little harder :oops: When it gets here tomorrow ill take a little closer look at the chip and report back here with some more in depth pictures. The fabrication shop my father works in hopefully wont care if we do decide to weld it. anyone know of any welding supply houses around sidney, ohio??

Are you gonna be able to pay the lawsuits for damages from drooling over the keyboard :wink: Beaut of an anvil if i do say so myself.

Yeah, the other side of the anvil is in great condition. I think ill go ahead and stick to just grinding it, welding was an option but truthfully has me a little worried hearing all the horror stories about losing the hardness on the rest of the face and cracks rippling through the plate. Not really what i want to have happen after spending almost ever dollar i had on it. Thank ya sir..

okay lets try again....

Alrighty....finely got me a nice Peter Wright. About 97 pounds. The chip on the one side is pretty bad and i was wondering what you guys think about repairing it. Any ideas? Thank you in advance for any help.

I started out using a old pair of worn out fireplace bellows..which worked so-so for the tiny charcoal forge i was using. After i had pretty much destroyed them ,from such heavy use, i moved on to a large leaf blower with a variable speed motor. Worked good for about a week. Then it decided to go screwy on me and would blow out all the coal in my firepot....which isnt real fun when you decide to try melting aluminum in your forge.... :shock: ...But then i got a beautifully restored Canedy Otto handcrank blower with a big ol' cast stand. I wouldnt change it for the world. I've used electric blowers and they are nice for getting things hot real fast....but I still prefer the feel and control you get with a handcrank.

Well, my hood wasnt built on the cheap :shock: .....I decided to use 14 gauge stainless steel and have it welded professionally ( a.k.a. my dad). Works really well. My forge is just sheet steel welded together with a nice ol' Canedy Otto firepot. Heres some pictures... THe brick is for size comparison. This thing aint small..

It can but it all really depends upon how well the hood is made. With the right diameter pipe and a good set of measurements then a sidedraft hood will pull the smoke and flames right up to the mouth of the hood. Heres some info on them to give you a good idea of how this all works. http://www.beautifuliron.com/chimneys.htm http://www.beautifuliron.com/mysteel.htm Link removed at the request of Jock at Anvilfire I use a large sidedraft hood on my coal forge and i absolutly love it. As long as there isnt any wind comeing in it sucks the smoke right off the fire.Though i must say a little bit bigger pipe would allow more smoke to exit the flue. Id say go with 10" minimum.

My name is Nathan Brandt. I'm thirteen years old and I have been smithing for around 3 years. I remember watching the smiths at steam engine shows and always longed to be able to try my hand at it. So finally one day I just went out and built a forge outta some scrap and took it from there. I've met some truly amazing people and seen some truly amazing pieces. This website has helped me so much its unbeleivable. Kind of funny i never thought to join up till lately. My father has been a big help, hes a master fabricator and proffesional welder. I get all my metal from his shops scraps (it's really nice to get free stock:). My grandfather has always had an interest in it and my uncle is a blacksmith so they have done everything they can to help me keep going in it. Though I must say my mother isnt exactly in love with coal yet;) but I think itll grow on her. Oh, and if anyone wants someone to come get rid of that nasty old anvil in the backyard im your man, I'll even do it for free;)

i need to post some new pics but i forgot(got a little busy to day) First my choke has a spring that keeps it up and i just put in a bigger spring to lengthen the opening. Im not sure the orifice size i think its a #60. im running at about 16-18 psi.There is no taper or flare or anything on the end. Its not welded to the chamber but it screws in. Im working on a thing like you said to get it up and outta there. im working on getting a flare from Zoeller Forge but i havent gotten that far yet.Thank you for the help you guys im gonna pretty much scrap the idea of the blower.i dont know much about this thing because i bought it from a friend of mines son(older than you think) Thanks, pics later i promise.

I have checked for burrs and i dont see any. The jet is straight . The outside of the forge gets warm but you can touch it for a second with little discomfort. Though i wouldnt go holding your hand on it. Its got 1 1/2" thick kaowool lining. Diminsions of inner chamber:9" long, 7" across:( i got the choke off of rons site: http://www.frontiernet.net/~gnreil/design2.shtml#axial I think im going to see if the "improvements" i did today will help. I took it completly apart and reassembled it(pics tomorrow:)) Thank you for your help !

So do you think its is possible to use that pipe thing you put on top of yours with the elbow and such and attatch a blower to it? Im trying to start welding in it, right now i can get to a light orangish yellow. My coal forge is nice but i like the cleanliness of this thing:)

I have a propane forge that uses the Ron Reil style venturi blower. Its just not cranking out the heat id like it to. I was wondering if anyone knows if its safe to add a blower to it to beef up the heat. If yes then what would be the best way to do it: