OllyO

Hi all. Our spit roast went very well in the end but the spit (despite best intentions) was quite rushed. The spit fire had been lit before I'd even finsihed the thing! Front legs are 25mm square and the rear legs 20mm round. These are the morning after photo's, don't think I got any of the hog on the spit. Six gallons of pottage hung from the hook for our vege folk. Thanks to everyone that provided help, info and offers of favours.

Cheers Alan, much appreciated. I may well take you up on that offer as it is looking as though I may have no time to make my own! All being well though I'd like to have a bash (no pun intended) at making one. I'll keep you posted.

PS> I just picked up a six gallon cast iron cauldron from a scrap yard so I may have a go at making a trammel for the spit as well. Then it'll be time for pottage.

Thanks for getting back to me chaps. I've had a couple of break throughs regarding this subject. One is a great book (for the people in the Uk) called "The cauldron, the spit and the fire", there are some great images of domestic cooking equipment over the last how ever many hundred years. I've not got a copy becasue it's a bit dear but my friend has so I have a date with a photocopier coming up. The other example I found was made by a Smith who works near me by chance called Jasper Johns, the spit is now in Glastonbury abbey in Somerset. I'm picking up some victorian register grates from Glastonbury tomorrow so I'll drop in and get some photo's. Here it is; roastingspit1.jpg

Hi all, I've been trying to research traditional wood fired spit roast designs but can't find much info. Can anybody point me in the right direction? Maybe some of the living history folk have seen or know of sme nice designs? It's being built for a May Day celebration we're having here in Somerset. I can design/ build a way in which to power it, I'm just looks for a nice asthetic for the legs and spit etc, preferably something based in history. Cheers, Olly PS> It's got to take a whole hog.

Seems straight forward enough. I'll just need to invest in a bit of kit! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmjMwWqrDnk

Hollow ideally but I guess knocking the corners of a square lump would suffice. Cheers all.

I'm new to this game and I don't doubt this task is beyond my abilities but my friend has asked me if I can make him a sphere. Other than welding a couple of ladles together is there a way this can be acheived?

Well that's interesting to know. Cheers chaps. No markings though I'm afraid.

Hello all, I use an anvil that was my great grandfathers. He was a monumental mason and his appretices used to have to break up marble into chippings on it to use for graves. It was used in this way right up until the 60's. I was just curious as to what age it is, anyone got any ideas? Cheers. O

I have a flue section in two meters then a 800cm section with a cowl on. I wanted to go through a single sheet of tin but it wasn't possible due to the positioning of the forge. It was a right pain. It's still water tight though thankfully.

Here's the forge as it stands. I decided to go for that gator type flashing I saw on eBay in the end. It's a really good seal but obviously a more expensive option. Around thirty two pounds all in. I've not yet made the braces to support the remaining three meters of flue so have been running the forge with just one meter but it still works well. Flue pipe is 9". The photo below is from today after I finished with the fire. It shows my rough looking fire brick/ brick arrangement.

Cheers John, looking forward to the course. Thought I'd try and get in a bit of practice before the weekend! I've got some old bits of fire back that I've arranged around the tue to create a nest for the fire. Seems to work alright. I've got friends around at the moment so haven't managed to sneak more than an hour or so on the forge but initial tests seem positive. I'm using anthrasite at the moment and had the steel sparkling white. Thanks for the sketch Alan, I'll take a look this eve and see if I can simulate something like what you describe. I'll get a photo up as well at some point. Thanks again all!

Hi Alan, Any chance you could send me a photo of your hearth or of an example of the mud/ash/brick swans nest arrangment. I'm quite sure where to aim to have the fire in relation to the tue. Cheers, Olly

Not to worry Alan, we live and learn. I've got a bit of a habbit of barreling into things i'm afraid. This forge has only really cost me around sixty odd pounds so if it all went tits up it wouldn't be too much of a problem. I've not yet had a go with a forge so hopfully as my skills develop, my forge will too. I greatly appreciate everyones help on this forum and hope that I can re pay your efforts with some photo's of some forged steel in the not too distant future. A Blacksmith has just moved into the area after the forge had remained empty for a time so I'm hoping to go and help out for an afternoon a week.

Cheers Alan, any infor would be greatly appreciated. Who'd have thought a tray with a fire on could be complex?! Unfortunatly I can't move the tuyere up as the hole in the back of the forge has been cut as has the back plate. I'll give it a try and see how it goes. The doors on the side are now essentially redundant as I've made some panels to go inboard of them. When the doors are dropped it reveals the panels that at present have no cut out cut into them. Here they are from inside the hearth; Here's the blower, slide valve and funnel bolted onto the forge. I've got a length of pipe ready to connect this to the air tube on the back of the bosch once it's mounted. I've lined the bottom of the hearth with some vermiculite board stuff that is used in woodburning stoves. It's a bit broken up but looks alright to me. My shelter is finsihed so I'll move the forge in tomorrow and fire it up all being well!

Here's the reg plate as well, I made a flange for it so I can seal the flue with rope.

It sounds like we really are on the same tangent. I've made a funnel to reduce diameter off the slide valve to the 35mm OD pipe I'm using for the air. My flexible hose (wire reinforced) has to do a 180 degree loop though. The shed I built had a roof coverage of 14ft x 12ft, looks to be a handy size. I've only got an avil and a small leg vise in with the forge though so sounds like I've got a little more room to manouver than you! Here's tone half of the slide valve ready to be painted (excuse the welds, low on gas) and below is the forge as it stands.

Thanks again Alan, good to here the F20M is still in action. The whole set up seems to be really sturdy in construction. The shed that my forge was in rotted away around it, the blower/ reg had been used for well over ten years when I got it and had been left in this rotten old leaky shed. I plugged it in and away it went. The reason I wanted to use flexible hose was becasue I'm going to mount the blower below the bosch between the diagonal braces on the legs of the rear of the forge (not sure if that makes sense. This means the tube will have to do a a 180 to reach the tube in the bosch. Becasue the forge is in an open sided structure I want to keep the blower tucked away, I'm also short on space. Forgot to mention, I've already made the slide valve from the remains of the original seen in the first picture of the blower.

Thanks for getting back to me Alan. I've attached a photo of my bosch tue below. I originally intended to have it bolt together so the bosch and tue were seperate but the general consensus was that they have approx the same life span so there was no need. Sadly I'd already welded on the tue on recommendation from some people locally before getting all te responses on here regaridng it's length. I'll either have some spacers turned up by my neighbour or do as John says and made up an angle iron shelf for the bosch to sit on so it's adjustable. I fitted a little drain valve yesterday that I got from screwfix for a few quid. You can see the air pipe protruding from the back of the bosch, that's where I want to use automotive rad hose to connect it to the blower. There's a place locally that makes up hose with any bends and flares etc. I decided to run with the castable idea. I can't afford steel to buy steel in 10mm plate let alone 25mm. Minimum order size is 1m x 2m sheet and I've search the local scrap yards already. I've used this castable a lot and it is very good se we'll see how it stands up. The blower and reg have been stripped back and primed ready for painting. I've welded in some frame around the old (way too big!) cut aways so now there is a steel plate that sits behind them and blanks them off completely. I will then cut a cut away in this plate as and when I decided upon a good size.

PS> Also, is there any reason why I can't join the blower to the air pipe at the rear of the bosch with some radiator/ water hose from a car?

I've nearly finished the forge now so I've started work on the shed. I've been looking at how to seal the flue where it punctures the roof and come across these silicone flashing/ gators; http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/130793372020?var=430103232927&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649 My ceiling height is around eight foot so it's a good few feet above the hood of the forge. What do people reckon, do I need the high temp one or the low temp? I'm running a very tight budget so if I don't need the more expensive one I'd rather not buy it.

Yep, my mistake John, there are so many new terms drifting about in my mind I'm liable to get muddled from time to time! I just went outside to check the flue and it's a bit of an odd one at 9". When I measured the top of the hood (flat area where collar for flue is) it seems as though my forge built to the original dimensions couldn't take a flue exceeding 9" so this seems right but I've only ever seen flue supplied in increments of 2. Just checked the top section with the rain cowl on and found that to be 10". Hmm. May just have to bodge that on as it's the piece in best condition.

I got a chance to give the blower and reg a good clean this evening. It all looks to be in good nick. I soldered/ heat shrinked all the terminals and gave them all a good clean. I also repacked the bearings that were easily accessable. I'll give it a coat of paint in the next few days. Anyone know what colour this unit would have originally been? It looks to have been black by my eye. Seems fickle I know but may as well return it to the original colour I think. I'm really surprised how much air this puts out, I suppose having never used a forge I've nothing to compare it to but it's a really powerful motor when run up fully. Forgot to say, I also got the chimney that was last used on this forge. There are a few sections that are knackered but I'll cut those out and weld it together. Looks like I'll have a 4m stretch. I know woodburning stoves need min 3.5m to run some where near right but is there a rule of thumb for a side draft?

Picked up the blower today, plugged it in and it works! It has a variable control on the switch board and also the remains of a slide valve on the blower itself. It's an Alcosa F20M. Seems to push out a lot of air. Does anyone know the approx age of this unit?