jay_cat

Here is the forge I put together using today. The guy down the street had a old file cabinet. So I used that to hold the rotor. My blower is a old heat gun that also blows cold air. It also has adjustable airflow using the fins on the side of it. Everything looked great. It didn't work great. I couldn't get my coal to light. I then added a plate to the bottom of the rotor will holes drilled in it to spread the air around better and I still didn't get the coals to light. My guess is that the rotor is to shallow and I need to use a deeper one. Here are the picks of my first attempt at a forge.

I'm a VW enthusiast. Last year I pulled into a driveway to ask a guy about his old bug and he definately gave me the "WTF are you doing here" attitude until I was able to strike common ground. Now we say hi every time we bump into each other and I am welcome over his place anytime. He is a nice guy. Some people have huge walls up if you don't break the ice properly. I would try again. Just have a better plan of buttering them up a bit.

That would work well. Thanks. I don't see how that will effect me from knocking it over. I was more concerned with any functionality issues. I will be supporting the rotor on block and it will have the same chance of getting knocked over either way. I don't plan on it. I'm more concerned with grabbing a hot piece of steel with my bare hand.

I have all the parts to assemble my brake rotor forge. My only issue is I don't want to drill hole to bolt on my pipe flange. Can I just use gravity to hold it in place by just setting the flange on top of the opening?

I had to look up a bridge anvil. I would have thought having an opening on the bottom would have a negative effect. I would make it a lot easier to secure to a block of would. I'll give it a try. I just picked up a portable air tank and hope build my propane forge this weekend. Fluidsteel, I will use new stock once I get done messing around with the files and spikes I picked up. I want to get my feet wet before I spend to much loot. I have a tendency to jump into things full force then lose interest once I do it. Although, I used to find it soothing to grind metal while was in charge of the tool room in the Army. Everything had a sharp edge. All my shovels, drill bits, and even the dust pans. I could acually cut rope with the dust pans. If any of you have a metal dust pan, sharpen the edge. You won't have a spec of dirt pass under it when you sweep up a pile. It works mint. Once again, thanks for the advice.

Its nice to hear I'm off to a good start. Thanks for the positive feed back.

After extensive reading of the forums, the one thing that most people have suggested is to just get something to pound on. So this is 100 pounds of steel I paid $25 for at a local steel shop. I'm planing on laying it on its side and grinding the thin piece on the upper right of the picture into a horn shape. I am building a propane forge this week from a old portable air tank. My goal is to attempt knife making for as little money as possible. In the mean time I'm keeping my eye's open for a real anvil. I picked up a half dozen rail road spikes, a few hammers, and a dozen large files for $15 at a flea market yesterday. So what do you guys think? Am I off to a good start or am I nuts?