01tundra

Finally making some progress. Still has to be painted tonight, need to install the air tube clamps, and install the permanent hardware. I made two air outlets for the tuyere, I imagine the slotted one will have to be remade since I got a little carried away with the slot sizes, it moves a ton of air with little effort. I also made one that has a single 3/4" hole in it, found that from a thread on here from another guy's forge. I found some 10", solid rubber tires w/ spoke rims and Northern tool.....so they'll have to do for now. I used 1" x 2" x 1/4" for the upper table frame, went with 1-1/2" x 0.88" wall HREW tubing for the initial legs, then slid 1-3/4" x 0.120" DOM over top of them. Used 1-1/8" x 1/8" angle for intermediate supports, 14 GA. for the upper and lower surfaces, and 1-1/2" x1-1/2" x 1/4" for the blower mount. The table is very stout, yet with the blower acting as a counter-weight, it rolls easily out into gravel and over rough spots. I have to get the cart up to about 45 degrees before it wants to tip toward the blower. I rolls so easily that I decided to eliminate the folding handles for now. The work deck is 36" x 24" and the surface is 33" tall. I'm getting ready to start on my anvil tripod stand, which will put the anvil striking surface at 32" tall. Since I'll be working on smaller, ornate projects, I believe these heights will work well for me. I decided to mount the wheels inboard, to avoid having to work around them. I can comfortably stand in front of the forge and turn the blower crank handle with my left hand without moving around any, so that should work fairly well......pays off being ambidextrous in this instance :)!

Getting closer, still needs some cleaning up. Hopefully the tuyere gets installed tonight, if time permits. I used 1" x 1/8" bar stock for the lip to minimize the step it will cause on the hearth table.

Got the pot welded up, still needs some dressing. Will be welding the outter lip on tonight and cutting the holes for the tuyere.

Finally found a little time to get some metal cut. The overall fire pot dimensions turned out to be 13" long x 9-1/2" wide x 4-1/2" deep. Planning on welding it up tonight, then have a 1" wide x 1/8" thick flange to weld around the upper edge.

Wow, didn't think it was that old! I wish I had pictures of work to share, I'm a newbie just getting started. I should have my coal forge finished up this weekend and then I'll be ready to start learning. Planning on taking some classes and hoping to get to know some smiths in my area. I'll post up some pictures of the anvil later this week though. Thanks for the info!

I was wondering if anyone could help me with some history on my recent anvil purchase. It's a HB w/ serial # 193171. It also has "155" stamped on it, which I'm assuming is 155 lbs? Thanks!

I may have just found my target :D ! Found a 155# Hay-Budden that I'm trying to snag, appears to be in good shape.

I'm still holding out hope for finding a used one, it's definitely going to take time. I wouldn't say I'm "restricting" myself, I'm open to a few used brands and also to various weights. What I'm not open to is a beat up, abused hunk of steel for 2/3 the price of a new one and that's about all I find locally. It's usually either that or ferrier anvils galore. My target is 150-160 lb Hay Budden/Fisher or a Peter Wright. Of course if I found a Mousehole (or like) in good shape I wouldn't turn it away. There's a guy in Charolette, NC that has all of the above (plus a William Foster) and all are labeled as "good" condition. I may just have to make a long day road-trip soon......

I'm a newbie starting out, as a matter of fact, I'm still in the process of building my first forge and will be attending some local classes in the near future. Living in middle TN has proven difficult to find a local quality shop anvil and all of the ones I find on Ebay are really far North. By the time I pay shipping, or take the time off work and fuel costs, I'm almost at the point of looking into purchasing a new anvil. I'm being very picky on manufacturer and condition on the used anvils, I would rather buy the right anvil for me the first time around. So that brings me to Peddinghaus Anvils. There is a shop within reasonable distance from us (about 4 hrs East) that has both the 77 lb and 165 lb in stock. I'm fairly certain I already know the answer to my question, but I guess it will ease the pain to hear it from someone else. Most of my work will be light duty, relatively speaking. I mostly work with 5/16" and 3/8" rod and my operation is based out of my garage (no traveling). I will mostly be doing basic decorative work, like very small scrolls, offsets, draws, twists, etc. Naturally.....my wallet keeps asking me if I could get by with the 77 lb, but my brain is telling me that even though the 165 lb is almost twice as much money, it's still cheaper than having to buy a second heavier anvil down the road. Anybody have any input on this? Thanks.

Nope, didn't do anything on the inside, I scraped on that by hand. I was going to try a cylinder hone to clean up the inside, but figured it would just get dirty again anyways. Electrolysis is said to be more of a "line of sight" process, meaning if the surface isn't looking at the sacrificial electrodes around the tank, or relatively close, it doesn't get cleaned near as much. But you can change the position of your parts if need be to get it all cleaned. The more I think about it, if you ran one straight piece of rigid wire through the center of the air tube and used some rubber or PVC spacers to prevent it from direct shorting to the air tube, you could clean the inside as well......didn't even cross my mind :)!

Well I got a little side tracked on building the forge this weekend, my father fell on Friday so I spent the day in the VA emergency room making sure he was OK..... I did pick up all the steel and will probably sneak some time in next weekend to get it built. The electrolysis bath worked like a champ, I was surprised when I pulled the air tube out. Threw it in a warm bucket of water with some dish soap and hit it with a small wire brush to knock the black residue off. I suppose I should go ahead and apologize to any woodworkers on here for bastardizing their trade......but I had to work with the tools I had to make a handle spindle, and all my tools happen to be for metal work. Bought a 1" diameter Oak dowel from Lowes for $4 and used it to make the handle. Cut about 5" off the dowel, drilled a 3/8" hole through the center and then wrapped electrical tape an inch from each end, then chucked it up in the drill press. Used narrow sanding belts to turn down the ends of the handle, then hit it with a few coats of tongue oil. Used a 6" Grade 5 bolt and square nuts for the mounting pin, ground the head off round so it looks similar to the original pin. Someday when I get the forge running, I'll probably go back and make a real pin for it, but this will have to do for now. I thoroughly scrubbed all the fan parts in diesel, then finished cleaning them up and painted everything with hi-temp paint. Hit the brass oil port with polishing compound and the dremel for a little added bling :). Put chainsaw bar oil in the gearbox and cranked her up, I was surprised by how much air this little fan moves, it runs very smooth.

I read about raising the tuyere on here and it appeared that it worked well for the guy? The way I'm building the pot, it will be easy to change it up if I don't like it. It's only going to stick up the height of the pipe cap. I'm dropping the depth to 4-1/2" in the pot as well. http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/23205-fire-pot/ Started giving the air tube an electrolysis bath last night, appears to be working good. Picking up the steel today to build the table and forge. I'm trying to keep the table a little on the small side (36"x24") due to lack of space in my shop. But since I'm basically making it a travel style so I can roll it out in the driveway, I could make it a little larger? Still trying to find a source with a lathe so I can have a replacement wood handle spindle made.

I actually bought a truck load of stuff off Craigslist for $300 and the forge was in it, apparently the oven and cooler I picked up are worth some money.

Disregard the question on fire mortar in the tubes, for $25 I can pick up the materials from Lowes to make my own refractory lining - http://www.backyardm...fractories.html So now it's just down to the actual fire pot size and whether I need fire brick around it. I did find firebricks on craigslist for $1 each.

Ok I lied, I have a couple more details I need help hashing out :). Somebody mentioned that the fire brick around the perimeter of the pot (sitting on the surface of the table) wasn't really necessary. I was thinking about putting the brick around just to help contain the coal/fire, but maybe that isn't necessary???? I found that fire brick is expensive, and since I need eight bricks, it would cost almost as much as the rest of the materials I have to buy. If I ditch the brick, all the materials would be $137 out the door. What about buying fire mortar in the caulking tubes from Lowes and covering the inside of the fire box with it? Would that help prevent warping, or would it be too thin to really do anything? I'll be working with 5/16" and 3/8" steel rod mostly, just need to do tapers, scrolls, and twist on small sections. I'm now wondering if a 14" x 9" fire pot is too large and would be wasting fuel? To use a 3" tuyere, I'm about as small on the fire pot as I can get, unless I make the sides angle steeper, which I don't really want to do. I was planning on making the bottom of the pot 4" below the surface of the table. Then the top of the tuyere would be about 2" below the suraface of the table? Maybe setting the bottom of the pot at 3" or 3-1/2" below the table would work better?

Thanks Jim - good catch, I didn't leave near enough dirt leg on that. OK, did a little redesign. I won't bore you guys anymore with my scrambled thoughts as I build this forge. I'm going to start building tonight, if anybody's interest in seeing the finish product I'll post it up. I appreciate everyone's help with this. After taking inventory in the shop, I have a lot of 14 ga. sheet metal sitting around, so I'll use that to build the table top. Was thinking about building the pot out of 1/4" plate and then welding it to the bottom of the table top. Then put fire bricks around the opening on top of the table, leaving each end open, weld small angle for brick retainers. I think I'll cut slots in a 3" pipe cap and use that as a grate. I'll weld a plate flange to the pipe once I set the correct depth, then bolt it to the bottom of the pot so it can be replaced easily. This revised layout will give me a 13" long x 9" wide fire pot surface. I decided to go ahead and cut the old tuyere, it was in bad shape, but where I cut it back to is solid. I actually need the radius bend in the tube to keep my gear box at the correct angle. I'm going to use a short section of metallic flex tube to connect the fan air tube to the tuyere under the pot. The tube is going to get a nice electrolysis bath on Friday.

Ha, thanks for the input guys! After doing some reading, I've got a grand scheme in my mind.......I guess you know how those typically turn out :)! Anyways, I've incorporated a lot of other peoples ideas into what I think will work well for me. I have plenty of scrap steel laying around my shop to build it. I have welded cast with some success in the past, but I had to pre-heat, post-heat, use heat blanks to control cool down, etc.....I'd rather burn plate steel personally. I'm kind of playing off the guy's design on this board that used a 2" pipe cap the was protruding above the bottom of the fire box and has a 3/4" hole drilled in it to control clinker. I'm planning on using 3" schedule 40 pipe (since I can get it for free) and instead of using a cap with a single hole, I'm going to use 1/2" rebar welded across the opening to control the larger chunks of ash. I was looking at using a pipe cap and cutting slots in it with the plasma cutter, but I think the rebar approach will keep the tuyere lower in the box. Instead of messing with cutting up the old air tube, I believe I'll just fabricate a new one that will still clamp onto the blower outlet with the factory hardware. I really need the tube to exit the cart straight anyways. I'm going to build a frame off the side of the cart to support the fan.

What about cutting the center out of the existing pan and dropping a brake drum down in the hole for a pot, possible welding the lip of the drum to the pan in a few places, then attaching the exisitng air tube to the bottom of the drum with a small grate in it? I'd hate to trash the pan I have if it could be reused, but if it doesn't gain me anything I guess I could scrap it and build a new one from scratch. I was thinking that I could cut the existing air tube at the red line below and then adapt it to a new steel tee for the air supply/ash clean out. I haven't studied the brake drum plans any yet, but what I was thinking was to cut out a round 1/4" plate with the plasma cutter and then use the existing wheel stud holes to bolt the plate to the bottom of the drum. Then weld the new steel tee to the bottom of the plate (or thread a close nipple into the tee and weld the nipple to the bottom of the plate).

Ok, this is the feedback I'm looking for. So if I were to build a pan out of 1/4" plate and line the bottom and sides with fire brick, then have the fan ducted in from either the side or bottom I would be in business? My plasma cutter can cut 1/4" with no problem, it can severe up to 1/2", so I could step the thickness up if need be. I would rather build my own forge from scratch, rather than use a 55-gallon drum, since I weld on a regualr basis. I've been trying to search through the blueprints, but not having much luck so far. Thanks.

Hey all, just starting to get into doing some hobby blacksmithing. I've always wanted to learn blacksmithing, so now at the young age of 43 I finally decided to pull the trigger :)! I have a few books on the way (The Complete Modern Blacksmith & The Backyard Blacksmith) and will be attending a couple courses to help get me started. I was planning on building a solid fuel forge, but would appreciate some opinions on another option I have. I purchased a truck load of items last winter and amoung the items was an old forge. All the info I can pull off it is the following: Blower: Champion Blower & Forge Company / Lancaster Geared Blower #40 Pan: Superior / The A.S.M. Co Inc. / Springfield Ohio USA The forge is in pretty rough shape, so I decided to tear it down to see if it could be salvaged. The gear box was remarkably clean, considering it had a lot of water in it. I can turn the shaft by hand and the gears run smooth, bearings also seem fine. I'm assuming the gear box should be either in a wet bath or periodically oiled. The top air plate in the pan is broken, as is one of the lugs below the pan. My plan is to remove the major rust with an electrolysis bath and then use my mig welder to patch up the cracks and broken item. I could either patch the top air plate back together, or build a new one. Was also looking at the possibility using some fire brick in the pan or plating it somehow to beef it up a little. It's got four tapped leg mounted, that appear to be either 3/4" or 1" NPT threads, so I was planning on making a stand for it once I figure out what the appropiate height should be. My main question at this point - is this forge worth rebuilding? I don't want to spend a ton of time building back a forge that wasn't that great new, and since I'm a complete noob at this point, I have no idea what I have. Somebody commented that I need to go back and talk to the guy that I got it from and see if I can find the tuyere, but if I'm not mistaken, it's on the bottom of the forge now? I hope to be able to perform some basic work (taper, twist, roll, etc) with steel rod (5/16" - 3/8"), So that will be mostly the extent of my work at this point. I was planning on using hard wood charcoal until I can get my hands on some decent coal. Not really sure what direction to go here. Any opinions will be very much appreciated. Thanks again.