intrex

I have lots of wraught iron bars left over from completing several custom baluster railings in my house.  Can I use the left over bars as stock in a coal forge?  Is it dangerous because of the black powder coating?  Do I need to remove the Powder coating before using the bars as stock, and if so how do I do it?   

I have pretty much figured out what I am going to do for the blower tube and tuyere.  Now I just need to figure out how to attach some type of blower.

I have been trying to put together my first very rudimentary smithy and am stuck on one last piece.  I got a homeade forge from a guy in town.  It is basically a 1.5-2 foot diameter iron bowl with a hole in the center and a welded angle iron stand.  I was thinking that I would build a tube very similar to the 55 gallon down tube example with two round stock criss-crossed for the drain.  The problem is that the drain is 3" in diameter and I can't find anything close to that size in any of the hardware stores.  Should I try to reduce the size of the hole by attaching a steel plate or something else?  Is a 3" diameter blower hole overkill for a small forge?  The guy I bought the forge from was saying to buy a box fan for the blower.  I was hoping an old hand crank fan would pop up on craigslist that I could mount to it but no luck so far. 

Thanks for any guidance,