Strongback

1-12 tons of scrap. (Pick a day)

After looking at the work you guys post here, if I didn't know better I'd doubt my own ability to tie my shoes let alone 'smith. I think your gate is outstanding and especially enjoy your exibit of joinery. I'm not one to shy away from criticizing others , but I don't have the technical expertise to be of much use here. Asthetically, I think the arch could have used a bit more "weight". More crosses as has been suggested would probably fit the bill. More importantly, I would have prefered to see the tennon joints used on the lower section used on the top as well. If I had built this I'd have it posted anywhere and everywhere I could. So, my criticisms are only offered in an attempt to further the exercise. The mention of budgetary constraints leads me to the question, "What would you have done differently with an additional 10%-20% in the budget?" Since you didn't have any particular design constraints from the client why did you stop where you did? This is asked purely for my own edification.

Thanks, I'm very happy with it, but if I were a better photographer, you'd be much less enthused. I'm finding that smithing is a lot like chess. The basic ideas can be gathered in a rather short period of time but mastering them is going to be a life-long event.

My first completed "project" is also my mother in laws christmas gift. I've only had an operational forge for a month and every bit smithing knowledge I posses has been gleaned from the information generously provided on the IForge Blueprint pages. Thanks to the authors of "Braid 2", "Russian Rose", and the various tips on leaf making throughout this site otherwise this would still be 20' of garage door spring and a foot or so of 1/2" mild steel bar. Now I just need to find some blueprints on photography... EDIT: Okay...I realized when I went to look up the names of the authors for a couple of the specific BPs, that I did in fact get them from another "how-to" site. It doesn't diminish the fact that I have gained great knowledge and motivation from the denizens of this forum and appreciate how forthcoming you all are with information, tips and "secrets".

I don't know if it qualifies me as an addict, but I do tend forge in binges: Once the Muse takes control and I am unable to quit until She allows me rest. She will compel me to work slavishly at my forge during every available moment until Her lust for fire and steel is well sated. I may fill her appetite for days and sometimes even weeks but when Her hunger stirs there is nothing to be done but obey. So, obey I must. Like I said, I don't know if this means I should sign up for meetings but thank you for letting me share anyway.

The very first thing I attempted to make in my forge were some tongs and they are not only ugly but ineffective. I made the attempt based on what I remembered from some blueprints but mixed them up in my head and was trying techniques from at least two different BPs and wound up burning/breaking the ends off of a great many pieces of flat and sqare bar before I got anything that even remotely resembled tongs. My first successful use of the forge was a series of leaves out of 1/2 square bar. I'll try some tongs again soon but I had to let it go for a while.

Lot's of workable ideas here and I'm not suprised one bit. The charcoal option is for my neighbors and since I heat 100% with wood I can have a ready supply of charcoal just by sifting my fireplace ashes and much more if I purposely set out to make charcoal. I appreciate your concern though. Chaos, an ajustable stack? Is this something suspended from above? I liked the look and what I suppose would be the improved utility of the side draft forge and believe that I have sufficient airflow for it to work. I actually did move the hood to the side of the firepot just to see if it would draw the air and it seemed to work well. The only (admittidly juvenille) reason I haven't built it that way more permanently is that I like having a keg for a hood and since I've already cut it to the purpose... I suppose I could just turn it into fireplace shovels or flowers or something though... Ice, nice pics. That's kind of what I was trying to get done with the fireplace screen. I reckon I could afford to put a couple more in-line and still retain sufficient airflow to keep me out of the dark sulphorous clouds. Steve, thanks for the clarification on the smoke-shelf. I'll have to research some plans for a good side-draft hood for future implementation. I used to think that forges were built but I've come to realize in the short month or so of my operation that they are instead evolved. I'll take some pictures so you guys can laugh at my set-up. I have to have it indoors because (even though every house in my neighborhood has at least one fireplace) apparently even the sight of a woodpile is offensive to some of my neighbors. I'm a Stealth-Smith! Maybe that's what I'll name the forge. Stealth Smith Forge. What do you think?

After numerous abortive attempts at creating an exhaust hood that will allow me to forge in my garage without killing myself due to smoke inhalation. I've McGyvered together a 1hp blower and some 4" exhaust pipe to successfully vent all the smoke created by my coal (I don't know from grades of coal but I do know that it was free) fired forge with Keg-made hood. It works a little too well though, as it tends to suck up sparks and the occasional small piece of hot clinker out and shoot it into my from yard. I solved the large particle problem by using a piece of fireplace screen over the intake. But little sparks are still a problem. Though I use coal for now I would like to have a charcoal option because of the smoke issues, I can't because the sparks look like an amateur pyrotechnics display. All of this is to ask; does anyone have a suggestion on how to stop this while maintaining a sufficient airflow to keep my work space smoke free? I'm sure I'm missing an obvious fix somewhere and just as sure that you good folks can point it out to me. Thanks for the help.

congrats! Hopefully, your fortune will be "catching" and some of us other beginers with have its smile shine on us.:D

I'm glad you moved that decimal. If word got out that you were buying scrap at .90 you'd have had a line of beat-up pickups a mile long in front of your house and I would have been first in line. That's a nice looking score by the way. I'm sure everyone looking at the pics has already forged 100 different projects in their minds. At the yards around here it's all about the lbs. So, if you pick up a couple of washer/dryers, hot water heaters and miscellaneous junk on trash day you can trade for weight if you see something good in the pile. I don't spend a lot of time on it but I don't pass up the oppourtunity to turn someone's trash into someone else's trash that I, then, can use. That way I don't have to beg the treasury department for increased funding everytime I want to buy some junk.

Glenn, that's so obvious once you say it. Can't put water on the fire? Put the fire in the water.

Doh! All that writing and I didn't bother to mention that it was a new coal fire. The cracking pot thing was what I was worried about. So, without a forced airflow, coal will just go out? I burn a lot of wood and charcoal but this was my first coal fire and I didn't know if, once started, it would go out on it's own or would continue to burn all of the remaining fuel until it was all smoke and ash.

Thanks HK, I've read all of the blueprints. Though I've just got my forge built I've already used information from this site a couple of times. As for paper vs. o/a, is there a particular reason why a torch isn't favored? Call me lazy but I even use a propane torch to light the fire in my fireplace and for my barbeque/grill. Not that I can't get it going by other means (just for fun I experiment with starting fires by means of anything from a bow and drill to a magnesium block with flint) I use the torches because it's the fastest easiest thing I've found, aside from accelerant of course.

I've been lurking around here on and off for the better part of a year now and haven't felt compelled to post either because I don't know the first thing about blacksmithing or because the numerous questions I have, have all been asked and answered. Well, last night, I finished building my very first forge. I built it into what used to be my welding table by cutting a 14" hole in the top and dropping in half of a cast iron roller of some sort. I'm not exactly sure what it was but the end that I used was big, heavy, bowl shaped, had a 3" hole in the bottom and made of cast iron so now it's a forge pot. Anyway, some 2" ID pipe, and a hair dryer (I tried my shop vac but it's WWWwaaaayy to much air and restricting the flow was too much trouble.) an industrial fan for ventilation, an oxyacetylene torch to get it lit and... "It's Alive". I was only lighting it to see: 1) If it would light. 2) Would the airflow be effective 3) How hot would it get 4) How much smoke would it make. I got answers to all of my questions in about 10-15 minutes of piddling around with the set-up. It lit, the airflow, once I switched from the ridiculously over powered shopvac to hairdryer, was adequate but will of course require a bit of tweaking, it turned a piece of 3/8 round bar into a sparkler in just a couple of minutes (I didn't time it but it seemed plenty fast to me) and even with an exhaust fan a foot or two from the forge I'll need to either make a hood or do all of my smithing out doors. As I said this took all of 10-15 minutes and I was done for the night. That's when the question and the whole point of this post occured to me. I learned from you good folks how to build a forge, start and manage a fire, where to place a workpiece in the fire and a lot of other things. The one thing I didn't get from you and I haven't been able to find searching the site is...How do you put your fires out when you're done?