Alright, so I live about 45 minutes away from my cousin's house where the forge will be located and I haven't had much opportunity to go and do any work on the tank I procured for making the forge, until today. I have a plan on what to do but I just wanted some final thoughts before I go any further with the cutting and welding...
Apologies on the photo, I'm on a newer laptop and haven't gotten around to installing any decent photo editing software.
Just so you have an idea of the work space setup, the forge will be physically outside, hence keeping the opening down to about 2 feet in width and a more pronounced hood. However, the opening will be lined up with a 36" square hole in the wall of a 3 sided shed, basically a tin roofed ATV garage without doors. We (anvil, me, vises, everything else) will be in the shed, but we'll be reaching through the 36" square opening to use the forge. Air flow control and blower will be inside, pipe running from inside.
The tank stands a little over 5 feet tall, out of view on the base it has 4 feet. The plan was to bend that cut piece in the picture a bit more so the sides are slightly steeper, cut the rear corners of it to fit the inner radius of the tank and weld it in flush at the rear, weld it for support near the front, then use brick/clay to level with the edges to close in the rear and front making the pot. Tuyere would be in from the right where that white cap is, flue out the top, bob's your uncle.
Going solely on the limited description and horrible photo, will the pot/hearth design be ok in your opinion? The diameter of the tank is about 28" at the inside. The steel is 3/16" and I don't mind cutting and welding that piece to make a more permanently shaped pot but it doesn't need to be huge yet as to begin with we'll only be doing smaller things such as knives, tongs, hatchets, etc... maaaaaybe a machete or two but that's a few months down the line.
I apologize for the novel, I get a bit long winded... also the tank was used as a water tank on the back of a concrete mixer, that's what the white/gray is on the side. Please, if you have any advice or criticism, feel free and thank you.