diluded

I finally got this finished, vented and fired up. I did a T-shaped ash dump as suggested. The plastic vent hood van melted into the fire, but it still drafts pretty good. Check out some pix: Link to a couple more: Flickr: diluded000's Photostream thanks for looking James B

Hi all, This looks like a hopping form. I've banged around on some metal about ten years ago (coal, hibachi and a hair dryer), and started welding: welding up a trailer, sawmill, jeep bumper, winch plate, and a few other things since then. I got a book on blacksmithing from santa, and am wanting to do more hammering hot metal, mostly to make wood working and logging implements. I picked up a forge blower and was going to weld up a forge tomorrow morning with some stock left over from my tandem axle trailer project. Have a couple of questions: Is a 'T' pipe connection pretty standard under the tuyere? It looks like a handy way to get ashes out. As an alternative, I was thinking of a -v- shaped forge with an inch wide trough on the bottom. I could drill 1" holes thru two plates for the bottom, and make it so that one of the pieces slides to let ashes drop out of the holes. Or would I be better off just leaving it undrilled, and put a 'T' connection on there? And going across the bottom of the trough, should I put some pieces of rebar like a grill grate, to keep the fire off the very bottom - or will this burn up and be a waste of time? Gimme a shout, and let me know what you think. I tend to learn from messing things up, then doing it again - but I'm not opposed to listening to somebody that has already tried the same thing. James B