Inflight

Thanks, Irondragon!  I abrasive blasted and painted everything, inside and out.  I was told the hand-crank gearbox leaked oil, so I flattened all the mating surfaces and used permatex RTV gasket material to seal everything.  I've done a couple heats with coke and it works well. 

I've seen the images and read the company history on gracesguide.co.uk.

Thanks again,

Matt

I found this forge in Olympia, WA.

Recently I've added a coal tray of about 2 ft square around the brake drum which allows supporting longer workpieces, more coal to coke up, and I can pile the hot coals much deeper.  So far it's worked out very well.

And today I found the name Peter Wright in the side of the anvil.  

Matt

I created a conical bed of a refractory inside the brake drum to reduce the depth. I agree that I might need to cut a couple slots in the side for longer work. I guess that'll depend on what I'm working on.  Thanks for the suggestion!

Matt

My name is Matt and I'm from Long Beach, CA.  Very new to blacksmithing but I have lots of experience working metal in my home machine shop.

I recently acquired a 200 lb anvil and I built a brake drum forge.  My first projects will probably be some simple tools such as punch & drifts as well as tongs.

Here are a couple pictures of the anvil and my forge during construction. And No, that is not the hammer I plan on using...it was just for staging the photo.