Christopher Lawrence

JHCC, I don't think i have taken good pics to show how the ends look. Of the 4 ends only one is flat enough to be a work face. It is true that given what I will do with them I only need one but the other end of that one looked like the below pic before cleaning it. I only want to cut about an 1" of of the ends, just enough to cut away the very ragged and have a flat surface left over. You are absolutely correct, I want to keep as much of the mass as possible. Thanks again for your thoughts, Chris

Round one is done! (Clean up) Here are some before and after pictures. It is amazing what a few hours of wire wheeling and a coat of cooking oil will do. Next step is to hopefully find a a metal shop with a band saw to re-cut these pieces

Thanks for the guidance

Hello All, Finally found some rail to use as my first anvil! One of the scrap yards that is not opened on the weekend has tons of them I picked up a 26" and 27" piece. At .35 a lb they cost me $55 total. I am thinking of doing one of three things Prep them as is and have two smaller vertical anvils (one for me and one for my son) Prep them and have them welded in a T formation Prep them and and weld them flat to flat so I can use them horizontally Either way I now have something to bang on. Once they are cleaned and prepped I will post a pic Thanks, Chris

Good Afternoon, Just a quick update, I picked up a smaller rotor that will be more inline with what is needed and I just ordered the 2" floor flange to attach to it. I still need to get the 1/4 inch pate for the working surface that the rotor will insert into but it is coming together. Chris

Good Evening Everyone! I have been on the forums now for a couple of weeks and you can find me in the Chat Room fairly often. I Live in Newport News, VA and am a 21 yr Navy veteran (active and reserve), I have a wife a son and two dogs. Currently, I work in the IT department of Huntington Ingalls Industries and have been there for over 5 Years. I worked 13 years in Freight Forwarding, designing crates, creating and executing container load plans, along with warehousing and inventory. I am a Doctor Who fan, LOTR fan, and a Hitchhikers Guide to that Galaxy fan so I am a bit of a geek and I love British humor. I build PC's, Websites, design logos and design various build projects. Saying that I am a newbie to blacksmithing is an understatement. I can not tell you the difference between two pieces of steel, differences between anvils or even hammers but I have always wanted to learn. My last foray into this was back in Junior High School (I am 44 now so you do the math). I remember how much I loved making the few tools I made back then; however, time, life, money and space has kept me from perusing this when the desire did arise. I have a son who is 18, he is currently doing some volunteer work in Kentucky. Last year after Christmas he tool all the gift cards / cash that he had and built his own aluminum foundry from plans he found on you tube. Although, I wanted to help he was insistent on completing the project himself (very proud papa). Anyway, after he had finished it we had a lot of fun collecting and melting aluminum into ingots. Eventually that first foundry creaked, crumbled and is now just the pail he started with. As he was getting ready to head to KY there was no reason to rebuild it. He is now working on a new set up there and on Thanksgiving I am to bring his "tools" with us when we meet up. So doing this with him reminded me again of how much I enjoyed working with hot metal and I made a decision to start to get my "shop" together. I have started slow and will build slow. I live in a townhouse with an extremely small backyard, so doing this on a small footprint is key to success. After watching many videos of Glen GS Tongs and TechnicusJoe I have learned a lot of the things I need to know regarding having a small shop that is worked mostly out in the elements. So, I know it can be done and while I know that I will have to rebuild different things over time like forges and will go through different anvils, because of the footprint issue I can not afford to have may different iterations lying around. I have to be fairly slow and methodical in my choices of how I build / acquire the items needed for my shop. I am not in a race to get going but I would like to surprise my son when he comes home for Christmas to have a basic setup ready to fire up and bang some metal. If I could do it I would love to make for him his first hammer for Christmas but that is a bit pie in the sky at this point. There is another reason for this desire for blacksmithiing. I am a Christian, and I have always found that the times I have been closest with God is when I am working by my self lost in my work. Finding your space to get away with God by yourself is sometimes hard. Life likes to get in the way and when you do find that place it is sometimes hard to push out of your mind the responsibilities that you have to focus on God and pray for those who need it. When I work with my hands, when I drive long distances, when I go for walks it is these times in which I find it easier to fully concentrate on what is most important. I believe that working in my own shop just God, the hammer and I will be just what I need. So where am I in this quest? I have collected most of my items for my coal forge. I have reached out to the Tidewater Blacksmith's Guild, things have not lined up yet for us to get together but it will happen. Every weekend I am scouring the various scrap yards for steel and for an Item that I can use as an anvil for a time. I have made contacts here, on Facebook and other non-affiliated smiths in my area. So a small but not a bad start. Everyone starts somewhere and as the Chinese proverb goes "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" I want to say thank you to all that I have talked to. Also all who have been so kind in answering my forum post, helping to prevent me from making many of the rookie mistakes before I get started. This has been most helpful. Lastly I want to say thank you to the wiliness this group has in sharing their knowledge. There is a reason we have two ears and one mouth if you listen more than you speak you will succeed more than you will fumble. So, if you want someone to joke around with, talk with or even pray with please reach out to me. As I said I will be on quite often for the foreseeable future. I promise to try and keep the "newbie" questions down to a minimum. Thank You, Chris Lawrence

Thank you guys. Ill let you know what I find out after the 15th

Good Afternoon! I found the following blower on CL. It was actually posted as a part of a larger blacksmiths set (Anvil, tongs, Leg vice and this blower) all for $950. I can't afford to pick up the whole set so I called and asked the seller what he wanted for just the blower. He had not priced out the individual items and would not be back until the 15th. It sounds like he is willing to work with me but from the pictures it is hard to tell what the blower is and as I said he will not be back for a couple of weeks to send me a better picture. If possible can someone please look at this and attempt to tell me what type of blower it is and possibly what would be a fare offer if it works. Thank you, Chris

Frosty, Thank you so much for your help. Sorry I was not able to respond until now but between church and a paper to write I am just now being able to look at my correspondence. I want to say thank you to all for their input. I am going to think on this for a couple of days before I make a further action. Hopefully, the next time I post I will have something more to share Chris

Okay, So, then as I understand this I have a few choices; some easier, some harder. Get a much smaller rotor (say from a small car and not from a truck) Use Firebricks and clay to form the pot for each use as needed Use a pipe pieces instead of a rotor to make the Ducks Nest Pay a little extra to the plate manufacture to press the indent into the metal. #4 is a little over the top but I put it here for conversation purposes. I was talking with The Iron Dwarf in chat earlier and I think he was trying to describe to me #3 but I missed it. If you think that the clay / brick is a viable choice then that makes the forge a lot more versatile. This would change the nature of the build but in a good way. I think that I would in the end want to do it a little more permanent then that but that would give a ton of options that I did not think about before.

Frosty, Thank you much for your pointers. I have a brake rotor already, are you saying that what i have it is too big? I had not though about hitting up the muffler shop for some welding. As Daswulf is also pointing out getting the Tuyere welded will make the build a lot easier and cleaner. So I will get my pipe and doughnuts together for next weekend. I will probably have the 9" hole for the rotor cut by the place I am getting the plate as the best I have to cut it is a hand held jig saw. Thank you both again for weighing in on this. Each note helps me cut away wrong paths so that I do not go down them. That is the reason I started this post, since this is my first build and I have not yet spent time with a smithy there are many points that I do not know. As with anything, your idea of how things should work seldom is when you start to do it. I look forward to sharing the rest of this project with you all.

Unfortunately no to both . my plan is to take a sheet of 1/4 plate and have a hole cut in it to fit the base of the rotor . then just drop the rotor in place. it will be a little tricky getting the right pipes and reducer for the air handler

Update: I now have my firepot This is a brake rotor from a Dodge 3500. It's outer dims are 141/4" x 4" The cavity is 81/2" x 3 1/2" Water Bottle for size

Thanks for that. Got a couple of things up my sleeve hoping to have an update soon.

Thank you much for your input. We were talking about this also in the chat room, I guess I do not have a good grasp yet on the strength of the material. Based upon those conversations and here I am residing what I am doing. I have an idea about using the rotor as was suggested by many and using what I have as the outer surface; however maybe the best bet is to just use what I have as a vent hood. New Microsoft Excel Worksheet.xlsx

Hello all! Here is my find for today. These are the first few pieces for my first forge. I am going to take the flat piece and cut it to fill the bottom of the fire pot with a 3" hole cut out in the center for the air flow. The plan is to use the grate that is already there. It it the perfect material? No, but it was free