VainEnd84

I do have a question, should I use fire brick to close the back or would kiln shelf work? I have a bit of 1" kiln shelf that came with the thinner stuff I'm going to be using for to floor (I got it on kijiji as a lot)

It looks awesome! Can't wait to see it fired up

I started planning my forge build about 8 months ago when it was still too cold to build or really spend any extended amount of time outside. Well it's summerish here in the great white north so I could finally build my forge. 

Here are the spec, the shell is made from a 5 gallon auxiliary compressor tank that I got for free, it is lined with 2" kaolin-2600 ceramic blanket, which has been rigidized and coated with a castable refractory. I was asked by the person who sold it not to name it because it is still in the process of being patented but I can say it is similar to plistix. I will be using a 3/8" kiln shelf as the floor. I am using 2 1/2" Frosty T burners.

This is a quick video of the first firing of my forge, a few notes:

- I know I need to tune the burners

- that is not the table it will be mounted on, mostly because wood burns and uncontrolled fire is bad

- it reached an incandescent heat in 5 min running at 10 psi

- I know my plumbing is ugly, but I works and that's what matters

That sounds right from what I remember reading. I'm fairly certain Wayne Coe has instructions on his website somewhere

That burner design looks very similar to these ones https://forgeburners.com, some people love them, some have had a difficult time getting them tuned, from what I've read.

@SLAG I knew anvil wasn't the correct term but I just couldn't remember what its proper name was, thanks!

And I would never use it as an anvil I have a 98lb Peter wright for that! It is a shop decoration/door stop/occasional tripping hazard.

A little late but as promised here is a pic of my grandpas old cobblers anvil. It weighs about 10lbs

I'll take a pic when I'm at my shop next, it'll be a few days but I won't forget!

Actually my grandpa was a cobbler in holland, and a car salesman, and tinkerer here in Edmonton. I actually have the old cobblers anvil that he also brought from holland.

I did a heat treat for one reasons, that being that I was dumb and didn't cool the faces while grinding them down and lost the temper, I heated the flat hot enough while grinding to bring it to light blue, was probably close to 625 degrees. Lesson learned, keep your tools cool!

The wool lining is 8# kaowool rated to 2600 degrees (rebranded to a different name because Canada) and it is coated with an itc-100 like coating, that's what I was told at any rate, I know there it a hard refractory cement cast on the bottom but I know nothing about what type of refractory it is.

My grandma passed away a year and a half ago and as part of the estate I inherited some of my grandpa's old tools. Among them was an approximately 6 lb ball peen in really rough condition I had been debating. I had been toying with the thought or restoring it but wasn't sure if I should, well this week I decided to do it and to use it as part of my smithing tool chest.

It was rusted to xxxx and both faces were is horrible condition so three hours of grinding and polishing later, and after heat treating ( I heated each face to non-magnetic then quenched in mineral oil heated to 130, and did two tempering cycles of 1.5 hrs at ~450) it has been handled and now looks beautiful and feels amazing!

I should also mention that this hammer came to Canada from holland with my grandpa and grandma back in the 50's and I believe it was hand forged.

Well I had a few hours in the shop today and wanted to work on making a pair of bolt tongs, I looked at a few plans online and watched a few videos then gave it a shot! I didn't have any 3/4" square stock so these started from 1/2" square. They are a little thin in a few parts and a bit lopsided and I don't expect that they will hold up for a long time, but I made them and I learned a great deal in the process.

What do you all think?

I should also mention that this is the second pair of tongs I have ever made, the first were so ugly and wobbly that can't really use them, these new ones don't wobble at all! Yay me

If you want a solid forge that is made in Canada and would likely be much cheaper, you should check out Front Step Forge, it is an Edmonton based forge. I don't have one of these forges but I have used one and they are very nice.

I had a similar experience at the place I bought my regulator from. I told them it would be for a propane burner running at about 60000-80000 btu, and would be used for medium duty work about 3-4 hours a few times a week (don't tell them you are building a forge, they will likely stop helping you). When you get your regulator make sure you get the appropriate ACME or POL connector for the flow rating, the guys at the propane supplier will know which one is best, I ended up with a high flow connector (both ACME and POL connect to normal propane tanks). You should be able to google "propane suppliers" and your location to give you a few different options near(ish) you.

As for the gauge, I would recommend getting it at the same place, lpg can be quit corrosive so a gauge designed for lpg use is good, also make sure and valves you use are likewise rated for use with propane.

Well I'm doing it for myself regardless of what others want, so there is that 

I do have a pirated copy of Mike's book and have read most of Ron Reil's articles. I guess I just like having as much info as easily at hand as possible

Frosty, I was being sarcastic lol.

I have about 3/4 of this thread picked through and half of the forges 101 and most of the t burner thread picked through and in 3 different word documents, once I have gone through all three I  was thinking of compiling them into a single word document and with your and Mikey's approval as well as a few other peoples would like to post it on IFI for anyone to download and print / read for everyone's benefit.

@Frosty I haven't done that at all ... nope not me ... Well in all fairness I haven't printed it out ... yet 

8 hours ago, Mikey98118 said:

I am hoping to turn these pages more into photos and back and forth questions; I think the heavy text is already more than sufficient on this thread, and a change is needed now.

You could write another book  hehe

@Mikey98118 Thank you for that explanation, you are as ever a wealth of knowledge!

Thanks for the reply and info! I love this site, I learn more every time I come on it and people are very helpful.

Frosty  Have you ever experimented with putting baffles (not sure if that is the correct term) on the openings of your T burners to help further tune them?

@Mikey98118 Would you be able to go into more detail about reducing atmospheres in a forge, such as how it is achieved. I understand that it is beneficial so as to help reduce the amount of scale that builds up but I am unclear as to how to achieve it, or for that matter what it actually means.

I found something interesting that I was thinking might work well as a different size of jet orifice, just wanted to get people's oppinions, I'm not sure about the manufacturing tolerances but I'm guessing they are probably pretty good. They are feed nozzles for 3D printers and come in a variety of orifice sizes, here are some that I found. http://m.ebay.com/itm/181817833046?_mwBanner=1

Cheers for the input, that's pretty much what I expected, I just like tinkering sometimes and thought I'd try my hand at making this. I'll report back on my progress.