SandHuf

Thanks for the info but the way I use a hand crank blower I am inline with the blower and insert stock to the left of the blower.

Ok so I built a shop recently for blacksmithing. I needed to make a chimney set up so I took an old water pressure tank and used it as the hood. I have 6" chimney single wall going above the roof. The hood opening is 13" tall and about 14" wide. The hood is also resting on the forge. Anyway when I tried using it smoke did go up the chimney but some would puff out towards the top of the hood. The smoke buildup is not good and hard on my lungs. So my question is what am I doing wrong here? I did a little reading on threads and other websites about the chimney needing to be at least 10" or the hood needs to be lower. I can't make the hood lower without cutting more of the tank off because it is resting on the forge. Or should I scrap the hood and buy a professionally made one with 10" chimney?

As Charles said all you need is a box of dirt. The picture below is what I made when I first started this craft but I never actually got to use it for blacksmithing. I made it off of a YouTube video and it failed 1st because my friend gave me mud instead of clay and I used pvc as it said in the video which melted. This design will work with just a hair dryer and dirt instead of clay but it won't be as clean if using clay. I made this forge in one afternoon. If you would like the link to the video or help on how to build it let me know.

8 hours ago, Mikey98118 said:

However, if your time is worth more than dishwasher wages, you want save any money; not at Diamondback prices.

Believe it or not I am actually a dishwasher haha. So money is tight, especially if I want to get a post vise and replace my cast iron anvil with a tool steel one.

So I have been using a hand crank coal forge for some time now and have been getting tired of starting and maintaining the fire. I've been looking into buying a gas forge and have looked at Majestic Forge and Diamondback forges. After reading some threads in here I decided magestic was poorly made and couldn't weld easily. I looked at Chile ones too but that is out of my budget. I want to know if any of you have had problems with a diamondback Forge (I want the 2 burner blacksmith model). Or if you think it would be worth my time and money to just make one and buy the burners then any advice on insulation would be great. Also, I want a forge that can do some good welding. I want to try some Damascus in a few months.

Stick some metal in it and find out!

14 minutes ago, Florida said:

I was never really able to get embers/coals , I am using wood for fuel . 

Well your problem for sure is not the shop vac, it is the wood. Wood will not get hot enough for the needs of blacksmithing. I would strongly recommend purchasing some coal off of centaur forge. Or if you want a cheaper and cleaner fuel you can get anthracite which is "hard" coal. I started using anthracite and it burns much longer than bituminous coal. You can get anthracite at many places like tractor supply. 

I guess I should have mentioned, I don't really want to use clay. But if there are no other options I will have to do that.

For those that haven't seen my post about me acquiring an antique forge recently, the picture of it is below. I wanted your advice on how I could make a firepot about softball sized with extra flat space (I don't know the specific name of it, like a table) around it for holding coal. Since my forge is a rivet forge it did not come with a firepot and with the tuyere about half an inch above the bottom of the pan. My idea was putting dirt into the bottom of the pan so it would fill in that half an inch under the tuyere. Then I'd make the firepot out of sheet metal. The pan is 18" diameter. Thoughts on this idea or if you have another idea?

Check the pipe or blower

Thanks. Glad mine is a hand crank and not an automatic, I can control it a little better

Heh, I see it as getting it hotter faster.

It didn't seem that cool of a fire, I melted a 1/2" steel rod within 30 seconds. The impurities burned off. The greenish smoke was gone after a minute or so.

Thanks so much for the info. I'd like to have the entire pan full of coal but I don't see a way to do fire mangement since I don't have a firepot and I shouldn't use water. I may try firebrick if it's not too expensive. And I'm new to all this info of blacksmithing but why shouldn't I put green coal deirectly onto the fire? I did it yesterday and it worked fine.

Haven't blown up yet, they've crumbled but not gone explosive. Hope it doesn't hurt when it does haha. But probably won't use them unless I'm doing smaller work. I'll try the water method the next time I fire it up. I ran out of coal.

53 minutes ago, SReynolds said:

I would never control a steel or iron forge fire with water as it can damage the forge not to mention it produces sulfuric acid. But it is yours and you are welcome to forge anyway you like.

Then what do you do for fire management?

Doesn't surprise me, I fired mine up today for the second time and it went a lot better than the first time. I tried my cinder block idea and it worked. I was able to make a hook out of 1/4" threaded stock. But I think for next time I'm just going to fill the entire pan with coal and do fire management with water.

And uh, just to be clear, does coke weigh less than coal? If so, should I just buy coke next time instead of coal?

So should I put clay in it or the mixture of clay, sand, and wood ash? And is yours made of cast iron?

how would that work with the air flow

Yea, I have clay. What do you mean by a trough?

Ok so I had a small stroke of genius. I was thinking if there was a possibility that I could make a firepot of some sort. As I was looking at a pile of broken cinder blocks I thought to myself,"perfect!" So I stacked them up and thought I could put some mortor in between the pieces. Here it is without the mortor because I want your opinions on wether this could work before I make it.

5 hours ago, SReynolds said:

The holes in the tuyere plate must be kept clear. They plug with clinker as the coal ( coke obviously) is consumed. If the holes are too small,  they plug quicker.

Would you recommend that I replace the current tuyere plate with something like yours so it's sort of concave and with bigger holes?

On 1/17/2017 at 0:26 PM, SReynolds said:

Champion 145-18

I got a question for you on your forge since it's pretty much the same one as mine. So I fired mine up tonight for the first time and I had a hard time keeping up a good flame. I had the pan filled with coal about halfway. Do you fill yours up to the rim and is there any techniques I should know about using this forge?

Alright here it is after painting. All I have to paint is the legs. And add another coat of paint on the blower.

Alright so I couldn't find a store that sold coal except for tractor supply that sells anthracite. But I found a website called coalforsale.com

i ordered 16 pounds and plan to order more.