Rich B

It is galvanized steel. I let it burn off and its outside. It was all i had at the time but I plan on upgrading it to iron before I use it again . I would rather stay on the safe side.

The refractory material is cat litter sand and little horse maneure. It took forever to teach the horse to use a litter box.... 3/4 tuyer. 2x6 wood. I didn't have enough adobe to fill the whole box so the far side is sand for about 4 " . fired it up today and shaped some angle iron which I used to mount my anvil. A good day. It heated 1/2 rebar yellow about 3-4 inches no problem.I used a hair dryer today but I did find a double action mattress pump which I'll play with later. Now that I have a workable set up I plan on forging 5 or 6 rebar snails for hammer practice.

Thanks for all the information. I will be working on it on my next day off.

I thought about that. I could probably fill the whole jabod with it too. Do you think I would need to grind it fine first? I worked with it once and ground it in a coffee grinder but not on this kind of scale. Perhaps a blender from a thrift store.

I have built a frame for a jabod. Its about 2 ft by 2ft square. 6" deep. 3/4" tuyere 2" above bottom board. My question is about the fire pot. I have no clay around. I was considering filling it with sand and forming a fire pot from plaster of Paris and sand. My previous set up was just play sand and the fire pot would collapse in too often. Sometimes while forging. Any suggestions for material? I have a budget of about 20-30 bucks right now. Thank you and I will post a pic tomorrow. I also wonder if 6" is deep enough. I may add 2" .

I may just have to make one myself. Hmmm. That certainty would be perfect with a bellows stone design. I spotted pallet wood and wood fencing along the road for pickup....

Thank you all for the welcome and advice. I really like the bellows stone design. I went looking for a manual pump or electric but my local wally world has empty shelves still from the hurricane. I'll try the one in fort myers. Its a larger store. The hair dryer works great but waste fuel and draws a lot of electricity.

Got to head to work.... Thank you for the reply. This is a temporary set up. It allows me to experiment. And maybe make a few tools.

I just joined the forum. Made a charcoal forge with brick and play sand . I am using a hair dryer blower . yesterday was my first time forging. Forge worked pretty well. I made a coal rake and then destroyed some 1/2 rebar trying to make tongs. Learned a few things and had a blast.I am using a 66 pound steel anvil on a tree stump courtesy of hurricane Irma. All the stumps and wood you want..