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I Forge Iron

AndrewB

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Thurston County, Washington State
  • Interests
    Gaming, forging, metal work.

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  1. Actually I have read the pinned threads on it. But I've never seen any success stories on them except for a one time use. But as from watching you tube I've seen people have luck with them with out the cinder blocks exploding. But here's the thing, I'm trying to get this hobby going one way or the other. I'm not going to alone just use the cinder blocks and put the fire directly into the cinder blocks. That would just be a dumb move on my part if I tried that. So I could in the end build it up high enough to build the fire pot. I could take the fire brick and line the bottom and possibly sides of the cinder blocks with the fire bricks. Then on top of the fire brick throw dirt or some sort of barrier to save the fire bricks. I'm not sure though as of yet. But I will get something to work eventually.
  2. For some reason fires are easier for me to start when they are in something like a fire pit. I am at the point where I am in great consideration of building a forge using cinder blocks and the fire brick that I have. It may be easier for me to work with and a more permanent fix in my back yard. That way I don't have to keep hauling it in and out of my shed when it cools down it can just stay outside. Cinder blocks are quite cheap and easy to come buy especially since I can walk to Home depot. Cinder blocks only cost about a buck a piece. The air flow set up would be a bit different but I would assume much easier to deal with. At least with cinder blocks there would be no welding involved what so ever. My question is have any of you went with this and actually have built a cinder block forge. I know it can be a bit tricky since cinders can explode if things are done in correctly. Any thoughts on this?
  3. As far as the grate I've still got to get that figured out. So far even with the 1 inch pipe since I have had some trouble finding 2 inch pipe that is metal and not PVC. Well it works for now. The air flow through the pipe even with a hair dryer is now substantial. Enough to get a good fire going. I forgot that I had some old wood from my smoker still available to use to get my fire going.. That should work at least to start it along with a little bit of help from Mr lighter fluid. So I'm hoping once I get my grate issue solved I am hoping to maybe do some forging this afternoon.
  4. I got it all figured out. I wasn't thinking or thinking about it too much. Problems solved. Airflow should be ok for a hair dryer. No welding necessary. So that makes me happy maybe I will be able to get a fire up tomorrow and test this out. The only thing I gotta figure out since I'm not using any welding is how I'm going to keep coal from falling into the ash dump. I'm sure I'll get something put together but I at least want to see if this will work. Yes I'm using cinder blocks as stands they work just fine. At least I don't have to be fancy. Thanks guys for all the input.
  5. I'm not giving up on it, I'm just at a stuck point. Until I can at least get it set up properly. This is a hobby that I want to do. So no I'm not giving up on it. It's just frustrating because every where I go they say no you can't use this material because it will get too hot and melt. So folks at stores send me some where else. It's just a pain in some ways to deal with but meh. I found my air supply at least. I have a little fan motor that is quite powerful. An old bathroom exhaust fan. But I need to figure out how to get it to push air instead of pull it unless I just turn it around towards the pipes and have it pull the air into the pipe that way. But the nice thing is it has a 120 volt plug so at least I wont have to re wire the motor so it will go into a 120 volt plug. So at least I wont have to worry about using the shop vac. This fan motor is so quite you can't even hear it turning unless the fan blades are hooked up to it.
  6. Well unfortunately at this point, my main problem is now turning into being the air supply. So at this point I'm stuck I can't and wont be able to do any forging what so ever for now. So yes I'm stuck in a bad place, but I guess eventually I'll get out of it. Oh well. Hurry up and wait I guess.
  7. As I said before I'm more than likely over thinking everything and trying to over do it more than likely. I can't build a giant forge I probably shouldn't do JABOD just because of the fire issue, I'm not saying that JABOD wont work I'm just saying because of the safety precaution. I'm a very cautious person. I also try to keep that in mind.
  8. The only issue I have with the shop vac is that its extremely noisy defensing to the ears I found. I'm wondering I've still got my old sink, now with that old sink I could possibly take off the drain for that sink and some how mount it to the break drum to possibly get a better airflow. I'm going to be putting the break drum up on bricks of course with the air flow access open but what I am considering doing is since I do not have a welding machine here at home like I said using the bricks that I have to put it up on a stand some what and then using the sink drain detached from the sink itself which is about 2 inches I believe in diameter would that possibly work? Of course Id have to drill holes into the break drum in order to mount the sink drain catch to it.
  9. This morning I tried revamping my air flow with a hair dryer set up. In the end that proved to be somewhat pointless. As the hair dryer did not supply enough air. I'm at a point where I'm just going to say the heck with it until I can get the break drum stood up on proper stands high enough and some proper air flow and a proper blower. I can't use my shop vac because it is too noisy and deafening. I worked on it for a bit this morning, I didn't even get a fire started what so ever. So in the end I'm just going to step back slow way down read more information. This is just too danged frustrating at the moment. So I will be waiting a while until I can actually get a decent start going and by then I should have a decent source of wood saved up so I wont have an issue with that. But I will have to wait until I can get access to a welding machine so I can weld everything and get everything done properly. I E welding legs onto the drum itself. Welding a pipe and a T to the drum for the airflow and ash dump. I do believe my biggest problem probably is that I am just over thinking this way too much. But in the end if I slow back down and just wait and gain access to a welder and some other tools to set things up properly at least I will probably be in a better off situation. For now it's back to gaming I guess. There is no reason to start a new thread for every post, merged back into main thread
  10. I get frustrated with things easily at times this was just one of the times I happened to get quite frustrated with it on why it just wouldn't keep going. But meh what can I say I still have some adjustments to make to the forge as well the BBq shell is going to go away eventually and I will have stands welded to it and an actual proper pipe for the airflow my only problem is I just don't have access to a welding machine or grinder/ cut off saw at the moment. So I'm quite lacking on tools. So in the end I am limited on what I can do for the forge build. Fire on the other hand yea eventually I'll get it. I completely forgot I had almost a sheet and a half of left over ply wood that I can break up and use to start the fire.
  11. Glenn - Today I think the forge beat me, just like baseball 3 strikes and your out. I had a great bed of coals and the dag gone anthracite coal still wouldnt ignite. So it beat me today, but as stubborn as I am I'm not going to give up on this. The sad thing too is I was a boyscout. Not to mention I am a full fledged pyro. I love fire. So of all people I would have thought I could simply get a fire going lol. Nope beat again. Plus it's a bit windy outside here so that probably wasn't a good idea to begin with. But I think I will take your suggestion and a lot of other suggestions and get some dry wood. I do have some 2 by 4s that I could quite litterally cut up and chunk up. But then I would have to break out my saws all. I didn't save any of the branches that were downed from the wind storms either. I'm now wishing that I would have saved them. Welp back to farming simulator for now and I'll try again with the forge tomorrow or sunday but I can provide a sample of what the forge looks like going. Yes it does get hot with the revamped airflow.
  12. My main issue at this point I think was the amount of coal and getting it going. My air flow was well kind of jacked up, just a pipe with a couple holes drilled into it and run underneath the axle hole in the break drum. How ever I ran to home depot grabbed a new pipe, and a T joint a plug and a flange I think that will more than likely increase my airflow into the break drum because of the flange which is roughly 3 inches in diameter with the opening of course so that will go directly into the break drum itself. So I think I should be ok. I guess I'm going to step outside now and give it another attempt. I do not have any scrap wood laying around thats small enough to get that type of fire going, My only option to start the fire at this point is kingsford charcoal. So it will have to do for now. Well all here we go wish me luck.
  13. Well charcoal I have about 100 lbs of Kingsford, I know I shouldn't use Kingsford but if it gets it going would that be an option? Maybe I should have just stuck it out a bit longer instead of getting frustrated with it. I will give it another go this afternoon. The airflow seems a bit weak going into the fire bowl, so I may need to make some changes. I'm not quite sure my break drum forge will work the way I currently have it set up. How ever if it will work just enough for me to get started for now, I'll be happy. How hot should the anthracite coal get once it gets going?
  14. So I am at a point where I'm just ready to completely give up. After I picked up my coal this morning and tongs I came home and set up my break drum forge. The air supply was fairly decent. I don't know if I just used too much coal or what not. But basically I've seen a lot of youtube videos on how to start a coal fire forge. I mean even I could figure this out. Should be fairly simple right. Figuratively speaking. How ever, this morning when I tried to light it. To no avail it failed me. So I went to the next step. I used a chunk of wood and some paper with a bit of lighter fluid. To that it simply just did not want to ignite. Before you jump to any conclusions yes I did put an air blast to it, while the wood was burning in a mix the coal. My coal is andecite or how ever you spell that. So as of right now I am just going to step back wait a while maybe it will light for me when it is warmer. Who knows. At this point I am completely frustrated. I didn't throw the forge like I do my keyboard when I get mad at my gaming. So I just calmly set everything aside I doused the coal with water to make sure it wouldn't ignite on me when I came inside. So if anybody has any thoughts on this it would be a good deal. Yes I've read everything I could read in the forums as well. So long story short, my problem is I couldn't get the danged thing light and running. I would have loved to been outside pounding on some metal. (Yes I filled the break drum with coal, which was probably dumb to do but I did it.) Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
  15. Okay so here is my issue. I got my JABOD built today. How ever. I may have like I said xxxxxxx the churches money on it. I built a pretty big fire bowl. The box itself is 2 foot square. I then added 30 inch table legs on it. Needless to say I also added in fire brick on the table top for the fire pot to sit on. I'm still not yet finished with this forge. So what should I do at this point just say xxxx the legs that I mounted to it. Or leave it as is. I'm at this point about ready to say XXXX the hole project. Suggestions would be grateful at this point.
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