Hello,
Fairly basic question i expect, but a quick search didnt come up with much.
How big are the buildings you forge in? And what would be a minimum safe size?
Some details:
Forge - Not yet built - Likely to be a side draft, water cooled bosh and tue (already owned), 1' x1' or just over, burning charcoal.
Shed - Currently have a concrete walled 12' x 8' shed. Low wooden roof, about 7' high. Concrete floor which is nice.
Now obviously i dont want to set it on fire, so what would be the minimum distances from walls and other things? And are there any immediate issues i havent spotted.
An issue for the future is that this shed is old and leaky and falling over slowly, so will be taken down in about a years time. Its replacement will be a shed around 20' x 15' and 8' high, but has to be made of wood. It should have a concrete floor though.
Not sure how much of an issue this would be. I have only ever hit hot metal at a forge twice. Once at a large double hearth coke forge which was in a wooden building but i dont remember any other details such as metal cladding the walls etc.
The other time was in a very small clay charcoal forge in an authentic recreation of an anglo saxon forge building. This is on a dirt floor and the forge has no hood or chimney. The forge gets regular use, however it never gets left unattended due to the large amounts of historical evidence of anglo saxon wooden forge buildings burning down!
I would love to make a bigger shed from brick and not worry about it. Sadly, gardens around here (south-east england) are generally much smaller than they are in the US, and land is prohibitively expensive. This new shed will take nearly half of my garden.
Apologies for what i expect is a typical question of the uneducated newbie who cant use the search function properly!
Many thanks,
Jordan