williamtd

Welshj Hi I'm not quite sure what you are referring to the table is 3/16th thick and the firepot is 3/8th both held up with no visible damage the firepot did glow and scale slightly but I think that was paint coming off or something no doubt that time will tell, I think 1/4in on its own will be to thin, the first forge I built was made using the top of a gas cylinder which at its 1/4in and that was glowing bright orange and scaling badly despite having an under powered blower. My advice would be to try and get thicker plate if you can if not I have heard of people lining the firepot with clay. Because the table is a bit thinner than I would have liked I over sized the hole for the firepot so that the table wasn't in direct contact. The forge did get hot quickly 5/16th Square bar was up to forging temp within seconds. I hope this helps if you have any questions just ask. William

Fired up the new forge for the first time yesterday and discovered the bug. 4 hours later and my first pair of tongs are finished they are still a bit rough and need to be wire brushed but I'm pleased. I've also included a photo of a cold chisel (far left) made from a masonry chisel, a bottom fuller and a hardy hole chisel (well pritchel hole), the last 2 made from an sds masonry chisel

Jhcc Thanks I will definitely attach one to my forge

Thomas powers The gate idea is brilliant thanks

Thomas powers I plan to do everything from small gate hooks to forge welding, heavy stable door hinges for horses to bladesmithing. The firepot is 8in x 10in and 5in deep, for the fuel I'll be using coke beans

No sorry

Maybe I've been designing it for about 6 months and using YouTube, pinterest and Google searches for ideas.

My new solid fuel forge. The table is 2ft x 3ft made from a sheet of 3/16 (4mm) mild steel, for the lip I used 4in x 3in angle iron to both support the table, provide a lip and allow me to bolt the top assembly to the legs which are made from 2in x 2in angle. For the firepot I used 3/8th plate welded along the edges with a 4in square hole in the base I then welded a 1/2in plate over the bottom and cut out a 3in square hole for the ash dump/ air intake, for the ash dump I used 3in square tube and 2in square tube for the air pipe cut to 2 x 45° angles so that I had a gentle 90° (which is better for air flow). Because of slope from air pipe into the ash dump I added a mini dump/inspection port at base of the turn on the air pipe. For the blower I'm going to use a 1800w hair dryer until I find something more permanent. At the bottom I have also put pictures of my homemade anvil she weighs about 150lb and is made from 2 x 1and 5/8th plates bolted together Comments and criticisms are welcome

Pnut OK I will, thanks again for your help. William

Pnut Hi yup I ended up about 3in of clay all the way around, the blower was a squirrel cage type from the scrapyard oh and I forgot to mention that the grate melted (it was from a toaster grill) Thomas powers why not get a couple of apprentices /slaves in. Lol haha

Thomas powers Wow fascinating bit of history thanks William

Thomas powers OK thanks

Hi Pnut The main reason I would prefer it to be overpowered is that my first forge was an absolute disaster (1) the firepot was to thin and started to glow cherry red (2) the blower was so weak it was almost a fortnight (3) the table held almost no fuel + no lip so all the beans fell off (4)the firepot was made from a gas cylinder and I went through 20kg of coke for nothing, now I've fixed everything but the blower. I hope this explains a lot. William Thomas powers No I've never heard of them

ThomasPowers Oh right, I only fired my first forge up once before deciding to rebuild so I know next to nothing about blacksmithing, I've been learning from watching black bear forge on YouTube. William

Hi pnut I'm using coke beans they are somewhere between 1/2 and 1 cubic inch so quite small. William