Bantou

The only thing I’ve spend money on for this JABOD is the air supply and about $50 in tools that I needed anyway. I went with the same hand pump Charles has on his Mark III. Cost me just over $23 from Amazon. My biggest expense was the 66lb cast steel anvil at $170. I think my cross peen was around $20 at the local hardware store. I still need to pick up or scrounge some stock to make my tongs. I’m getting 100lbs of coal Friday for $32+tax.

I may wind up having to do that. I was trying to keep this build at $0 cost using materials I have on hand. Money is tight right now and I’m already a little over $300USD in on materials to start smithing between my anvil, hammer, air pump, coal, and raw materials.

They are held on by 2 1/2” decking screws now. I put two screws in each end of the boards. In theory, even full of dirt, I should be able to jump on top of the thing without the bottom giving out. I’ll definitely keep an eye on them though and adjust if I see them starting to separate.

I’m not expecting perfection right out of the gate by any means. My first priorities once everything gets here are a couple sets of tongs and a hot cut hardy (from a jackhammer rod). If this JABOD works well enough for that, I’ll consider it a successful experiment. I really wanted the fire pot to be a little smaller but the dirt was being contrary. I could either have the 6” circumference I wanted and have the tuyere flush with the bottom of the of the pot, or have a 6.5-7” circumference with the bottom 1” below the tuyere. If I feel like I’m wasting coal, I can try to reform the fire box; but, it took me well over an hour of toying with it just to get it as small as it is. Wetting it down some might help but gumbo soil gets extremely sticky when damp/wet. So, it would be a crapshoot. Right now, the plan is to burn coal (I can get it locally for $16/50lbs). I built the box and laid the tile in a way that will allow me to switch to a trench if I need to heat longer stock or switch to charcoal for the neighbors.

Made some upgrades yesterday and today: put legs on it instead of using a reel; upgraded the bottom to 1x6’s; found out the hard way that, while 1 1/4” screws are great for holding 1x’s down, they are not great at holding 1x’s up (Fortunately, I didn’t have very much dirt in there at the time); and got a nice little reminder about hammer control while tamping the dirt in with a mallet and 2x4. It stands 3ft tall. The fire box is ~7” in circumference and ~6” deep. There are more roots in the dirt than I really wanted; but, not enough to cause a problem (I hope). Decided to go with a manual air pump and coal for now. She should be up and running next weekend. I am hoping to pick up a couple bags of coal on Friday, and my anvil and air pump should be here late next week. Once the anvil is here, I can get measurements for height and build the base. Please excuse the mess, my workspace doubles as my lead refinery.

My first forge will be a JABOD. It’s mostly complete with the exception of adding the dirt. I’m waiting to get a wire reel from work before I put any dirt in it. Once full, it will weigh ~300lbs and I don’t want to have to pick that up to move it. It took me ~8 hours to build with a hand saw (This is the first time I’ve used one) and cordless drill. I could have halved that time if I had paid better attention to the measurements on Charles’s original post. The first iteration measured 31x34, making it entirely too big to be moved at all (it would have weighed 500lbs+). I haven’t decided on an air source yet but I’m leaning toward the hand pump Charles used on his MkIII. I’m horrible about remembering to shut off my air supply while working on a piece. I’m debating on a fuel source as well. There is a blacksmith shop less than an hour from me that sells coal. I live in a neighborhood though so charcoal might be more welcome to the neighbors. It measures 24x24x7. The sides are made from two 2x4’s (scavenged from work) stacked on the long side. The bottom is some old wood snap-together flooring I had laying around. The tuyere is old 1” sch40 pipe I kept when we replaced the gas line to the house. It sits 3” off the bottom to allow for 2” of dirt and a 1” cavity in the fire box. I plan on dumping a can of brake cleaner through the pipe before I use it.

Thank you JHCC and George. Hopefully I’ll have it up and running by this weekend (with pictures of course).

Has anybody tried a JABOD with Black Gumbo soil? If so, did it work better a loose fill or dampened down and tamped? The dirt around where I live is all gumbo, which to my understanding is predominantly clay. My concern is that it will crack if I tamp it in instead of loose filling (it cracks like crazy in the Texas heat). However, I don’t have any bricks laying around to form the fire pot on a loose fill. Right now, I either have or can easily scrounge up the other materials I need.