Jreed

Here is one I made the table top is a lid for a 55 gal drum the break drum is off a Ford Taurus. You don't need a large drum.

That was the first thing I did when I left active service. The razor went away for over 12 months, no trimming, grooming etc... I have since shaved it again as I am doing some Reserve work and the Airforce doesnt tolerate lots of red, springy beard hair in cockpits...

I like it.
Before I went in I had a nice long thick goatee that I was very proud of. Now a days if I am on leave I will let it grow out just a bit. It doesn't get very long before the large amount of grey in my chin whiskers depresses me enough to shave it off again.

A small forge is the easy part. Check out my blog link in my signature line.

For the anvil Frosty has a great idea or a chunk of rail road track would work well for you also.

A 2lb ball peen will work for you fine. I use a 2lb drilling hammer.

This is one of that endeavors that proves there is more then one way to skin a cat. :D

Nope no hair on this face not allowed on active duty. Give me a few more years when I retire and that will change. :D

Bituminous is much better. I do use a lot of Anthracite though only because it is easier for me to get a hold of. It works great but it wont clump like Bituminous does.

I have a family of mice in my mine also have bats that live in the attic of my little shop.

It may be hard anthracite and does not have the volatiles that bituminous smithing coal has. This means that it will not coke up. Use it for non-welding sessions.
Phil

I don't know about that. I have been using hard anthracite for months (it was what is easy for me to get) and I can hit welding temps no problem. It doesn't clump or coke like good bituminous does it burns more like lump charcoal. I think he just has some real low grade coal.

Freelance could you take a good picture of your coal and post it up.

Hey! It's better than a rock But just by a little. Clean it up a little and use the good parts of the face and horn and stay away from the bad parts until you can find a decent anvil. Better than many an Iron Age smith had and they did some wonderful work and so can you.

Hey what is wrong with using a rock it is what I started with.


I would have much preferred to have an old Fisher like that at first.

Raw wood has a lot of moisture and impurity's in it that make it burn at lower temperatures. Charcoal has all of these cooked out of it so that all you are left with is pure fuel that can burn at usable temperatures for forging.

oops. disregard

PPE= Personal Protective Equipment. ;)

Sorry, but the company is a contractor that's going out of business. Everything will be auctioned next month if it doesn't sell. It's up in Vista, and I'm down in Point Loma. So, at this point, I'm not likely to drive near by for another reason.

Oh well you win some you lose some.

As a Marine Frosty summed up perfectly.

Cool. Have you thought of standing 2 of them up on their side and welding them together? That would give you 160lbs then you could stand the block on end and have all that mass under you. I wish I was still stationed at Camp Pendleton I would hit you up for a couple.
Hopefully I will be stationed back out there in a year if so I will look this back up and see if he still has some left.

I like that one. I don't have any info for ya but when you get it all together it should be a nice to forge to work on.

A hair dryer will work great. I found with mine that when burning charcoal I had to baffle the hair dryer with some duct tape to reduce the amount of air.

LeeRoy I really like it. It looks like it would be real nice and portable. How tall is it?

That is nice. Simple but meaningful.

though i've never weighed it, it feels like around 80 to 100 pounds. I found two of them near the rr tracks. er um I mean they fell off the back of a truck. lol.

Well how ever it fell into your lap that looks like it makes a very useful anvil lots of angles and bends to form work over and enough flat surface to move steel on. I like it. :D

Edge what is the weight on that thing?

PEG is a wood stabilizer. It hardens the wood it is also used to stiffen up spalted woods so they can be worked.

I like the boots. :D

I cover mine with a light coat of oil and the put a tarp over it. Unless it rains real hard I have no problems.

Oh very nice Hope your friend appreciates the work you put in to those.

That is strange. I have been using Royal Oak for 4-5 months now and have no problem with heat. Charcoal needs air volume and lots of it. I would check the air supply and go from there.

Ratel10mm
I like it. The reason I went with just the lid is it is all I had. I wish I had as much of the drum as you do. Inletted like mine is I have plenty of table space to lay up fuel to be raked in with out the use of a shovel. I made my ash dump long also and I can run for hours with charcoal with out having to empty it. If you make changes post them I would love to see them.

I lined my fire pot today. I switched from charcoal to coal now that I have a source of supply. With the new fuel I found that I needed to make the inside shape more efficient. After reading all the info here I dug up some clay from the yard and lined it to make a bowl shape. When it dries after a couple days I will snap some pic's.