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Hey ya'll! Its your friendly neighborhood Texan here! I've started the construction of my coal forge! Got a F250 Brake rotor, some scrap sheet steel, and some rebar. sizes: 30"x22" rebar frame It's all going to be welded together today. I'm not sure what to use for the legs... I'm just going to stack some cendar blocks for the time being. Picture: I'll update as I progress.

Hello all -- Been on here for a while checking out posts an soaking up as much as I can as I read through all the posts. I got into this with the intention of making a few tools and playing with fire -- and also the appeal of doing something creative as opposed to maintaining systems like the house, car, day job, family etc. There is an appeal to working with metal as the blacksmith does -- play doh for pyro.... So here is my forge. It is an old steel school desk that was originally restored for my girlfriends daughter by her uncle - Once outgrown it collected dust for a while I was just beginning to research this trade and became interested in the brake drum forge as a starting point. I thought sure-- I have a little mig welder to make a base, a few old drums and rotors, and I can hit get the pipe from a local plumb shop. I knew the limitations of the drum set up, but hey, the plans, parts and ideas are abundant, and it was fun and easy. Then I thought why build a base when that desk is just sitting there? Anyways- You can see the pictures but here is a rough parts list 1 old kids folding lid kids desk 1 rear drum rotor from a 2005 maxima sheet of 3/16 mild steel cut to fit the desktop with a hole for the bottom of the fire pot used bathroom exhaust fan, empty chilli can with make shift damper length of shop vac hose 2 2.5''x8'' ish pipe lenghts 2.5'' pipe flange 2.5'' pipe t 2.5'' plug 1 small tub of refractory stove cement to shape the fire pot and hold grate I have used it a few times with success, charcoal as fuel. It provides a good even heat and the base does not get too hot. Looking forward to trying it with coal. Some limitations and future improvements: the fire pot is not deep enough for a really hot fire so some fire bricks that I can move and stack will help. I will also need some kind of a half hood to help contain the mess and fire fleas, finish the wiring, cover the motor, and lastly wheels on the front to level it off and create easy portability. I may also rig it up to accept the old blower in the last pic....pretty cool find and it still works, but I would like to clean it up and change the oil. I look forward to comments, this forum has so many fine craftsman and artists! forge.pdf forge 2.pdf

Hi all, New blacksmith here again. So, I've been working on my brake drum forge now for about..probably two months. Still a newb but I'm learning. The brake drum forge that I built works fine for heating steel but it's burning my coal faster than I think it needs to. What I'm considering, is using some fire cement around the inside and shaping it so that it slopes from the rim to the center where the air blows in. What I'm really wanting to know is if this will help to more efficiently burn my coal and if the fire cement is a viable option for what I'm trying to achieve. I'll attach a picture of my forge also....aaaand it uploaded sideways again for some reason.

I've been planning for a while now to rework my brake drum forge. The drum I used is off an old house trailer and has a 13 1/2" inner diameter and a depth of 3 1/2" it just burned too much coal. It helped after a while that I had built up a good bit of coal ash and such filling in thecorners and making it more of a bowk, but it still was too spread out for my liking. I had been given most of a bag of PacoCast 28 li castable refractory and had been planning to use it to make a more restricted and slope sided firepot. Well Friday I gave half of the refractory to a young guy I met who works at the local Walgreen's that is getting into smithing so he could use it to help him get a better forge going than what he described to me. (I've also recommended ifi to him several times.) Anyway, I went ahead yesterday (Saturday) and mixed up some refractory and did what you see in the pic. The top is about 7" x 7" and has about a 50º slope down to about 4" × 4" at the bottom. Did I mess up doing this? What's you guys' opinion? I've already built a small propane forge and do believe my next one will probably be a welded firepot side blast.

I'm sure you guys have seen many of these but I'm super stoked to show off mine. Let me know what u guys think.

Hello My son and I are just starting on this for a hobby. We are going to build a forge and have been looking for tools at second hand sales and such. The question is what size brake drum to use for the forge. I have read what I could find and looked at the posts on hear but I havn't seen any discussion on the advantages of different sized drums. We have an option to use a truck drum that is about 16 inches across and 8 inches deep. It seems to me that bigger gives more options but is it going to waste a lot of fuel? Can I just build a small fire in the bottom or do I have to fill it up to make it work properly? I am figuring on using coal of charcoal I suppose. I really havn't had a chance to research cost and efficianies and such. Any info on where to aquire fuel in the central oregon area would be appricated. I want to get the forge built in the next week so any input on size is appreciated. Thanks Mike