First forge.

[Rikadyn]

I've seriously been pursing making my first forge for about a year now, but never been able to find a 55g drum to use for it. Well luckily for me, my family is friends with a guy who goes around collecting scrap metal so, asked him in the spring if he found a 55g drum, let me know.

Well, he finally found one and brought it by Friday, so, broke out the cutting wheel and began to cut it down to size today. First off the drum isn't perfect, it has some holes the person cut in it so it wouldn't collect water, but figure I'll just use the extra drum metal and cover the holes.

Anyway getting back to business at hand, I want to make a side blast forge, Only thing I'm being stumped on is what to line the forge with and build the fire pit with.

[Glenn]

Cut the forge about 4 inches from the bottom of the drum. Cut a 1 inch deep notch (one location) on the top of the forge and as wide as the pipe (1 or 1-1/4 inch pipe). I put a brick in the forge for the pipe to lay on for support and extended the pipe about 1/3 of the way into the forge. Fill with fuel and fire it up. The ashes will filter down to the bottom, the fire will become centered at the end of the pipe. It is that simple. Try to protect it from the rain etc and it will last longer. As to the holes, fill them with mud if they are large, or let them fill with ash.

[pete46]

cLAY CAT LITTER WILL WORK :IF YOU DON'T WANT TO GO WITH PURE ASH.
I, would put the clay in first then let the ash build up on it.
[ i think ash is acidic, so the clay will act as a buffer?]

[Rikadyn]

the hole in the drum are pretty big, prolly just gonna cut a peice of like 18g sheet metal and drop it in the bottom then pack in some dirt to isolate the heat away from the bottom.

Actually, one of the holes would be great if I was making a bottom blast, but I'm not lol.