I know that brake drum coal forges can be good, but i recently read about someone saying that brake drums for forges could be 4-6 inches deep, but they can be a lot bigger.fort example my g-pa works at a trucking company and brought me back drum tht was the smallest one that they had. It was about sixty pounds. i dont know why someone would want one that big but it might be useful. who knows. Personally i have a portable buffalo forge co. forge, but i have started to build a forge of my own. its a '66 mustang rear axle bolted to a wheel, and filled with concrete, with pan made of 1/4 - 3/8 angle welded to a box shape w/o a lid. a hole with about a 2 inch diameter hole cut in it for air. going to weld a sheet of steel about 6 by 4 feet and angle on the sides like a table.the angle iron that makes the fire pot is bout 6 inches deep. any suggestions or comments are GREATLY appreciated.

I had a student build a forge from a semi drum. He didn't slot the sides so he couldn't get his work down to the hot spot unless he bent it double. I suggested he fill it and move the tuyere up about a foot, which he did and it was usable but way to heavy to move. He abandoned it when he moved.

While blacksmiths are often of the "bigger is better school" sometimes there is a "too big"!

The idea of a brake drum forge is for the brake drum to be the Fire Pot, not the entire forge. I use brake discs instead, they are lower, and then build the forge around them.
The non finned ones work better, they will take an incredible amount of heat, as that is what they are designed for.

Save up some money and buy a firepot.

I just had the brakes on my Dodge truck replaced and the disks seemed like the perfect size for a fire pot. I almost kept them... But I don't need another project to through on the pile... Seems like now days drums and disks are made too thin to turn smooth when redoing brakes. Cheep xxxxxxxx what you to buy new ones

I heat that FE-Wood, I have drums and vented disks from my cavalier when I did brakes last fall. I understand that if they are not in tolerance at the factory they can only be reground (not turned) once or twice before they are scrapped.

I am less interested in solid fuel for now, so they are sitting, not to mention rather small. I'm thinking about cutting them up and using them for stock, but besides not knowing what they are made of, I don't feel like working that hard on something without a goal.

Phil

hey, thanks guys. i never used the drum because it was too big. what do you guys think about the new forge that i'm building though?the firepot isnt at an angle though .the walls are straight up and down. will that matter any? get back to me with some information if ya can thanks, irontwister

irontwister I make my own fire pots and make them for others If you want a set of plans let me know I will send you a set.

hi francis ....i'm going to build my own forge and i was wondering if there was any chance you could send me the fire pot plans also
thanks mate
regards mike

Mike, I have a spare drum off an old Commodore (iirc) that you're welcome to. I can leave it at Mick's next time I'm up there, or possibly take it up when you're going to be there too if you like. Mick's just helped me make a '55' forge - these drums are about 2.5" deep and Mick reckons they're still too deep for charcoal. As you know, he believes shallow is better with charcoal. I intend to fire it up this weekend & test it out, see how it works. Hopefully with enough air through it the depth will be ok.

Anyway, enough wittering. If you want the spare drum I have, just let me know.

On the original 55 Forge, the twyere sticks up only an inch or so, and that space will fill with ash after a couple of fires. The rest of the height is fire and fuel. (see attached photos)

The break drum, and later break rotor was added to see if it would make any difference in the way the forge burned. As shown in BP0133 55 Forge, the break drum is above the floor of the forge. Later models a hole was cut in the floor to allow the drum to sink into the floor and catch on the rim of the drum. This saved adding a lot of mud or ash to fill to the height of the drum.

The whole idea behind the 55 Forge is to build a working forge with little or no parts, using the least amount of time and effort, from parts available most anywhere in the world, that will run on a variety of solid fuels. Anything else is just making a SECOND FORGE, making things more complicated, using more time and effort and materials, with only minor improvements in performance.

The Supercharged 55 Forge design was a vast leap forward in performance. Once you add the Supercharger, you got a much improved draft, and little or no smoke even from soft bituminous coal. This forge is still very easy to build, using a minimum of materials, time, and effort, and runs on a variety of fuels. It also gets rid of the smoke that is associated with many forges. And yes, both the 55 Forge and the Supercharged 55 Forge will reach welding heat.

One note is the size of the air opening into the forge. This is auto exhaust pipe which is 2, 2-1/4, or 2-1/2 inches diameter. The grate is 2 pieces of 1/4 inch round bar. This leaves room for a LOT of air to enter the fire. Later models of the forge used 3 inch diameter pipe and 2 each 3/8 bolts for a grate. The larger the air pipe is less likely to clog with ash, but they all work well.

francis, thanks bunches id love it! how do i give you my email?

what is the famed 55 forge?

Irontwister,

take a look at this IFI blueprint

BP0133 55 Forge | Blueprints 100-200

It is a design for an easy to build forge. Glenn designed it and added the blueprint. it will explain.

brian

hey thanks brian, but i think that im going to stick with my plans. the reason being that i have alreasy almost finished it. ya know that feeling when you start something and dont finish it , or have that what coulda been feelin? well i get those a lot with stuff like this .lol ill try to get pics of it . its pretty hefty and should work good. im building a portable for my uncle though would this one work good?

Mike, I have a spare drum off an old Commodore (iirc) that you're welcome to. I can leave it at Mick's next time I'm up there, or possibly take it up when you're going to be there too if you like. Mick's just helped me make a '55' forge - these drums are about 2.5" deep and Mick reckons they're still too deep for charcoal. As you know, he believes shallow is better with charcoal. I intend to fire it up this weekend & test it out, see how it works. Hopefully with enough air through it the depth will be ok.

Anyway, enough wittering. If you want the spare drum I have, just let me know.

thanks for the offer ratel10mm but i should be ok for a brake drum,my local garage gives me free access to the scrap metal bin with all the cast off from the cars that they repair.......are you using charcoal or coke,cokes xxxx hard to get hold of

latest find at my local garage......the long shafts are 24 mm dia and 1.4 meters long,they look like some sort of drive shafts

Edited September 25, 200916 yr by mite5255

Charcoal mate, but would prefer coke.

ratel and mite,
what do you mean that coke is hard to get a hold of? i just start my fire with coke but sometimes charcoal and pile green coal around it, water it so it cokes, and bam, you got coke. is it hard to get green coal in australia?

Irontwister, They are talking about the coke produced by industry when they use the gases off the coal. Its harder to get here in Aus than coal. Coal can be hard to get as well in places, funny when we are sending it overseas by the ship load and we cannot get a trailer load for love nor money in some places.

Irontwister, as rmcpb says, solid fuel other than wood is hard to come by in some places.
Here in SE Queensland for e.g. There's little to no heavy industry here (very heavily tourist economy especially on the Gold Coast) and as we're subtropical, not many people have open fires - those that do use wood as fuel. Barbeques are almost exclusively gas.

As a result, finding charcoal, coal, or ideally coke is very difficult (at least so far) in this general area. It can be done, but it's never convenient / reasonably priced - until you understand how hard the supplies have had to work to get it themselves!

oh that sucks for you guys. west virginia( united states of america)is rich and famous for coal. we ship it over seas for big money, but we dont see any of that money.the only good thing is that it creates jobs for wv families. out of state companies get the big bucks. do you guys make your own charcoal?

Here is my break drum forge. Made from steel 2x4 studs, 1/8" deck plate, 2" pipe of course and, that's right, a break drum. Have yet to fire it up. Dang blow dryer went poof. Rasser Frassen thing. :rolleyes:

wow, that looks nice how long didit take you to make it?

what do you think if i took a 55 gallon drum and cut a big piece out of the side, and a hole in the top for the brake drum. the hole in the side would let you clean it after i put the "coal plumbing" in it. i could cut the hole about 2 foot by 4 foot and leave the bottom part about one foot from each side and fill the bottom with concrete. i think ill do that. ill get pictures too. yeah im really likin that idea. its really hard to explain it with out a picture.any ideas ill check the site tonight before i do it.thanks.