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I Forge Iron

Fire pots... I hate fire pots...


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Hey guys, merry Christmas, and a happy New Year. I know it's a bit late, but I haven't had access to a pc while i was at home, because my notebook got burned by a power surge from a lightning strike, and the other one started practically melting all of a sudden with no apparent reason :) And, then the forum maintenance kicked in (btw, the new look is excellent it must have taken a lot of work to do it, thanks mods/admins) so I couldnt log from the iPhone either. Sigh.

Now the real rant starts.

While I was at home, I did virtually no blacksmithing, my father had been busy at work, working all day, and he hasn't had the time to make the forge for a week or so,
then we didn't have the appropriate tools, we ditched my old brake drum, which was really small, and tried to get a new one. The one we thought was pretty good in size, turned out to be aluminum, then the next one was pretty great, but had a 2 cm (0.8) inch stainless steel plate welded on the bottom, and we didn't have the drill bit hard enough to drill it.

Needless to say, all the stores were closed due to the holidays, so we went to get a new one. That new one turned out to be really huge so we abandoned that one too.
Now, discouraged, we went back to the original small brake drum, and decided to make that atleast for the time being. Yea, you can guess it, again the tools. We just couldn't find the band saw metal working blade, and again the stores were closed. Ok, so we waited a few days, bought the blade for the saw, sawed around 10% of what we wanted to, and the blade got literarily destroyed.

That was the final blow, I got so frustrated, and gave up!!!
And the worst thing is, my dad has an oxyfuel welding/cutting torch, and the gas tanks, but they are empty, and he hasn't had the time to fill them up, if only he did, we would have done everything in a day, and I would be forging for 2 weeks straight.
Ok, sorry guys for the wall of text, but I am really frustrated, and wanted to share this story with people who would understand.

I hate fire pots.
Really.
Hate them.

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LOL. Aral, sounds like your New Year didn't start out so well. Don't give up, my friend. It will come together for you. I have been a little frustrated, too, trying to get my tire hammer put together and up and running. I've taken a break from it for a few days, now. So I am hoping that I can get regrouped and things will start working out better. It's just going to take me taking a deep breath and picking up where I left off. Good luck. It will work out for you. Just hang in there. :D

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Aral, add your location to your info under your avatar. Could be you are just up the road from a more advanced smith -or a whole mob of them- who could get you fired up in short order.

It's like we're all hearing the cry for help but can't see where to throw the rope in the darkness...

Plenty of ways to skin a cat, a forge can be made with little more than a shovel and a few rocks, been done that way for 5,000 years before Lowe's and Home Depot showed up.
There are endless answers from thousands of folks on this site, worldwide. It would help if they knew where you are, you don't have to pinpoint yourself, just what state, province, region, etc...

You'll be surprised, likely a group right near you and you'll fit right in...

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There's always the dirt forge. Easy to build and works OK. Just a little improvisation and your set. Dirt, coal and wind. Bad luck about your computers, my youngest son had that problem this year too, sure got him down. Well I do hope that your school year goes well at least and next break you have a working forge.

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Hey guys, thanks for the advice, but I wanted to make a good fire pot this time, because I was frustrated with the old one. I did some forging, but the fire wasnt deep enough, and it just frustrated me even more, so I decided I will make a decent fire pot this time. And by the way, I live in Croatia, which has around 4.5 million people, and blacksmiths are nearly impossible to find, maybe a few old grumpy blacksmiths, who can forge a fire poker and a cow bell :), and they sure aren't helpful and friendly to help a new blacksmith :)
And, no, im not exaggerating :P

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Aral:

I'm sorry you have been running into so many obstacles. I remember when I was trying to get started in smithing but I was travelling to work in construction most of the time. I found a lot of pleasure in continuing to think about it, when I had free time I would always have a pencil and some paper, so I would sketch different ideas that would come to me. Making drawings is part of the process for me now as well. You can learn a lot and save yourself time when you DO get all your ducks in a row. Hang in there. Anvillain

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Thanks for the advice guys, but I already know what the design of my firepot would be, now I'm in the process of locating the material. I was thinking about a welded steel plate firepot, and a cast gray iron one, I'll get in contact with a casting company and ask for the price, it might be pretty large for something that is unique/small series. If that doesn't work, ill try to get some steel plate, 1+ cm's thick, and weld it. I'll try to make a model of what I have in mind now.

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Hi Aral, don't feel bad because i've built all kinds of forges until i finally used my creativity to come up with one that is the best i have ever built. I had fire box problems too so what i did, and this works BEAUTIFULLY, i measured what size fire box i wanted to build. Then, i went to my steel supplier and got some 1/8" thick steel plate and welded the box together and on the bottom i drilled a set of holes in a circle pattern and i drilled 3 of these in a row on the bottom. Next, i got some 2 1/2" steel pipe fittings and welded those on the bottom over the hole for the air supply. But anyway, i lined the fire box with full fire brick. I attached the fire brick with steel masonry drive in anchors. To my surprise its working great. Good luck. Keep your iron hot & hammer high. Robert

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I don't know a whole lot about fire boxes but one thing I do when I get frustrated is just set that project on the back burner for awhile. I have had stuff on the back burner for as long as two years!! :blink: Also I am kinda like you "Dan W" If I get bored with one thing I can always move over to woodworking or leather crafting.

I have had (and currently have) worse forge problems myself but I lack two things, Money and a Welder. If I need anything welded my neighbor is a welder but he doesn't do it for free. I am going to get me an arc welder soon though :D .

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Aral:

I have two coal forges, one commercial and one I made, neither have a "firepot". The old cast iron Buffalo rivet forge has a "duck's nest and that's how I made my large forge.

A duck's nest is darned simple to make, first you need a way to get the air blast through the table, usually a largish hole say 2-3" across. Next is an air grate to keep the coal from falling into your tuere (sorry guys I can't remember how to spell it. Great White Birch attack affect. <sigh> Anyway, the air grate can be as simple as a few steel rods bridging the blast with a Cm or so between, OR you can drill holes in it to let the air blast through. Simple so far?

Okay, now you have the forge table and wood will work just fine, the air supply and air grate. Just cover the whole thing with damp clay and hammer it hard with a wood mallet, leaving the top of the air grate clear.

Okay, now to make a decent fire simply lay some bricks around your air grate. If you need a shallow fire lay them on their sides, if deeper lay them on their edges or stack them if you want a REALLY deep fire. Want a really WIDE fire? How about a long skinny fire. or maybe one shaped like the letter "L". They're bricks lay them in any shape or depth you need.

There's another thing about a decent duck's nest forge, it'll last a LONG time, longer than most iron or steel forges unless you let it stay uncovered in the rain.

As a last thought, if you just must have a metal fire pot, (there's nothing wrong with that, I'm not poking fun at you.) Okay cheap easy to find cast iron firepots can be had at any store that carries pots and pans for cooking, just buy a cast iron skillet and drill an air grate in it. Done deal and easy too.

Frosty

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Hey guys, thanks for the advice, but I wanted to make a good fire pot this time, because I was frustrated with the old one. I did some forging, but the fire wasnt deep enough, and it just frustrated me even more, so I decided I will make a decent fire pot this time. And by the way, I live in Croatia, which has around 4.5 million people, and blacksmiths are nearly impossible to find, maybe a few old grumpy blacksmiths, who can forge a fire poker and a cow bell smile.gif, and they sure aren't helpful and friendly to help a new blacksmith smile.gif
And, no, im not exaggerating tongue.gif


My son went to Croatia last summer. He says it is BEAUTIFUL! I'll have to try to get there myself some day. Don't get discouraged with your equipment. I have seen smith's do beautiful work with very simple tools. And you're not the only one whose tools give him problems! Watch!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tuYsqVYC38
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