Improv Cast Iron Forge - not a brake drum

[Alex]

I came across a rather heavy duty cast iron sink at work today in the garbage area and was wondering if it would make a decent improv firepot. It seems fairly thick, perhaps 1/4". I also say cast "iron", but is there any way that I can be sure it's not a monkey-metal zinc alloy or something?

I was also wondering if a large, thick, cast iron skillet would work.

I've read/seen that a lot of people use brake drum forges, but these are readily available and I'm just panning out my options. I would be forging mostly with charcoal, but possibly coal as well. Does one have to worry about cast iron forges cracking due to heat/stress?

Any thoughts or info would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Alex

[Charles R. Stevens]

Back in the day popular mechanics had an article using a cast iron double bowl, one Bowles the forge and one as the slack tub. This year they revisited it with a stainless steel sink. The original article is floatin around the net but I can't remember wear. I say go for the cast iron sink. Rivvit forges
Whern't eany thicker.

[Alex]

Thanks Charles. After a quick search I did find a load of examples of people using cast iron sink forges, including the double sink design. Here's an old school one in case anyone is interested:

http://www.vintageprojects.com/metal-welding/shop-forge.pdf

[Charles R. Stevens]

I was just going to post that link, but I read the rest of the new posts befor searching threw my links file. Glad you found it.