Mango Matto Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 I built one of those world famous brake drum forges, and I can't get my metal hot enough. I am using an automotive air blower and I have tried charcoal and whole corn and neither have given me any success at getting red hot metal. I may set it up with natural gas at some point but I want to start with solid fuel. I attached a photo of my setup. I know I'm doing something wrong but I have no clue how to figure out what it is. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 A solid fuel forge is just a container to hold the fire. You then need something that will burn and air to make it burn hot. In your photo, it would seem you have some heat (fire) at the T section of the air pipe. It has gotten hot enough to burn the paint. My suggestion is to put the T section about 4-6 inches below the bottom of the forge, which allows the ash to fall into the down tube. Empty the tube before the ash covers the incoming air, and be sure the tube is empty before you leave the forge at the end of the day. The grate should be as open as the fuel will allow, letting as much air pass into the fire as possible. For coal I use one 1/4 inch round bar across a 2 inch opening and 2 ea 3/8 bars across a 3 inch opening. You MUST have air getting to the fire to make the fuel burn. A couple of small holes in a piece of plate is not sufficient. The fuel depth depends on the fuel and the size of the fire ball you want. The air determines the amount of heat you get from that fire and fuel. I can not tell if all that is brake drum with a cover and a small hole in the cover, or just what. More photos and get closer to show us more detail please. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkrankow Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 One big problem with a brake drum forge is there is no place to hold fuel. Having a piece of metal set as a table even with the top of the drum gives space to support fuel and pile some extra above the lip of the fire pot. A metal shelf or a metal drum head are well suited to this. I do not understand the drum on top of the fire pot though. Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Were you using real charcoal or charcoal briquettes? How much air space does your grate have? How tall a stack of charcoal were you using (measured from the grate)? Where are you placing the metal in that stack? It looks like that set up should be able to burn up steel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Are you heating the steel in the coals or are you trying to heat with the fire coming out of the top of that thing? I also don't understand the cover/second drum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
son_of_bluegrass Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 I'm with the others. More pictures, closer and showing the insides if possible. I can't tell enough from the picture you have to offer any meaningful suggestions. ron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mango Matto Posted February 24, 2011 Author Share Posted February 24, 2011 Here are more pictures. I used regular cooking charcoal that didn't get nearly hot enough at all, then I read about using corn and that got much hotter. I filled the drum up to the top with corn but it seems like I have to keep adding and adding it and my train spike still doesn't get red hot. I put the spike where the flame looks the hottest. I put it in the flames and above the flame. My theory behind the top drum was to keep more heat in and its second purpose was to keep embers from blowing out. I don't think airflow is a problem since it can practically blow corn right off the grate. at first I thought I had too much airflow causing the fuel to burn too fast and then I lowered it and it seemed to work better but I'm not sure what the best amount of airflow is. I think I answered most of the questions. Let me know your thoughts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ulric Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 Im gonna presume you were trying to use briquettes and not lump charcoal... Localy can find the Cowboy brand lump charcoal at the loews home improvement stores. Target occasionaly carries some, but I cant recall the name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mango Matto Posted February 24, 2011 Author Share Posted February 24, 2011 They were briquettes. I'll go buy some of that stuff tomorrow and give it a try. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattBower Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 You don't exactly put the steel in the flame. You bury it in the hot coals. You also need a way to adjust your air blast. I'm not sure I see how you're doing that. Finally, that's a low pressure, high volume blower. I'm not sure it'll overcome the back pressure in your tuyere and push through enough air. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mango Matto Posted February 24, 2011 Author Share Posted February 24, 2011 Sorry to be uneducated but what is a tuyere? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattBower Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 The air pipe that feeds your fire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 Usually the problem using *real* charcoal is too much air---it doesn't take much to bring a fire to welding heat as you can gather by seeing what can be done with primitive bellows. As for "regular Charcoal for cooking" you must mean chunk charcoal because that is all *I* use for cooking! Or in other words; please be specific in your descriptions as what is "common" or "standard" to you may be un-common ore even quite unusual to others. I'd bet using chunk charcoal and that blower set up I could forge weld in your forge. Make sure the fire is deep enough and remember to try to place the work piece as horizontal as possible in it. (I'd fill the bottom drum to the top---you may want to place a firebrick to the sides of the working area to get more depth using less fuel though as all the charcoal in the pot will burn in pretty short order and than not near the workpiece is not contributing much. I used a similar set up with a shallow brake drum for my billet welding coal forge for several years by adding in a sheet metal "fence", just took a piece and bent it around so it spring fit inside the drum leaving a gap at the "working" side and then cutting a "mouse hole" opposite just above the drum rim so I could build deep fires and push the billets in horizontally into the hot spot and not mess up the fire much when dragging them out again. (my blower was the output from an ancient "handyvac", Al body!, it was a brushed motor and so could be speed controlled with a simple rheostat. Got it cheap at the fleamarket as the original bag was gone just leaving the exhaust pipe venting into open air) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
son_of_bluegrass Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 If by "cooking charcoal" you mean the formed briquettes that is likely your first problem. While some people have reported success with these, most folks who try them find they don't work that well. As was mentioned, charcoal doesn't require as much air as coal, you may well have been pushing too much air through and forcing all the heat out of the fire. I've used both coal and charcoal and in my experience, charcoal prefers a side blast but can work in a bottom blast. Also since charcoal is much less dense than coal, you'll feed the fire a lot more and will benefit from a deeper fire. Anything you can add as refractory (be it wood ashes, castable refractory or firebrick) that will hold the heat in will help. My homemade forge is currently lined with kitty litter, it was just wood ash. It works a lot better. If it was me, I'd take the top off. Like the bottom, forming a fire pot like an upside-down pyramid where the large end is 6 or 8 inches on a side and down at the grate I would make it 4 or 5 inches on a side. Then use fire brick to build up to a depth of 6 to 8 inches to the grate on the bottom. Then put one fire brick on opposite sides and that will create a kind of trough than you set your iron in to heat. There should be a couple of inches of fuel above the steel in a solid fuel forge. I hope this makes sense. ron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firegnome Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 Looking at the picture the screen in the bottom of the forge looks to be floating with air space around it I would seal up the gaps around it so when you get the air flowing it will stay in the firepot and things up I noticed this due to the fact i had a forge with a cracked pan once and it did not heat well until I clayed the bottom to seal it up. Gook luck Firegnome Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mango Matto Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 Thank all of you for your replies. I found that two things were causing my issues. The first was that I didn't start with enough fuel. and the second was that I had too much air blowing. I opened the tuyere and that allowed some of the air to blow out of the bottom thus not forcing it all into the forge. After doing that and filling it with corn I saw the most beautiful color metal I have ever seen, bright red/orange. I am well on my way to making my first knife. I will start a thread in the appropriate sub forum to show how that goes. Thanks Mango Matto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 filling it with corn I saw the most beautiful color metal I have ever seen, bright red/orange. More fuel and adjust the air till you can get the metal to yellow. It may consume fuel quickly as corn (or any fuel) only has so much heat available, so keep it topped off with fuel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Borntoolate Posted March 13, 2011 Share Posted March 13, 2011 I built one of those world famous brake drum forges, and I can't get my metal hot enough. I am using an automotive air blower and I have tried charcoal and whole corn and neither have given me any success at getting red hot metal. I may set it up with natural gas at some point but I want to start with solid fuel. I attached a photo of my setup. I know I'm doing something wrong but I have no clue how to figure out what it is. Thanks Get some coal or coke. Build a table as suggested. I built a drum forge recently. It is not perfect but it gets stuff hot. WE made hammer heads the other day and the heat plus my firge fire skills were marginal. But, we got the job done. Air flow is important. You need to have enough flow to create a big enough fire and make is like a blow torch to some extent. Or at least be able to. A spike ought to be asy to burn much less get to forge heat. I don't understand the top either. Here's some pics. Once again, not the model of perfection to say the least but I just got started in January. First pic is just the forge. The drum slides underneith and is removable. The wheels (Lawnmower) and other metal is pipe and scrap bed frames from the neighborhood garbage. The second pic is my hammer partner pulling the hammer blank from the fire. It is probably of marginal heat but at 3" by 1.5" solid it takes a bit of heat. NOte the last pic. Wood side! IT seems to work. I think he has sheet metal inside at least part way up. Note the size of the fire, piled up coal etc... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry H Posted March 13, 2011 Share Posted March 13, 2011 looks like the blower needs a side cover to direct the air better, right now the air is swirling around inside that bucket, imo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.