Hello Everyone my names Allan and I'm from South Australia.
What can i say this web site is an inspiration.
I will be borrowing (stealing) ideas from everyone elses home made forges for my design.

I decided it would be made out of 10mm(3/8") steel plate for the fire pot. I mocked up a template out of corflute.







Pot is 100mm(4") deep and 430mm(17") across.

Well about 15 cutting wheels later on the 4" grinder and i had all my parts.
I have tacked them together ready to start seam welding them up tomorrow.

This is what i have so far :-




The square in the bottom will not be welded in it is just tacked there to assist construction.
I am not sure yet what i am doing for the blower hole i thought about putting in a clinker breaker but does that mean you dont then put in a grid? or do you have both ?

Hints and ideas welcome

Looks like you are off to a great start. Keep posting as you go along.

Mark<><

Well got the inside and outside seem welded today. bowed the wide sides a bit but nothing a few belts with the sledge wont fix i think
Also removed the square from the bottom

Beautiful design. Any reasons you settled on those dimensions? What are you planning on for making the clinker breaker? I don't think I've ever seen a breaker in action and am curious how you're going to fabricate it. I'm already planning on stealing your pot design.... :D

Gday mate . I can post actual dimensions of pieces if it helps? Im still nutting out the clinker breaker for it. your welcome to copy it if it helps i don't know how it will work yet .
It just worked out that way(design). It will have a lip welded all the way around yet.I made the sides first and attached them to a square and put a straight edge across the top of them and measured up from the base until i got 100mm (4") deep pot . seemed that was the best depth referred to by most. Then i just measured the gap between side to come up with the triangles. I could not work out how to do the side in one piece using the formula some have used but i thought the advantage was the my corners of my pot are not as sharp.

Making a cardboard template really helps to visualize the end result.

Think about using the raised tuyere like Grant suggested either here or on the NWBA site.Clinkers melt AROUND it and don't plug it up. Pretty simple design....

Eric do you have a link or any pictures of what you are talking about?

Allen, I reckon you could just work on the KISS principle and sit a grill made out of some reo bar in the bottom. No need to weld it in if its shaped correctly. If that works then its easy, if not then its time to start fiddling with clinker breakers.

Got side tracked looking for steel today for the forge build. found this lump of steel and thought it might make a good temp anvil unless i find something better.
It weighs 139kg (305lbs) have been told it is cast steel not cast iron not sure if that makes a difference or not . I think it was a weight of sorts on the back of a heavy machine.
It is 28cm(11") tall, 83cm(32") across top, 70cm(27") at waist, the base half circle cut out is 15cm(6") across the bottom.

It has two holes in the top one at each end which i assume were for locating pins.

The holes on the ends are hardie holes. The half circle on the bottom is (becomes) a swage block when you turn the anvil with the half circle up. It is not what it is called, but what it can do.

Looks like an 300 pound anvil to me (grin)

Glen yes i am using the "T" as the top once mounted it will never get turned over as it weighs 305lbs too hard to shift .

I like your new anvil. It has a nice long face which will be great for nice long pieces. It should do you well.
The forge pot looks great!
Mark<><

Thanks mark
I went out shopping with my wife today so no more done. Going to pick up some more steel tomorrow for both the forge and my anvil stand. Fingers crossed i get some shed time tomorrow.

That is a awesome anvil! The traditional english-pattern anvil that we all associate with blacksmithing is actually more of a do-it-all design and you certainly don't need one now that you have that gargantuan in your shop. Any bending you might have done on an anvil horn can just as easily be done with vise-mounted tools, or you could fab something to adapt to those holes. No matter how you cut it, that's one heck of a find and will bring you years of great service. I'm definitely jealous!

For those that have asked this is how i cut out my plates for my fire pot .




hope it helps

Gday

I have been pretty busy of late having returned to work.

I have done a few more things on forge just have not taken any photos yet

I have bought this blower off ebay cant wait for it to arrive and give it a coat of paint. $91.00 Australian delivered to my door.

My 2 cents I think you will find that the fire pot is very wide the biggest I ever make mine is 8" square. You did a very nice job on it. I use square pipe for my turee with 5/8" rebar as a grate no clinker breaker it works real good and will save you some time. I have used old cast iron window weights as clinker breakers in the past. keep posting

Francis

I figure if the pot ends up too wide for most projects i will make a drop in insert to reduce the size of it that way i have the best of both worlds

Francis

I figure if the pot ends up too wide for most projects i will make a drop in insert to reduce the size of it that way i have the best of both worlds

that will work here are pictures of mine

Well watch this space. Im now in the process of packing up my shed to move house so this is on hold for about 4-6 weeks. Hope to get back into it as soon as possible.

nice going with the forge so far, after you've built the tuyere and blower inlet tube, it should be fairly simple to construct the table. that blower looks like one i saw on ebay....the problem is theres never many blowers up for sale on ebay, and they're always overpriced.

nice going with the forge so far, after you've built the tuyere and blower inlet tube, it should be fairly simple to construct the table. that blower looks like one i saw on ebay....the problem is theres never many blowers up for sale on ebay, and they're always overpriced.

I use electric $65.00 at granger If you belong to ABANA you can get a discount

Well won't be using the blower pictured . it arrived but it is way smaller than i thought it was going to be. So im back to looking for another one.

Well this project stalled for a while due to moving and also a back injury etc. I have now picked up a decent size cast iron hand crank blower . I went to the local scrap yard looking for a few bits and pieces for another project.

Anyway while looking around the assorted scrap I saw a smashed round cast iron forge on three legs the whole floor of it was gone . Then I saw that there was a blower mount on the side of it but no blower. Looking around I spotted the cast iron tuyere and thought I would pull it out from the scrap pile as I might be able to use it with my forge.

It was hard to get out of the pile so i kept on shifting stuff and low and behold there was the old hand crank blower minus the handle. I can spin the fan around quite smoothly with my finger and the shaft where the handle should be turns slowly as well. Appears to be in good nick and the gear box still has oil in it.

Scrap dealer sold it to me for $50.00 .
I will post some pictures in the next few days .

Regards
Allan

Pictures as promised.

ruler is 60cm long.

3" outlet