Forge question (newb)

[badbartlby]

Hey everyone I have found my medium finally and all the great info here isn't helping me not to do it so first of all Thank you.
My question is: I have an old cast iron sink my old man dug out of his property it is 1/4 thick and roughly 12x24 and 5 to 6 inches deep with the drain at one end would this work ok for a beginners forge or not? Any input is greatly appreciated and thanks again for all the info.

[GregDP]

Have you thought about claying it to the size fire pot you need for what ever you're working with? As long as you can get an air source to the drain.. I can't think of why it won't work. Greg D. "Raggy" Price Jr

[Countryboy39067]

It's been done before. I intend to build one like that myself. Check out this link.
http://igor.chudov.com/manuals/shop-forge.pdf

Kevin

[ThomasPowers]

Sounds like my first forge---built it in 1981 in OKC OK, USA.

I took a piece of pipe and drilled a ton of holes along a 1/3 of one side of the pipe and then drilled a series of holes in a circle in the end of the sink opposite the drain and punched out a hole that the pipe fit through. I used floor flanges and a T to curve the end down the drain and hook it up to an air supply. The open end I made a "ram rod" to fit inside so I could control the length of the fire I was using *and* I could clean out the ashes that fell in the pipe. I filled in the sides of the sink with local creek clay mixes with wood ashes and pounded in place to form a V shaped trough with the pipe in the middle.

Burned charcoal in it and it worked great!

You might want to search for "Tim Lively washtub forge" for examples of a varient of this type used a lot in the neo tribal metal smithing community.