New Coal Forge

[bajajoaquin]

As I posted in "It Followed Me Home," I picked up a coal forge over the weekend. Actually, it's a coke firepot, but I'm likely to burn coal, since I have an easier supply of that.

I don't have much detail, other than a simple back story and the photos. Apparently, there was a blacksmith school up in Northern California that stopped teaching. Dave Vogel, who is one of the instructors at Vista Forge got his hands on 8 or 10 of them or so. One of them found its way into my truck.

In case anyone wants to see pictures of how it's set up for future reference, I've included a few pictures.

I fired it up last night for a quick heat. I had never used an electric blower before, but I managed to avoid burning my work. The current plan is to leave it as-is while I fab the parts my hand-crank blower is missing, and then convert it to that. It was also the first time I've used that Hill anvil, and forging some staples for it is also high on the list!

[Herb Upham]

It appears that the air gate control is not connected ... I use a similar set up with an electic blower replacing a Chamopin 400 hand crank blower, after getting used to controling the air gate to get the blast I wanted and shutting off the air while forging I prefer the electic blower ...

[bajajoaquin]

Herb, you're right. There are actually two air gates. One is on the inlet of the blower, and the other on the tuyere. The lever is set up to act on the tuyere-side, and that's the part that is unconnected. I understand, however, that it's better for the blower to choke the inlet side, to prevent overheating.

But probably with the amount of forging I do, there's not much down side to choking the exhaust side. I might get finer control of the air flow that way.